Please read this important message below from U.S. Senator Max Cleland (ret.) and then sign our letter demanding a full reauthorization and full funding of LWCF.

Thank you for making your voice heard.

Garett Reppenhagen
US Army OIF Veteran
Vet Voice Foundation

Many veterans, like me, find a source of our patriotism in our protected lands. America’s outdoors, and its citizens’ ability to explore them, is surely a part of our values worth protecting – from iconic places like the Grand Canyon to our ballfields and local parks are where we bring our families to share precious moments.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has provided funding for conservation and recreation for decades. It’s been used to protect places from National Parks to local playgrounds in every state since in its inception in 1964. LWCF is funded by oil and gas revenues generated by energy companies paying to drill for oil and gas offshore and uses zero taxpayer dollars. But, If Congress does not act, LWCF will expire this fall.

Unfortunately, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, a veteran himself, who oversees the program, has become an insider threat to its future.

Secretary Zinke served his country as a Navy SEAL with honor, and his patriotism to our country is unimpeachable. However, when I see an ideological threat to American values, I believe it’s my obligation to name it. As chief steward of our wondrous public lands and waters, Secretary Zinke has acted to severely undermine LWCF by calling for enormous cuts to the program in his budget proposals.

Secretary Zinke, who has defended drastic cuts to LWCF in his budget plans and who has been silent on the program’s impending expiration, has become one of the greatest impediments to its future.

As a Vietnam veteran and a retired U.S. Senator, I’ve stood beside brave patriots to challenge America’s enemies, foreign and domestic. We the people can ensure LWCF will continue to provide benefits to future generations.

Please join me, U.S. Senator Max Cleland (ret.), to fight for LWCF by letting Secretary Zinke and our members of Congress know that this is one program the government has a moral obligation to protect.

Sign this letter that will be delivered to key members of Congress and the Department of Interior demanding a full reauthorization and full funding of LWCF.

Gettysburg. The 9/11 Memorial. These iconic sites are funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of the nation’s most successful conservation programs. Unless Congress acts, the LWCF will expire this September, eliminating funding that protects American military heritage.

For more than 50 years, the LWCF has provided critical grants that protect and enhance national treasures like American battlefields, our national parks and forests, and over 40,000 state and local park projects across the country.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, America’s most important conservation and recreation program, a program that has saved places in nearly every state and county in the United States, will expire this September 30 unless Congress moves to renew and fund. For fifty-two years, this fund, at no taxpayer cost (funded by offshore oil and gas royalties to the federal government), has improved the lives of countless Americans and foreign tourists – all of whom generate considerable profits in the surrounding communities where the LWCF has created value.

The LWCF exists because of Teddy Roosevelt’s vision to start protecting our recreational opportunities, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s instinct for conservation action, John F. Kennedy’s commitment to the outdoors, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s creation of LWCF that we as Americans now have the most extensive network of open spaces in the world to hunt, fish, hike, swim and play.

By allowing the LWCF to expire, Congress is jeopardizing the preservation of American military heritage and the monuments to those who sacrificed. Congress should immediately fund and reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund at its full amount to ensure beneficial investment in management of America’s battlefields, monuments, and all public lands.

Kibwe Chase-Marshall just started a petition to the Council of Fashion Designers in America and Vogue to

Dear Friends,

I just started a petition titled “#BreakSilenceBreakCeilings: End Employment Discrimination Against Black Designers“

Black designers continue to face systemic employment discrimination within the mainstream fashion industry.This renders them generally incapable of landing upper management and executive roles, and—as evidenced by H&M’s “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle” hoodie photographed on a young Black boy—often allows for the irresponsible dissemination of insensitive, insulting, and exploitative depictions of Blackness within advertising.

I recently launched a social media campaign, #breaksilencebreakceilings to address just these issues. Attention around the campaign, resulted in me publishing a game-changing op-ed “Why Aren’t There More Black Designers”, last week in the Business of Fashion. Not content with merely listing complaints throughout the piece, I delivered actionable steps toward dynamic change, charging the Council of Fashion Designers of America and American Vogue to partner on initiating a 3-pronged plan to engage the fashion design and recruitment communities in greater transparency and more equitable hiring practices.

Join us if you believe relying on racism in fashion should be addressed before another racist campaign is produced.

The proposed initiative aims to reform an industry that has normalized the exclusion of Black professionals. Design and recruitment industry participants would be availed of comprehensive bias mitigation training and hiring-practice audits.

Will you sign the petition and forward this email to make sure your voice is heard? Add your name here.

By signing this petition, you will amplify this call-to-action directed at the CFDA and Vogue, organizations that have a responsibility to no longer turn a blind eye to the fashion industry’s marginalization of Black talent. Collectively, our signatures will #breaksilencebreakceilings, declaring that time’s up for employment discrimination against Black designers.

It’s time to take the racism out of fashion, tell the Council of Fashion Designers America and Vogue to stop combat anti-Blackness in fashion.

Thank you,

Kibwe Chase-Marshall

now Brightmoor

Friends,

We need your help today- please take 30 seconds to sign this petition in solidarity with the Brightmoor community in Detroit, Michiganas they fight to ensure Black families have access to clean water.

Detroit has implemented a city-wide water cutoff policy that will hit predominantly Black communities like Brightmoor the hardest.How bad is it? So bad the state of Indiana is issuing travel warnings urging their residents to get vaccinated for Hepatitis A before traveling to Michigan.¹ Yet folks in Michigan are being told not to panic and instead make sure they wash their hands and maintain good hygiene. This is cruel advice to people who are being denied access to clean and safe water. We have alredy seen a preliminary study conducted by the Henry Ford Global Health Initiative found, “patients who live on blocks that experienced water shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to be diagnosed with a water-associated illness.”² Without any running water, how are the people of the city supposed to wash their hands, prepare sanitary food, or clean themselves? The city of Detroit denying its people water has already played a role in a growing Hepatitis A epidemic – instead of giving bad advice, the city needs to work quickly to give people clean water.

Having access to safe and clean water is crucial to the health and safety of any community, but instead of working to make sure the people of Detroit have the water they need to stay well, the city is still threatening to deny thousands of people water. Join us in telling the mayor and city of Detroit to stop playing games- don’t cut off water to communities.

Friends, over 30,000 people have signed on to tell the city to stop taking water from residents. Will you sign too?

Rev. Roslyn Bouier

P.S. Below is the email we sent a couple weeks ago:

References:

1. 1. “Michigan officials speak on Indiana travel warning for hepatitis A virus” WNDU. April 24, 2018. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/48098?t=6&akid=11083%2E1174326%2EeJVsLU
   2. “Experts see public health crisis in Detroit water shutoffs” Detroit Free Press, July 26, 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/48104?t=8&akid=11083%2E1174326%2EeJVsLU