A rotten brew
There comes a time when every thinking person has to wake up and smell the coffee. And here in North Carolina, we've just been doused with a rotten brew.
It's bad enough that we have been watching our public schools go down the toilet for lack of funding and teachers. Now we have also stood witness as a majority of bigoted voters have shredded one of our most fundamental human rights with the passage of Amendment One. In two short years of Republican leadership, our state has moved from being a progressive leader in the south to become the most hostile and hateful state in the nation.
And so, Rest of the World, I am writing to ask for your help. It's clear that most people in North Carolina have no concern for basic human dignity, so we need you to help us with some tough love.
If you are a business who has been considering moving to or expanding in North Carolina, please find another state and offer your jobs there. If you are an employee who is being asked to relocate to North Carolina, tell your employer "thanks, but no thanks." If your family is planning vacation in our mountains or on our coast, cancel your trip and go elsewhere. If you are an association that plans events and conferences, put North Carolina on your "do not call" list.
And finally, if you are a person in a non-traditional family who finds him or herself victimized by one of the many adverse effects of Amendment One, please contact me and I will put you in touch with organizations that will help you fight this miserable legislation. Amendment One will be going to the United States Supreme Court sooner than later, and you may well be the person to help make that happen.
In the meantime, I offer my deepest apologies for our fucked up state to every American and all other citizens around the globe. We could have shown the world what it means to be good Christians and just human beings. Instead, we have showed the face of hate and evil. Please forgive us.
James Protzman
Tagged:
BlueNC is dedicated to making North Carolina a more progressive and prosperous state. If your intention is to disrupt this effort, please find somewhere else to express your opinions.
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Are you serious? Any person
Are you serious? Any person or business or family that would actually comply with your request are just the people we should be begging to MOVE here and join the voter rolls!
Please, going "John Galt" is hardly progressive.
At least...
Tim D'Annunzio won the Republican primary against David Price.
In other words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
But they won't
The drumbeat has already started, and I had nothing to do with it.
But speaking of getting serious ... who in their right mind would want anything to do with this fucked up place? No progressive company is going to look at North Carolina and say, "Hey, why don't we move there and maybe in 20 years our gay employees will have equal rights!"
So go for it. You hold down the progressive front ... I'm moving on to the pissed off front.
And for the record, I'm not going John Galt, I'm going postal.
Most hostile and hateful in the nation?
Um, Arizona? Georgia? For pete's sake, they just banned *hugging* in schools in Tennessee!
I realize we're all disappointed here, but even California couldn't keep this stuff out. And need I remind anyone that even if it had failed, same-sex marriage would *still be illegal*.
Equality is always a fight. It always has been. Enough with the hand-wringing. This is a gauntlet thrown, not a surrender. Can we please act like it?
Who said anything about surrender?
Feel free to act any way you want, including trying to put a trainload of lipstick you want on this pig. But it ain't going to make it any prettier.
I have been out here in the Pacific northwest (on vacation) trying to explain to friends who moved from NC what has happened. If you heard what they are saying, it would break your heart. They were under the illusion that we were on the verge of becoming a progressive state. That illusion was dashed ... not just by A1, but by the broader emergence of the Tarheel Taliban. Not a single one would even consider moving back to North Carolina.
you know what I love about you, Jim?
You and I want exactly the same thing, but we say things (and possibly see things) very differently... and, of course, you say it in about 1/8th of the space I take. But I love that we share the same outrage and the same love for North Carolina and the same hopes for change. Just knowing you are here to temper my cock-eyed optimism makes me feel indefinably better. Don't ever change!
Katy Munger,
Progress North Carolina Action
www.progressncaction.org
Lead, follow or get out of the way....
Thank you, dear
With so many adults in the room, somebody has to make you all look responsible by comparison.
: )
Seriously, I have been embarrassed to death out here in Vancouver and Seattle. There's nothing I can say in the face of people reading the front page stories in the New York Times about North Carolina's new "extreme" amendment. We had been hoping that one very wealthy gay couple would move to Asheville, which they had been talking about for the past year. Never gonna happen.
Yes, NC was teetering on the
Yes, NC was teetering on the edge of being a more progressive state, and then the economy crashed and times got mean. And the meaner the economy gets, the meaner people get.
The more susceptible they are to some demagogue railing that we're being "punished for our sins." The more susceptible they become to blaming it on a scapegoat, in this case, "the gays."
So by all means hope for the state to become as poor - and mean - as Alabama. That'll pretty much assure this state, and the twenty-nine other states with a similar Amendment, will neither stay or ever turn blue.
I'm sorry, I know this is a deeply discouraging night. But I think you are making a mistake by wanting to fight fire with fire. Only water puts out fire. We need to figure out how to put out the hate, and I really think the answer lies with taking just as passionate a stand on economic issues.
