Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread where we get together every weekend to share with everyone what we're all up to in Western North Carolina and beyond. We hope this group serves to invigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope this community can help leverage our orange passion for progressive politics to elect more and better Democrats.
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This week's edition continues our recent focus on the upcoming Moral Monday Rally in Asheville on Monday, August 4th at 5:00 pm
Our regional community of Kossacks will use the opportunity to get together before the event in downtown Asheville for some food and commraderie. A mini-meet-up actually. Please join the discussion below and come to Asheville next Monday for good friends, good politics and powerful purpose. Meet-up details and links to Moral Monday movement stories under the squiggle.
Meet-up for DKos Asheville
Where: Rosetta's Kitchen in downtown Asheville. Menu and Directions to 111 Broadway St
Asheville, NC.
When: Monday, August 4th at 2:00 pm
What: A pre-rally meet-up for Kossacks with food, fun and discussion. We will walk to the rally afterwards with hopes of getting a good spot up close.
What to bring: Lunch money, signs, hats, sun glasses and passion.
The following articles are included to give our readers some different perspectives on the Moral Monday movement and it's leader, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II.
Have a great day, see you on August 4th!
Mountain Express
The ‘Mountain Moral Monday’ rally will return to downtown Asheville Aug. 4, aiming to bring together thousands of people from across the region to protest what they see as destructive state policies and help get out the vote in this year’s election.
The event is being organized by the Mountain People’s Assembly, a coalition of WNC organizations, and regional WNC NAACP branches. It’s billed as a nonpartisan event but, like the related Moral Monday protests in Raleigh, is fueled by frustration with Republican state policies.
The event will feature Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of the NC NAACP and other guest speakers, as well as unannounced musical entertainment. It runs from 5-6:30 pm at Pack Square Park.
Last year’s Mountain Moral Monday was one of the area’s largest protests in modern history, with some estimating a crowd of up to 10,000.
Mountain Moral Monday
The Mountain People’s Assembly, a coalition of WNC organizations, and regional WNC NAACP Branches, will host the return of Mountain Moral Monday, a non-partisan program that will highlight the destructive policies enacted by the N.C. statehouse over the past year while strongly focusing on the voter empowerment campaign, “Moral March to the Polls.”
The event will feature Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of the NC NAACP and other guest speakers, as well as musical entertainment. In addition, there will be opportunities for participants to get involved in voter registration, education and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) efforts during the current mid-term election cycle. ‘Moral Freedom Summer’ Organizers and volunteers will be available to help register voters.
“This is no momentary hyperventilation and liberal screaming match. This is a movement. Instead of depressing us, they’ve made us determined to fight. Instead of dividing us, they have united us.” – Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II – Pres. NC NAACP
Pittsburg Courier
Reverend William Barber, organizer of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, spoke at Wesley Center AMEZ Church in the Hill District June 28.
Reverend Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C., and president of the North Carolina NAACP, helped found the Moral Monday movement in 2013 to counteract efforts in his state to slash funding for education and unemployment, block Medicaid expansion and curb voting rights.
The protests, which began in April 2013 when Barber organized a modest 100-person march to the state Capitol, have since given birth to a national movement against right-wing policies at the state level.
The United Steelworkers, Fight Back Pittsburgh, the NAACP and a number of other Pittsburgh-area labor and community groups sponsored Rev. Barber’s visit.
Labor, community and clergy came together to discuss how to use Rev. Barber’s example to make Pittsburgh the most livable city for all Pittsburghers.
The American Prospect
Fifty years after the murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, North Carolina activists move from civil disobedience to big voter mobilization push.
The movement, founded by Barber in 2013 and backed by dozens of church and advocacy groups, is temporarily shifting its attention away from the civil-disobedience protests that yielded more than 1,000 arrests. Between now and Election Day in November, Moral Monday leaders plan to concentrate on local communities and a federal courtroom, confronting what Barber calls “the most regressive voter-suppression law passed by any state in this country since Jim Crow.”