Dozens of well-known North Carolina writers gathered at the state Capitol on Saturday to protest Republican policies they say are hurting public education, access to health care and voting rights.
The group included bestselling authors Clyde Edgerton, Allen Gurganus and Margaret Maron. They read a statement calling for “a new governor and a new government” so the state will have “a far, far better story for itself and its people than the one that has been rolling out of Raleigh in recent years.”
The statement called the state’s current story “a sad tale of recklessness, rapaciousness and cruelty.”
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article67108517.html
THIS from Bland Simpson's Facebook page -
A Gathering of North Carolina Writers, State Capitol Grounds.
At 2 p.m. today, March 19th, 2016, 45 North Carolina writers from across the state gathered on the Capitol grounds in Raleigh to call for a new governor and a new government for the Old North State, and for a return to the progressive course that for decades made North Carolina a beloved beacon across the South and the nation; 64 more N.C. writers supported this statement in absentia. Please READ MORE:
WE who are gathered here today are among the many North Carolinians entrusted by both publishers and the people to tell the stories of our time and our place -- in prose, in poetry, and in song. We live all over this great state, and our individual works are as different, any one from any other, as the New River in Ashe County is different from the New River in Onslow, and as the Nantahala River in the mountains is different from the Neuse River that flows to the coast.
Different though the voices with which we speak in our works may be, we stand here together today, speaking with one voice, totally and strongly unified in this belief:
North Carolina needs -- and deserves -- a far, far better story for itself and its people than the one that has been rolling out of Raleigh in recent years, which is, taken all in all, a sad tale of recklessness, rapaciousness, and cruelty. To change the story, indeed, is to change the course of the Old North State’s evolving democracy:
North Carolina must have a new governor and a new government.
We need a governor and a government that will see our people insured for health care to the greatest extent possible, using the major funding that is guaranteed by the federal government, which we all already trust to pay – and which does pay -- for North Carolina’s national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, national seashores, our citizens’ social security, medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits and our state’s second largest economy, the military forces and bases across eastern Carolina. Half a million of our fellow citizens, one in twenty among us, need and deserve the basic right of access to health care that the expansion of medicaid will, at long last, give them;
We need a governor and a government that will respect and support, across the board, in word and deed, the teachers in our public schools, by rescinding the half-billion dollar tax giveaway for the wealthy among us and raising the remuneration of our educators, which is now very near the bottom for the entire nation; raising the investment in our students – in our children – which is also very near the bottom for the entire nation; and absolutely ending the unconstitutional use of public funds for private schools;
As everyone in North Carolina has a constitutional mandate to protect our fertile lands and forests, our many waters, and our temperate air, and as no one has the right to profit from actions that degrade these precious natural resources, we need a governor and a government that will enforce ARTICLE XIV, Sec. 5 of the North Carolina Constitution and vigorously protect and conserve our natural heritage, our common wealth, just as this final article of the state constitution directs us all to do. We need a governor and a government that will end the preferential, if not deferential, treatment of defilers of our natural resources and that will instead penalize them to the full extent of the law. We need a governor and a government that will end the headlong rush toward hydraulic fracturing and all its wastefulness and dangers, and that will oppose the next rush – should it re-occur, as it has twice now -- toward offshore drilling in the most turbulent, storm-tossed waters of eastern America, with drilling proposed from floating platforms in waters known and feared the world over as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
We need a new governor and a new government that will end such other practices of the current regime as: 1/ gerrymandering our legislative and congressional districts, which has occurred to such an astonishing, illegal extent that federal courts have found two districts unconstitutional and sent them back to the General Assembly for redrafting, resulting in a new map as bad as the old, and an ongoing electoral mess; 2/ suppressing the vote, attempting to stifle the fullest possible participation by citizens in our democracy in various methodical ways and calling this stifling a campaign to end voter fraud, in an honest state where there is virtually none; 3/ placing higher taxes on all manner of repairs and services, regressive taxes that will hit hardest those among us with the lowest incomes; 4/ interposing political, ideological judgments between women and their physicians; and the list, quite unfortunately, does go on.
Two to three million new North Carolinians will be born here or will come here over the next fourteen years – how can we possibly be ready for them then when the state is ill-serving the people who are here now? We who are gathered on the State Capitol Grounds today urge our fellow citizens all across the state to keep the faith and to help write a far better story for the future of the Old North State. We believe that the people can, will and must put North Carolina back onto its progressive course, the course that for decades made our state a beloved beacon across the South and the nation. Let this be one small moment toward that great purpose, and let Tuesday, November the 8th, Election Day 2016, be a much grander one.
