- is a grassroots campaign organization named after the unofficial motto of the United States Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC). We Can Take It! grassroots campaign organizationCALLS
FOR ACTION to REACTIVATE and REVAMP this time proven program to rescue both our ravaged natural resources and our most valuable
human resource our young adults from 17 to 24 years who are underemployed and have families in need of financial assistance
as in the Great Depression of the 1930's.
This very popular and accountable government program
would today give us more bang for our buck. It served America well for nine years from 1933 to 1942. In
1942, the CCC budget was cut for the war effort. This very program is still on the books in Washington and only
needs refunded and updated!
Young single adult civilians who qualify and enroll in this
program would have the experience of a lifetime and have fun, travel and adventure. They would travel far from home
and live for 6 months up to two years while working to conserve our vast lands and waters and be on call for disaster relief.
It would be considered an alternative National Service!
They would earn money and
send home a monthly allotment for their dependent family or if they are independent would save their allotment until they
left the CCC program. All would be given educational opportunities on their off hours and recieve a similar grant for
higher education as the GI Bill after their service.
These young men and women
would learn real GREEN JOB SKILLS as well as the work and conservation ethic. At the end of their obligation we would
as a Nation have more capable and more well-rounded members of society.
"Those who contemplate the beauty
of the earth find reserves of strength
that will endure as long as life
lasts."
-Rachel Carson
Invest in Human Capital
So first of all let me
assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear. . .is fear itself. . . nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.....
Our greatest task is to put people to work.
This is no unsolveable problem if we
face it wisely and courageously.
It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would threat
the emergency of war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and
reorganize the use of our national resources.
From the first inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the 32nd President of the United States was held on Saturday, March 4, 1933.
76 YEARS LATER
"I want generations that follow to
see that we used this moment to encourage a 21st century civilian
conservation corps for our young people."
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States address
at the
160th Anniversary Celebration of the Department of the Interior March 3, 2009
Franklin Roosevelt with CCC members at Shenandoah National Park, 1933
President Franklin Rooseveltin his first hundred
days of office wanted to keep his election campaign promise to help "the forgotten man" from the existing widespread
unemployment of the Great Depression. He offered the country a New Deal "to restore America
to its own people" and give us a way to
solve the issues of job recovery and the environment. He dealt our people a good hand with his first "alphebet soup"
program the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps.
"The
primary purpose of the program is not to get work done
but to provide work for the men who need
it."
From
newpaper and newsreel editorials in 1933.
CCC enrollees planting tree saplings in Montana
"I cannot live without the green trees, and nor can you!"
Wangari
Maathai - Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2004
We are now in a
time of distress. President Obama and Congress should take heed of President Franklin D Roosevelt's first "Alphebet
Soup " program. 27 million Americans are out of work and many more are working fewer hours than they want and need.
That is more than one in six workers.
With recent reports
that one in eight Americans currently rely on food stamps for some or all of their food, and with millions unemployed or underemployed,
where is our modern day Civilian Conservation Corps?
Look around you; there's plenty of work to be done. Instead of us,
as a society, doling out unemployment benefits, why not fashion a renewed version of this wildly successful employment and
training program?
The purpose of human life is to serve,
and to show compassion and the will to help others.
It has been
popular group-think of late to say "government programs are never the answer." But after a decade of political momentum
on the side of demonizing the government and casting our economic fortunes solely with the private sector, why are so many
people now suffering?
Knee-jerk platitudes and ideological clichés
do not help build a country or put food on the table. The Civilian Conservation Corps, in fact, did just that.
It has a proven
record of accountability and lots of tangible infrastructure still standing today with more bang for the buck.
Over the years, it would put millions of American work boots
on the ground to labor on shovel ready public works/green job training projects on our own soil.
Today the drop out rate in our middle and high schools are higher than ever and when
they reach adulthood they are facing unemployment and minimal opportunity. Now all levels of government in all 50 states,
US Territories down to most municipal governments are budget
cutting and laying off staff from teachers to police and elimenating social programs as youth conservation corps programs.
They are forced to ignore backlogs of critical ecosystem and infrastructure repair that are deparately needed on our public
lands, shores and waterways. Listen to the fact filled commentary by Jim Hightower on the state of our infrastucture from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
A
nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.
Martin
Luther King, Jr
"Know that your people will judge you on
what
you can build, not what you destroy."
President Barack Obama, Inaugual Address, January 20, 2009.
Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni Interview with Mr Sidney Mander
(PLEASE interview these men if they are your family or friends and submit the
interview under Civilain Cnservation Corps Alumni Interview and name .... for the record...their stories must be saved future
generations.)
Danger of Pollution and Rapid Climate Change
Rapid Climate Change - a lucky Polar Bear on drift ice
Above, a mountaintop removal site at Kayford Mountain in West Virginia.Jeff Gentner/Associated Press
The
CCC built infrastructures that stand today
CCC structure in Torreya State Park, Florida that serves as the ranger station , 2009
Inside the Torreya State Park ranger station
Visit the Petition for Reactivationto sign it and take action and call your Federal Elected Officials to reactivate the USCCC!
Comments made for our Federal electer officials:
1. What
are your feelings of the state of our environment today!
2.
Why should the US government reactivate this program for us?
# 588: 1:26 pm PST, Dec
10,Barbara Harsh, California TO: Congress & Congressional Leaders
& SubCommittee Members You still have American citizens that do no fear hard work, need to be raised out of poverty and
before all trust between the People and the Government are lost where there is still hope.
The reactivation will do so much to rebuild our Nation, strength the hope of our People and
help restore the economy at below main street levels. We need a groundswell of voters to understand the value of a global
reach on our planet is necessary but not exclusive from Nation building here too! Fix the levies, remediate the land and water,
build and repair brick&mortar infrastructures. Continue the building through our IT & security infrastructure concurrently.
This is a political kudo for whomever gets this new bill written and passed!
# 568: 8:20 pm PST, Nov 17,Cheryse Wellman,
Ohio There is no question that the state of our environment is bordering the precipice of disaster on so many
fronts, and the cost of inaction will continue to bear heavy on generations to come. The time is now to make progressive transistions
to securing the welfare of our planet, its species, and future generations.
Reimplementing CCC would be a great step in the direction of securing a sustainable future.
Another day, another dollar--
A
million days and I’ll be a millionaire!
Popular saying by the CCC boys
Marion James
is reflected in a plaque with the names of men who worked at Camp 3422 in NC. The plaque hangs
in the Hanging Rock visitor’s center. (Photo by Lauren Carroll)
From Pennsylvania State Archives, Record Group
5. Featuring: Constructing a camp in the mountains Building a road into Camp No. 51 at Pine Grove Furnace Working in
the state forest Workers ...
More CCC alumni interviews on next page. Please interview CCC alumni so we can have them on record.
Ken Burns PBS Documentary "Americas Best Idea - the National
Parks"
Click on the picture below and then click on the sidebar video.
"More
important, however, than the material gains from their labors will be the moral and spiritual
value of such work." President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt message to Congress,
March 21, 1933
