Democracy North Carolina Blog » Democracy Summer 2011

Keepin’ It Movin…

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:14:17 +0000

As we finish up our last week of being interns for Democracy North Carolina and Democracy Summer wraps, we can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Coming into this internship, we were so ignorant. So unaware. We were energetic and full of pre-determined ideas but boy did that first day prove us wrong. The training as helpful and informing as it was, was only a mere glimpse of what the summer had in store for us and the depth of our capabilities. Through hundreds of phone banking shifts, dozens of one-on-ones & countless speaking engagements, we were molded into young activists. Suddenly, at the mention of Sunday Voting, came facts such as “2008 election – 37,000 North Carolinians voted on Sunday.” With talks of Voter ID came terms entailing “disenfranchisement” & “calculate effort” rolling through our lips. We surprised ourselves by speaking on television and radio interviews without needing assistance from our valiant organizer. Working weekends never seemed to irk us & days that turned into nights never crossed our minds. Thinking of it now, we realize it wasn’t our negligence that made us forget about the long hours we were working, nor was it because of the heavy work load. Rather, it was the fact that we were enjoying ourselves to such an extent that through all the long trips and tedious work days, we could always find ourselves laughing. We learned a lot from each other, and not just about organizing, but about ourselves as well. Our organizer became not only our boss, but also our confident. He taught us the importance of honesty and integrity. We watched in awe as he always managed to keep his word. Whether it was showing up for a rally, or attending back to back meetings across town, he never let people down. If it was one thing, we could take away from this summer, it’s that if you treat people with respect and prove yourself to be reliable, in turn people will always return the favor. This summer, we met all the types of people, tried various different international foods, and explored various parts of North Carolina. And through our experiences and our inside jokes, the summer seemed to fly past us. Looking back now, though Democracy Summer only lasted a mere two months, we’ve gone through changes and learned lessons that we will carry with us for a lifetime. Democracy Summer took us in as a couple of inexperienced rising juniors looking for a summer internship, it leaves us now as aspiring young organizers ready to take on whatever the world has in store for us.

One last time…
Maiysa Mesbah & Joyce Lutu

Holiday is Over

Winston-Salem Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:40:14 +0000

Holiday is Over

Despite taking a little time off for the July 4^th holiday, we came back energized and ready to go, getting a lot accomplished even with two shortened weeks. We spent a significant amount of time at the Green Bean Coffeehouse meeting with people and we were able to get a lot accomplished. We met with several elected officials – a State House Representative, a Mayor and a County Commissioner. They gave us their support for our endeavors this summer and offered a few contacts to meet with in the surrounding areas. But beyond just meeting those elected officials, who were a lot of help, we were also able to make some contacts within the college campuses nearby – particularly in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. During our college outreach, we were able to distribute information about our organization, discuss issues that are important to voters, as well as distribute college voter registration and GOTV guides.

Also, we spoke with the director of the Upward Bound program and successfully conducted 16/17 year old early registration during several of their classes. We attended a redistricting meeting on the campus of GTCC in Jamestown where the current Rucho map was being discussed. We are disappointed that a meeting is not being held closer for the residents in and around Forsyth County to attend.

Overall these two weeks have been very productive. We are continuing to meet with community leaders and elected officials, as well as continue our outreach to the various community service agencies in the area.

As Democracy Summer dwindles down, our main priority is making sure the citizens of the state are informed, and know that they can rely on us to provide any information that they may need in the future, because our motto is to establish a government that is “Of, For, and By the People!” We are ready to serve.

Kayla and Khadijah

Central North Carolina Team

The Ride to Raleigh to Rally

Winston-Salem Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:38:33 +0000

The Ride to Raleigh to Rally

On July 13, 2011, two vans from the Triad loaded up to attend the “Respect Our Vote, Protect Our Vote Rally” at the General Assembly to help prevent a devastating change to our voting rights. On this day they were expected to make a decision on HB-351, which is the bill requiring a government issued Photo ID and SB-47, a bill that would put an end to pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds and many other important voting rights issues.

In the Senate chamber, the Senators were reviewing the bills that Governor Beverly Purdue vetoed and they were debating whether to override her veto or sustain her veto. However HB-351 and SB-47 did not come up for review on this day, however they decided that July 25, 2011 will be the date they will discuss and vote.

