Recognizing Earth Day in Harlem

RECOGNIZING EARTH DAY IN HARLEM -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 05, 2005)

SPEECH OF
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2005

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and recognition of Earth Day events in Harlem, New York, and to recognize the dedication of advocates of environmental justice. This year, Harlem will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Earth Day-a day designed to raise our collective awareness of the challenges facing our environmental and global communities.

In the first Earth Day celebration, the Nation directed its attention to the issues of the environment and ways to ensuring its protection for years to come. Congress adjourned-on a Wednesday-for the day to allow Members to hear from their constituents. Roughly 20 million Americans united to express their collective demand for a safer, cleaner, and healthier global community. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency followed shortly after that momentous day. These were true efforts, not in name alone, to provide important and needed protections to our environment and to make our communities safe, clean, and healthy.

This year, Harlem will focus on the environmental problems of communities of color. West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc (WE ACT) is a non-profit grassroots environmental group that has worked to improve environmental quality and to address equity and justice in environmental issues for predominately African-American and Latino communities. For the last 7 years, they have worked to raise community awareness of environmental hazards, to identify and research ecological threats to minority communities, and to attain governmental policies to protect local communities.

As part of their Earth Day celebrations, WE ACT will honor six luminaries in the field of environmental justice: Alphonse Fletcher, the chairman of Fletcher Asset Management; Dr. Kenneth Olden, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIEHS); Dr. Joseph Graziano from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University; Lucille McEwen, Esq., president and CEO of Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement; Dr. Rafael Lantigua, associate director of General Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital; and Full Spectrum Building and Development, Inc., a Harlem-based development firm that built the first green building in Harlem. These individuals will be awarded WE ACT for Environmental Justice Awards for making "substantial inroads to preserve natural and built environment, and improve environmental health in communities of color." They will be honored for their hard work in ensuring that minority communities are safe, clean, and healthy communities.

Fellow Members of Congress, please join me in thanking WE ACT for its hard work in organizing Earth Day activities in Harlem, New York. This is a significant day in American history and to our future. We must do more to truly protect our environment from the threats of pollution, industrial contamination, and abuse. We must find a balance that will protect our nature, the environment, and our communities.

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