Taking Down Dixie's Last Political Stand in North Carolina

North Carolina is so everything that the current covey of Koch Brothers stooges in charge of the state are not: temperate, reasonable, accommodating, caring, committed to fairness.

And just as Wake County reclaimed its schools from the ideologues sent in to destroy socioeconomic integration of schools, the voters of North Carolina will do the same.

From Alternet, a nice piece.  A clip here:

It was a proud day for this Raleigh native. On Saturday, a crowd of riled-up citizens the North Carolina NAACP estimated to be upwards of 80,000—the largest such gathering in the South since the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march—headed to the state capitol to protest the extremist policies of North Carolina's GOP-controlled legislature.

Black and white, young and old, gay and straight, the people gave voice to a full roster of outrages, from racist attacks on voting rights to the state government's refusal to expand Medicaid to half a million vulnerable Tar Heels to limitations on women's reproductive freedom. From a four-year-old girl carrying a sign that read "Nope to Pope!" (referring to Art Pope, the state's multimillionaire budget director and Koch ally) to the indomitable Rosa Nell Eaton, a 92-year-old veteran of the Civil Rights movement, they were united with one message: "Forward together, not one step back."

The Moral March on Raleigh, organized by the North Carolina NAACP, was the eighth annual march of what is known as the Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) People's Coalition, and a continuation of the Moral Monday demonstrations that took place in 2013, in which nearly 1,000 people (including my 81-year-old mother, a retired educator) were arrested.

There will be much chatter in the progressive media about this event (though there appears to be disappointingly little in the national press), some of it from people who have little experience with the South in general, or North Carolina in particular. Since the region's peculiar contradictions — and triumphs — were on full display Saturday, let me share a little perspective from one who grew up in these parts. . . .