From 1933 to 1942, under the Roosevelt administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) demonstrated there was no conflict between preserving the environment and creating jobs. During the Great Depression, many American families were saved from starvation and homelessness by their hard work and $25 sent home in a monthly allotment.

The mission of CCC-Initiative is to bring back this great program here and worldwide. The original CCC generated 3.5 million jobs, planted more than four billion trees and jump-started our middle class. The lesson of Hurricane Sandy is clear: Mother Nature is nonpartisan and could take out red or blue states with various weather events in the future. The new CCC will be on duty for disaster prevention as well as for disaster relief.

A bill in Congress, HR 494, calls for renewing a job-creation program to invest and put to work young unemployed and underemployed civilians and military veterans on useful public works projects aimed at safeguarding natural resources and developing new transportation and infrastructure. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, Ohio has 30 co-sponsors and two of them are from Florida, Reps. Alcee Hastings and Kathy Castor.

Urge your congressional representative to vote for the new 21st Century CCC Act in 2013. Otherwise, America, it is not going to get better.

Jay Alexander, president, CCC-Initiative, Inc., St. Petersburg