By JOHN NORTH
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The Rev. William Barber said Aug. 4 in Asheville that North Carolina’s General Assembly and the governor’s office are occupied by too many “right-wing political extremists” who must be voted out of office by a huge margin in November’s election to achieve a much-needed shift “in the center of political gravity” in the state.
Barber, the state’s NAACP president, was the keynote speaker during a Mountain Moral Monday rally that evening in downtown’s Pack Square. The sky was cloud-filled during the first hour of the event, but a few minutes into Barber’s address, the sun broke through and continued to shine brightly until he finished. Then the clouds returned.
The turnout — about 3,500, according to a police estimate — was down significantly from last year’s inaugural event, which drew about 10,000 people.
To the strains of a recording of the 1979 disco song “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” Barber, surrounded by a full security escort, walked onto the stage, waving and smiling — and was greeted like a rock star by the crowd.
After several verses and choruses of the song were played, in which Barber and the crowd sang along, an enthused Barber asked the crowd to sing it back to him — a cappella-style — and the crowd eagerly obliged. The emotional effect appeared to fire up the rally attendees even more.
(According to Wikipedia, “‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ — originally performed by the rhythm and blues duo McFadden & Whitehead — is about succeeding despite having faced previous disadvantages (‘so many things that held us down’). It was widely interpreted to be about the experience of the African-American community, and after attaining popularity, became referred to as ‘the new black national anthem.’”)
The rally was hosted by the Mountain People’s Assembly, a coalition of Western North Carolina organizations, and the WNC NAACP branches. The event’s highlight was a 30-minute address by Barber.
In addition, there were a number of other speakers, as well as musicians and poetry slam performers. The entire early-evening event ran for nearly two hours. After Barber’s speech, which ended 90 minutes into the program, many in the crowd dispersed, as three remaining speakers — one-by-one — voiced their viewpoints to a rapidly diminishing audience.
After the crowd settled down from singing “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” the fiery Barber said, “Forward together!” and, in a semi call-and-response cadence many in the crowd joined him in adding, “Not one step backward!”
While Barber said he was born at “near sea level” in Eastern North Carolina, “I’ve grown to love these mountains.” His love of the area was forged years ago, Barber said, when he became long-time friends with the late Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville resident who had stepped down as Senate minority leader just before his March 6 death at age 67 from stomach cancer.
“Martin Nesbitt was my great friend,” Barber said. With a laugh, he added that Nesbitt told him years ago that “progressive mountain activism” means “you don’t kick people while they’re down — you help them,” instead. The political philosophy, he said, quoting Nesbitt, is “to build a fair and just community for everyone.”
Barber noted that he and Nesbitt agreed that “there’s not a lot of difference between progressive mountain activism and civil rights activism.
“Societies will be judged (by future generations) by how we care for the least” affluent, he said. “All political power should only be used for the good of our community.”
Barber added that “North Carolina’s Constitution, which was written 146 years ago, says the first duty of the state is: How we treat the vulnerable.”
He also said that those at the bottom economic rungs “never should be relegated to the margins of our social consciousness.”
“These are not part of the right-left debate, these are the centerpieces of our democracy.”
At that point, Barber, who has been the most visible and persistent thorn in the sides of the Republican-dominated state legislator and of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, charged that the state’s residents are being hoodwinked with “the extremist tea party legislation” led by Gov. McCrory, along with Thom Tillis, speaker of the House; and Phil Berger, president pro tem of the Senate.
All three — McCrory, Tillis and Berger — “call themselves Republicans,” he scoffed, “but have governed as far-right extremists.” He then modified his assertion to include, from WNC, state Sens. Tim Moffitt, R-Arden; and Tom Apodaca, R-Hendersonville. Apodaca is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. (Notably, Barber did not include Republican Sen. Nathan Ramsey, R-Fairview.)
While the crowd strongly booed the five aforementioned Republicans, Barber said he wanted to show “love” to the men because “we don’t want you (the five) to go down on the wrong side of history” as a result of their policies.
“You’re wrong,” he said of their policies. “You’re wrong to even call yourselves ‘Republicans.’”
Barber, emphasizing that he wanted to ensure that the Moral Monday political movement was inclusive and broad, then singled out a number of Republican presidents and even a relative, who, he said, were “real Republicans.”
