This week in North Carolina started with 49 arrests at the N.C. General Assembly -- arrests of people peaceably assembled and singing songs of peace and unity to protest the ALEC-ification of our state. This brings the total number of civil-disobedience arrests so far to 96, including 17 arrests April 29, 30 arrests on May 6, and 49 arrests on May 13.
More arrests are expected on May 20, the next "Moral Monday" called by the N.C. NAACP and its coalition partners in protest of the Republican supermajority's ramrodding of nearly 2,000 bills -- many of them designed to decimate public education, deny/restrict access to health insurance, kneecap labor rights, seize local control from elected municipal governments, restrict women's access to reproductive healthcare, expand firearms permissions, eviscerate oversight boards, permit exploitation of public lands, implement "fracking" and other environmental abuses, and suppress voter rights -- through the state legislature since the end of January.
Here's a great video published online by UpWorthy that tells the story of those arrested and why they chose to make this statement. This is not a small effort. The 96 people who've chosen to sit, stand, and sing in the hallways of the N.C. General Assembly are backed by thousands of North Carolinians who are coming to the NCGA to be heard. (See the footage around 6:50 into the video clip.)
This is the beginning of a groundswell moment in North Carolina history: the tipping point at which Tar Heelinians let our legislators know, in no uncertain terms, that they either serve the state with the consent or the governed or we will withdraw our consent. But we will not back down. We will not go back. We've worked too hard and paid too much to be dragged back in time by the "secret political societies" our state's constitution authors warned us about.