What you can do

A message from Van Jones 16

Van Jones sent this message out to friends and supporters on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Dear Friends:

My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. I resigned from the White House on Sept. 6, and I have remained silent since then—in keeping with my promise not to be a distraction during a key moment in the Obama Presidency.

Over the past several days, however, many people have been asking how they can help and what they can do.

The main thing is this: please do everything you can to support both President Obama and the green jobs movement. Winning real change is ultimately the best response to these kinds of smear campaigns.

I ask everyone to:

1. Support President Obama’s efforts to fix our nation’s health care, energy and education systems. His victory last fall did not represent the “finish line” in the fight to renew America; his election was just the “starting line.” This autumn, it is time to make history again—with victories on health care and clean energy.

2. Sign up to support groups that are working for green jobs.

As others seek to vilify or marginalize the movement for a clean energy economy, the leading groups deserve increased support. This is the year to ensure that the clean energy transformation creates good job opportunities for everyone in America.

3. Spread the green jobs gospel. The ideas and ideals of the green jobs movement are grounded in fundamental American values—innovation, entrepreneurship, and equal opportunity. My true thoughts can be found in my book: The Green Collar Economy. Check it out from the library—or order a copy and share it with a friend. See for yourself why clean energy and green jobs are good for our country.

4. Stay connected and speak up for me via your favorite blogs (e.g., Huffington Post, Grist, Jack & Jill, etc.), on message boards and all of your favorite social networking platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Supporters have set up a couple of them, to help you stay engaged, including: I Stand With Van Jones and I Love Van Jones.

In due course, I will be offering my perspective on what has happened—including correcting the record about false charges. In the meantime, I must get my family affairs in order and sort through numerous offers and options.

I want to be clear that I have nothing but love and admiration for President Obama and the entire administration. White House staffers are there to serve and support the President, not the other way around. At this critical moment in history, I could not in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. The White House needs all its hands on deck, fighting for the future.

Of course, some supporters actually think I will be more effective on the “outside.” Maybe so. But those ideas always remind me of that old canard about Winston Churchill. After he lost a hard-fought election, a friend told him: “Winston, this really is just a blessing in disguise.” Churchill quipped: “Damned good disguise.” I can certainly relate to that sentiment right now. :)

Nonetheless, we must keep moving forward. Let’s continue our work to make an America as good as its promise. These are historic times. And we have a lot more history to make.

Sincerely,

Van Jones

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  1. gonzone Posted 11:58 am
    16 Sep 2009

    Thank you sir for all your hard work and kind words.We certainly have our work cut out for us on environmental issues.

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  2. Chris McMasters's avatar

    Chris McMasters Posted 12:19 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Thank you Van. Thank you.You are an inspiration and a true leader for the greater good. It is good to know there are people like you in the world.

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  3. sakenny Posted 12:52 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Mr. Jones, I applaud and celebrate your efforts to foster a green collar economy.  My husband recently completed solar engineering and installation training, and is looking forward to becoming a green collar worker, which is more possible now thanks to your good deeds.  I am hopeful for a sustainable nation and world knowing leaders like you are working to make that a reality.  Many, MANY thanks.

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  4. davan7 Posted 1:23 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Mr Jones, the level of class you have shown throughout this travesty should embarass your detractors, not that it will.  It's a cliche to say that the best revenge is living well, but I am certain that you will. Thank you for your service and your words of encouragement.

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  5. Baby Boomer Posted 1:27 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Thank you for all your work and activism, and thank you for courage and strength.  We should all support our President or the future looks bleak.

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  6. markis Posted 2:01 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Van - I applaud your class and sacrifice through this ordeal.  You are one of a kind. 

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  7. peacefuljeff's avatar

    peacefuljeff Posted 6:20 pm
    16 Sep 2009

    Keep the faith, Van, you'll land on your feet, and we'll all be better off!

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  8. catlover Posted 1:05 am
    17 Sep 2009

     I think it is a shame for Van Jones to tell people to support Obama when Obama is pushing in favor of the insurance & drug companies and in favor of more dirty coal and starting nuclear power plant construction which will endanger our planet even more than it is right now.  This is offensive in my opinion to support Obama when he doesn't support the people.  Where was Obama when Beck was slandering Jones???  Apparently, unless you are a friend of the corporate world...like Hillary Clinton and Rham Immanuel....you will get taken down and Obama will stand aside and let the hawks feast on the honest/reputable people. 

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    1. nancybou13 Posted 2:56 pm
      17 Sep 2009

      Sorry to say that although I would love to support Van Jones, I have to agree with the comment that Obama is not standing up for what is right on the wealth transfer to insurance companies which he is calling health care reform, on the wealth transfer which was the bank bailout, and he's definitely not doing enough on green jobs. Plus he won't stand up to the fanatics on the right and the neo-liberals in his own administration.The racists and hate mongers who would at best like to see him fail and at worst would like to see him dead are the ones he appeases, while he throws Van Jones to the jackals.  It makes no sense to me.
      It appears the only Change we're going to get from Obama is the Change from the promise of his campaign to the reality of another corporate sell-out.
      He's no FDR - that's the sad truth.Nancy

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      1. catlover Posted 4:58 pm
        17 Sep 2009

        Thanks Nancy...Ugh...I just wonder what these followers of Obama and Jones get out of being drones and YES MEN. I have been a huge fan of Ralph Nader's for a long time...but you know...I wouldn't cut him any slack if he did a 180 and did something that was against my values certainly if gains were going to be made for a few over the many who would lose out.

