Public protests Feb. 16 special legislative session
Speakers at "Rein Them In" rally declare "Enough is enough!"
The most recent "special" session of the North Carolina General Assembly on February 16 accomplished literally nothing at great expense to taxpayers, but members of the public, still wary of what their out-of-control state legislature might do since its bout of midnight madness back in January, rallied outside the legislative building just in case.
Speakers at the rally included Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch, who told the crowd of 70-80 folks, "We have had all the extremist, out-of-control special sessions we can stand."
"Enough is enough! Enough midnight sessions. [...] Enough dividing and conquering, and enough with this Art-Pope-funded crazy train."
Darryl Miller of the group Unifour OneStop Collaborative recounted the story of his elderly mother, who lives in Mississippi and has not driven in years and in 2008 was denied her right to cast a vote in the presidential election because she did not have a photo ID. The extremists in charge of our statehouse have vowed to override the veto of a similar voter ID bill in our state. "This legislature cannot tell us we can be seen but not heard," Miller told the crowd. "We have a voice!"
Hope Taylor, a dairy farmer with Clean Water for NC warned the rally goers opposed to fracking that the oil and natural gas industry pushing North Carolina to allow its dangerous and risky drilling method here "thrives on buying the best state legislatures it can buy."
Erin Byrd of the NAACP spoke about the urgent need for our state legislature to authorize the release of $4 million in federal funds from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to help ensure the 2012 elections are free and fair. Byrd explained the out-of-control NC General Assembly's efforts to restrict voting access this way:
"They value a system that puts greed in front of our real lives. They don't want us to have power over this system."
Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies connected the takeover of our legislature by back to the unrestrained corporate spending of Art Pope in the 2010 elections. The only way, Kromm said, that Art Pope and his groups can get what they want from our out-of-control legislature is to buy it:
"Art Pope is pushing an extreme agenda that wouldn't fly if he didn't have the money to make it happen."
When the rally ended, the citizens who attended tried to enter their own legislature to deliver a message admonishing Speaker Thom Tillis. But the General Assembly police told them they couldn't enter the building holding a simple piece of paper. If they wanted to get inside, they'd have to silence their message.
The right-wing extremists who control our legislature are out of control. Let's rein them in before it's too late. Learn more and take action at www.outofcontrolnc.com.