NC bill to shield Confederate memorials advances amid debate

[struggle4progress]

John Moritz, Associated Press
Updated 6:46 pm, Wednesday, July 15, 2015

... In April, the Senate passed a bill banning the removal of "objects of remembrance" from public property. The action came nearly two months before the deadly shootings at a historic African-American church in South Carolina that sparked a wave of negative sentiment against Confederate relics. In one of the most high-profile cases, the South Carolina legislature voted last week to remove a Confederate Flag flying on the grounds of the State House.

In a meeting of a North Carolina House committee Wednesday, however, Republicans defended the legislation to protect historic monuments, rebuffing arguments from Democrats who said the bill was protecting images deemed offensive by many North Carolinians, especially minorities. The committee voted to approve the bill and send it to the full House.

The bill would bar state or local authorities from permanently removing an object on public land that "commemorates an event, person or military service that is part of North Carolina's history." Removing such an object would require an act by the General Assembly to be approved by the governor ...

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/NC-bill-to-shield-memorials-advances-amid-6386760.php

[Jamastiene]

1. I can't wait until McCrory and his band of Tea Party jerks are gone.

I am so sick of McCrory.

[D Gary Grady]

2. The amazing thing is how much worse the legislature is than McCrory

For example, Governor McCrory vetoed the "religious freedom" act that allows registers of deeds and magistrates to refuse to perform weddings for six months if any wedding comes up that conflicts with their religious belief (same-sex, mixed-race, etc.). He said they've taken an oath to carry out the law and they should do so regardless of personal beliefs. The legislature promptly overrode the veto. There have been a number of conflicts between the governor and the legislature like this. Basically, McCrory is a right-wing pro-corporate Republican, but the legislature is full of flakes who think the Tea Party is too socialist.

This is an amazing transformation in just a few years. The state used to have a remarkably progressive government for a Southern state. In the 60s it elected pro-integration Terry Sanford. Tar Heels long idealized the late Dean Smith, the pro-integration basketball coach at Carolina. More recently North Carolina created the only government agency in the country dedicated to overturning the convictions of people convicted of felonies if there was evidence of their innocence, and it tried to crack down on crooked payday lenders (which managed to hang out by partnering with federally chartered banks). True, it also kept electing Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate. But the state government was on the whole not bad.

Then huge piles of cash enabled the GOP to take over in time for redistricting, which led to gerrymandering and the current extreme-right legislature. I realize this is all old news, but it's frustrating and downright embarrassing.