Washington, DC
April 20, 2007

Conference President Doug Palmer, as our spokesperson, has issued three statements of the past week concerning three issues that still challenge us – climate protection, race relations and communications and that issue that makes us different than other nations, gun violence.

In less than one week in this April of 2007, we have been called upon and Mayor Palmer has responded.

First, the good news – less than three months have passed since President Palmer stood before you and America in January and called for Congress and President Bush to support federal legislation providing new federal funding directly to mayors, county executives and governors for the purpose of supporting initiatives in cities, counties and states that will help us continue to lead the way in strengthening our energy independence and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

We are pleased to report that thanks to so many of you, now more than 460, who have signed our Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, we are delivering for you. It started with a few, led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and it’s all about us working together to save and protect our home, the planet Earth.

Signing on to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement was the first step. This week’s Senate Bill 1115 provides specific language supporting our efforts. Mayor Palmer said, “This new legislation is a giant step forward in bringing additional resources to bear on this monumental challenge before our nation and our planet.” He is so right and your actions supporting our new Mayors Climate Protection Center and our “green team” here at the USCM headquarters will give us the political power we need to quit talking, preaching, and pondering and instead, like we always have done – do something to protect our nation and world from harm. It has been said of us, we are not a “think tank;” we are a “do tank.” So we are doing it and let’s work together to meet the goals we have set.

Sincere thanks and appreciation was expressed to two great Senators and former mayors who pushed the legislation forward, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. And we thank Senate Energy Chair New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman, who insisted that the new energy measure, S. 1115, has the specific language we need to make it happen.

Stay tuned. We are on our way to making our 10-Point Plan a reality. We thank Mayor Palmer for supporting all of you who told us last January what we need from Washington. Let’s urge Congress to pass S. 1115 now and send it to President Bush now for signature. We are turning America around on this issue. It’s coming from where we all live, in our cities, our counties and our states. This is our moment. This is our opportunity and moral responsibility to move forward to save our plant for those that come after us. Join with us. Sign up! Act now! Support Senate Bill 1115 and let’s get the job done.

Awful remarks made by television and radio star Don Imus about some most outstanding young college women on the Rutgers basketball team have infuriated our nation and caused Mr. Imus to be fired.

It’s all about race relations and communications, so Conference President Palmer, last week before a huge luncheon of mayors at the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, decided he should go off script a bit and get out there on this issue. Later we captured his remarks via video and we released a national statement that is covered in this edition.

What Mayor Palmer said is that while he is definitely bothered by Imus’ remarks, he is equally concerned that the Imus remarks seem to be causing a “racial chasm” in America. Mayor Palmer said that while it is wrong for a white man to use offensive language, “We cannot pretend that it isn’t also wrong for a black man to use the ‘N’ word, the ‘B’ word or any other offensive language. No one has the right, regardless of the color of their skin to sling sexually biased or racist insults.” Palmer wants talks with the FCC, MTV, VH1 and BET about what is being played on our airwaves. He says children can’t watch television anymore because of the “glorified violence, sexually-suggestive clothing and vile language.”

No doubt this challenge will be before us for the days and months ahead. It seems recently all too often public persons from all sectors blurt out harmful racial things. Mayor Palmer called it like it is last week at the New Jersey Conference of Mayors. He got a standing ovation that didn’t stop with the lunch. The response afterwards has been most positive. Mayors are role models for our young people and Mayor Palmer will continue to discuss this issue of race relations and communications as we Americans of 2007 in this new century learn to be more civil, and yes find that fine line in this great and most diverse nation to talk and celebrate our diversity and cultures and at the same time not hurt one another when we talk of one another in public and private conversations.

How many more will be killed before Congress and the President act on helping mayors and police chiefs stop the rise of crime and violence on the upswing and provide more common sense laws to protect our children and others from illegal gun sales and activity? The gun lobby scares the political hell out of everybody. The mayors and police chiefs have stood up on this issue since 1968 when Senator Robert Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King were shot dead.

The government spends so much money and time worrying about four ounce bottles of shampoo on an airplane but nothing, yes nothing, was being done by Congress and the President to help us stop crime and violence until this new Congress came to town.

Conference President Palmer said in our statement that just as we united against the terrorists after 9/11, we must now act to have common sense gun safety legislation and more resources to help our police chiefs and the men and women in our police departments do their job.

We mourn with heavy hearts the loss of so many of our innocent citizens at Virginia Tech. Mayor Palmer is saying let’s at least do something in their memory. It will take political courage even with the Virginia Tech massacre. Mayors and police chiefs have the courage. We just need some help. And since President Clinton left town, on this issue of crime and violence, Washington has been in denial and has caused a rise of crime and gun violence by cutting our resources and wiping out gains we made in the 1990s in providing a safer place for us to live and work.

The nation’s mayors know that Virginia Tech could have happened to them, but many in the Congress and the White House are in denial and are scaredy cats and cowards of the gun lobby. Surely to God, Virginia Tech will wake them up but don’t count on it. That’s why we appreciate what President Palmer said this week. And the mayors and the police chiefs will continue to do our best to make our nation safer. We are not going to stop. We can’t. We have no choice.