Subsequently, they did discuss one bill that will affect many teachers in the state of North Carolina. The bill was vetoed by the governor who clearly felt that this bill poses an injustice to North Carolina educators and their right to payroll deduction of association dues. This bill is clearly an attack on our education system, just like the budget which cut funding for education, which will contribute to the laying off of our valued teachers, lowering the funding for financial aid which most students use, and as an end result, Universities and Colleges would have to increase the cost of attending as well as cut major courses and classes.

In conclusion, the days that are approaching are going to shape North Carolina into something no one can predict, except that we know it is not for the better. Let’s try to stop the injustice while we can so that citizens may predict a brighter future.

Khadijah and Kayla

Central North Carolina Team

Going Out With A Bang

Greenville Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:19:08 +0000

Once again our week started with our weekend =). We attended another block party which had a great turnout. The people that attended were really interested in our work, and what Democracy NC does. We even managed to get a few people registered to vote! Even though we are quickly approaching the end of Democracy Summer, we constantly remain busy. We are still devoting hours to researching service organizations in the 22 counties that make up Eastern North Carolina. We have found that locating them may be relatively easy, however contacting them is a challenge in and of itself. Many organizations have been hesitant to get involved with any type of voter education work, and it has been hard to try and convince them to do so. However we have been able to get through to a few organizations and have hopefully started partnerships that will last.

Slowly we have grown from just being concerned college students to real organizers. This summer has been marked with as many triumphs as there were difficulties, and we couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share them with. We are so thankful to all of the organizers and people we have met along the way, the summer would not have been the same without you. We aren’t quite sure what this last week holds in store for us, but know that we plan to go out with a bang!

Shaniqua and Jasmine

Too Close to Goodbye..

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:39:18 +0000

It’s the second to last week of Democracy Summer and it has been busy as ever. We began the week with our follow-up election reform meeting in Ashville on Saturday, the 16th. That turnout was about as rich as the one at our screening on the previous day. Again, thank you to our director, Adam Sotak who also joined us and to all who were present.
Monday bared face to our week’s plans as usual which consisted of: the redistricting meeting we had later that day, Tuesday’s rally for Erick Velasquillo and our Mecklenburg county research project, Wednesday’s League of Women Voters homeland security volunteering session and a visit to Shelby for our 4th tour stop, Thursday’s Buncombe county research project in addition to phone banking and Friday’s voter registration sitting. So far, we have completed all we planned to accomplish and are now awaiting a voter registration drive planned for this Saturday.
This summer has been work in it’s self but we will not fail to mention that it would not be as an amazing experience as it has been without our awesome Organizer, Robert Dawkins. He has clearly been goal-oriented and self-motivated to a level that would make us want to work and we loved it all! We are sitting once again in this office, preparing for another assignment, forcing the ‘end of the internship’ idea out of our heads and still thinking about the work coming up in our last week. If we haven’t learned anything from Robert, we have defiantly learned this: “It is always about a fight for our rights and it always will be from the beginning to the end.”

Maiysa Mesbah & Joyce Lutu

A Film Uncovering the Hidden: “Inside Job”

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:04:57 +0000

“The financial industry is a service industry. It should serve others before it serves itself.”
-Christine Lagarde

Friday the 15th marked our first official screening adventure. The YWCA had permitted us to show the “Inside Job” film and it was a great success! Overall, we were extremely pleased because we obtained approximately 30 petition signatures and were able to get people steamed up about the issue of bad money in politics. Greenpeace also co-sponsored the event with us and passed a petition of their own pertaining to the environments unclean air issue. Thank you to our wonderful organizing director, Adam Sotak, who also attended in our favor to help sign people in and explain the importance of why people need to sign and become active in trying to fight and eliminate bad money in politics. After the film, the audience helped themselves to the snacks provided and opened their minds to a heart welcoming discussion. They were pleased with the results of the event and were willing to help us reach our goals in dealing with the horrible topic. We were thrilled with the turn out and would like to thank everyone who helped out and attended our screening.

Maiysa Mesbah and Joyce Lutu

Rally of Raleigh

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:26:11 +0000

The different teams of Democracy North Carolina gathered on the sunny early afternoon of July the 13th to test our safety in numbers against the wrath of political economic power. It was the event of our rights! We began signing people in and just collecting in front of the government building while having speakers fire the people up. There were words of truth, encouragement and goal seizing. There were people from all walks who desired the same thing as far as their natural born rights are concerned. People waved posters for liberty’s sake and listened to the reason of our purpose. Organizations met and greeted one another as they set their focuses on full blast rejecting the bills that would force us to time travel back to when not everyone could vote. We watched in awe as our group captured the attention of the senate when we marched into the assembly’s meeting place. We stared at them stare at us with one idea on our minds: “Justice will be served…it shall be so!”

