Should Corporations Have More Rights Essay

Whether the results of the elections are in your favor or not, YOU ARE STILL THE DRIVING FORCE IN THIS COUNTRY!!! From the products sold on the shelf, corporations' schemes; WE purchase WE decide WE make the wheels turn, We the people. The little decisions of our everyday life matter, and the bottom line our environment is changing, so should our laws and rights. If there is something you are passionate about, take action, be active, and donate! Whether you feel it can be a reality for you or not, make it a reality for your children!

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Greek proverb

So please make a note of like-minded organizations making a difference and support them.

Now that the political ads and trash campaigns are silenced for another few years; let's get back to the issues on the table. Let's focus on where the ball is moving in your neck of the woods and help push! Become proactive to boost awareness, letting agencies and your representatives know the concern is there.

Today, in 2020, corporations have more rights and protection laws than children. May I repeat that statement; corporations have more rights and protection laws than a HUMAN. Despite efforts, sensitive topics, like human rights, are swept away due to concerns of budget or outdated laws used to protect criminals is heartbreaking, enraging, and should not be tolerated.

As we skim through history, there is always an awareness before action is taken. A cause and effect. Action and reaction. A collective few stepping forward, demanding, and making change.

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was the first organization formed on children's behalf. Founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1875, establishing a statewide central registry for reporting child maltreatment. Having the police notified NYSPCC of all cases involving children allowing the organization to act on a victim's behalf.

In the society's first eight months of operation, they received and investigated several hundred complaints, prosecuted 68 criminal cases, and rescued 72 children from abuse and neglect. Before organizations were created, like the NYSPCC, many children went without protection. So criminal prosecution was used to punish noted, outrageous abuse.

Cruelty and exploitation of children is part of human history. Through labor laws and children protection services, America has made a shift in the scales. Yet on many levels, America's little bundles of future are still not safe and suffer.

Piles of gut-wrenching court cases, including the first rape conviction to ever go to California Supreme Court, involved a 13-year-old victim (people vs. Benton, 1856) and the fact that the majority of rape prosecutions in California until the late 40s involved children, to legal documents signed by parents and judges allowing this debauchery to continue through marriage-paints a horrendous image of society's lust for youth. That it is an epidemic; it is not going away and needs more attention.

The U.S. census bureau did not link age with marital status till 1880. In 1880, 11.7% of the wives were between 9-15 years of age. 12.7% in 1920 slowly losing more and more popularity in the 60s but not completely abolished. A 2011 study estimated 9% of women were married before they turned 18. Please note we are living and walking around- child brides, boy husband, child wives.

In the past, there were no qualms for two minors to marry or to be married to someone that was older (even considerably older), so it was not necessary to document. Even before the 18th century, children as young as 8 and 9 were married in America. Children in their teens have continued since then.

At one-time marriage status trumped age, so even though one was only 10- if married, they were considered an adult, but that has never been entirely true. Even now, if a 16-year-old with three children tried to seek help from a domestic violence shelter, the shelter has no legal assistance or aid they can provide them because they are not 18 and can be considered a runaway.

From visa loopholes, human trafficking, family alliances, religion, protection for said criminals, or just plain neglect by caregivers; The fact that Americans allow this crime to continue through marriage as a back door today for what would generally be illegal is sickening. Was estimated 248,000 children as young as 12 were married between 2000 and 2010. In Colorado alone, more than 5,000 minors were married from 2000 to 2017. 

Massachusetts took steps to give local authorities the ability to remove children from parents who did not 'train up' their children properly as early as 1642.

Then again, in 1866: Massachusetts passes judges to have inherent power to stop abuse by passing a law that gave authority for them to intervene in a family when orphanage, neglect, crime, drunkenness or other vices and "growing up without education or salutary control and in the circumstances exposing the said child to an idle and dissolute life." Many of these laws are represented today and still active in many forms. Yet as the laws changed, definitions did too. Here, we are in 2020 asking the courts again to step in and abolish this human rights abuse.

The U.S. is starting legislation to end child marriage. The first two states Delaware and New Jersey (2018). They were followed by American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota (2020). Although these are victories for Unchained At last, they still need more support as they pave the way to end child marriage in the other 46 states and abolish this infringement on humanity worldwide. With more than 650 million women and girls married before they turned 18 alive in the world today, how can we just look away.