Committing To the Our Children is the First Step in healing America

Editorial Statement

Lead Organizer, Lifelines to Healing Campaign
PICO National Network

            Rev. Michael McBride

Even if politicians don’t want to talk about the barriers facing urban youth, we need to!

We’re kicking-off this national campaign to save a generation of young people from violence, joblessness and prison with a huge public action meeting hosted by the Micah Project, the local PICO federation. Thousands are expected to attend – including 500 clergy from across the country and buses from as far away as Birmingham and Orlando. All the key decision-makers including New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu have committed to show up -- except the U.S. Department of Justice.

Will you help us fill this empty seat by calling the Department of Justice today?

For too long, too many elected officials and the media have been silent as more and more of our young people are put behind bars. Strong public leadership from the DOJ is essential to building the will to end the destructive cycle of violence and mass incarceration that is destroying so many lives. That is why it is so important that the Department of Justice commit to sending a senior official to participate in our public action meeting next week.

And it’s also why we’re asking people to call the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder to urge him to send a high level official to PICO’s Lifelines to Healing Kick-Off Action next Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Please call the Justice Department TODAY at (202) 514-2001: Tell the person who answers that you are involved in PICO and that you respectfully request that the Department of Justice send a senior official to participate in next week’s Lifelines action in New Orleans.

In August, PICO invited Attorney General Holder to attend this action. After being told that Holder would be out of the country, we have followed up many times with the Administration to have another senior official attend. We have also invited President Obama. Nonetheless, six days out we have no commitment from the Administration to participate.

Unless we take action now, the chair on the stage for the Department of Justice will remain empty. Please call Attorney General Holder’s office at (202) 514-2001. Once you’ve made your call please go to PICO’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PICOnetwork and report that you made a call and what you were told.

Our religious principles teach us that every person is created in God’s image and merits redemption. Almost everyone in America is suffering from the economic crisis, but no group is as hard hit as African-American and Latino youth. We cannot restore America as a Land of Opportunity unless we can create real opportunity for all our youth.