United States Civilian Conservation Corps - Reactivation

We the US citizens, voters and signers of this petition call upon the United States Congress and the President to reactivate and update the template of the United States Civilian Conservation Corps.

This petition urges this reactivation as an alternative for military service and another national service for all fit single United States citizens from 17 to age 35 of all socio-economic strata.

The original USCCC(1933-1942) was the largest non-combatant workforce in US history. There had been no precedent for it in American history. Nearly three million young men worked from 1933-42, they accomplished Herculean feats that left a tangible legacy and popular public support that has never waned.

For those who volunteer in a reactivated USCCC they would receive competent work supervision with the benefits of a stress free environment. They also would gain valuable job experience and travel. The agency would allow veterans preference for leadership and supervisory positions.

The USCCC primary mission would maintain and repair infrastructure on our public lands and waterways through public works. They would also assist the National Guard, FEMA and the American Red Cross in the aftermath of any large scale natural or man-made disaster in the clean-up and repair of infrastructure and environmental damage in all US territories.

USCCC alumni would enable our nation with a reliable and confident workforce that knows the concept of teamwork.

Some comments for reactivation...

"The CCC was not only one of the greatest innovations of the New Deal, but it provides a model for us today. It is the answer to the double problem of unemployed youth (who turn to drugs, who end up in prison) and the persistence of war, with its enormous drain on the national wealth. The young, instead of being recruited to kill and be killed, or to come home maimed in body or in mind, could be put to work in government programs like the CCC, doing all sorts of constructive things to make our environment cleaner and safer. Such work would have the opposite effect of military action -- that is, it would foster healthy bodies and healthy minds as these young people make a great contribution to the nation. The situation today, with a trillion dollars wasted on war, with young men and women coming home damaged, with a crumbling infrastructure making us vulnerable to more Katrina%u2019s, more human disasters, cries out for such a solution." Howard Zinn - Author and Historian

James A. Michener wrote, "I was favorably impressed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which had, so far as I could see, a faultless program in which young people could do constructive work for their communities while earning a modest salary. I would have hopes for such a program, were one to be reinstituted now." (This Noble Land)

For More Information on the
United States Civilian Conservation Corps

http://www.nascc.org
http://www.corpnetwork.org
http://www.ccclegacy.org
http://www.americorp.gov
http://www.peacecorp.gov
http://www.vfp.org
http://veteransforpeace.org
http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/ccc_forest.htm
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/history/articles/ccc.html
http://fs.jorge.com/archives/ccc/US_Table.htm
http://newdeal.feri.org/library/index.htm#4
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/history/historycccyears.htm http://www.academy.umd.edu/publications/nationalservice/ccc.htm http://www.cccalumni.org/
http://www.nyscccmuseum.com