Open Letter Calls on Administration to Cease Attacks on Non-Profits

Organizations Urged to Sign Onto This Important Campaign

On Saturday (April 19), I received a note from Colleen Connell, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois requesting that Local Food Forum publish an open letter calling for the Trump administration to cease its ongoing attacks against non-profit organizations that are performing valuable work for American people across a range of topics and issues.

I agreed readily and you will find the text of the open letter below with a link to add your organizations to the list of signatories.

This is a matter of interest because both small farmers and nonprofits supporting their efforts to build a better, healthier and more sustainable farm systems have been targeted for a series of abrupt, unfair and in some cases devastating program cuts and terminations by USDA. These actions have been echoed on a wide variety of activities across federal government departments and agencies.

I urge you to read the open letter and to consider adding your organization to the list of supporters.

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An Open Letter Rejecting Presidential Attacks on Nonprofit Organizations

Please consider adding your organization to the signatories of the following letter:

We are a coalition of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations formed to champion causes dear to all Americans. We work in communities across the country to protect our air and water, our right to vote, to worship, and to organize; we fight for consumers, workers, and our children; we advocate for civil and human rights at home and abroad; we have made it safer to drive on our roads, easier to start a business, and healthier to live in our cities.

We span the full ideological spectrum. And today, we stand together for our democracy and in solidarity with the nonprofit groups unjustly and illegally targeted by the Trump administration.

We won’t mince words. No president–Democrat or Republican–should have the power to punish nonprofit organizations he disagrees with. That is not about protecting Americans or defending the public interest. It is about using unchecked power to silence opposition and voices he disagrees with. That is un-American and flies in the face of the Constitution, including the First Amendment bar on targeting organizations for their advocacy.  

Charities perform crucial functions in every community across our country, including providing healthcare, housing, education, religious services, food and water, and so much more. Like other nonprofits, the organizations threatened by Trump have a mission to serve the public good and are composed of everyday people fighting for dignity, safety, and opportunity. 

This attack on nonprofits is not happening in a vacuum, but as a part of a wholesale offensive against organizations and individuals that advocate for ideas or serve communities that the president finds objectionable, and that seek to enforce the rule of law against the federal government.

Whether the target is a church, an environmental or good government group, a refugee assistance organization, university, a law firm, or a former or current government official, weaponizing the executive branch to punish their speech or their views is illegal and wrong. It is also an attack on the very notion that government power must serve the people, not those in office.  

Charitable organizations serve our communities in various ways, playing a central role in public protection, health, accountability, anti-discrimination, and in creating the moral fabric of our nation. That is, of course, precisely why this administration is targeting them. They know that the organizations they are attacking exist to lift up the voices of everyday Americans and shine the spotlight of accountability on those who seek to abuse power.

Efforts by the president of the United States to defund, discredit, and dismantle nonprofit groups he disagrees with are reprehensible and dangerous—a violation of a fundamental freedom in America. This Administration is trying to bully people into silence but speaking out is, and has always been, our collective mission. We stand with those wrongly targeted and with each other. No exceptions. 

ADD YOUR ORGANIZATION TO THE SIGNATORIES

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