To the Cass 23: An Apology for our Injustice by PEPP Staff and PEPP Board Leaders, Moorhead

To the Cass 23: An Apology for our Injustice

To the Editor:

Dear Fellow Community Members:

We are writing to you on behalf of the People Escaping Poverty Project (PEPP). PEPP is a local NGO that is composed of a collective of people and organizations that focus on social and racial justice, and we believe in uniting our community voices to work collectively to improve our quality of life and to strategically challenge the power dynamics of systems and institutions.

PEPP has been following the Cass 23’s situation and we are ashamed that our government is ignoring the injustice done to them. We must apologize for the lack of effort and outrage that our community should be showing about the conditions that have led to their detainment. We have a lot of work to do to move this community towards valuing all people’s human rights.

Unfortunately, while our youth fill the dome with nonperishable food to assist with the major issue of hunger in this community, many more families will become hungry, unemployed and cast into a river of poverty.

Our community is focused on charity and helping temporary organizations through short-term efforts without changing the systems and the policies that have led to our human service injustices. The Cass 23 are victims of this short-term nearsightedness. Again, please accept our apology for your mistreatment and oppression by the United States Government.

If there is anything we can do as a community, please direct us. We can use the PEPP website to post letters, requests, stories, communications or whatever you would like to get your message out. One thing we have in this country is a constitutional protection of free speech.

We will start by example and send this letter to other organizations and challenge them to do their part so you can have a chance at justice. We will also be posting this letter and link it to information already published around your encounter.

We want to turn our community’s attention towards your story and participate in a strategy that will impact the issues that have led to your imprisonment. In order to do that, we need your stories and permission to publish them on our web site.

Please feel FREE to contact PEPP with your response. We understand that your resources and contact with the general population are limited. We write this letter in the hopes that it will find you, to let you know that our hopes and thoughts are with you, and to let you know that you are not alone.

Truly Yours,
PEPP Staff and PEPP Board Leaders
Moorhead