“Division is the Goal of those who do not seek change…”
~CPR Founder Anthony Mejia
Who We Are
CPR recognizes the implied social contract (and laws) that every person must abide by within the United States, namely, the innate expectation of labor and civil obedience in exchange for safety, comfort, and Stability. We aim to bridge gaps in knowledge and resources between civilian entities, specifically those burdened by the government's inability to uphold its end of the social civility contract.
Protection
CPR is a commitment to protection through education to our communities. CPR believes that the biggest threats to our communities now are inaction from our elected local officials when it comes to curbing the onslaught of malicious action from this federal administration to continue unopposed. We believe the best defense is a combination of education, community advocacy, and direct political action at the state and local level.
The freedoms we enjoy today are hard-fought ones, from the 8-hour workday to women’s suffrage, it has taken generations to bring forward a standard of decency for the American people. Now it will take generational work to restore our rights lost and build the foundation for a system of governance unable and unwilling to see those rights disturbed in such a way again.
Dangers We Face Today
While the Trump administration has advanced authoritarian policies at an alarming rate, CPR also recognizes that the systems that allowed this form of government to fester have failed to protect and codify our rights for several generations. It is a lack of a basic safety net, the lack of legal protections, and seemingly no political will for change that has created the atmosphere of fear that earns totalitarian leaders unending loyalty. CPR intends to correct the course and begin local work that will be the roots of long-term sustainability. We aim to stem the dangers facing our at-risk populations by being a bulwark against harmful policy while simultaneously enacting political will to enshrine our rights and privileges into law.
CPR’s roots come from community work focused on immigrant/bilingual advocacy, but it aims to expand this type of working model to the full range of working-class people within the United States. It is in the immigrant communities that we see the indicators of what a fascist future looks like. Workplace raids, identity checkpoints, isolation, classification, and othering are all aspects of oppressive government placed on a population of people already regularly disenfranchised. The lack of legal status or protections allows these oppressions on certain populations and not others. CPR recognizes the injustice already done to these communities and the need to stem these practices for the safety of all civilian populations, not just in the United States but the world over.
Focused Political Action
CPR maintains that the most effective way to gain political will is through direct representation. While the federal government continues to make sweeping legislation, the enforcement of these harmful policies falls to the local level. Our mayors and city councils have the power to enact change, but lack the political will to do so. CPR plans to take a mutual aid approach in bringing legislative work to elected officials. Avenues for change through city ordinances and public votes are available to us, but as individuals, we are limited in our capacities. By approaching public works as mutual aid, CPR will be able to bring together like-minded individuals to draft, advocate for, and present popular legislation to elected officials in forums and person. A collaborative effort is the guiding force behind the CPR project, as the current political climate evolves, so too will CPR’s labor efforts, but the end goal remains the same.
A universal basis of care and legal protections for all people residing within the United States, regardless of age, race, religion, creed, sex, gender identity, nationality, residency status, physical/mental ability, or wealth.
CPR draws from history from marginalized and targeted communities and uses that extensive knowledge now to educate growing populations of disenfranchised people. It’s through this generational community network that the most damage done by federal measures can be mitigated, but more over, systems of change can begin to take hold within American culture
WNC Post-Helene
In the wake of the 2024 election disaster, relief for WNC ( not to mention several other disaster sites nationwide) has fallen to the wayside. The federal government has decided not to extend the period for federal reimbursement for recovery aid, instead choosing to place the cost on the state and its residents. This falls in line with the current administration’s push for the dismantlement of federal aid programs; unsurprisingly, the 11th district representative Chuck Edwards (R), has fallen in line, choosing not to fight the decision.
WNCs’ communities have largely banded together post-Helene and continue to build self-supportive systems of aid. These efforts can only be so effective without further support from local leaders. The past 8 months, at the time of writing, Local community leaders, advocacy groups, and individuals have petitioned the Asheville city council to take proactive measures in disaster relief and reconstruction, only to be met with delays and non-answers.
We have had to take community care into our own hands, and naturally, we reach out to our leaders to advocate for us when we have reached the limit of our capabilities. Now, like most Americans, we find our leaders in a gridlock of political theater, A representative who has chosen to refuse aid for political reasons, and a city council that works in polite tandem with that representative and his party, who are acting more and more openly hostile to their communities.
Engines of Change
The Following is an excerpt from the Asheville city charter
Article I. Sec. 3. Authority to levy and collect privilege taxes.
“In addition to the other subjects listed for taxation in said city, the council thereof may levy, and cause to be laid, taxes on all trades, occupations, business and amusements, by whatsoever name called, the amount of which, when laid, shall be collected by the city manager of said city immediately, and if the same be not paid on demand they may be recovered by suit or by seizure and sale of the articles on which they were severally imposed or of any other property of the owner in said County of Buncombe, in the same manner as personal property is sold for taxes.”
This single section within the Asheville city charter revileves the extent of power one local municipality holds. Asheville has prided itself on tourism indisdy and the luxary accomadiations with asheville even being home to the single largest privately owned home in the United states. It has been our deligient labor that have fueled these blast furnaces of industry. Now 8 months post disater, radical change has gripped this nation leaving the most vulnerable essentially abandoned business as ussaly politics will not suffice.
CPR along with community allys is asking The Asheville City council and mayor to conduct radical action for the benefit of our people, New taxes on large corporate entities to fund disater relief and community protection efforts in opposition to federal wishes IS dangerous in this case to the careers in benefits of the six sitting members of the council; but doing nothing and waiting on help from a government more focused on the detention and brutal deportaion of migrants is only dangerous to the rest of the American population.