Doris Haddock, 88,  wanted to walk across the entire US to make a point about fair elections . . .

“How will you accomplish this?,” her family asked.

“I’ll walk 10 miles a day, 6 days a week,” she answered.

“How do you know you can walk 10 miles a day, 6 days a week? Prove it,” they said. So out she went, walking 10 miles a day for 6 days.

“Where will you stay at night?” they asked.

“I’ll sleep out overnight unless people I meet take me in,” she said.

“Prove that you can camp out overnight,“ they said. So off she went with her sleeping bag and overnight gear, hiking 10 miles, sleeping overnight, and then returning home. Granny D simply jumped over every hurdle her family placed in her way.

Not being able to discourage her, the family finally said okay, they’d support her!

One week later on New Year’s Day, 1999, Granny D, then 88, began her walk across America from Pasadena, California to highlight the importance of reforming the way we finance our political process in order to strengthen our democracy and its representation of all citizens. Through her many television, newspaper and radio interviews and appearances, and also through her website, she reached hundreds of thousands of American citizens to raise awareness about how big campaign contributions from special interests adversely affect the vast majority of American citizens.

Ignoring her bad back, arthritis, and emphysema, she completed the 3,200-mile trip in 14 months, shortly after her 90th birthday, arriving in Washington on February 29, 2000, to the tune of 2,200 supporters chanting, "Go, Granny, Go!” She brought with her petition signatures from thousands of American citizens demanding that Congress enact meaningful reform.

Some two months later, Granny D and other supporters returned to Washington on April 21st where she and 31 others were arrested for demonstrating in the Capitol building. Subsequently, on Wednesday, May 24, 2000 she appeared in court in the District of Columbia to plead guilty to the charge.

Below, are pertinent parts of her remarks before the Judge.

“Your Honor, the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America's Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall.’

‘The First Amendment to the Constitution, Your Honor, says that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, so I cannot imagine what legitimate law I could have broken.’

‘I was reading from the Declaration of Independence to make the point that we must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns.’

‘And so I was reading these very words when my hands were pulled behind me and bound: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.’

‘Your Honor, we would never seek to abolish our dear United States. But alter it? Yes. It is our constant intention that it should be a government of, by and for the people, not the special interests….’

‘Your Honor, to the business at hand: the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America's Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall. But if it is a crime to read the Declaration of Independence in our great hall, then I am guilty.”

The judge, Chief Judge Hamilton of the DC federal district court, was silent after Doris made her statement. In sentencing, he said to Doris and the demonstrators:

"As you know, the strength of our great country lies in its Constitution and her laws and in her courts. But more fundamentally, the strength of our great country lies in the resolve of her citizens to stand up for what is right when the masses are silent. And, unfortunately, sometimes it becomes the lot of the few, sometimes like yourselves, to stand up for what's right when the masses are silent, because not always does the law move so fast and so judiciously as to always be right. But given the resolve of the citizens of this great country, in time, however slowly, the law will catch up eventually."

Granny D inspired me, as she also did for so many others, to re-dedicate myself to do as much as possible to bring about comprehensive reform.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Doris and many others of us, Congress has not effectively acted in the intervening 16 years. In fact the systemic corruption of our political process is worse than ever, and most members of Congress have little incentive to fix it, since it serves their interests in remaining in power, just as it serves the interests of the tiny fraction of the wealthiest amongst us to continue to finance their campaigns to keep them in power. The rest of us continue to be adversely affected from this, regardless of whether we are conservative, moderate, liberal or progressive.

So if Congress won’t act, it’s up to us – we the people – to act.  The framers of our Constitution have provided us with a way.

Repairing the way we finance and structure our federal political system so our Washington politicians will again properly provide equality of representation of the interests of the vast majority of American citizens is, as phrased by the Honorable Phil Hoff, Vermont’s former Governor, “The paramount issue of our time, for it goes to the very core of our democracy and representation.”

So I ask you: “If you’re not already working on this, why not?”