For instance, he said, “Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,” helping both black and white Americans. “My granddaddy was a ‘reasonable Republican.’”
He also named Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower as “reasonable Republicans,” among others.
“Republicans and Democrats alike signed off on the Civil Rights Act” and other legislation that benefited those on the margins. “Even Ronald Reagan supported the earned income tax credits... So when these ‘Republicans’ (in Raleigh) don’t support earned income tax credits,” Barber questioned if they qualified as “real Republicans.”
“Now the party has been hijacked by extremists who are using their power” to benefit their corporate and well-healed supporters, Barber charged.
“This is a fight for the future and the soul of our state,” he said, as the crowd cheered. “They (the Republican legislators) can’t debate us, especially on moral and social grounds.
“We know who we are. We are black, white” — and he named a number of other races and ethnicities. “We are Democrats and even are Republicans... We stand as a diverse group of many colors to fight for our state. We are North Carolina. This is what diversity looks like,” Barber said, gesturing to the crowd, which cheered.
“This fight is about the moral center of our (state) politics.”
In mocking the governor and the GOP-dominated legislature, Barber said, “If you really want a great North Carolina, take orders from the tea party” and what he termed “the voter suppression council.”
He added, “Despite McCrory, Tillis, Berger” and others’ talk “about being in the middle of a ‘Carolina Comeback,’ it’s really the ‘Carolina Setback.’”
Barber asserted, “Now, they’re trying to pull the Okie-Dokie. They’re trying to portray Mr. Tillis as a moderate” in his campaign for U.S. Senate against Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat.
Noting that he once had an uncle who said that if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. To that same end, Barber said, regarding his accusation that Tillis is a right-wing extremist: “You’ve got to own it now, Mr. Tillis.”
Barber said the Republican legislator in Raleigh are out-of-step with most North Carolina voters, citing polls show most voters opposed cutting property taxes and instead increasing sales taxes and that most oppose fracking and other environmental changes that are being considered.
“Interestingly enough, they’re raising teachers’ pay by cutting education” funding elsewhere. With a wry laugh, Barber quipped, “They’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. They’re robbing Paul to pay Paul... Don’t they know teachers can do math?” The crowd cheered.
“Our (Moral Monday) movement has powe because it has an agenda of love and hope,” Barber said, noting that it favors a green economy, labor rights, full employment, fair immigration policies, quality public education and “that we should celebrate our teachers.”
“We believe, in North Carolina, that we can have health care for all and that we can protect our environment,” Barber said, to cheers from the crowd. “And we believe, in North Carolina, that we can protect and expand voting rights.
He said for 67 weeks, as well as eight years before that in a less direct way, the Moral Monday movement has been rolling, led by the state NAACP.
“We have built and reached out to unlock our allies... And thanks to your actions, we’ve shifted the center of political gravity in North Carolina.
As evidence, he said when McCrory took office, his approval rating was 50 percent and it’s now down to 30 percent. For the legislature, the results are even more bleak, beginning at 40 percent and dropping now to 18 percent.
Suddenly, Barber shouted, “Someone say, ‘The costs too high!”
The crowd obliged, yelling back, enthusiastically, “The costs too high!”
Barber then said: When we suppress the vote,” and the crowd yelled, “The cost’s too high.” He continued on several other issues, with the crowd responding with the same refrain.
“So today is not just Mountain Moral Monday, it’s the beginning of the march to the polls” in November. “We need CNBC (cable television news) and the others to say after the votes are tallied in November, “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Barber asked for action from the crowd, asserting, “It’s time for the new South to rise again!”
During the civil rights era, Barber said those who were in the movement “didn’t have the money, the political votes, but they did not turn back... They lifted up the religious principles of love and justice — and they won.
“They changed the world because they would not turn back. And I say to you today, ‘We cannot turn back.’
“It is our birthright. We were born to fight for what is right. And so, together, we’ll fight extremism... Let’s speak truth to power.... I heard when mountain folk get together, you are a force to be reckoned with, especially when someone is crazy enough to ‘poke the bear.’”
In concluding, Barber said, “When we all get together ... what a day, what a day, what a day it will be. Someone say, ‘Yeah!’” The crowd gave him a sustained standing ovation.
|