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Losing King's hard-fought victories

Submitted by scharrison on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 12:57pm

It's easier to lose civil rights than than to gain them back:

And yet today, in the country and in North Carolina, we see evidence that there is a retreat from progress. Voter I.D. laws are in part an attempt to suppress the votes of the poor and the elderly, two groups likely to vote for more moderate Democrats. School vouchers, using public money to allow people to send their kids to private schools, would drain the public schools of resources and likely hurt poor and minority families who count on public education to fulfill their dreams for their children.

What we're seeing today is evidence, if people were willing to look at it, that the Civil Rights Act and other corrective measures were necessary. And moving backwards on these issues will make our country (and our state) a more dim beacon for freedom for the rest of the world to look at.

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Powerful words for equality, voting, & civil rights

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 5:29pm.

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.