Why I Support the Moral Monday Demonstrations

This is a video interview for my friend Lane Fouchee. He asked, Why did you go to the Moral Monday demonstrations? What are the issues you protested against? And, what are your concerns with the current legislature? The response I elucidated upon in this video is below: I went because I believe in participatory government. I believe that a government of the people, by the people and for the people requires the input of the people. I went because our current NC government has been able to ignore the people by ignoring our phone calls and letters and requests for meetings....but they can't ignore us on their front lawn. They may not meet with us but it becomes clear to the entire state that they are ignoring their constituents and listening only to the big corporations they are serving, corporations like Duke Energy. I wouldn't say that I protested against anything. I was there to raise awareness about things. My big one is voter rights. The republicans are redistricting to ensure future republican victories while denying people their right to vote by getting rid of early voting, instituting voter ID laws, taxing the parents of children who vote in this districts where they go to college rather than the parent's home district, closing early voting, closing voter registration for high school students and at many other places. They are deliberately robbing people of their right to vote and that is unamerican. Other issues that concern me are the assault on the social safety net for the poor and elderly and unemployed, refusing to implement Obamacare, giving away the federal stimulus funds that would have made us a hub in the national high speed rail system, attempts to take away a woman's right to choose an abortion or to speak to her doctor without an pre-approved script full of bad medical information and lies created by legislators while also being forced to take a transvaginal ultrasound she doesn't need, and to pay for it, AND to look at it whether she wants to or not! It is rape. There are also terrible environmental issues that must be addressed -- coal ash, fracking, hog lagoons. And there are animal issues too. Our state is trying to make a crime punishable to the same measure as animal cruelty to film and report on animal cruelty on factory farms. Our state government is so eaten up by corporate-handouts, that we are close to a fascist state. Finally, we need campaign finance reform! Art Pope and the Koch brothers should not be able to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing our elections just because they own corporations! My concerns about our current legislators is that they work for corporations and not for the people of North Carolina. The fact that they refused Medicare dollars to help insure the poor and they turned down federal dollars for both the high speed rail system AND to extend unemployment insurance makes it clear that they don't care about the people of this state. What legislator in their right mind turns down three major sources of income for their state?