Every year on September 17, we celebrate Constitution Day, also known as Citizenship Day.

The United States Constitution is the agreement that we all abide by. Federal employees and elected officials swear an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.

It’s time to address the undermining of this oath by special interests, political action committees, foreign governments, and billionaires.

With the midterm elections quickly approaching, we will soon be bombarded by political ads, paid for by special interests. Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission (2010) made political spending a form of protected speech, making it nearly impossible to regulate.

As you are besieged by ads this election, ask yourself, who is benefitting from this system? Who is paying for the ad? Follow the money!

These ads usually benefit an industry and sometimes even individual donors. Power should flow from we, the people, ordinary Americans, not corporations, special interests or self-serving billionaires. Our system is broken and needs to be amended.

U.S. Rep.Tom Barrett from Michigan has introduced House Joint Resolution 191 that would restore the power of states and Congress to regulate money in politics. Please write to your U.S. House Representative and Senators to support HJR 191. Let’s honor the Constitution by returning the power to the people.

Lourdes Brown lives in Southbury.