Maiysa Mesbeh and Joyce Lutu

Simply Amazed

Greenville Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:31:24 +0000

The weeks have flown by and it seems crazy that we now find ourselves in week 7 of the internship. Eastern North Carolina has surely kept us busy. Our work week this week started with a block party on Sunday hosted by the SCLC. We set up a table to do voter registration at this event. We were taken aback when we asked a group of 4 young attendees if they were registered to vote. Their immediate response was “vote for what”. There were multiple tables out so we assumed they were just confused as to what table they were at. After we explained we were registering people to vote for elected officials from the president on down to their local city council members, we were taken aback when one responded “Oh no, we don’t vote”. So we politely asked them again, “well would you like to register”. We were given a “no we don’t want to vote”. As they walked away I (Jasmine) immediately wanted to ask them one question “why?” It amazes me how apathetic people can be towards voting, especially a right that people fought for them to have. It amazes me how apathetic people can be towards people who make the decisions that affect their everyday life. It also amazes me how one person said that she didn’t want to vote, and everyone else followed suit as if they would be looked at as being “lame” for registering to vote. I know the blog spot is typically for rants; however I just could not pass up telling this experience.

Monday was just an office day for me and Shaniqua. Tuesday we went to a one on one with a community center in Greenville. We realized that we have made our fair share of rounds in Greenville when the director that we met with begin to ask who we have met with, and we named practically everyone in his repertoire of active people in the community that we should meet with.

Wednesday we got to venture out of the area and we got the chance to head to the North Carolina General Assembly for our Respect Our Vote Rally. There was a heat advisory on Wednesday so we didn’t know exactly how many people were going to turn out but there was over 100 so we were very excited about that. It is amazing that in the same week we heard such apathy toward voting, that we saw a mass of people in the sweltering heat rallying for the right to vote. This week was just amazing to me. It also is great every time that we get the chance to get meet up with all of the Democracy North Carolina team.

Until next time,

Jasmine and Shaniqua

Local Celebrities

Greenville Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:58:10 +0000

This week Jasmine and I have been working on writing letters to the editor in opposition to the Photo ID bill and SB 47, and we have been trying to get others to do the same. Unfortunately, this process has not been the easiest. When we first started this internship we were told that we might face some setbacks in our work, but I don’t think either of us expected something like this. Our previous letters to the editor about redistricting seemed to be well received, but people have not responded well to our recent letters. So many people have written comments and sent in letters in response to what we submitted. I think we were both surprised to see that so many people responded to our letter. So many letters to the editor are posted each day, it is interesting that people chose to respond to ours. They even took the time to use my name in their comments. We are like local celebrities! What was even more surprising was that people took the time to be so negative towards us as individuals, instead of focusing on the issue at hand. I suppose this sort of thing happens all the time to full time organizers, but it was a little shocking to us at first. Hopefully our letter writing campaign has smoother sailing from now on!

Here’s the link to our letter : http://www.reflector.com/opinion/letters/letter-bill-photo-id-voters-harmful-558445

Shaniqua and Jasmine

Tour Stop Number 2!

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:21:25 +0000

From long phone banking sittings to travelling the west side of North Carolina was what we made our business and we absolutely beheld every moment of it with style. We had the opportunity to phone bank twice, attended a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, made an appearance at the Homeless Helping Homeless fundraising event and even attained some petition signatures, traveled to Raleigh and to Hickory for our second tour stop of the summer. While in this small town of Hickory, we were able to incorporate 6 one-on-one meetings and were invited to speak at a training session hosted by UNIFOUR Now, nearing the end of the week, we find ourselves back here at a little java coffee shop right outside of UNCC preparing for a petition tabling at NODA tomorrow. As inspiring as the 1st month was, we have yet discovered more groups, more issues and more work for us to do. The job of an organizer is very demanding and still, very rewarding. This became apparent to us on Wednesday at a protest we attended with the other Democracy Summer interns. As we stood on the sidewalks of West Franklin Street, side by side with different community groups, we rose our voices in objection to the outrageous actions of those behind the restaurant walls. We were appalled by the politicians who had cut the education and job funding for the state and yet still had the audacity to splurge on meals that equaled the cost of a teacher’s salary. Standing there, we realized that organizers of all kind may have different views and concentrations but they still want one thing. When people come together to get things accomplished, things become better for the whole. We aren’t just working for the community but the state and what we do, what organizers do, it’s epic.

