I find this truly a wonderful plan of action.
If'n you do, PLEASE follow the instructions below. Remember we have to work at this day after day. This is called "political participation", but what it REALLY is spiritual activism and taking responsibility for the health, welfare and happiness of the next seven generations.
You've got a few minutes to spare for that, don't you?
Petition to the Congressional Black Caucus
CBC Watch - CBC Monitor Update
Thursday, 01 March 2007
DEMAND THAT THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK
CAUCUS TAKE A STAND ON KEY ISSUES
The Congressional Black Caucus, or CBC ought to represent the political will of Black America. Otherwise it has no reason to exist. Despite the great work of some Black representatives in Congress, the Caucus as a whole has failed to live up to its role as the principal advocate for African American communities on the national stage.
The petition contains 7 points which we believe rank high among the widely accepted and basic "bright lines" of Black political opinion in the U.S. They are spelled out in detail below, and also listed on the petition site:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor/
Here they are in brief:
WE DEMAND THAT THE CBC, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO:
1. DISMANTLE RACIALLY SELECTIVE MASS INCARCERATION, beginning with action to sunset or repeal all mandatory sentencing legislation, eliminate the differential in penalties for crack and powdered cocaine, and halt privatization of prisons and prison health services. America's prison population has multiplied eightfold since 1970. African Americans are one-eighth of this nation, but fully half of her prisons and jails. Mass Black incarceration is a national public policy that destroys the prospects for progress in every arena of African American life.
2. AID AND EMPOWER THOSE DISPERSED AND DISPOSSESSED BY KATRINA through legislation that specifically recognizes the rights of hundreds of thousands of exiles to return to their communities under conditions of adequate housing, schools, health care, and social support. The CBC must demand that destruction of public housing and other affordable dwellings cease, and that affordable housing be constructed for the 70 percent of uprooted residents who were renters. Not one federal dime should be spent for programs that lead to further gentrification of New Orleans. The CBC should establish its own permanent Watchdog Unit to monitor all reconstruction activities.
3. END THE WAR IN IRAQ NOW through support of the Woolsey-Waters-Lee "Bring the Troops Home and Iraqi Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2007"; H.R. 508, and renunciation of George Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine in all its manifestations. The Bush war policy is a formula for endless global conflict, deterioration of the rule of law among nations, and growing impoverishment, indebtedness and evisceration of civil liberties at home. Further, the CBC must resist all attempts to draw the U.S. into war with Iran, and block covert and overt U.S. schemes for "regime change" elsewhere in the world, most notably in Venezuela.
4. GET THE U.S. MILITARY OUT OF AFRICA by withholding funds and authorization for a permanent string of U.S. military bases throughout oil-rich regions of Africa, from Djibouti and Ethiopia in the east to the Gulf of Guinea in the west. In January, the White House created a Pentagon Africa Command as part of its so-called Global War on Terror, thus targeting the continent for further militarization and destabilization. The CBC must create its own Watchdog Unit to monitor and expose administration plans to make Africa the next front in its wars to seize the world's resources.
5. TRANSFORM THE CITIES AND CREATE MILLIONS OF JOBS through a massive program similar to the U.S. post-war Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, or the much larger federal programs that established national infrastructure necessary for the creation of an almost exclusively white American suburbia during the same period. Integral to this project must be creation of GOOD JOBS AT GOOD WAGES for the residents of the cities, good schools to educate young people who will fill those jobs, and democratic participation of residents in the transformation of their neighborhoods and hometowns. The CBC must unequivocally support the Employee Free Choice Act and other measures that allow employees on any job to organize unions wherever and whenever they choose.
6. ESTABLISH TRULY UNIVERSAL, SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE for all Americans, by endorsing HR 676, co-sponsored by Reps. John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich, as a first step toward a single payer system of national health insurance. 15-30% of every American health care dollar pays for advertising, shareholder profit and other non-health care costs. Medicare, Medicaid and single payer systems like the Canadian one spend 97 to 99 cents of every dollar on health care. These are the only practical ways to deliver health care to all Americans. Any proposal that further entrenches private profit further delays the advent of a genuine national health care program, thus making inevitable the unnecessary death of millions of Americans.
7. ENSURE VOTING RIGHTS through measures to require verifiable paper trails, along with enforceable guarantees that every citizen has an equal opportunity to vote, and an equal chance to see that vote counted. The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were both thrown by the selective nullifications of tens of thousands of black votes in Florida and Ohio. The CBC must support all measures that reinstate the franchise to persons who have served out their criminal sentences.
Sign the petition with your name, email address, state and zipcode, and
The best members of the Black Caucus, like John Conyers, Bobby Scott, Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee will tell you they share these concerns. But but in the next breath they often say they are dependent on us for vocal, insistent and even impolite affirmation of our priorities as a people --- not just on election day, but every day of the year.
African American leaders above have thrown the burden back upon us below, demanding leadership from ordinary people to keep them focused upon our urgent priorities. It's up to us to give it to them. Sign the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor/
We'd like to get 50,000 people to sign the petition, and will present the list of signers to the Congressional Black Caucus later this year. These 7 demands certainly don't cover every burning issue that concerns our people. But they're a start.
After signing the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor, copy this page and paste it into an email message you can forward to everyone on your email list. Call up a few of them to explain what it is, and ask them to sign the petition and pass it on.
Let's give the Congressional Black Caucus some Leadership From Below.
Respectfully,
Bruce Dixon, Managing Editor, Black Agenda Report
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report
Leutisha Stills, Correspondent, CBC Monitor
Dr. Jared Ball, co-founder, CBC Monitor
If'n you do, PLEASE follow the instructions below. Remember we have to work at this day after day. This is called "political participation", but what it REALLY is spiritual activism and taking responsibility for the health, welfare and happiness of the next seven generations.
