Things here in the old north state have gone a bit wacky and off the rails. The scariness started a year ago with an amendment to the state constitution baring same sex marriage and since then things have been terrifying for those of us who are progressive. Currently we have a state legislature and a governor who are right of Attila the Hun.
Since storming into control in Raleigh the governor and his henchmen in the General Assembly have gone after everything from Dorthea Dix hospital to teacher tenure. The former governor crafted a deal with the city of Raleigh to lease the Dorthea Dix mental hospital to the city of Raleigh. Raleigh would create a regional park on the campus. The legislature cancelled a SIGNED CONTRACT. Talk about bad precedence. If a binding contract can be unilaterally terminated because a signor to such has had a change of mind, well then the whole rule of law has just been sent through the paper shredder. More reasonable behavior would have been a meeting to renegotiate.
Teachers in our state now will get no pay raise...AGAIN. The public system is being gutted by an ill conceived voucher system for charter schools and teacher tenure is gone. I sure hope the educators in the conservative counties in the east and west remember this come election time.
In North Carolina seventh graders must now be taught that abortion can impact future pregnancies. This at the whim of the legislature. I wonder if the mental midgets in Raleigh will legislate that drinking or using tobacco can also impact pregnancy. I doubt it.
Voting rights in this state have been gutted by a twenty first century version of a poll tax. Voters now will have less time to vote, less time to register, may be challenged at the poll by anyone registered in their county, thus nullifying their vote. Additionally, those who are poor, who don't drive, who live in the state's urban centers must now have a state issued photo id in order to vote. Um, I wonder who that requirement is aimed at? Could it be poor Democrats? Of course.
There is so much moor that this evil General Assembly has been up to. So to those thinking about North Carolina, don't. Stay away because for the foreseeable future this is one scary place to live.
