In surveys conducted during the months leading up to the 2016 election, large numbers of Americans reported little interest in the political process. They said things like, “nothing will change,” “the elected leaders just do what they want to,” and “my vote doesn’t really count.” And that, my friends, is the beginning of the end of democracy. We believe there is a better way. For five days across North Carolina, we will offer Faith in Democracy workshops and provide an alternative to the fatalism many feel about the political process….
Rights Advocacy At Risk
The optics, as they say, are terrible. But in a state whose motto is “To Be Rather Than to Seem,” it’s even more important to look at the substance. And the substance is worse. Think about it: In a Southern state where the legacy of race discrimination and its attendant social ills remains starkly visible, our leading public law school is on the verge of being forced to abandon the courtrooms where the struggles for civil rights have so often played out. Conservative ideologues now clustering among the leaders of…
Police Brutality is not a Joking Matter
By Andrew Hudgins, NCCC Program Associate for Operations, for The Resistance Prays News: In a speech delivered to law enforcement officers last week, President Trump seemed to endorse police brutality when he asked officers not to be “too nice” and suggested that they should hit suspect’s heads on the doors of their police cars. The White House later said he was joking. Scripture: “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that…
Anti-LGBTQ Policies Impact Us All
Wednesday’s federal-policy-by-tweet announcement that children of God who are transgender could no longer serve in the military may have distracted attention from another action by the federal government. The Department of Justice, also on Wednesday, filed a legal brief in an ongoing court case in which the DOJ argued that Civil Rights protections do not extend to job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Sit with that a moment. There is plenty to be outraged about for all who are LGBTQ. Both actions should also be read as a…
America’s Role in Torture — Beginning the Path to Forgiveness
With so many issues confronting us, our nation’s involvement in acts of torture is fading from the public’s priorities for concern. Five years and $40 million in the making, the Senate Intelligence Committee 6,700-page report is the only official action to address the CIA’s 2001-2006 detention/interrogation program. Released in December 2014, the 500-page executive summary offers the following highlights of what is contained in the fuller version. According to the summary, the CIA: used techniques more brutal than the agency portrayed, was not subject to adequate oversight, misled members of…
Gerrymander Remedy: Redraw, Now
The Republicans who took control of North Carolina’s General Assembly with the elections of 2010 were, it could be said, licking their chops. They knew that when they came to Raleigh in 2011, a big prize awaited. All they had to do was seize it. And seize it they did. Because of the timing of the most recent, once-a-decade U.S. census, conducted the previous year, 2011 would be the year in which congressional and legislative voting districts were adjusted to account for population changes. The districts are supposed to be…
UPDATE — High Court to NC: Draw Those Districts Fairly
UPDATE In separate, party-line votes on June 8, the state House and Senate rejected Gov. Cooper’s attempt to convene a special session for the purpose of redrawing legislative voting districts. Leaders of the Republican majority argued that Cooper’s proclamation failed to meet standards set forth in the state constitution by which special legislative sessions can be called by the governor. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ What a relief and cause for celebration it would be if North Carolina’s legislative chiefs collectively slapped their brows and exclaimed, “Oh, now we get it! We’re not allowed…
Sanctuary as a Sacred Act
Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Under President Trump’s recent executive orders, many people’s lives have changed, especially the lives of those who have come to North Carolina from other countries or who have family members who do not have proper documentation. People are afraid to leave their homes to go to work, church, or the doctor. Children are afraid that their parents won’t be there when they get home. Victims of crimes are afraid to call the police. Our neighbors are living in a state of constant…
Shock Waves from High Court ‘Nuke’
Our national politics are in an ugly place, driven by an accelerating cycle of suspicion, accusation, blame, recrimination and retaliation. The circumstances by which Neil Gorsuch takes office as a justice of the Supreme Court sadly fit the mold – to the U.S. Senate’s discredit and the court’s peril. President Trump, with his reckless disregard for long-established norms of presidential conduct, bears his own share of responsibility for the mess. Senate Democrats could rightly question why Trump’s choice for the court deserved the customary deference – what with investigations under…
Swallow Hard: H.B. 2’s Less-than-Ideal ‘Repeal’
Call it a head-on collision between politics and principle. Is anyone surprised that politics prevailed? Yet here’s the twist that perhaps makes the outcome somewhat understandable, if no less regrettable. Those of us committed to stamping out discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity wanted North Carolina’s infamous House Bill 2 to be repealed lock, stock and barrel. The General Assembly’s compromise, signed into law March 30 by Gov. Roy Cooper, achieves repeal in a technical sense, but keeps the door open for discrimination to continue. The…
UPDATE: Trumpcare Just Got Worse — Call Before Today’s Vote
Thank you for every call, email, and letter to Congressional leaders that led to today’s decision to pull the American Health Care Act without a vote. Those committed to a compassionate and just vision for our society have had many moments of despair in recent months. Today was a reminder that persistence matters. There is work to be done to fix Obamacare, and vigilance is also needed as attention shifts to other policy areas. But thanks to voices from across America, legislation that would have endangered millions of our sisters…
Who Would Choose to be Poor or Sick?
Around the release of the alt-health plan currently making its way through Congress, several elected leaders have gone where elected leaders sometimes go – blaming the poor for being poor. Perhaps it’s to assuage their consciences or justify their current proposal which would make it more expensive for those with the fewest resources and limit options for children. Maybe they spend so little time around those who live in low income that they have no idea the challenges of escaping that economic reality, including those created by government-created housing patterns…
2017 Legislative Seminar: Advocate in NC as well as DC
The political situation at the national level has occupied the time and attention of many faithful progressives. Each day has brought with it more reasons to be concerned for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers as well as for our democratic system of government. Right now, there isn’t much reason to believe things will improve. We must also be mindful of activity underway in the North Carolina General Assembly, where legislation is in the works that would significantly weaken our state’s safety net and would make it harder to right…
Raleigh Report — February 28, 2017
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills ENVIRONMENTAL CARE H 171, Change Exclusion for Solar Energy Systems. Current law provides an 80% exclusion from property taxation for the value of a solar electric system, defined as “all equipment used directly and exclusively for the conversion of solar energy to electricity.” H 171 would reduce that tax exclusion to 60%. Introduced by Reps. Dixon (R-Warsaw), J. Bell (R-Goldsboro), Brenden Jones (R-Tabor City), and McElraft (R-Emerald Isle). Referred to House Energy and Public Utilities and, if favorable, to Finance. GUN…
Let Loving One Another Become Our Norm
Yesterday morning, the Sandra P. Lerner Jewish Community Day School in Durham received a bomb threat. This was the most recent in recurring waves of bomb threats against Jewish centers over the past two months—69 bomb threats at 54 Jewish community centers in 27 states and a Canadian province, according to the Jewish Community Center Association of North America. That’s a lot of disruption and a lot of fear, which is exactly what the cowards who make such threats are trying to affect. As it turns out, I know a…