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 was glad to learn our congressman voiced his concern about the upcoming elections in El Salvador. There has been violence against some of the opposition parties including FMLN. Years ago many of us were active in CITCA and helped after Hurricane Mitch 20 plus years ago. Just this pass year there were to major hurricanes in Honduras again.
The February 24 letter to Secretary Blinken, signed by Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Mark Pocan (D-WI), David Price (D-NC), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Henry “Hank” Johnson (D-GA), David Trone (D-MD), Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Thomas Suozzi (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), was the latest in a stream of critiques from Congress.
I went to the white house web site to contact Trump about his latest ex order about immigration. I tried to call the numbers listed. I used 202-456-1414 this Sunday afternoon and a pleasant woman answered and explained that the comment line has not been activated for this administration and I should complete the on line form from the web page which I did.
This should be an interesting forum.
Post Date: 01/24/2017 8:51 AM
Carolina Student Legal Services, Inc., Justice Initiatives, Inc., and the Town of Chapel Hill will co-sponsor an Open Forum for the University and the surrounding Community entitled:
Immigration Law and the New Administration
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
6:00 to 8:00 pm
Carolina Union Auditorium on the Campus of UNC Chapel Hill
So I was in Ohio and of course HB2 came up. Back in NC the Sierra Club has just released a statement about HB2:
To: North Carolina Sierra Club Chapter Leaders
As you know, HB2 has been the leading news story in North Carolina for several weeks. This bill goes against the diversity, equity and inclusion principles of the Sierra Club. Our Chapter DEI Committee and Steering Committee have unanimously voted to take a position opposing HB2 as a way to affirm our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Here is our statement:
"The Sierra Club is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. North Carolina House Bill 2 clearly seeks to undermine these principles through discriminatory policies, including but not limited to denying equality for LGBT individuals; denying the right of individuals to pursue age, sex and racial discrimination cases in state courts; and reiterating legislative opposition to the ability of local governments to raise the minimum wage so as to help achieve economic equity. The North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club strongly opposes this bill and calls for its repeal."
It looks like a growing number of people are using today's confederate flag rally in Chapel Hill as a way to fight hate.
For every confederate flag seen at Silent Sam today they will donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center or a similar non-profit.. That is, they will use the rally as a way to drive donations to organizations established to fight hate and foster togetherness. The idea is to let the rallyers know that wherever they gather to support a symbol of oppression, they will be directly helping to fund organizations that fight oppression.
How does one participate? Simple: Ii you are at the rally, use the hashtag #ChapelHillAgainstHate to post your count of flags. If you want to help with a donation, make a donation to SPLC or a similar organization then post about it on social media using the hashtag #ChapelHillAgainstHate. Watch the hashtag this afternoon to get an idea of flag counts and see who is playing.
The more people who post with the hashtag, the better chance there is of getting the word out, of getting the attention of the press, of the rallyers, of people wanting to fight hate.
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