According to Article 11 Section 4 of the North Carolina State Constitution “Beneficent provision to the poor, the unfortunate, and the orphaned is the first duty of a civilized state and a christian state.”
The policies we see passed that deny healthcare, deny voting rights and deny living wages are uncivilized, according to the North Carolina State Constitution. If we ever needed to vote for democracy and justice we sure do need to vote now.
Tonight 87 million people in America are uninsured or underinsured. The United States is the only developed country that does not have some form of universal healthcare. Here your healthcare is attached to your employment and not your humanity. That’s a policy decision.
The numbers tell us that poor and low-wealth voters don’t vote against thier self-interest they tend to vote progressive. A lot of them just don’t vote because nobody talks to them. If we ever needed to vote for democracy and justice we sure do need to vote now.
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WATCH: "If We Ever Needed to Vote..." | A National Sermon by Bishop William J. Barber, II twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
Policy itself is not benign, policy that is not done right, the Bible says, is evil. Policy that does not center the least of these is unjust.
The pain of denying of healthcare and the denying of living-wages is because people who were elected passed policy that denied. If policy caused the problem, then policy can fix the problem.
50 million voters could have less voting opportunities this year than they had in 2020. We should never talk about voting rights and voter suppression as a Black issue, we should be talking about it as a threat to democracy and dis-aggregate how it hurts everybody!
The right to vote is not partisan, our right to vote is borne out of struggle, borne out of sacrifice. Our votes are not mere support for personalities or particular candidates, our votes are demands!
Truth is, we should end student loan debt & $10k is a step forward, not the entirety of what is needed. But to some of those critizing Biden on student debt: where have you been on challenging corporations to pay living wages & demanding Congress pass a $15 minimum wage…
Or demanding corporations fully support the complete restoration of voting rights & the original For the People Act? Where have you been on paid family leave, & universal health care? Or stopping pipelines thru poor, low-wage & Native lands?
We can’t pick & choose on these issues—loud about the amount of federal relief on student loans but almost muted on living wages.
These issues are not just about Black people, but all people— especially the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this nation.
Let us take a moment to remember all those who fought and died for the cause of voting rights before today. Let us keep thier memory alive by the work we do. #UnlockOurVoteNC
Nowhere does it say we should be forever locked out of the democratic process. To do this, is to cause a voter enslavement, enslaving the votes of thousands and slavery was made unconstitutional by the 13th Amendment. #UnlockOurVoteNC