Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Moral Monday yesterday in Durham

Moral Monday yesterday in downtown Durham
The Moral Monday movement is spreading across N.C. this summer as part of the NAACP’s “Moral Freedom Summer” initiative to get out the vote for fall elections. The focus of the multi-racial weekly protests is the attack on voting rights by the Republican legislature. Thousands have also turned out to protest school re-segregation, attacks on union rights, and the the state’s denial of Medicaid expansion.

MM leader Rev. William Barber spoke addressed yesterday's rally in Durham.
 “Nobody gave us our right to vote. Someone died for our right to vote,” Barber said. He said the legislative majority was wrong to attack Medicaid, the working poor and teachers, but voting is another level. “How dare you,” he said.
Three Durham clergy also spoke in support of voting rights – Rabbi John Friedman of Judea Reform Congregation, Rev. Jimmie Hawkins of Covenant Presbyterian Church and Rev. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham of Pilgrim United Church of Christ.



MORAL MONDAYS – with the slogan “Forward Together” – is not about Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives, says Barber. Republican Mayor Adam O'Neal of Belhaven, NC who is parting ways with his fellow Republicans (this is a big deal for a white southern mayor) led a 273-mile march to D.C. to draw attention to the health care crisis threatening his rural coastal community following the closure of the area's only hospital. He was joined by Rev. Barber who was in the nation's capital to protest his state's the denial of Medicaid expansion.

O'Neal is also raising concerns about wealthy nonprofit hospital corporations like Greenville, NC-based Vidant Health shutting down critical access hospitals like Vidant Pungo.
"Not for Profit companies that make $100,000,000 in a year shouldn't be able to close a hospital like Belhaven's they own for a new immoral business plan," O'Neal wrote in a press release published in his local paper. "We the people need to stand together to protect healthcare for all of us."
O'Neal and the march to D.C. were featured on MSNBC and other news shows yesterday.

2 comments:

  1. Gee, no jobs, no water, no healthcare...glad we live in the richest nation on earth, not some banana republic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dienne, I would suspect that ALEC, et.al., are using Haiti as an example of how to ruin--er--run the United States. An oligarchy/dictatorship takes ownership of all press & media
    (everything in Haiti was in written/spoken French, NOT the language of the majority of Haitians--Creole is that language, so French broadcasts, papers, not understood by the majority); an oligarchy/dictatorship takes control of the schools, watering down what education is available to the poor & the middle class, closing schools, robbing the schools of funds, etc. Begs the obvious--see that happening in the U.S., all over the country? And then, the carpetbaggers waltz in--now, tell me again why Duncan & Vallas turned up in Haiti after the earthquake? Oh, yes...I smell $$$$ (pledges for earthquake relief from other countries)--let's get those Haitian schools up-&-running, Arne & Paul! I-Pads for every student! K-12 Virtual Schools!! Pear$on tests, to improve learning!!! But, wait, how about water, electricity, school BUILDINGS? Oh, not a problem, says convicted junk bond guy, K-12 perp, Mike Millken--the virtual schools can operate in their homes--you know, their tents or their cardboard boxes. Surely, K-12 V.S. can lead the way in education--especially in Third World Countries!
    One of which will be the U.S. (here's hoping, says Bill Gates, the Koch Bros. & the Waltons). Then all of those tech-ready kids (including all the people just laid off by Microsoft!) can go work for...Walmart!

    ReplyDelete

Agree? Disagree? Let me hear from you.