Inspiring North Carolina Moral Mondays protest video from 6/17

[Triana]

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[marions ghost]

1. That is a great video!

Wow, that speech by Rev Barber--just

Even if you're not in North Carolina--please catch this speech (and there are also some good speeches from NC residents). The organizers are doing a fantastic job with this!

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And how about this news. Art Pope tries to intimidate people from participating:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/19/1217416/-N-C-Moral-Monday-Art-Pope-creates-database-of-civil-disobedience-arrestees#

Daily Kos member journal
Wed Jun 19, 2013 at 07:49 PM PDT
N.C. Art Pope creates database of Moral Monday arrestees, including several Kossacks

by MsSpentyouthFollow

55 Comments / 0 New

Pardon the brief diary; I just got to my hotel room after a long day volunteering at Netroots Nation and learned that the John W. Pope Civitas Institute has created an online database and a "Pick the Protester" game that features each and every one of us who's been arrested in the Moral Monday/Witness Wednesday nonviolent civil-disobedience movement in North Carolina.

Yeah. We are gamepieces in a vicious online game now. For singing, praying, and holding a sign in what we in North Carolina call "The People's House," the General Assembly building.

This includes me as well as James Protzman (read his most-excellent diary) and several other DailyKos bloggers from North Carolina.

Holy shit. If you didn't believe that Art Pope, the Tea Party, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) were mean-spirited, tyrannical bullies who have no compunction about making a game out of targeting those who take a principled stand against a takeover of their government, you are just plain wrong.

I have no words right now. But Ann Humphreys, a fellow participant in nonviolent civil disobedience who was arrested for singing and praying at the N.C. General Assembly, has. Read her letter, which she published on Facebook this afternoon.

And Progress NC has some words, too:

"This is troubling from a group whose supporters include far-right extremists in favor of loose regulation of gun ownership, among other things," Progress North Carolina, a liberal advocacy group, said in post on its Facebook page.

Using dog-whistle calls for supporters to attack peaceful protesters is not entirely unheard of in Southern history, of course. But history has also demonstrated that these tactics signal the desperation of impending defeat. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

We will not back down to these bully tactics. We will not surrender to intimidation. We will not give in or give up or move back or step off. We move forward together, not one step back.

[Triana]

2. Yes I really liked Rev. Barber's speech and the passion and

well-spoken speeches of the other protesters as well. I've heard next Monday's MM protest will be the last but I hope it isn't.

Civitas Foundation is funded by Art Pope (and donations are still considered tax deductible!) and is obviously partisan. Art Pope, for those who don't know, owns the chain of Roses stores as well as a number of other low cost stores. He provided a lot of financing for the radical right wing legislators and for Gov. McCrory and then he was made the governor's budget director.

[marions ghost]

3. I hope it can keep going--

though I know the organizers are probably burnt out. But the worst is yet to come, so maybe new energy can be found.

I think one of the most effective aspects of this protest is the way the people keep coming--the constant vigilance aspect of it is powerful. Even if it's not as big a crowd, I hope it continues.

So the legislators can see and know who they are hurting.

[zeemike]

4. Yep that was powerful.

And I hope it spreads....And it is being led by the ones that should be leading this sort of thing...the religious ministers, because that is what Jesus would have done... it is what he did.