Maiysa Mesbah and Joyce Lutu

Is that a Politician in Your Pocket??

Greenville Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:10:22 +0000

This week has definitely been one for the books!!!! We’ve been tabling, phone banking, writing letters to the editor, researching, base building, and even some picketing. Our week began on Saturday. We tabled at an event in Ayden, North Carolina to try to get residents up-to-date with the Voter Photo ID bill and also to introduce our work on money in politics. We were expecting a large turnout but the heat must have kept people inside because there weren’t as many people as we expected. Monday afternoon we phone banked after we realized that in the haste of week 4 we forgot to phone bank on Friday night. We’ve had VERY successful phone banking nights the last past two weeks so we were pumped about phone banking again (never thought we’d say that). Monday, Shaunee told us that things may get a little more interesting in the week. A picket protesting the GOP fundraiser had been scheduled for Wednesday and we were going. Tuesday we went to work with posters, markers, and posterboard in hand to make signs for the protest and we brainstormed catchy slogans that we could use. Of course work never stops so on Wednesday, even though we had a picket later in the day in Raleigh, we still traveled to Halifax early in the morning to do some base building and go out to a few one on ones we had set up. We received and impromptu tour of the Tillery Community Center which was definitely nice and informational. On Wednesday we definitely learned something new. After our tour we were back on the road again to Raleigh. As we turned down Franklin Street we approached a crowd of people, signs, and police cars. Yes….we were in the right place. We enjoyed our first protest under Dem NC and it was definitely nice to see people come together from different organizations and walks of life. While we have enjoyed our work so far, we would be lying if we said that we were not excited about our upcoming 4 day weekend.

P.S. We got another letter to the editor published in the Wilson Daily times on redistricting in Wilson, NC (see letter below)

2010 marked the year of another Census, which means another round of redistricting. Every 10 years when the Census is counted district lines are examined and adjusted if deemed necessary to accommodate shifts in populations. The city of Wilson is offering a public hearing to discuss two redistricting plans that the city council is considering. This public hearing allows citizens to come out and voice their concerns, issues, and suggestions about the districts in the city of Wilson.

This is an effort to get residents of Wilson to let their voice be heard, so why not take advantage? If your districts change and you have not educated yourself on the proposals, or taken the time out to voice your opinion on them, your complaint is in vain.

Individuals like transparent government; this is transparency in one of its best forms. I strongly urge residents of Wilson to attend the redistricting public hearing on July 21 during the city council meeting. I have attended several redistricting public hearings and workshops across the eastern North Carolina area and can attest to the fact that they are informative and allow input from residents.

Redistricting maps out who you vote for, it’s only right that you have a voice in that process.

Jasmine Johnson

Elm City

Onwards,

Jasmine and Shaniqua

A Prediction of Hope…

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:05:47 +0000

To start off our busy week we met at Amalie’s French Bakery. It was to be a day of listening and recording information from the community to Lieutenant Governor, Walter Dalton. We first arrived there at 1pm and began to organize tasks to complete for the week because we were to begin the meeting at 3:00pm. We also had time to begin working on our “get out the vote project.” When 3 rolled around, we gathered in a meeting room set aside in Amalie’s and patiently anticipated our time with Lt. Governor Dalton. The room filled quickly with men and women in suits: representatives from non-profit groups, small business owners and the lieutenant’s special group of four. The exclusive gathering began with the lieutenant’s words on what he thinks about the current legislation. His ideas on the topic were filled with hope but also a hint of wonder as he predicted what was to come. He spoke about the rapid change that North Carolina was undergoing due to current political acts. He said that North Carolina has a history of being a progressive state recognized not only by the rest of America but also around the world. Lieutenant Governor Dalton explained to us that North Carolina’s values lie with education and opportunity. The fact that it was the first state to have a public university system exemplifies this fact. Questions and answers were exchanged in the meeting about the unemployment rate, big and small businesses, education, gay marriage, the racial justice act, the voter ID bill, teachers and their jobs, an attack on Obama and Perdue and different message framing. It was a meeting that captivated our attention on the different passions of the people. From the community to the government: that’s how it should be.

