FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9 July 2013
Contact: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, President, 919-394-8137
Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700
Atty. Jamie Phillips Cole, Public Policy Coordinator, 919-682-4700
Governor McCrory is being disingenuous. Now that the legislative session is winding down, Governor McCrory is trying to play nice and move away from his original comments about Moral Monday protestors being outsiders. His original words echoed the Old south politics of George Wallace, who said of segregation, "We have never had a problem in the South except in a few very isolated instances, and these have been the result of outside agitators."
McCrory now says he respects the way Moral Monday protestors act, but he still refuses to respect their position on his policies. He also says we shouldn't call those policies immoral, claiming that the remarks are a personal attack. McCrory knows we are attacking his policies, and his policies only. It is immoral to pass policies that hurt the working poor, hurt the unemployed, hurt poor children, create voter suppression and allow known discrimination to exist in our judicial system even when applying the death penalty.
And he, himself in his inaugural speech said, "God bless the State of North Carolina." You cannot ask God's blessing and then enact laws that hurt the poor, the sick, and children - those on the margins whom God has said is His primary concern.
The Scripture says:
1Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
(Isaiah 10:1-3)
Governor McCrory says he is willing to talk and listen, but that is not true. He and colleagues have repeatedly chosen not to meet and have an open honest dialogue. Weeks ago, we sent him the following letter and to this day we have not received a response.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 May 2013
Open Letter to NC Governor, Speaker of the NC House of Representatives and President Pro Tem of the NC Senate
The Honorable Pat McCrory
Governor, State of North Carolina
The Honorable Thom Tillis
Speaker of the NC House of Representatives
The Honorable Phil Berger
President Pro Tem of the NC Senate
Dear Governor McCrory, Speaker Tillis and President Pro Tem Berger:
Today we call on you to look into the eyes of the people and children affected by your policies of cynicism and politics of division and see the hurt they will reap in North Carolina. We demand that you meet with us and those you are hurting with your regressive policies.
Education:
Governor McCrory, Speaker Tillis and President Pro Tem Berger, reports say that you meet with the extreme right wing strategists of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Today we ask you to meet with the parents whose children will not receive pre-K education this year. We ask you to meet with children who would go to even more underfunded schools due to a possible voucher program, expanded charter schools and budget cuts that would all drain resources from public education. We ask that you meet with the students who will suffer because of your efforts to defund and seriously dismantle public education.
Taxes:
We ask you to meet with those who will have to pay increased sales and service tax while millionaires get a tax break. Please look directly into the eyes of the people who are the working poor of this state who you raised taxes on when you slashed the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Voting Rights:
We ask you to meet with the elderly and the poor who will have a difficult time gathering the documents necessary to obtain a voter ID. We ask you to look these people in the eyes who have voted for decades and will now face barriers to the ballot.
Healthcare:
We assume you meet with lobbyists and lawyers. We ask you to meet with the patients who no longer will have healthcare coverage under your policy and the doctors who have sworn an oath to care for them.
Governor McCrory, Speaker Tillis and President Pro Tem Berger, we understand you meet with the Chamber of Commerce. We ask you to meet with the clergy who provide pastoral work to hundreds of thousands who will soon be without Medicaid or a basic economic safety net in this state. Instead they will have reduced unemployment benefits or no benefits at all.
We ask you to look the North Carolinians in the face whom your policies disregard, displace and attempt to disenfranchise.
Look us in the eyes and tell us that you are doing this for the good of the whole as our State Constitution that you swore to uphold demands.
We respectfully await your response.
Yours in the Spirit of Truth and Justice,
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President
North Carolina NAACP
Convener, Historic Thousands on Jones Street People's Coalition
Member, National NAACP Board of Directors and Chair of the Political Action and Legislative Committee
Pastor, Greenleaf Christian Church, Goldsboro, NC
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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
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