Meanwhile, an NC Republican demands, “Are we going to have a history lesson or stay relevant’ to more regressive laws she wants passed. Dream? What dream?
August 28th marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and North Carolina’s?Taking the Dream Home! Forward Together Movement?definitely plans on heeding Dr. King’s message to “go home and organize.” While citizens from across the U.S. march on Washington, D.C. and hear a speech from President Barack Obama on?this historic occasion, North Carolinians will take matters into their hands by “taking the dream home.” According to their?facebook page, they’re planning rallies in each of the state’s 13 districts:
[to] make sure that the extremists who passed the devastating legislation in the NC General Assembly will have to face an educated citizenry, who will not allow them to lie and say they governed for the good of the whole. Across the state, people will know that their ultra-conservative right wing legislators passed legislation that is extreme, immoral and a violation of our deepest moral and constitutional values.
Since April, men, women, and even children have been uniting for weekly?Moral Monday?protests at the state Capitol to fight for economic, environmental, and social justice in lieu of current conservative legislation in North Carolina.? According to the Advancement Project, the legislation has attacked low-income citizens by cutting the earned income tax credit for over 900,000 people, rejected federal funding that would expand Medicaid to those in need and cannot afford private health care,? and to top it off like that was not enough, they are attacking the citizen’s rights to vote.
Until now Moral Monday has taken place primarily in Raleigh, N.C. Despite the?930 arrests?this movement has endured so far, it has plans to spread across the State. On Monday August 19th, the protestors will be in Charlotte, but it is the anniversary of Dr. King’s speech when the NAACP, along with other liberal groups, of North Carolina will rise up and rally at once in the state’s 13 congressional districts.
Fight Back! News?reported that 5,000 turned out for a June 24 rally in Raleigh, and the?Asheville Citizen Times?reports similar numbers for an August 6 event in Asheville.
In an August 5th video from Rev. Dr. Barber, he has this to say about atrocity on North Carolinians voting rights:
“The bottom line is: to even be rolling back voting rights in the 21st century, 50 years after the March on Washington, is just so demeaning and wrong, it’s so hard to even say the words out of your mouth”
This could not be any more further from the truth.? There were thousands of Americans who fought for this country’s equality and right to vote during the civil rights movement, so for legislation to take back, or even limit those rights, is astonishing and repulsive.? Yet, this doesn’t stop one republican representative, Sarah Stevens, from expressing her disregard to the efforts and progress of the past:
“Are we going to have a history lesson or are we going to stay relevant to the bill?”
Here’s the video:
Photo from Fight Back! News.
edited/published by eap
