2014's Moral March on Raleigh
Saturday morning, February 14th, will witness the
9th annual Moral March on Raleigh and People's Assembly, organized as always by North Carolina's remarkable chapter of the NAACP and its inspiring leader,
Rev. Dr. William Barber. From its humble beginning as a rally of a few hundred hardy souls in 2007, the March on Raleigh has grown to an attendance variously estimated from 25,000 to 80,000 last year.
Why do we march? Because North Carolina is a purple soul struggling to be reborn from a (temporarily) bright red body. I invite you to learn more, below the fold.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Tarheel State by a ratio of 1.4-to-1, but more than a few of these are 'legacy' dixiecrats, and unaffiliated voters' ranks are swelling year by year, soon to outnumber either party. African Americans comprise 22% of the population (compared to 13% nationwide), but union membership among wage and salary workers is the lowest among the 50 states, at just 1.9% (compared to 11.1% nationwide).
Just how close things stand today in NC is nicely illustrated by recent Presidential elections, where, in 2008, the Obama/Biden ticket won the state by a razor-thin margin of just 14,000 votes, while in 2012 it lost by 92,000 (2% of all votes cast). In short, nowadays pretty much every election year in North Carolina is a crap-shoot, capable of going either way...or would be, anyway, if it weren't for the notorious inability of Democrats under the age of 50 to show up at the polls in mid-term elections.
In 2010, for the first time since 1870, Republicans captured a majority of seats in both houses of the state's General Assembly, masterminded by wealthy conservative businessman Art Pope, who employed a network of organizations under his personal control to target Democrats in strategic legislative districts with untold millions in campaign spending. His success set the stage for brazen gerrymandering during 2011 redistricting, in turn further consolidating Republicans' stranglehold on the Assembly.
With the governorship and the Assembly under their control, and with a wise understanding that this cannot last, NC Republicans have wasted no time in their efforts to turn North Carolina into a Tea Party utopia. Just a few of their recent successes include:
- Passed large tax cuts for the rich and corporations, paid for by new taxes on the poor, the old, the young, and the middle class. In 2013 the governor and Assembly replaced the state's previously progressive income tax structure (6%/7%/7.5%) with a flat tax of 5.8%, reduced the corporate income tax by 28%, and repealed the estate tax. In exchange it did away with both the earned income tax credit and the deduction on retirement income, imposed new sales taxes on college dining halls, and substantially raised the sales tax rates on electricity and modular home sales.
- Made abortions even more difficult. A portion of a 2011 law (recently overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) required a women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound image of the fetus displayed and described to her by her physician. Other portions of this law, and others, still stand, imposing mandatory delays and banning abortion coverage from some health insurance policies.
- Repealed the state's successful program for voluntary public financing of judicial election campaigns, opening the floodgates for unlimited dark money to buy the election of judges.
- Imposed the nation's most blatant voter suppression laws requiring voter ID, limiting early voting and early/late voting hours, and rescinding both Sunday voting (previously popular with African American church groups) and same-day registration.
- Cut public school funding for teacher's assistants and for teachers with advanced degrees, and restructured teachers' salary scales, plunging North Carolina to 48th place in public education funding per student (from the middle of the pack just a decade ago).
- Raised community college tuition by 70% since 2009.
- Refused to expand Medicaid coverage to 500,000 uninsured North Carolinians.
- Imposed the nation's harshest cuts to unemployment insurance benefits, from the previous maximum of 26 weeks to just 14, and reduced benefits by an average of $300 per month.
- Passed the most generous pro-fracking legislation in the country, deeming the chemical composition of fracking fluids a secret, preempting local governments from banning fracking, and limiting a driller's liability for contaminating wells.
- Barred the state from basing coastal land use policies on current scientific consensus predictions of how much sea level will rise in future.
Much more of the same is in store for 2015. Already this new year has seen the introduction of Senate Bill 2, enabling registers of deed and magistrates (the only government officers empowered to issue marriage licenses and perform civil weddings, respectively) "to recuse themselves from performing duties related to marriage ceremonies due to sincerely held religious objection;", Senate Bill 3, repealing the right of state employees who belong to unions to direct their dues to be deducted from their paychecks; and House Bill 4, granting the state's chief information officer the authority to disclose "personal information about any person acquired through the operation of an unmanned aircraft system by agents or agencies of the State."
Prior to the 2010 putsch engineered by Art Pope and his clubhouse chums, North Carolina was widely considered the jewel of the New South for its sensible and healthful attention to the commonweal. Indeed, this principle is enshrined in Article XI, Section 4 of the state constitution: "Beneficent provision for the poor, the unfortunate, and the orphan is one of the first duties of a civilized and a Christian state." But, under today's oligarchy, North Carolina is losing its way.
The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and its leader, Rev. William Barber, have been firm and consistent voices in opposition to this devolution through their now-famed Moral Monday movement. And again this year, on Saturday, February 14th at 9 AM, we march on Raleigh by the tens of thousands, in support of the Moral Movement and its agenda, which includes voting rights, labor rights, education equality, healthcare for all, environmental justice, equal protection under the law, criminal justice, and police reform. Please come stand, and march, beside us.
A state that merely winks at injustice, inequality, discrimination and hatred is a state that actively promotes a sick society. Today in North Carolina we are already beginning to harvest the bitter fruits of that agenda - from the uninvestigated lynching of Lennon Lacy to the coal-ash poisoning of our waters by Duke Energy; from officers of the court refusing to fulfill the duties of their office, to a public education system starved into mediocrity.
This shall not stand. But we shall. And this will not go on. But we will. Please join us at 9 AM on Saturday, February 14th, gathering at 2 East South St. in Raleigh. As Rev. Barber has said, "Fifty years ago, the people of Selma stood, marched, and fought for justice. We must stand, march, and fight today."
Find a bus leaving from your area here. RSVP here.