You've got a few minutes to spare for that, don't you?
Petition to the Congressional Black Caucus
CBC Watch - CBC Monitor Update
Thursday, 01 March 2007
DEMAND THAT THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK
CAUCUS TAKE A STAND ON KEY ISSUES
SIGN THE PETITION - AND FORWARD IT TO YOUR LIST
The Congressional Black Caucus, or CBC ought to represent the political will of Black America. Otherwise it has no reason to exist. Despite the great work of some Black representatives in Congress, the Caucus as a whole has failed to live up to its role as the principal advocate for African American communities on the national stage.
The petition contains 7 points which we believe rank high among the widely accepted and basic "bright lines" of Black political opinion in the U.S. They are spelled out in detail below, and also listed on the petition site:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor/
Here they are in brief:
WE DEMAND THAT THE CBC, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO:
1. DISMANTLE RACIALLY SELECTIVE MASS INCARCERATION, beginning with action to sunset or repeal all mandatory sentencing legislation, eliminate the differential in penalties for crack and powdered cocaine, and halt privatization of prisons and prison health services. America's prison population has multiplied eightfold since 1970. African Americans are one-eighth of this nation, but fully half of her prisons and jails. Mass Black incarceration is a national public policy that destroys the prospects for progress in every arena of African American life.
2. AID AND EMPOWER THOSE DISPERSED AND DISPOSSESSED BY KATRINA through legislation that specifically recognizes the rights of hundreds of thousands of exiles to return to their communities under conditions of adequate housing, schools, health care, and social support. The CBC must demand that destruction of public housing and other affordable dwellings cease, and that affordable housing be constructed for the 70 percent of uprooted residents who were renters. Not one federal dime should be spent for programs that lead to further gentrification of New Orleans. The CBC should establish its own permanent Watchdog Unit to monitor all reconstruction activities.
3. END THE WAR IN IRAQ NOW through support of the Woolsey-Waters-Lee "Bring the Troops Home and Iraqi Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2007"; H.R. 508, and renunciation of George Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine in all its manifestations. The Bush war policy is a formula for endless global conflict, deterioration of the rule of law among nations, and growing impoverishment, indebtedness and evisceration of civil liberties at home. Further, the CBC must resist all attempts to draw the U.S. into war with Iran, and block covert and overt U.S. schemes for "regime change" elsewhere in the world, most notably in Venezuela.
4. GET THE U.S. MILITARY OUT OF AFRICA by withholding funds and authorization for a permanent string of U.S. military bases throughout oil-rich regions of Africa, from Djibouti and Ethiopia in the east to the Gulf of Guinea in the west. In January, the White House created a Pentagon Africa Command as part of its so-called Global War on Terror, thus targeting the continent for further militarization and destabilization. The CBC must create its own Watchdog Unit to monitor and expose administration plans to make Africa the next front in its wars to seize the world's resources.
5. TRANSFORM THE CITIES AND CREATE MILLIONS OF JOBS through a massive program similar to the U.S. post-war Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, or the much larger federal programs that established national infrastructure necessary for the creation of an almost exclusively white American suburbia during the same period. Integral to this project must be creation of GOOD JOBS AT GOOD WAGES for the residents of the cities, good schools to educate young people who will fill those jobs, and democratic participation of residents in the transformation of their neighborhoods and hometowns. The CBC must unequivocally support the Employee Free Choice Act and other measures that allow employees on any job to organize unions wherever and whenever they choose.
6. ESTABLISH TRULY UNIVERSAL, SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE for all Americans, by endorsing HR 676, co-sponsored by Reps. John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich, as a first step toward a single payer system of national health insurance. 15-30% of every American health care dollar pays for advertising, shareholder profit and other non-health care costs. Medicare, Medicaid and single payer systems like the Canadian one spend 97 to 99 cents of every dollar on health care. These are the only practical ways to deliver health care to all Americans. Any proposal that further entrenches private profit further delays the advent of a genuine national health care program, thus making inevitable the unnecessary death of millions of Americans.
7. ENSURE VOTING RIGHTS through measures to require verifiable paper trails, along with enforceable guarantees that every citizen has an equal opportunity to vote, and an equal chance to see that vote counted. The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were both thrown by the selective nullifications of tens of thousands of black votes in Florida and Ohio. The CBC must support all measures that reinstate the franchise to persons who have served out their criminal sentences.
* * *
Please take a moment right now, and go to the petition web site at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor/.Sign the petition with your name, email address, state and zipcode, and
forward it to 6 of your friends or family members.
The best members of the Black Caucus, like John Conyers, Bobby Scott, Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee will tell you they share these concerns. But but in the next breath they often say they are dependent on us for vocal, insistent and even impolite affirmation of our priorities as a people --- not just on election day, but every day of the year.
African American leaders above have thrown the burden back upon us below, demanding leadership from ordinary people to keep them focused upon our urgent priorities. It's up to us to give it to them. Sign the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor/
We'd like to get 50,000 people to sign the petition, and will present the list of signers to the Congressional Black Caucus later this year. These 7 demands certainly don't cover every burning issue that concerns our people. But they're a start.
After signing the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cbcmonitor, copy this page and paste it into an email message you can forward to everyone on your email list. Call up a few of them to explain what it is, and ask them to sign the petition and pass it on.
Let's give the Congressional Black Caucus some Leadership From Below.
Respectfully,
Bruce Dixon, Managing Editor, Black Agenda Report
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report
Leutisha Stills, Correspondent, CBC Monitor
Dr. Jared Ball, co-founder, CBC Monitor
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