Dan's Message about Heathcare Reform

"Dear Representative Anthony Adams,

We need less government interference into healthcare, not more, so please hang tough and do not let the socialists take over the state. Six million Californians choose not to buy healthcare insurance - that's called freedom. The governor thinks they are victims, and they will be if they are forced to fund his healthcare scheme. That 4% payroll tax is a sham because you should know it will come entirely out of worker pay, not employer profits. Our governor ran for office touting individual choice; now he wants to double-cross the voters by imposing his own choices on everyone!"

--Dan Fernandes

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Rafael's Message about Homeless Teens

"Dear Rep. Alcee Hastings,

My name is Rafael Ramos and I am a student. As a young teen, I have seen many of my fellows struggle. Yet many youth in our nation are struggling, as many as three million youth runaway or end up in a homeless situation each year. These numbers are shocking to me as I am sure they are shocking to you. As a citizen of this great nation I am shocked every time I turn on the television to find our nation is helping thousands of people every where else on this planet yet they fail to put our own first. Are we a nation that puts our citizens second? Please, I urge you to co-sponsor the Place to Call Home Act, H.R. 3409 which will finally end youth homelessness. Think of the brighter future and how this can be the new foundation for helping all people in homeless situations. Several Members of Congress have already joined H.R. 3409 to show their support for our nation's homeless youth. I hope you will join them as a co-sponsor in order to express that homelessness among our nation's youth is simply unacceptable."

--Rafael Ramos

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Colleen's heartfelt plea to stop the Drug War draft

"Dear Representative John Carter,

As your constituent, I'm writing to urge you to make sure that the penalty that strips financial aid from college students with drug convictions is repealed through the Higher Education Act reauthorization.

I have a child who is a student at Baylor. A drug conviction hurts those students most in need and it is adding insult to injury to take away student aid for a safer choice, cannabis. Drug abuse is a medical problem not a criminal activity. If we allow 18 year olds to join the military and possibly die protecting freedom then they should be free to have a drink in peace, legally.

I taught my children that their bodies are the temples of their souls. However, when my children became young adults I told them the truth about drugs. Including that marijuana or cannabis is a safer health choice in a recreational drug but the collateral damage from arrest can be devastating and life long.

Truth, trust and reason encourage open communications between youth, parents and faculties. Over a thousand people die each day due to tobacco use! Close to 300 a day die from prescribed pharmaceuticals. The tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals gangs deal drugs that kill many more annually than all illicit drugs. We tolerate their salesmen! Alcohol makes domestic violence 8xs more likely; marijuana does not according to a 2003 study. There is a link between pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs and violence including school violence!

Since the Aid Elimination Penalty was added as an amendment to HEA in 1998, more than 200,000 aspiring students have been blocked access to educational assistance, often for relatively minor offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana. While the penalty is supposed to keep young people away from drugs, it actually does the opposite by kicking at-risk students out of school. But blocking access to education doesn't just hurt the students directly impacted; it has harmful implications for society as a whole.

College graduates are much more likely to become successful taxpaying citizens, while those who are kicked out of school are more likely to abuse drugs, become costly drains on the criminal justice system, and rely on expensive government assistance programs. Furthermore, since students already have to make good academic progress to receive financial aid, the penalty only affects hardworking students who are doing well in their classes. As for students who are causing problems and disrupting the learning process for others, college administrators already have the authority to expel them, and judges have long had the ability to revoke student aid from people with drug convictions on a case-by-case basis.

Numerous addiction recovery, criminal justice, religious, and other leaders have insisted that education is one of the best means to reduce crime and drug abuse, and Congress's own Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance recommended removing the drug conviction question from the aid application, calling it "irrelevant" to eligibility.

Fortunately, this year's HEA reauthorization process presents a great opportunity to get rid of the harmful and unfair penalty once and for all. Please help tens of thousands of hardworking and determined individuals get back into school and on the path to success by making sure that the HEA bill includes language repealing the aid elimination penalty. Thanks for your attention to this important issue. "

--Colleen McCool Minter

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Peter's Message to Stop the Drug War Draft

"Dear Rep. Lynn Woolsey,

As your constituent, and SSU graduate, I'm appalled to hear that students can be denied financial aid, but continue on to carry weapons and wage war. This sends the opposite message that STAYING in school will help make the world a safer, better, place to live.

