Well, the U.S. Senate has sold the working stiff down the river again; GATT has been passed overwhelmingly. Take note, sons and daughters of liberty, that your Senate is the handmaiden of the multinational corporations.

Whether by outright greed or too afraid to buck the system that funds their campaigns, their special travel junkets or cushy private-sector jobs afterward, our senators voted against the working citizen.

Oh yes, they proclaim there will be safeguards in GATT just as in NAFTA. Funny, the trade barriers went down here in Maine and Canada imposes a tariff on goods its citizens buy here. They call it a sales tax. Our government does nothing. Impotent!

Wake up, citizens. Our elected officials specially high up are not ours. The old line, power corrupts and money corrupts, still applies.

We in Maine voted overwhelmingly to put in term limits. But now the courts are being used to castrate our voting wisdom.

Our founding fathers created a great republic based on democracy and liberty of the individual. The present influences of aggregate power in the multinational corporations were never envisioned., We need reforms to maintain and restore our sacred democracy.

I can see the wisdom in the Maine Greens’ resolve not to accept corporate donations or PAC money. Maybe it’s time for the Democrats and Republicans to follow this noble lead. Thomas G. Stama Green Party member Milbridge