Matthew Parker is former heroin addict who has been drug and crime free for 12 years. As an ex-felon he has not just served all of his time in prison, but has since gone on to earn a bachelor's degree from a good four-year college and a master's from an Ivy League school. He has also published a memoir and teaches creative writing, yet is still barred from voting in his home state of Arizona. Matthew wrote this petition because it is his firm belief that, like most ex-felons who have done their time and pay their taxes, he should be afforded representation like every other tax-paying American Citizen. In a telling summation, Matthew has stated that, “Full redemption can never be complete when forgiveness remains so elusive.”

It is vital African Americans receive Reparations for damages sustained from slavery that continues to affect African Americans today. Slaves were sold, families were destroyed, making it almost impossible for African Americans to find distant family members, creating the possibility of one to marry a distant family member. Many African Americans unknowingly suffer PTS, due to the constant beatings, lynching and intimidation that took place. African Americans were treated like animals, and not allowed to read. African Americans continue to make less than white people who work in the same position. Jails are full of blacks who never committed the crime. The movie Birth of a Nation depicting African Americans as savages still lives in the hearts of the racist today. African Americans were tricked out of their land and homes, they were taught to distrust one another, African Americans have been humiliated and degraded. Slaves were beaten until they stop using their birth name and use the name of the Master. No other race of people were made to forget their name. African Americans history ends for many at the plantation. Slave children were used as feet warmers or worst. African American woman were use to feed white babies until they had no mink to feed their own babies. We are in 2014 and racist people continue to walk the fine line of injustice and impose fine line sanctions on African Americans. Most African Americans have a low self esteem. African Americans did not ask to come to this country. Our ancestors were placed in chains and forced. Slaves were stripped and sold on auction blocks like chattel, after laboring in the hot sun some were beaten for mare entertainment. African Americans fought in the war for this country. The African American community deserve Reparations. Ta-Nehisi Coates summed it us best; 250 years of slavery. 90 years of Jim Crow. 60 years of separate but equal. 35 years of state sanctioned redlining. I don't care if it is $5,000 to each African American, the injustice needs to be acknowledged monetarily. I ask God to let this bill pass. Let the healing begin. PJPM

This bill is the best way for us to strengthen the voting rights that are fundamental to a healthy, vibrant democracy.

My son was treated unfairly. I watched several others in the courtroom with greater charges. His hired attorney Charles Oldham forced him to accept a plea that we could have beat. He said that we would lose, because the jury would be 80% white, he's black, and we're battling union county. He basically took our money, and did nothing. This case had been going on for 4 years. My son was convicted for having less than an ounce of marijuana, and having my prescription meds on his person. I was injured at work, and he picked up my prescription. They illegally search his house off an assumption. They had no substantial evidence. The video and audio presented showed no incrimination. Because he's black, they want to lock him up for 2 years, and white defendants had cocaine and heroine. Each received unsupervised probation. One received M - F jail time, and freedom on the weekends. I want justice for my son. I'm not condoning his actions, but fair is fair.

Sick of my rights being taken away for politcal gains! And this is not what our founders invisioned when we started this country! I'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore ! The supreme five are out of control and not following the constitution, they swore to up hold! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!

To educate and hold accountable elected officials concerning Native treaty rights.

This is yet another instance of racial profiling and police brutality. The Arizona State University Police department should drop all charges and issue an unqualified apology.

I am starting this petition to help free the LGBT youth from the discriminating laws in Kansas that keep them from marrying freely. I am also affected by this because i am also apart of the LGBT community.

This petition purpose is to seek justice for Christopher Patterson. On November 5, 2011 Christopher Patterson was arrested and has been in custody ever since awaiting trial. He has been denied his liberty due to ineffective counsel of his prior attorney’s Bill Berret and Keith C. Brower who formerly worked for the District Attorney Office. Chris is being unfairly treated due to a conspiracy between his former attorney’s and Chief Deputy District Attorney Sweetin. Bill Berret and Keith C. Brower are violating client’s constitutional rights by falsely representing as defense attorneys, putting on tainted and mock evidentiary hearings, while conspiring with Deputy District Attorney Sweetin. Our society must put a stop to this corruption and cover up in the case of State of Nevada v. Christopher Patterson. It is a travesty of justice when an innocent person is confined in jail or prison, and it should never occur in our society. Please follow his case at https://www.facebook.com/chrystyan.patterson or @FreeChrisPatter

On June 18, 2014 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled the trademark for the Washington Redskins, ruling the name is “disparaging to Native Americans”. It’s just another sign that the public is realizing that the “R” word is as racist as the “N” word. The word is never used by Native Americans to speak about each other, but as a slur for others to mock them. It is derived from the days when bounty hunters took part in Indian extermination and when they were paid for every “redskin” or scalp they could bring in. The owner of the team, Dan Snyder, is on record as saying he will “never” change the team name. The NFL Commissioner has not taken action to remove the team ownership from Snyder. This is in contrast to the actions of the NBA which is taking strong action against a team owner for merely a personal and private expression of prejudice. The situation is intolerable. It is inconceivable that African-Americans, Jews or any group that suffered massive intolerance and violence would in 21st century be openly ridiculed as being a mascot. If moral appeals to Dan Snyder don't work we should try to affect him by reducing the size of his pocketbook.

The State of California cares for its prisoners so badly that in 2005, a judge mandated federal oversight of their prison healthcare system after it was documented that one person dies in California prisons every day from extreme medical malpractice or neglect. But as horrific as these crimes of neglect are, it shocks the conscience anew to hear that the medical care that was provided to prisoners included forced sterilization as recently as 2010. [1] Eugenics is a word that sounds to too many of us like it belongs only in the history books, but the eugenics programs started in California in the 1920s were found still alive and kicking in its prisons until very recently. While mainstream, and mostly white, women's rights advocates celebrated and defended legal abortion, too little attention has been paid to genocidal medical violence practiced against members of society deemed 'unfit' parents due to poverty, mental health, or non-white ethnicity. As Loretta Ross, an African American victim of forced sterilization at the age of 23, wrote recently, "After my sterilization, I felt empty, lost, and butchered. I was in shock and felt powerless." [1] There is no justification for an atrocity like this and the State of California must immediately act to ensure that state power is never again abused to deprive people of their right to parent and make their own decisions about their family size. Tell Governor Brown to ask the California legislature to act immediately to pass SB 1135 and safeguard against forced sterilization of vulnerable populations. [1] - "Eugenicists Never Retreat, They Just Regroup: Sterilization and Reproductive Oppression in Prisons," Loretta Ross, RH Reality Check, June 12, 2014. http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/06/12/eugenicists-never-retreat-just-regroup-sterilization-reproductive-oppression-prisons/

On June 16, President Barack Obama announced that he was ordering his staff to draft an executive order banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees among companies that contract with the federal government. The executive order, which is estimated to affect up to 16 million workers, circumvents a Congress which is hostile to LGBT equality.