Hello everyone! My name is Nick Shepard. My good friend Neil Pople and I are starting an organization that we’re calling “Ripples of Hope,” and we wanted to introduce ourselves and tell you what we're all
about.
On June 6th, 1966 Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He said:
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
This is the ideal that we seek to emulate. We cannot solve all of the world's ills, but we can do our part; and in doing so, we can make a positive change in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.
Neil and I worked together on a Congressional campaign this past year. Our experience on the campaign trail brought our attention to an ongoing tragedy that is taking place on what is technically American soil.
Like Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a U.S. territory. It is comprised of a number of tiny Islands in the Pacific near Guam. The largest of these islands is Saipan.
The tragedy that we seek to address is the disturbing system of human rights abuses that can be found in the CNMI: sweatshops, sex slavery (often involving minors), and forced abortions. These have been well documented by 20/20, government reports, Congressman George Miller, and by dengre here on Daily Kos. Despite this, the problems continue.
Neil mentioned one day back in October that after the election he would like to start a non-profit organization. He said the first issue he'd like to work on is the CNMI human rights abuses. I immediately signed on to help.
So here we are. A couple of guys in their 20's trying to create ripples of change in the world. It won't be easy, but we never expected it to be. As a startup nonprofit we have, quite literally, no money. The
organization is still in its most basic stages. We still need to file as a non-profit, put together an advisory board, and build our website. At some point (hopefully soon) we plan to start raising money and beginning
our work in earnest: raising awareness of the issue and doing whatever else we can to help the women and children in the CNMI. But we wanted to stop by and introduce ourselves because while we work on these things, the women on Saipan are still living in Hell.
Even though we are not fully up and running yet, everyone else can start helping out right away. We hope that you will take the time to educate yourselves about CNMI and help spread the word to other people
that you know. The most effective way to address the issue is to force our government to act. Because the CNMI is a U.S. territory, the United States Congress has ultimate authority over the islands. It can pass legislation to help stop the abuses but has thus far been unwilling to do so. A great first step would be for everyone who reads this to write to Congress and ask them to look into the issue.
Thank you for you time and your help. You can reach us at ripplesofhope00@gmail.com with any comments, questions, suggestions, etc. All are appreciated.
***A similar introduction post has been made over at RedState.com. We are interested in working with people of all political persuasions that recognize the problems in the CNMI and would like to do something about them.***