World News Korner

Saturday's "Moral March" in Raleigh, N.C. against GOP policies attracts thousands.

Courtesy of the Washington Times:

Following a year marked by hundreds of arrests and national publicity but few policy victories, leaders of the movement opposing the Republican agenda in North Carolina vowed Saturday to keep fighting and to speak clearly at the ballot box in 2014.

Thousands of people angry with GOP policies approved in 2013 were energized while attending the “Moral March on Raleigh,” the largest gathering of its kind since weekly Monday protests began last spring at the Legislative Building.

“We return to Raleigh with a renewed strength and a renewed sense of urgency,” the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP shouted to a packed crowd that extended at least three blocks along Fayetteville Street south from the old Capitol building. “This Moral March inaugurates a fresh year of grassroots empowerment, voter education, litigation and nonviolent direct action.”

Event organizers said people from more than 30 states planned to attend the rally, a reflection of the spread of the “Moral Monday” protests to nearby Southern states. It was a diverse group of rally participants who chanted, sang and danced at the end, waving placards on topics ranging from campaign finance and education funding to gay rights and abortion rights.

“Someone can say, ‘what can one man or one woman do?” asked Kirkland Carden, 25, a Georgia State University student who traveled with Planned Parenthood organizers to participate. “But when everybody comes here, you get waves like this.”

These marches have been going on for the last seven years or so, but now they are growing in number, and Saturday's was the biggest thus far.

There is a lot to like about this movement.

It is an indication that the progressives in red states are fed up and not going to take it anymore, which is good news for all of us.

It is also an indication that despite the lack of news coverage, until recently that is, they have no intention of giving up.

But my favorite thing about the movement is that they are taking back ownership of the word "moral."

No longer will those on the Right be able to claim moral superiority (Which of course they never really had.) over those of a different political persuasion.

In fact, considering the policies they have passed to oppress women, the LGBT community, and minorities, I think a strong case can be made that just the opposite is true.

Source