***
Those here assenting to this statement are:
Alex Albright Fountain
Jeffrey Beam Hillsborough
Barb Bennett Chapel Hill
Belle Boggs Pittsboro
Hodding Carter Chapel Hill
David Cecelski Durham
Diane Chamberlain Raleigh
Kim Church Raleigh
Angela Davis-Gardner Raleigh
Jim Dodson Greensboro
Larry Earley Raleigh
Clyde Edgerton Wilmington
Georgann Eubanks Carrboro
Mike Gaspeny Greensboro
Allan Gurganus Hillsborough
Fred Hobson Chapel Hill
Brenda Jernigan Fayetteville
Randall Kenan Hillsborough
Jill McCorkle Hillsborough
Lucinda McKethan Raleigh
Janna McMahan Raleigh
Margaret Maron Willow Springs
Thomas Mills Carrboro
Katy Munger Durham
Gene Nichol Chapel Hill
Elaine Orr Raleigh
Beverly Patterson Chapel Hill
Dan Patterson Chapel Hill
David Payne Hillsborough
Peggy Payne Raleigh
David Perry Carrboro
Tom Rankin Hillsborough
Terry Roberts Asheville
Robert Rubin Fuquay Varina
John Russell Raleigh
Jim Seay Chapel Hill
Ann Simpson Chapel Hill
Bland Simpson Chapel Hill
Lee Smith Hillsborough
Stephen Smith Southern Pines
Chris Stamey Chapel Hill
Harry Watson Carrboro
Kevin Watson Winston Salem
Marsha Warren Chapel Hill
Cat Warren Durham
Those in absentia:
Daphne Athas Carrboro
John Balaban Raleigh
Joseph Bathanti Boone
Margaret Bauer Greenville
Margaret Baddour Goldsboro
Katherine Byer Cullowhee
Wayne Caldwell Asheville
Wiley Cash Wilmington
Diane Chamberlain Raleigh
Mike Chitwood Chapel Hill
Jim Clark Wilson
Noelle Crook Raleigh
Nancy Demorest Hillsborough
Stephen Demorest Hillsborough
Bronwen Dickey Durham
Nina Di Gramont Wilmington
Pam Durban Chapel Hill
David Gessner Wilmington
Therese Fowler Raleigh
Alice Gerard Durham
Philip Gerard Wilmington
Marianne Gingher Greensboro
Judy Goldman Charlotte
Jaki Shelton Green Mebane
Minrose Gwin Chapel Hill
Maria Henson Winston Salem
Marjorie Hudson Pittsboro
Holly Goddard Jones Greensboro
John Kessel Raleigh
Haven Kimmel Raleigh
Richard Krawiec Chapel Hill
Dorianne Laux Raleigh
William Leuchtenberg Chapel Hill
Zelda Lockhart Hillsborough
Michael Malone Hillsborough
Melissa Malouf Durham
Elizabeth Matheson Hillsborough
Michael McFee Durham
Tift Merritt Raleigh
Joe Millar Raleigh
Robin Miura Chapel Hill
Duncan Murrell Pittsboro
Joe Newberry Raleigh
Val Nieman Greensboro
Michael Parker Greensboro
Nancy Peacock Hillsborough
Drew Perry Greensboro
Steven Petrow Hillsborough
Carmine Prioli Hillsborough
Ron Rash Cullowhee
Shannon Ravenel Durham
Celia Rivenbark Wilmington
Ruth Salvaggio Chapel Hill
Sarah Shaber Raleigh
Bill Smith Carrboro
Elizabeth Spencer Chapel Hill
John Jeremiah Sullivan Wilmington
Daniel Wallace Chapel Hill
Susan West Hatteras
Lynn York Carrboro
Lee Zacharias Greensboro
Writers raised in this state and no longer living here who remain loyal followers and
political supporters:
Ben Fountain TX
Charles Frazier FL
Robert Morgan NY
And we wish we could call the names of those great North Carolina voices who are
no longer with us but surely if they were, would be standing here with us today.
****
Those gathered at the Capitol then sent their thoughts, prayers and blessings toward Nancy Olsen, longtime Quail Ridge Books owner and a very great supporter of North Carolina’s literary life.
