To the Editor:

Thank you, Jackson County Commissioners for your courage in passing a resolution calling on the North Carolina General Assembly to petition Congress for the creation of the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will end corporate personhood, declare that money is not free speech and that will reverse the 2010 Supreme Court decision on Citizens United vs. the U.S. Board of Elections.

Jackson County joins many organizations in North Carolina and nationwide — locally, the towns of Webster, Forest Hills, Highlands, Franklin and Bryson City, and Asheville — in standing up for the rights of individual citizens versus corporations. For those who might not be familiar with the case of Citizens United vs. the U.S. Board of Elections, the decision basically allowed corporations to be treated as people, which gave them the right to donate as much as they wanted toward the goal of electing a candidate from the political party of their choice — not directly to the candidate (which still is illegal) — but in “independent expenditures” and “electioneering communications.”

One such organization very much in the news these days is Koch Brothers Industries, which has committed almost a billion (yes, billion) dollars toward expenditures of their chosen party during the 2016 election. In my opinion, this totally unbalances elections. Since many voters see only the media advertisements for and against certain candidates, a flood of such advertisements in favor of one person could easily sway voters who have not looked outside the media for facts to assist in their voting decisions.

 So, thank you again, commissioners, for standing up for us.

 Marti Senterfit

Cashiers