The DC Commission for Arts and Humanities should remain independent from the Office of the Mayor. It is alarming that the Mayor's office wants to consolidate power considering it's recent flirtation with censorship. Please sign the petition which will be sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser opposing this proposed change.

There is a new governor in the state and we would like him to know that we support Commissioner Scheff. He has been a champion for our individuals with ID/D and we would like to see him remain the DDS Commissioner.

Heroism is defined as great bravery. Heroes are individuals who have empathy and compassion for others. The late Emantic Bradford Jr., a 21-year-old African American male who friends and family described as a good, considerate, fun-loving young man that cared for his father when he was ill, displayed those characteristics of a hero. Emantic Bradford Jr. graduated from a Catholic high school in Birmingham, Alabama and later joined the U.S. Army. Emantic was administratively separated in August of 2018 and was awarded a specialty certification. After having Thanksgiving dinner with his family, Emantic decided to go to the Riverchase Galleria mall to do some shopping. While at the mall, gunfire erupted. Emantic who legally owned a firearm and had absolutely nothing to do with the mall shooting, was then unjustly murdered by a Hoover police officer who responded to the scene. From everything we know about Emantic Bradford Jr. and by all accounts, Emantic was a ‘good guy with a gun,’ that night reacting to a chaotic scene to not only save himself, but save the lives of others as well. Unfortunately, as is all too common in our society, African Americans are not protected by gun rights and are not viewed as ‘good guys, or good people with guns.’ Incredulously, following Emantic’s murder, the officer who murdered him was described as a hero, while Emantic’s character was assassinated. This officer was lauded, while not being publically identified, as Emantic was identified as being a criminal responsible for the mall shooting. Thanks to the hard work of Emantic’s family and local activists, the world now knows the truth. An independent autopsy found that Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr was shot three times from behind during the incident in the mall. Emantic was shot in the head, neck and lower back, all from behind. The report concluded that the "manner of death is homicide." Based on facts and not systemic bigotry that often leads to controlled narratives and stereotypes that criminalize our Black men and women, the responding officer was no hero. The responding officer was a ‘coward,’ who shot a real hero in the back! Based on these facts, we, the concerned public, demand that the city of Hoover Alabama, Hoover Alabama media, and the Hoover police department, all who spent time and energy, assassinating the character of Emantic Bradford Jr., while praising his murderer, keep that same energy and invest time in officially recognizing Emantic Bradford Jr. as a hero, awarding him posthumously, while pursuing justice for his murder. If we are truly to be a nation that believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, while holding truths to be self-evident that ‘all men are created equal,’ we must be purposefully in engaging in the work required to turn theory into practice as based on what happened to Emantic Bradford Jr. and what continues to happen across the country, nothing is self-evident about equality.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines civil, political, economic, social & cultural rights for all children and youth in the United States of America. Our children must have a strong beginning to ensure a bold life of dignity and equality for all.

The sudden removal of "Condition" from search criteria as a REQUIRED field has caused many problems for the GCAR/ENYRMLS membership and our customers. It is also taking away from our power as real estate agents in an industry that is being inundated by the rapid growth of search engines like Zillow and Realtor.com. The MLS needs to bring back "Condition" as a REQUIRED field, reinstate the conditions that have been removed from prior sales so they can be used as comparable sales, and also provide a brief training on how to properly label listings and show sellers the definition of the conditions they sign-off on in the "data input form," possibly in a required GCAR course, or at the broker level. This needs to happen as soon as possible to prevent these ongoing problems of making agents look unprofessional to customers who expect more from their agent's searches for buying AND selling than what third-party search sources already provide.

Current and future Howard University film students deserve better technical facilities and equipment management instead of the dysfunction and mismanagement that exists now. The grievous and prolonged mismanagement of the tech center has caused some students, and possibly even some faculty, to leave the film program. We are the only HBCU with graduate film program in the nation; we have produced some of the most highly trained and acclaimed black filmmakers in the world - help Howard film students advance that legacy and sign this petition.

As our knowledge and research has evolved to show that learning is limited by "test-prep" and constrained by the curriculum of "what is on the test", we want to push for a change that will allow for more students to prosper. We want to encourage creativity as well as diverse learning for younger populations, and currently, that is not what is happening.

Most seniors live on fix income. And find it hard to pay for insurance and medications food and heat and housing. Affordable insurance plans to cover the other twenty percent that medicare does not is needed.

I've spent numerous holidays away from home in far away countries. I know the toll it takes on our men and women in uniform to fight in a war and be away from their families, especially over the holidays. Every other president who served during wartime has shown our deployed forces respect by visiting them. If the president of the United States asks our military to fight these wars, he needs to at least visit them to show support. President Trump has said he'd "gladly" visit them "sometime soon." Let's hold him to that and show that he needs to make our military members and veterans a top priority.

I am a UNC Alumna, an NC tax payer, an Orange County resident, and a committed anti-racist organizer. Enough is enough with the "Lost Cause" narrative that cemented the Jim Crow era. Silent Sam is gone, no resources should be wasted on enshrining the statue.

Countless working Americans and families with young children are unable to exercise their right to vote on election day due to long lines and limited polling hours. By making election day a federal holiday we can help make it possible for Americans to participate in and celebrate our nation's cherished democracy.

I want electronic voting machines and optical scan vote counting machines to be replaced by hand counted paper ballots because both can be hacked. Since the introduction of electronic voting machines there have been many elections where the official winner did not win the exit polls. This discrepancy has always favored the Republican candidate and is called the "red shift". Germany uses hand counted paper ballots and the results are announced on election night based on exit polls, which have never been off by more than 1/2 a percent from the final count. We need to send this petition to the secretaries of state in all states and also to Congress so we can get uniform election rules and procedures in all states.