Therefore, I'm urging you to make sure that the penalty that strips financial aid from college students with drug convictions is repealed through the Higher Education Act reauthorization. Since the Aid Elimination Penalty was added as an amendment to HEA in 1998, more than 200,000 aspiring students have been blocked access to educational assistance, often for relatively minor offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana.

While the penalty is supposed to keep young people away from drugs, it actually does the opposite by kicking at-risk students out of school.

But blocking access to education doesn't just hurt the students directly impacted; it has harmful implications for society as a whole. College graduates are much more likely to become successful taxpaying citizens, while those who are kicked out of school are more likely to abuse drugs, become costly drains on the criminal justice system, and rely on expensive government assistance programs.

Furthermore, since students already have to make good academic progress to receive financial aid, the penalty only affects hardworking students who are doing well in their classes.

As for students who are causing problems and disrupting the learning process for others, college administrators already have the authority to expel them, and judges have long had the ability to revoke student aid from people with drug convictions on a case-by-case basis. The one-size-fits-all penalty strips discretion from decision-makers who know students best.

Numerous addiction recovery, criminal justice, religious, and other leaders have insisted that education is one of the best means to reduce crime and drug abuse, and Congress's own Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance recommended removing the drug conviction question from the aid application, calling it "irrelevant" to eligibility. Even the the Undersecretary of Education recently testified to a House subcommittee that the drug question is "not anything that we need at the department."

Fortunately, this year's HEA reauthorization process presents a great opportunity to get rid of the harmful and unfair penalty once and for all. Please help tens of thousands of hardworking and determined individuals get back into school and on the path to success by making sure that the HEA bill includes language repealing the aid elimination penalty.

Thanks for your attention to this important issue. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as soon as you have a chance to share them."

--Peter van Gorder

Tell Congress to help other people like Peter: http://capwiz.com/mobilize//issues/alert/?alertid=10419331

Message to Congress about the Financial Aid Penalty

"Dear Rick Boucher,

As your constituent, I'm writing to urge you to make sure that the penalty that strips financial aid from college students with drug convictions is repealed through the Higher Education Act reauthorization. Since the aid elimination penalty was added as an amendment to HEA in 1998, nearly 200,000 aspiring students have been blocked access to educational assistance, often for relatively minor offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana.

While the penalty is supposed to keep young people away from drugs, it actually does the opposite by kicking at-risk students out of school. But blocking access to education doesn't just hurt the students directly impacted it has harmful implications for society as a whole. College graduates are much more likely to become successful taxpaying citizens, while those who are kicked out of school are more likely to abuse drugs, become costly drains on the criminal justice system, and rely on expensive government assistance programs.

Furthermore, since students already have to make good academic progress to receive financial aid, the penalty only affects hardworking students who are doing well in their classes. As for students who are causing problems and disrupting the learning process for others, college administrators already have the authority to expel them, and judges have long had the ability to revoke student aid from people with drug convictions on a case-by-case basis. The one-size-fits-all penalty strips discretion from decision-makers who know students best. Numerous addiction recovery, criminal justice, religious, and other leaders have insisted that education is one of the best means to reduce crime and drug abuse, and Congress's own Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance recommended removing the drug conviction question from the aid application, calling it "irrelevant" to eligibility.

Even the Bush administration doesn't like the penalty; the Undersecretary of Education recently testified to a House subcommittee that the drug question is "not anything that we need at the department." Fortunately, this year's HEA reauthorization process presents a great opportunity to get rid of the harmful and unfair penalty once and for all. Please help tens of thousands of hardworking and determined individuals get back into school and on the path to success by making sure that the HEA bill includes language repealing the aid elimination penalty. Thanks for your attention to this important issue. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as soon as you have a chance to share them."

Tell Congress to help on this issue: http://capwiz.com/mobilize//issues/alert/?alertid=10094061