July 1st

Winston-Salem Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:06:47 +0000

With the impending doom of what could happen with SB-47, I find it important to reflect back to July 1st, 1971. This coming Saturday will be the 40th anniversary of the 26th Amendment being passed, which changed the legal voting age to be 18, instead of 21 (which it had been previously). Now, young teens face close to the same challenges teens then faced, being treated as if their citizen duty, to vote, is not of importance. Even though the reasons for the 26th Amendment were slightly different (“Old enough to fight, old enough to vote!”), the consequences remain the same. Young people should be whole-heartedly involved in the political process. In reality, by stripping them the ability to pre-register is not only taking away Civics education – that the law requires, but is also closing them out of the system. Even though July is most notably remembered for United States independence, it is important to reflect on the gains that teens made in the political world during the month too. With July 1st approaching we should not be making regressive policies that make teens even less heard, but we should be educating our future, and ensuring that young people have the voice that our ancestors worked so hard to fight for – that is what July is about anyways, right? As the legislators reconvene in July, I ask them to remember the 26th Amendment and the positive impact it had for not only young people, but the country as a whole. July should be a time for celebration for the country (young people included), not a time for regressive legislation!

Kayla and Khadijah

Winston-Salem Team

A Few Words of Wisdom…

Charlotte Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 03:11:42 +0000

Today, on this bright and sunny Friday morning we found ourselves entering the lavish Levin Museum uptown for a Democratic Party forum. After our filling our stomachs with a delicious lunch, we opened our ears to an enlightening speech by Chris Fitzsimon regarding various appalling bills in the general assembly currently. He began by updating the audience about several bills and platforms that we as a community as well as an organization have been following. He informed the group about the repealing of the Racial Justice Act, as well as the impact other voter restricting bills will have if passed. As any inspirational speaker would do, he appealed to our emotions and called the audience to action. He urged people to be outraged by the audacity of these bills. He explained how outrageous it was that instead of progressing for a better North Carolina and a prosperous future, these bills are instead reverting back to a time where race and gender played a vital role in a citizen’s ability to vote. Taking the lead, Robert jumped in and asked Mr. Fitzsimon to thoroughly explain to the audience the importance of supporting voter owned elections along with the issues discussed. The event ended shortly after, and we took this opportunity to proceed outside the exit to ask people to join our cause of “Cut the Strings” by signing our petition. We utilized Mr. Fitzsimon’s speech, by tying his thoughts to our campaign. After the crowd had thinned out, we had the privileged of speaking to Mr. Fitzsimon in depth about the money in politics issue. We found the experience both motivational and encouraging because it was a reminder of why we’re doing what we’re doing. Thank you Mr. Fitzsimon for everything that you do, it was truly an honor to meet you.

Maiysa Mesbah and Joyce Lutu

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Greenville Democracy Summer 2011 Team — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:32:59 +0000

Here in Greenville we have been so busy, and for the first time this week Jasmine and I spent some time “flying solo”. On Wednesday, we went on Minority Voice, a cable access program on Cable 7, and talked about the Photo ID bill and redistricting. The Minority Voice interview was our first TV appearance, so we were both excited to get started. When we got to the television studio we met the person that would be interviewing us, and the three of us talked to try to get to know each other prior to the show. During that time, the interviewer told us what he wanted to talk about on the show. He said that we would ask about the Photo ID and the redistricting process. That sounded simple enough but, during the interview, the questions did not go as planned. Sure, he asked us about the Photo ID bill and redistricting, but the questions definitely took a different turn. For example, the interviewer asked if we thought that the lines drawn were an attempt by the Republicans to keep the black population down. We did not know how to answer that question, but since Shaunee wasn’t able to be there we had to say something. Fortunately, we answered that question pretty well and the interviewer moved on. Then, he asked Jasmine and I if Democracy NC has a position on the reduction of the school board here in Pitt County. Again, we did not know how to answer that question, and there was a brief silence until one of us spoke up and said as far as we knew there was no official stance on that issue.

On Thursday, we went back to Wilson and Rocky Mount for a few presentations and one-on-ones with community organizations in the area. Our first stop was a teen mentoring program in Wilson where we talked about the importance of voting and being informed of the issues in our state. We even got some of the teens to pre-register to vote! Then, we headed to Rocky Mount where we had the bulk of our meetings for the day. Finally, we came back to Greenville for the redistricting hearing that took place at the Brody School of Medicine. When we got to the hearing, we were surprised to see that so few people had shown up. There were even less people there than at the hearing the City of Greenville held for its citywide redistricting process. Despite the low turnout at our site, it was nice to hear the opinions of people around the state, and Jasmine even made a statement on behalf of Democracy NC!

This weekend, Jasmine and I are working over time again at an event called Deltafest. We will be working to get even more petition signatures and people registered to vote. Until next time!

Shaniqua and Jasmine