Fire can also put out fire
Water can put out fire, but so can fire. Fire needs an ignition source, fuel and oxygen. In wildfire suppression a primary strategy is to isolate a fire from fuel by creating non-combustible boundaries through cutting, digging and/or by burning off the fuel. In wildfire suppression water is used to reduce the combustibility of fuel (and structures) in the path of a fire and, for putting out hot-spots after a fire has burned over.
To control a fire it's wise to keep all options open.
Yep, and those "controlled"
Yep, and those "controlled" burns can and do cause uncontrollable wildfires. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/03/28/federal_fire_crews...
To control a fire by using fire, it's wise to be absolutely sure you know what you're doing. It also takes luck, because if the wind suddenly changes, you are screwed.
I do not feel the boycott North Carolina idea is based on a thoughtful examination of the aftermath of this battle lost. I think it's coming from a place of rage and revenge.
For example, why was the Amendment passed in such a rout? Because a lot of people didn't get out to vote against it. And why is that? Because it just is not the uppermost concern for them. It's not even in the top ten. And why is that? I believe if you tap into this a little more, you will stumble upon a better strategy to win gay marriage rights.
Be sure you know what you are talking about
Fire used to fight fire typically burns into the wind and into the path of an oncoming fire. It's a calculated risk typically undertaken when the fire risk is highest.
Fire used in controlled burns (referenced in the article) for fuel reduction to reduce the risk of fire is a different matter that does not speak to your original analogy. It's a calculated risk typically undertaken when the fire risk is lowest.
We can go round in circles all day with analogies. We can't survive without water but the right amount of water in the wrong place can kill you.
It's wise to keep all options open, and to use those options wisely.
My post had an analogy AND an argument
Which you are ignoring and opting instead to drag us around in circles by focusing on a literal disection of my original analogy. The use of fire to fight fire doesn't speak at all to my original analogy; but thanks for getting us sidetracked on one use of it. Do you have an actual argument that justifies using economic revenge as an "option" to be seriously considered right now? I included one along with my analogy, but once again...
Such a tactic plays right into the opposition's hands. It's going to make it a lot easier for them to keep blaming gay marriage supporters for the economic ills in this country when these supporters are wishing economic ill on it.
By the way, I should add at
By the way, I should add at this point that I have no problem with a good offense. But a boycott is not that. It's a reaction to an incredibly strong offense. Progress is constantly, constantly on the defense in this country.
What if for the last three years, we were fixated on child labor? It's rampant in this country, it's rampant in the countries we outsource jobs to.
I bet if that's all we talked about, all the time, or at least as much as rightwingers rail against gay marriage, the country would be fixated on the injustice of child labor, because everyone can relate to it. Everyone either has been a child or has a child. Sure the media would have ignored us at first, but eventually they would have been forced to listen, if that's basically all we were talking about.
And then we could have painted the rightwingers right into the heartless corner they belong in, made them have to talk about nothing but their support for child labor.
Which would have given us a more likely chance at sweeping progressives into office instead of fanatical rightwingers, which means this Amendment wouldn't have been on the ballot in the first place.
I admire your optimism
but you are delusional. The scenario you imagine won't happen with thousands of progressives leaving the state millions more declining to move here. I can't blame them for one second.
Let's face it. Gays and non-traditional families are now, officially, oppressed minorities.
The BBC just called me and asked how I felt about being a liberal in North Carolina. The reporter asked, specifically, whether I was ashamed or embarrassed or proud.
I am ashamed and embarrassed. You should be too.
No matter what you do or say, you are dealing with an enemy that will lie, cheat and steal to dominate you. That is the Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory way. The only thing he understands is force, and economic force may very well be the only way to bring them to the light.
In one historic day, North Carolina has become an international pariah, a joke, a laughingstock in the eyes of thinking people throughout the world. The economic impacts will be profound and hurtful. The leaders responsible for our decline will blame it on gays and blacks and Hispanics and other "others" regardless of whatever you or I say and do.
James: "I am ashamed and
James: "I am ashamed and embarrassed. You should be too."
There is a point where you have to face how strong the opposition is, how outnumbered you are. At that point, you don't feel shame and embarrassment for them so much as a concerted and crystal clear desire to beat them. ESPECIALLY when they, as you astutely note "...will lie, cheat and steal to dominate you."
This is true, they will. But they get away with it because they focus on tapping very powerful emotions in people, usually on issues that have nothing to do with what they really want to get done. Do you think half those morally bankrupt politicians that were yowling about marriage really care about marriage? Hell no, they want to push through frightening economic agendas that if they campaigned on alone, would never get the people on their side.