The session ended with a unison reading of the state toast:
The North Carolina State Toast
HERE'S TO THE LAND OF THE LONG LEAF PINE
THE SUMMER LAND WHERE THE SUN DOTH SHINE
WHERE THE WEAK GROW STRONG,
AND THE STRONG GROW GREAT
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
SO RAISE A GLASS TO A LAND SO FAIR
WHERE FRIENDS ARE TRUE, AND A COLD HEART RARE
THAT DEAR OLD LAND, WHATEVER FATE
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
THIS from Bland Simpson's Facebook page -
A Gathering of North Carolina Writers, State Capitol Grounds.
At 2 p.m. today, March 19th, 2016, 45 North Carolina writers from across the state gathered on the Capitol grounds in Raleigh to call for a new governor and a new government for the Old North State, and for a return to the progressive course that for decades made North Carolina a beloved beacon across the South and the nation; 64 more N.C. writers supported this statement in absentia. Please READ MORE:
WE who are gathered here today are among the many North Carolinians entrusted by both publishers and the people to tell the stories of our time and our place -- in prose, in poetry, and in song. We live all over this great state, and our individual works are as different, any one from any other, as the New River in Ashe County is different from the New River in Onslow, and as the Nantahala River in the mountains is different from the Neuse River that flows to the coast.
Different though the voices with which we speak in our works may be, we stand here together today, speaking with one voice, totally and strongly unified in this belief:
North Carolina needs -- and deserves -- a far, far better story for itself and its people than the one that has been rolling out of Raleigh in recent years, which is, taken all in all, a sad tale of recklessness, rapaciousness, and cruelty. To change the story, indeed, is to change the course of the Old North State’s evolving democracy:
North Carolina must have a new governor and a new government.
We need a governor and a government that will see our people insured for health care to the greatest extent possible, using the major funding that is guaranteed by the federal government, which we all already trust to pay – and which does pay -- for North Carolina’s national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, national seashores, our citizens’ social security, medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits and our state’s second largest economy, the military forces and bases across eastern Carolina. Half a million of our fellow citizens, one in twenty among us, need and deserve the basic right of access to health care that the expansion of medicaid will, at long last, give them;
We need a governor and a government that will respect and support, across the board, in word and deed, the teachers in our public schools, by rescinding the half-billion dollar tax giveaway for the wealthy among us and raising the remuneration of our educators, which is now very near the bottom for the entire nation; raising the investment in our students – in our children – which is also very near the bottom for the entire nation; and absolutely ending the unconstitutional use of public funds for private schools;
As everyone in North Carolina has a constitutional mandate to protect our fertile lands and forests, our many waters, and our temperate air, and as no one has the right to profit from actions that degrade these precious natural resources, we need a governor and a government that will enforce ARTICLE XIV, Sec. 5 of the North Carolina Constitution and vigorously protect and conserve our natural heritage, our common wealth, just as this final article of the state constitution directs us all to do. We need a governor and a government that will end the preferential, if not deferential, treatment of defilers of our natural resources and that will instead penalize them to the full extent of the law. We need a governor and a government that will end the headlong rush toward hydraulic fracturing and all its wastefulness and dangers, and that will oppose the next rush – should it re-occur, as it has twice now -- toward offshore drilling in the most turbulent, storm-tossed waters of eastern America, with drilling proposed from floating platforms in waters known and feared the world over as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
We need a new governor and a new government that will end such other practices of the current regime as: 1/ gerrymandering our legislative and congressional districts, which has occurred to such an astonishing, illegal extent that federal courts have found two districts unconstitutional and sent them back to the General Assembly for redrafting, resulting in a new map as bad as the old, and an ongoing electoral mess; 2/ suppressing the vote, attempting to stifle the fullest possible participation by citizens in our democracy in various methodical ways and calling this stifling a campaign to end voter fraud, in an honest state where there is virtually none; 3/ placing higher taxes on all manner of repairs and services, regressive taxes that will hit hardest those among us with the lowest incomes; 4/ interposing political, ideological judgments between women and their physicians; and the list, quite unfortunately, does go on.
Two to three million new North Carolinians will be born here or will come here over the next fourteen years – how can we possibly be ready for them then when the state is ill-serving the people who are here now? We who are gathered on the State Capitol Grounds today urge our fellow citizens all across the state to keep the faith and to help write a far better story for the future of the Old North State. We believe that the people can, will and must put North Carolina back onto its progressive course, the course that for decades made our state a beloved beacon across the South and the nation. Let this be one small moment toward that great purpose, and let Tuesday, November the 8th, Election Day 2016, be a much grander one.
