Subject: Make Public Voice Heard
Date:    11/25/97 1:05 PM
     
     
Dear Chairman Levitt:
     
The attached letter to you from David Lewit speaks my mind - word for 
word.
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Dear Chairman Levitt:
     
I was dismayed to read of SEC's plan to make very much harder the 
consideration of shareholder resolutions for less-than-huge 
shareholders.
I'm sure you are familiar with the environmental and social reasons of 
many correspondents, and I share those.
     
My main concern is with the duty of the SEC and its Chair.  The 
Commission
is there to protect the public, not to make things easier for the 
corporations regulated.  Through court actions after the Civil War, and 
accelerating during the 1970s, large corporations have eroded the civic 
basis of their existence.  In exchange for corporate immunities and other 
protections, corporations are supposed to serve the public good.  How 
can
the public enunciate the public good if the management turns off the 
public
microphone at their shareholder meetings?  
     
I remind you that as a public servant your salary is paid principally by 
modest-income taxpayers who are small shareholders at best.  Thanks to 
modern communication and the middle class squeeze, we are better 
organized and getting tired of corporate self-service.
     
Sincerely,
     
David Lewit
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Chairman Levitt:
     
Please take these words and and opinions seriously.  Ordinary people are 
becoming more and more aware of the structure of the corporate world, 
and of the behaviors of corporate actors.  We do not like what we see. 
We expect you to be on "our side."
     
Charles D. Johnson, M.D. (retired)
     
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         DEMOCRACY - STRIVE TO MAKE IT STRONGER
Charles Johnson                      charlesj@student.umass.edu 
Amherst, Massachusetts                 (413) 549-7973 
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