        Loyalty is for dogs....not people!!! Reminds me of those loyal conservatives who worked under Nixon and took a fall for that a-hole. Not me.

        Peace!! mindy

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  9. violencebegetsviolence Posted 6:40 am
    17 Sep 2009

    Van Jones loves Obama.... I had dinner with two pilots the other day.
    They calculated how much jet fuel is needed to send two Humvees to
    Afghanistan. Their calculation: around 100,000 gallons. They kept doing
    the math (one of them was actually a jet mechanic) and that's about the
    round trip figure they came up with. Any pilots out there want to correct this? And Van Jones loves Obama. And Van
    Jones calls himself an environmentalist. You have to laugh, I suppose,
    at the idiocy that's taken over this country. Put an elite black man in
    power who throws in an occasional "folks" and God knows the slobbering
    love people will heap on him whilst he's perpetrating a racial pogrom against the invisible poor on the other side of the world using Bush's very own defense secretary and top command. Try to calculate the carbon footprint of Obama's massacre. (Hardly want to call killing semi-illiterates via Hellfire missiles a war). Yes, we have to stand behind him, all right.

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  10. F James Handley Posted 7:15 am
    17 Sep 2009

    Van,
    Glad you're determined to keep the focus on green jobs and building a low carbon economy. Have you considered supporting a revenue-neutral carbon tax?  A broad (bipartisan) consensus of economists and policy analysts (and a growing coalition of environmental activists) conclude it's by far the most effective and fair policy to stimulate both private and public sector investment and jobs in a green economy while pumping revenue back to all households -- especially benefitting low and middle income families.  For more information, visit the Carbon Tax Center.  Far better to level the playing field with a pricing system promoting alternatives (jobs building wind, solar and mass transit) and conservation (jobs building and retrofitting houses, buildings and factories) than to rely on a patchwork of government programs whose funding couldn't possibly match the private sector and would vary every year. Your firing (ostensibly) for signing a petition calling for investigation of 9-11 strikes me as absurd.  In "The Man Who Knew," (2002) PBS showed how the Bush Administration pulled FBI anti-terrorism specialist John O'Neill off the trail of Al Qaeda.  There's no question of their responsibility.  Al Franken (and his team of Harvard researchers) also documented Bush administration malfeasance that lead to the 9-11 attacks in his book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them".  Nobody's questioning Franken's bona fides.  But none of this can be news to you.To me, and probably many others, your departure leaves a lot of unanswered questions.  My sense is that you're a hero and that your full story hasn't yet been told. Van fan,James Handley

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  11. davescott Posted 10:32 am
    17 Sep 2009

    Thanks for an upbeat, practical and inspiring message.

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  12. BHGINFL Posted 11:02 am
    17 Sep 2009

    Van,With this open letter to the public, you have demonstrated that you are a class act, quite undeserving of the charges and comments that you have been subjected to.  Let's see what they can come up with regarding this letter in which you DO NOT lower yourself to their level of pettiness.  I am proud to be a "fan". 

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  13. JoyKing Posted 6:56 am
    18 Sep 2009

    Hi. I saw you, Mr. Jones, at PowerShift in 2007. I read your book and I applaud all that you do for the country and the environment. There is a company in Jacksonville FL that is coupling solar installations with green jobs, plus they are helping the people on the street get trained in solar installations on houses and businesses. I do my best to promote solar parking lots. I believe that they will enhance the shift to how we generate electricity in this country. They will provide community-sustained power and community jobs across the nation. Using GIS skills, I analyzed the paved parking in Greensboro NC. That 10.27 square miles of paved parking has the capacity to generate electricity for twice the residential population when covered with solar panels. I will be doing this type of GIS analysis on other parcel data as I collect it and will provide the results on my blog: putalidonitsolarparkinglots.blogspot.com

    Sure will appreciate your joining this movement! With your connections, you will be gratefully appreciated by getting community colleges to offer solar installation classes. There are a few in CA, and one in NYC that I know of now. Also in the midwest. Please help us on the east coast - what with the amount of imperviousness we have, it's a good place to get the paradigm shift going. Plus we will appreciate your assistance in getting the net metering regulations changed. See votesolar.org's Freeing the Grid report for more on that subject. Also, if you know of a good structural engineer - we do have to ensure these structures will stand up to hurricane-strength winds. The solar parking lots are a viable way to generate the power we need, especially with the thin-film photovoltaics coming out (we have a thin-film plant here in NC, not up as of just yet, almost though!).

    The electricity utilities are raising rates again here in NC. Duke Energy is going after an 18% residential rate hike. That comes immediately after a statewide rate increase of 4.5% for all types of customers. Many people cannot afford this. Many elderly folks will be in trouble. Please do all you can to get more money into solar so as to lower the costs and have it affordable to everyone. We have the technology to generate electricity in the community. We do not need any more coal plants. Please put your energies into this area. Thank you.

    Joy

    ps - the health care reform, it's all a distraction of the masses, isn't it?

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  14. Oaktown Russkie Posted 7:00 pm
    21 Sep 2009

    Dear Van,

    I was saddened to hear about your resignation. I was enjoying a great Labor Day weekend and the news was a shock.

    While I recognize you could have done a lot of good in your capacity in the White House, I hope that you can continue your work here in Oakland. There are a number of companies locating in Oakland and we have the right mix of labor (hungry for jobs), capital and brains (just down the road from Cal...) to prove your theories. We will welcome you home, should you decide to come back.

    Carl
    Oakland, CA

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