Mailbag:

Merle Moshiri bemoans the lack of transparency on the part of city officials regarding dealings with Poseidon and construction of its proposed desalination plant (“Time for serious water discussion,” Mailbag, Sept. 10). She wonders why the city continues its interest in a project with so many problems and with so much opposition in the community. Unfortunately, the reason could be more sinister than we suspect.

Ever since well-heeled and politically connected Poseidon came to town, it has sought to use money and politics to influence and cajole our city’s decision-makers, and to buy its way to acceptance with a total disregard for the welfare of our community.

Could it be that city officials are so enthralled that they don’t see the “deal with the devil” ramifications of what they are supporting?.?.?.?the more so since the City Council lost Debbie Cook? Or is it worse than that?

The upshot of Moshiri’s letter is that we must continue to hold our public officials accountable.

We must be prepared to resist the temptations of what outside special interests are offering, especially if we should know better. In the case of Poseidon, who is holding an Open House on Tuesday for the co-opted faithful only, all that glitters is not gold.

America is under corporations’ thumb

“Corporations are persons entitled to protection under the 1st Amendment,” Washington lawyer Theodore B. Olson, who represented Citizens United, recently told the Supreme Court. How can I, as a patriotic American, read those words and not feel astounded at the disparity — that my voice can be compared to, let’s say, AIG’s? Yet it is a legal fact and was stated as such by counsel in the dangerous case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Corporations have been given personhood by previous conservative Supreme Courts. And we feel the results every day.

Every time we deal with a customer service (and I use that term loosely) agent who gives us the runaround and seems more afraid of losing a job than resolving our grievances, we feel the weight of corporate power and greed.

Every time we see our elected representatives give in to corporate pressure instead of protecting the human beings who comprise their constituency, we see the effects of corporate “personhood,” and are minimized by it.

Every time we read about one more example of corporate brutality run amok we reel with the havoc that corporate equality has rained down upon us, and are vulnerable and defenseless against the next event.

In the face of corporate power and money, the influence we hold is the equivalent of the weight of a grain of sand in the desert.

As long as corporations enjoy having a “voice” in the form of cash to influence the body politic, the downhill slide toward the ruin of our democracy gains speed with every election.

It is imperative that the Supreme Court not cross this Rubicon by extending the “rights” of corporations even further.