Five years after the Supreme Court eviscerated decades worth of campaign finance regulations in Citizens United v FEC, American democracy is awash in special interest money. A tiny fraction of the wealthiest 1 percent now provides the lion’s share of campaign contributions, spending billions of dollars to influence who can run for public office and what they stand for once they are elected. The effects of Citizens United are keenly felt at every level of government, from City Hall to the White House.

If you object, if you want to know what you can do to restore our democracy to its citizens, please join us next Sunday. After the service, we’re expanding the coffee hour to include a potluck lunch with Dan Weeks. He will tell us about Open Democracy, the organization that Haddock, “Granny D” founded, and its New Hampshire Rebellion project. You will also learn about opportunities for action at the local level.

A New Hampshire Native, Dan met Doris “Granny D,” while he was still in high school. Dan went on to earn degrees in Political Science, International Studies, and Political Theory from Yale and Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He and his wife, Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, reside in Nashua, NH. A scholar-activist at heart, Dan has written on democracy issues for The Atlantic, New York Times, Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. He speaks regularly at conferences and universities, libraries and town halls, and has appeared on PBS, NPR, and the BBC. In 2013, he put his reform work on hold to conduct research on poverty and democracy as a fellow at the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, visiting 30 states by Greyhound bus on a poverty-line budget of $16 per day. His research may be found in The Atlantic, Business NH Magazine, and a forthcoming UNH publication.

 We are fortunate to have this outstanding citizen activist as our neighbor. Please join us to hear Dan, and please bring a dish to share.

 For further information, contact Carol Backus, [email protected].