The way the news reports it, you would think that the participants in “Moral Monday” were moral crusaders. And indeed, the participants and organizers of “Moral Monday” certainly encourage that perception. Writing in the Guardian, William Barber compared his merry band of lawbreakers – disproportionately comprised of old, white liberals – to Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arrested UNC history professor Jacquelyn Dowd Hall agreed: “There are many analogies to what happened during the Civil Rights movement.” And in one particularly nauseating account, Jedediah Purdy compares himself to Henry David Thoreau, a “militant watchman of his own authority.”
These comparisons do great violence to the memories of those activists. Ghandi marched 240 miles on foot to protest British policies in India. Martin Luther King faced down fire hoses, bombings, and police dogs in Birmingham. Henry David Thoreau was furious when friends bailed him out of jail, believing that prison time was a crucial part of triggering reform.
And then you have this:
“They got us processed in about two hours,” [NC NAACP Vice President Carolyn] Coleman said Thursday. “Which is good, because I had a church meeting to get to in Greensboro.”
And this:
“[Duke professor William] Chafe referred to his short incarceration as a ‘great time’ that allowed the protesters to make new friendships and have wide-ranging conversations. Additionally, the protesters all sang together throughout their eight to 10-hour stays in prison.”
And this:
“When they came to arrest me, I handed my big umbrella to one of the capitol policemen as if he were my valet…In the photos, I guess I look enough like a prisoner if you know the context, but I could also be a colonial administrator strolling, hands clasped behind his back, flanked by his batmen.”
At a certain point, you have to wonder what kind of fantasy world these people live in to compare themselves to King, Thoreau, and Ghandi. The truth is that Moral Monday protesters are undercutting the democratic process, costing taxpayers a boatload of money, and clogging an already overloaded criminal justice system.
Saul Alkisky’s Rules for Radicals was NOT on Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr ‘s reading list.
There is a huge difference between community organizing to steal things away from people and bully, and the Civil Rights movement that started with American and British abolitionists, and Booker T. Washington and involved Dr. King and hundreds other American men and women.
Protecting Civil Rights and Constitutional liberties is NOT what these protesters are doing, no matter how filled with pride they may be.
Trying to steal power and control , by brute force- is NOT the same thing as pursing Constitutional Civil liberties for American individuals.
These current day protesters need to learn a thing or two about the history Civil Rights in this country.
They are far closer aligned to Malcom X, than Dr. King.
@Cary Resident: Can you please explain with greater breadth of facts to the readers here how individuals collectively protesting the actions of the current administration are not aligned with “protecting civil rights and Constitutional liberties”? While doing so, please also explain the difference in their actions and that of the super majority when you speak of “stealing power and control by brute force”. I believe you have overlooked a great many facts that have led up to this present situation. Convenient or unintentional, either way your statements are baseless per what you have provided thus far.
And lastly, are you suggesting that the protester’s with their issues at hand need to be trampled upon for the next several years by racists and bigots (as with Martin Luther King’s plight) before society finally gets the message? Do we never learn from our past mistakes?
If you want to talk about bullying, start with your own site. Posting the pictures of protesters along with their personal information is a blatant attempt to intimidate and ridicule. What are you hoping people will do with this information? If some crackpot goes after one of these people, we’ll know who is responsible. I find your tactics reprehensible. If you want to debate,that’s fine. I’m all for that. But when you step into personal invective and intimidation, you’re going too far. And you wonder why people are angry with conservatives?
Civil disobedience is democracy. When those in power refuse to listen to their constituents, and I mean all of them, not just those inside the echo chamber, then very few other alternatives exist. I thank god we live in a country where these things are settled without bullets and bombs.
These protests will not stop just because they are inconvenient or because they are costing the government money. Contrary to current opinion the people are the government. It is my taxes that pay for the extra security. I’m ok with it. It is a drop in the bucket compared to the money your side is draining from the veins of this state’s poor because of your oppressive policies.
By the way, my stats: Native American, democrat, Belmont, Native North Carolinian, 46 years old, married and pissed off. Deal with it.
Moral Mondays must really upset Civitas and the Pope.