“Moral Mondays” is a multi-racial North Carolina-based and organized civil protest meeting every Monday since April on the grounds of the North Carolina State Legislature. It is led by Reverend Dr. William Barber II, the president of the State of North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and many, many other groups.
According to Governing magazine, Rev. Barber said, “We see what we are doing here in North Carolina as a model for other Southern states,” he added also that, “History tells us you only win, particularly in the South, when you find a way to bring people together around common constitutional values and common moral values.”
The 10-week movement to articulate issues related to jobs, unemployment, abortion rights, voter rights, education, and conservative trends is headed for the historic development of a new “social contract” for the people of North Carolina because it does not seem as though the people of North Carolina will be able to move on in this historic period — without coming to a consensus between [all] liberal, moderate and conservative interests in the state.
“Consensus” is the gift that modern democracy affords a nation-state and civilization. Every middle and high school kid learns this in social studies and global studies. It is what America is all about especially in our generation in the third century. The world is interdependent and instantly linked by the internet.
Here perhaps is a metaphor: We watch Egypt when the people hiccup. They watch North Carolina when it coughs. America anchors [our] global recession, Americans acknowledge our own soaring national debt and [our] leaders at this moment are concerned and can’t seem to come up with fully-acceptable ideas to tackle state and local economic challenges. America’s brand of democracy and [we the people – know-how ] never loses in the end.
Democratic ideals and consensus are so much a part of the interests of American taxpayers that our nation pays other governments in Egypt and all around the world to try to govern with the true “will of the people”. In our ultimate commitment to the understanding and appreciation of democratic principles and “consensus” our young people risk their precious lives to create conditions for the possibility of protecting equal rights in countries all over the rest of the world.
These highly sensitive political and social issues activities surrounding “Moral Mondays” are preparing the nation for its next stage of growth and development as an international model for democratic understanding. Compromise and consensus is never easy but America will not fail to lead the world to a better place and to a richer capacity for human understanding.
Volunteers from the protest event are arrested when they enter to Legislative Building (see charges in NBC link below).
NBC News Covers More About Arrests
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52425771/ns/local_news-raleigh_nc/
Running a Democracy is not Cheap
NC Protests
Democratic Support for Egypt
North Carolina NAACP
Huffington Post: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s Response in June to Moral Mondays
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/pat-mccrory-moral-monday_n_3389997.html
News & Observer Coverage
Carolinian Newspaper
http://www.caroliniannews.com/
King-Raleigh – Historic Reflections and Current Tours: Bruce Lightner, Cash Michaels et tal
http://www.king-raleigh.org/splash.htm
The Independent
Governing magazine
“Moral Mondays”
http://www.governing.com/news/state/sl-nc-activisits-undeterred-by-arrests.html
Changes to Voter Laws
http://www.governing.com/news/state/After-Ruling-States-Rush-to-Enact-Voting-Laws.html
Good analysis, Calvin. Still, I am of the opinion that if 5000 people can be rallied to the state’s capital, then why not utilize those 5000 willing souls in the affected communities across the state to do the “real work” and really make a difference. Perhaps the media would not cover such an effort, but the people who are really hurting economically, socially and otherwise would benefit.
What are the deliverables for the state-wide efforts. It seems that the assembly of people on Mondays are just getting an idea of what they want to tackle first with the legislators?