PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Williamson County Stands for The Contributor and the First Amendment
  1. Signatures
    78 out of 2,000
    Petitioning
    1. 8th District, Williamson County Commissioner (+ 13 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • 8th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Greg Davis)
      • Brentwood Commissioner (Jill Burgin)
      • 5th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Tommy Little)
      • Brentwood Commissioner (Betsy Crossley)
      • 8th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Jack Walton)
      • 6th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Arlene Cooke)
      • Mayor of Brentwood (Paul L. Webb)
      • Brentwood Commissioner (Anne Dunn)
      • Brentwood Commissioner (Rhea E. Little, III)
      • 6th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Jeff Ford)
      • Brentwood Commissioner (Regina Smithson)
      • 7th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Bert Chalfant)
      • Vice-Mayor of Brentwood (Rod Freeman)
      • 5th District, Williamson County Commissioner (Lewis Green, Jr.)
  2. Created By
    The Contributor
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

 

Earlier this year, seven newspaper vendors received citations for selling The Contributor on the sidewalks of Brentwood, Tenn. These vendors received the citations under a local Brentwood ordinance that prohibits the selling of any goods or services on a Brentwood sidewalk.

The City of Brentwood has created unconstitutional and repressive restrictions that violate The Contributor's First Amendment rights to sell its paper and share its message. ACLU-TN and The Contributor's supporters will stand in defense of those rights.

Through face to face interactions between customers and vendors, street newspapers are able to accomplish multiple aims. Community is created between customers and vendors, thus changing perspectives on homelessness. Secondly, street newspapers provide a flexible source of income, from which, approximately 1/3 of The Contributor's vendors are able to obtain housing within 3 months of selling the paper.

We are calling for Williamson County and the City of Brentwood officials to allow The Contributor's vendors the freedom to sell on public sidewalks to customers passing by on foot & in their vehicle, because this is what makes earning a living in various areas of Davidson and Williamson County feasible.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Support The Contributor and the First Amendment

Greetings

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Williamson County & the City of Brentwood officials.

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Support The Contributor and the First Amendment


Please support The Contributor's vendors' freedom to sell Nashville's street newspaper from public sidewalks to customers on foot & in their vehicles. I have pledged with other Nashvillian's to stand for this cause. Further, by signing below, I am urging you to support The Contributor's vendors as they earn a dignified and flexible source of income.

Standing throughout the greater Nashville area, are more than 400 vendors representing The Contributor, whose aim is to restore dignity and hope to those experiencing homelessness by: first, providing community members who have experienced homelessness with job skills, meaningful work, and earned income; and secondly, by educating the community at large about the issue of homelessness, ultimately decreasing discrimination against homeless persons.

Through face to face interactions between customers and vendors, street newspapers are able to accomplish multiple aims. Community is created between customers and vendors, thus changing perspectives on homelessness. Secondly, street newspapers provide a flexible source of income, from which, approximately 1/3 of The Contributor's vendors are able to obtain housing within 3 months of selling the paper.

The ability to sell on public sidewalks to customers passing by on foot and in their vehicle, is what makes earning a living in various areas of Davidson and Williamson County feasible.

Please support this petition. As Nashville's street newspaper and the nation's leading street newspaper, we can send the message not only to our homeless and formerly homeless neighbors, but to the nation, that Middle Tennessee supports our most vulnerable community members' freedom to earn a dignified living and NOT be left to charity and chance.

Know that your action brings renewed strength and possibility to our newspaper vendors throughout the greater Nashville area while they stand as daily witnesses to Nashville's acceptance or denial of homelessness, and the hard work it takes to add a 'formerly' in their lives.

Respectively,

A Williamson County Resident who stands alongside The Contributors' vendors

[Your name]

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