N.C. - Moral Monday #9: 72 arrested; 682 so far
Source: Daily Kos
Paul Krugman explained the individual and overall effects of North Carolina's "war on the unemployed" in his June 30 column. (snip)
We see Krugman's analysis in action every day. A friend of mine who was laid off in January 2012 has applied for no fewer than 385 jobs in the past 18 months. The former law-enforcement administrator even applied for a security job at a local museum; there were so many applications for that position that the museum's human resources department lacked personnel to contact all of the applicants when the position lost funding and was closed. Starting yesterday, the date that the governor's refusal to accept the federal emergency unemployment tier of his unemployment benefits went into effect, my friend and his wife must subsist on the $1,177/month Social Security Disability Insurance check his wife receives because a terminal illness prevents her from working.
As Krugman points out in his column, the unemployment compensation my friend was receiving went directly into the state and local economy; it's difficult to sock away $299 a week in IRAs and hedge funds when that's your entire income. Although my friend may improve his own personal situation by taking a part-time position that just came available at a local thrift shop, living off of those meager wages of less than $100 a week will in no way improve the state's economy. There is no way Gov. McCrory's plan to grow the Tar Heel economy by tanking 70,000 unemployed people will make the lives of North Carolinians better. Do the math.
Here in North Carolina, we know too many friends, family members, and acquaintances who are facing the effects of being the first state in the U.S. to turn down federal unemployment aid. That may be the reason several thousand North Carolinians braved occasionally torrential rain (we're facing a number of flash-flood situations here) yesterday and gathered at the Halifax Mall between the General Assembly Building and the Legislative Office Building to speak out against the inhuman policies embraced by our newly elected Republican/Tea Party supermajority and our Republican governor and his Americans for Prosperity budget director.
Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/02/1220617/-N-C-Moral-Monday-9-72-arrested-682-so-far?showAll=yes
Forward together, not one step back.
Even if you can't make it to Raleigh to take part in Moral Monday or Witness Wednesday, you can be part of the movement by contributing to the NAACP-NC legal-defense fund. The NAACP-NC sponsors the Moral Monday and Witness Wednesday activities and provides legal defense for those who are arrested for peaceably assembling to pray and sing inside the N.C. General Assembly hallways.
682 arrested 
and a 4th of July shout out to all the supporters
who are showing up and keeping the vigil
= new reply since forum marked as read