We should take a page from their playbook, because it's a winning playbook that has us constantly, and I do mean constantly on the defense. Best of all, we wouldn't have to lie, cheat, or steal, either. I'm telling you, if we focus on an emotionally powerful issue like child labor that everyone can relate to somehow, we could get the upper hand again. Then we could get other things we want, as well, from gay marriage to humane treatment of animals (my personal issue, of which I've seen little help from the Obama administration, either).
Think about all we could
Think about all we could accomplish if we focused on child labor and abuse in this country with the singular fixation that gay marriage opponents fixate on opposing gay marriage. Child labor in America - we could tie that in with so many economic and civil rights issues, I can't even count them all off the top of my head, but immigration, education, homelessness, housing are just a few. Child labor overseas: nothing would get politicians to finally backtrack on free trade agreements faster if we refused to stop talking about this.
And of course, we would have painted the rightwingers for a generation or longer as the party that supports cruelty to children. If we did it effectively enough, nothing would work faster to turn people off of the rightwing ideology, because protecting the young provokes a very powerful emotion in people...rightfully so, too.
So now we would be in power. It should go without saying this would make it much easier for us to prevent discriminatory laws from making the books.
It's not the economy
Then let me address your argument. I don't believe the bad economy is making people meaner to gay people. I don't believe that a boycott will make the economy worse and, as a result, make life worse for gay. people. That sounds like a DIRECTV commercial.
Boycotts can be effective tools for raising awareness. I don't see them as economic revenge and are certainly not very effective for that purpose without a lot of concerted and sustained discipline. I see them as a tool for earned media, and a way to start conversations.
Boycotts can be effective, I
Boycotts can be effective, I agree. I don't think it will in this case, though. Usually boycotts get more sympathy when they are against a powerful entity. A lot of people aren't going to think North Carolina is a powerful entity even though it's a state. Because it's a state with persistently high unemployment and other economic problems.
And I do believe that hard economic times make people more susceptible to wanting to lash out, to find a scapegoat to blame, to find someone to demonize. The rightwingers are doing a very good job of painting gays, undocumented workers, and liberals as those scapegoats.
It would be nice if they weren't so susceptible to such hateful thinking, but let's be very honest: this also means they can be swayed through appealing to their emotions. Let's try and start getting to these people first before the bad guys do.
Boycott marriage
Jane and I are talking seriously about getting a divorce. The institution of marriage is now constitutionally bankrupt in NC.
Who will join us?
Bombs
Bombs can put out fires.
I've Been on the Twitter
Folks there began by giving North Carolina pure hell but then started tempering their anger. I replied that they should not tone down the rhetoric. Not one iota.
I'm with James on this. We should be ashamed. We should be the butt of the joke. Because we own it. "It's hard" isn't an excuse. And let's be clear. We didn't lose close. We got our asses kicked. Hard.
This isn't about stopping the fight. It's about taking a good look in the mirror. I have lived in North Carolina since the day I was born and I have never be more ashamed of and disgusted by my state than I am tonight.
My county voted For by a margin of 83/17. And I'm supposed to sit back and say, "we'll get em next time?" No. I'm pissed. This sucks. Regardless of the work everyone here did, as residents of North Carolina, we own this. Like it or not, we own it.
Thanks, man
I appreciate you getting my back ... and more important ... saying what needs to be said. North Carolina is a state populated by a majority of people who are either (1) pure bigots, (2) blindingly ignorant of what a constitution means, or (3) both.
A bunch of people stepped up, but a whole lot more didn't. The film industry, for example, was totally missing in action on this issue, even as they suck tax breaks with every new production. The trial lawyers? Silent. The big banks? Silent. Barack Obama? Silent.
That silence wasn't simply a matter of being busy or not caring or not having resources. It was a calculated choice to stand on the sidelines and let teh gayz take it in the back. And it proved to be a smart risk. Why stir the pot when 60% of the population is against you?
It's too bad that most of the gay people I know are really nice people. They don't have it in them to go over the edge into a take-no-prisoners mindset. There are a few stellar exceptions, Pam Spaulding, for example. But I don't see her sticking around. I wouldn't be surprised to see her move to Canada or somewhere out west.
I'm not gay, and the truth is, A1 won't affect me personally in any way. Unless you count hating the god-forsaken state you live in as being affected personally.
Boycotting NC...
....will only hurt the average citizens of the state. Calling for a boycott looks more like sour grapes than a new game plan.
I am not feeling a boycott this time. Economics seems to be
too indirect at this point. A more direct approach would be to win back the General Assembly starting this November. Just seems like a solution should be as close to the problem as possible. Target potential districts where Dems have a shot at knocking off a Rep and bring resources to bear.
Environmental Defense Fund
http://signon.org/sign/an-end-to-gerrymandering