One of my downtown neighbors has sent me — over the years — his research into the fact that the United States became a ‘corporation’ in 1871. Without going too deeply into the matter, I will quote a similar claim concerning the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871:
In 1871 a sedious act was performed by the Government. A coup was made to rewrite the constitution and put WE THE PEOPLE in all capitals, under a new corporate contract transferring the United States of America into the new Corporation of the United States of America which transferred the power of We The People and the constitution over to the new corporation. When they did that, it placed the citizens in the United States as property of the Corporation which was centered in Washington D.C.. This action made Washington D.C. a FOREIGN ENTITY on American soil of sovereign states…
Washington DC was established as a city-state in 1871 with the passage of the Act of 1871, which officially established the United States as a corporation under the rule of Washington, which itself is subservient to the City of London… Washington DC operates under a system of Roman Law and outside of the limitations established by the U.S. Constitution. The Unholy Trinity of Globalist Control: The Vatican, The City of London & Washington D.C.
The story sounds rather frightening… and I suppose it would be, if it were accurate.
But I don’t want to argue about conspiracy theories today. I want to talk about ‘corporations’.
In Part One, I shared a few thoughts about the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation, which is currently headed by its executive director Emily Lashbrooke. The corporation was formed by the Pagosa Springs Town Council and the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners in 2010, but without any clear idea of the corporation’s function, other than a vague notion that it would help advance Town Council and BOCC initiatives.
Nothing much worth mentioning got accomplished by the corporation during its first ten years. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the PSCDC has accomplished more during two years of Ms. Lashbrooke’s administration than during its entire first decade.
Some of the potential accomplishments will not be seen for several years.
First off, however, let’s consider the idea of a ‘corporation’.
At its most simplistic, the term ‘corporation’ signifies a group of private individuals who have agreed to operate as a single entity. One result of that agreement is that the corporation — rather than the shareholders — takes on the legal responsibility for injuries caused, or crimes committed. Another result is the ability to appear larger and more important than any individual shareholder would be, and to thereby attract attention, respect, and of course money.
Here in Archuleta County, the Town of Pagosa Springs is legally a corporation. I became a shareholder (and voter) by the simple fact of living within the town limits. (Only about 15% of Archuleta County residents are Town voters.)
I would classify the State of Colorado and the United State of America as corporations, based on how I understand the term.
In Colorado, a non-profit corporation is — as the name suggests — a corporation that aims to address certain charitable needs within a certain community, and that does not pay a salary or dividends to its board of directors for their service as directors, nor does it pay cash dividends to its members.
Corporations got a bad name — deservedly — during the late 1800s and early 1900s, reaching a peak in public disapproval during the Great Depression. Nevertheless, it remains a dominate legal structure for larger businesses. And towns and cities. And non-profits.
I don’t find corporations to be inherently malignant or corrupt… nor inherently beneficial. It all depends. Seems like the larger a corporation grows, the more corrupt and self-serving it’s likely to become.
Corporations can have other corporations as shareholders. That seems to the the situation with PSCDC. Although it’s legally a separate entity from the Town and County governments, it is in fact joined at the hip to those two governments.
The intimate relationship was nowhere better illustrated than by the PSCDC’s willingness to spend its corporate funds trying to convince the Archuleta taxpayers to approve a 37.5% County sales tax increase in 2022. The voters declined the offer.
The connection is also indicated by the BOCC’s recent donation of 35 vacant tax-lien parcels to PSCDC. The PSCDC has now selected two finalists to make public presentations (Wednesday, January 31, 3pm at the Tennyson Event Center) outlining two different proposals to build 10 ‘workforce housing’ homes west of town in the Trails and Chris Mountain subdivisions. The finalists are Pagosa-based BWD Construction and Buena Vista-based Fading West.
So far in this editorial series, we’ve noted the support provided by PSCDC for workforce training, broadband expansion, and workforce housing. Another area where the PSCDC is joined at the hip to the Town government is in facilitating the ‘Main Street’ program. From the Colorado Department of Local Affairs website:
The Colorado Main Street Program offers support for community-led downtown revitalization. We help communities thrive by providing a customizable framework to focus efforts, energy, and resources.
Colorado Main Street is a Main Street America™ Coordinating Program. As a Main Street America Coordinating Program, Colorado Main Street helps to lead a powerful, grassroots network of over 40 Coordinating Programs and over 1,200 neighborhoods and communities across the country committed to creating high-quality places and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.
We’ll take a look, later, at how our local corporations are handling that project.