***
Those here assenting to this statement are:
Alex Albright Fountain
Jeffrey Beam Hillsborough
Barb Bennett Chapel Hill
Belle Boggs Pittsboro
Hodding Carter Chapel Hill
David Cecelski Durham
Diane Chamberlain Raleigh
Kim Church Raleigh
Angela Davis-Gardner Raleigh
Jim Dodson Greensboro
Larry Earley Raleigh
Clyde Edgerton Wilmington
Georgann Eubanks Carrboro
Mike Gaspeny Greensboro
Allan Gurganus Hillsborough
Fred Hobson Chapel Hill
Brenda Jernigan Fayetteville
Randall Kenan Hillsborough
Jill McCorkle Hillsborough
Lucinda McKethan Raleigh
Janna McMahan Raleigh
Margaret Maron Willow Springs
Thomas Mills Carrboro
Katy Munger Durham
Gene Nichol Chapel Hill
Elaine Orr Raleigh
Beverly Patterson Chapel Hill
Dan Patterson Chapel Hill
David Payne Hillsborough
Peggy Payne Raleigh
David Perry Carrboro
Tom Rankin Hillsborough
Terry Roberts Asheville
Robert Rubin Fuquay Varina
John Russell Raleigh
Jim Seay Chapel Hill
Ann Simpson Chapel Hill
Bland Simpson Chapel Hill
Lee Smith Hillsborough
Stephen Smith Southern Pines
Chris Stamey Chapel Hill
Harry Watson Carrboro
Kevin Watson Winston Salem
Marsha Warren Chapel Hill
Cat Warren Durham
Those in absentia:
Daphne Athas Carrboro
John Balaban Raleigh
Joseph Bathanti Boone
Margaret Bauer Greenville
Margaret Baddour Goldsboro
Katherine Byer Cullowhee
Wayne Caldwell Asheville
Wiley Cash Wilmington
Diane Chamberlain Raleigh
Mike Chitwood Chapel Hill
Jim Clark Wilson
Noelle Crook Raleigh
Nancy Demorest Hillsborough
Stephen Demorest Hillsborough
Bronwen Dickey Durham
Nina Di Gramont Wilmington
Pam Durban Chapel Hill
David Gessner Wilmington
Therese Fowler Raleigh
Alice Gerard Durham
Philip Gerard Wilmington
Marianne Gingher Greensboro
Judy Goldman Charlotte
Jaki Shelton Green Mebane
Minrose Gwin Chapel Hill
Maria Henson Winston Salem
Marjorie Hudson Pittsboro
Holly Goddard Jones Greensboro
John Kessel Raleigh
Haven Kimmel Raleigh
Richard Krawiec Chapel Hill
Dorianne Laux Raleigh
William Leuchtenberg Chapel Hill
Zelda Lockhart Hillsborough
Michael Malone Hillsborough
Melissa Malouf Durham
Elizabeth Matheson Hillsborough
Michael McFee Durham
Tift Merritt Raleigh
Joe Millar Raleigh
Robin Miura Chapel Hill
Duncan Murrell Pittsboro
Joe Newberry Raleigh
Val Nieman Greensboro
Michael Parker Greensboro
Nancy Peacock Hillsborough
Drew Perry Greensboro
Steven Petrow Hillsborough
Carmine Prioli Hillsborough
Ron Rash Cullowhee
Shannon Ravenel Durham
Celia Rivenbark Wilmington
Ruth Salvaggio Chapel Hill
Sarah Shaber Raleigh
Bill Smith Carrboro
Elizabeth Spencer Chapel Hill
John Jeremiah Sullivan Wilmington
Daniel Wallace Chapel Hill
Susan West Hatteras
Lynn York Carrboro
Lee Zacharias Greensboro
Writers raised in this state and no longer living here who remain loyal followers and
political supporters:
Ben Fountain TX
Charles Frazier FL
Robert Morgan NY
And we wish we could call the names of those great North Carolina voices who are
no longer with us but surely if they were, would be standing here with us today.
****
Those gathered at the Capitol then sent their thoughts, prayers and blessings toward Nancy Olsen, longtime Quail Ridge Books owner and a very great supporter of North Carolina’s literary life.
The session ended with a unison reading of the state toast:
The North Carolina State Toast
HERE'S TO THE LAND OF THE LONG LEAF PINE
THE SUMMER LAND WHERE THE SUN DOTH SHINE
WHERE THE WEAK GROW STRONG,
AND THE STRONG GROW GREAT
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
SO RAISE A GLASS TO A LAND SO FAIR
WHERE FRIENDS ARE TRUE, AND A COLD HEART RARE
THAT DEAR OLD LAND, WHATEVER FATE
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
HERE'S TO DOWN HOME, THE OLD NORTH STATE
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