NC NOW (National Organization for Women)
Wed., May 15, 2013, Noon – 2:00 pm NC4
ERA ALERT

After more than 40 years, North Carolina will walk back onto the historical stage with an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Action coming on the heels of Mother’s Day.

Join us on Wed., May 15, 2013, Noon – 2:00 pm, on the grounds of the NC Legislative Bldg. for a vigil - “Simple Justice, Long Overdue”

Received via email ... something I wish I had written.

Five questions.

News reports in and around North Carolina government, politics and the General Assembly seem to raise more questions than answers. Here are some questions. Perhaps the search for the answers or the answers themselves, might be enlightening. In no particular order:

• Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers said Thursday: “I support the renewable energy portfolio standard.” Ivan Urlaub, head of the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, supports it. The Sierra Club supports it. These folks often represent polar opposites on energy issues. If they agree on this, who is providing the juice behind efforts to repeal it?
• The state’s Medicaid shortfall will be $248 million -- $135 million more than initially estimated -- because of a “forecasting error” dating from Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration? Specifically what was the error? Might it have been that someone forgot to adjust the formula when Gov. McCrory decided to reject participation in Obamacare – and lost the federal funding that was in the initial formula?
• Is it appropriate for politicians who received campaign money from a sweepstakes operator facing criminal charges, to then make donations – in similar amounts to those donations – to charities as a way to distance themselves from the contributor? Aren’t these politicians still accepting the questionable donations? Is it appropriate for charities to accept funds that come from a tainted source? Why not just send the money back to the donor?
• Why would it be necessary to require drug testing to receive some state benefits, such as income assistance, when no drug testing is required for other benefits, such as a concealed to carry handgun permit?
• If state leaders believe they can come up with $49 million to put surveillance cameras on 14,000 buses that take kids to and from public schools each day, why can’t it come up with funds to keep teaching assistants in classrooms?

To all the outsiders, insiders, upsiders and downsiders, here's some inspiration worth a couple of minutes of your time.

From a comment found on Facebook, responding to McCrory's insistence that North Carolina government should be replaced by a smartphone:

Except that an important role of government is to undertake exactly those tasks that fail to lend themselves to efficiency (like national defense), or to those tasks, that if done in the most efficient way are not fair to all citizens (like environmental or financial regulation). Unless, maybe McCrory's point was that government should be done badly whenever possible, so everyone will agree to eliminating it.

It's easy to lose sight of first principles like these when fundamental rights are being stripped away each and every day. Caught between such rocks and hard places, many people simply give up, assuming that the system is so corrupt and rigged that nothing can really be done. That's why we need to start a new conversation about the proper role of government in our state. As we think through all the many considerations, I am absolutely confident of one thing: The proper role of government is NOT to arrest citizens for protesting the illegitimate and unconstitutional actions of the North Carolina General Assembly.