Civil Liberties
Perhaps because of the large number of outspoken and thoughtful people in our community, we have often found ourselves at ground zero in battles over civil liberties. In the 1980's Chapel Hill elected the first openly-gay elected official in the state, but Carrboro bested that by electing North Carolina’s first out mayor a decade later.
More recently, Chapel Hill grappled with free speech issues in the wake of 9/11, approved and then dismantled red light cameras in 2003-4, and was challenged by fundamentalists over support for gay marriage in 2005.
I'm excited about this event for so many reasons. For more info and to sign up for the march, visit this page I made about the March for Women's Lives.
Local musicians will play Thursday for "Rock 'n' Roe," a concert to benefit the Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina Action Fund and the 2004 March for Women's Lives.
The concert will take place in Cat's Cradle, 300 E. Main St., Carrboro, and feature performers Glory Fountain, Shannon O'Connor, Regina Hexaphone, Ameliorate, Destroyed by Kittens, and Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band. The doors will open at 7 p.m.
The March for Women's Lives, organized by a coalition of national women's organizations, will occur on April 25 in Washington.
Tickets for Thursday's concert cost $10.
(Chapel Hill Herald, 1/21/04)
It's not up on the Town website yet, but here's the press coverage: Chapel Hill Herald, News & Observer, and Daily Tarheel.
And here's the text of my petition on red-light cameras that is on the Town Council agenda for Monday:
To: Town Council Members
From: Council Member Kleinschmidt
Re: Petition to terminate the Town of Chapel Hill contract with ACS, Inc.
Date: January 12, 2004
The Chapel Hill Herald reports that our local Martin Luther King Day festivies this year will focus on voting. The timing couldn't be better.
"If all we do is get together and talk big in January, all the work of Dr. King and those of us who worked with him will be in vain," said Fred Battle, the president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a statement. "We must visit our neighbors with registration forms. After they register, we must make sure they know which politicians will do something about our problems -- not just talk big before elections.
"I plan to celebrate Dr. King's birthday twice this year; first in January and again in November on Election Day," he said.
Some of you may recall the news from almost a year ago when four people ran out onto to the court with anti-war signs during a break in a game at the Dean Dome. All four were arrested, but two were later acquitted. One of the two who was found guilty is Andrew Pearson. Andrew has been an asset to the community since his days as a UNC student organizing around environmental amd social justice issues about ten years ago.
This case is an opportunity for our community to send a message about the preservation of the free speech that is absolutely fundamental to the functioning of our democratic system of government. Here are excerpts of a letter he just sent out to the local peace and justice community:
Bit of a no-brainer, really. The Orange County Commissioners voted last week to extend benefits to domestic parters of County employees. According to the Chapel Hill Herald, Commissioner Alice Gordon says they had wanted to do it before but couldn't afford it. The extra charge from the insurance company is gone, so they did it. It's nice to see the trickle-down effect of progressive social policies at big corporations.
Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro already do it, although Durham only offers the benefit to same-sex couples. What about straight cohabitators? Apparently less than 1% of the employees in these municipalities use the domestic partner benefit. The social impact on the community of doing this is an added value. This is an inexpensive way to do something good.
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