Suggested Actions for the Week of May 4

So great to see many of you taking part in the May Day Strong Honk N’ Wave rally last week! Almost 300 people lined the sidewalks, while many others drove by honking and waving enthusiastically to show their support. We are grateful to Indivisible Watauga for organizing creative ways to make our voices heard.

Here again are a few options for this week.

1. Tell Representative Pickett and State Senator Hise to VOTE NO on Senate Bill 516/House Bill 791 (the bathroom bill)

This year, the NC legislature is producing so much harmful legislation we can’t keep up, and yes, this is exactly how gerrymandering harms everyone in the state, regardless of party. Rather than address actual concerns, the gerrymandered leaders instead foster division and spectacle.

Still, Senate Bill 516/HB 791 deserves special mention because our state already suffered so much the first time around. Contact Rep. Pickett (919-733-7727 or ray.pickett@ncleg.gov) and Senator Hise (919-733-3460 or ralph.hise@ncleg.gov) to vote NO. They call it a Women’s Safety Act, but it is the same tired old bathroom bill we fought against years ago. It will actually make women and children less safe because they will be subject to policing and harassment just for going to a bathroom. Further, SB 516/HB 791 results in arbitrary and unnecessary regulations on businesses already hard hit by tariff-related turmoil and hurricane damage, not to mention steering customers away from businesses in protest or fear of harassment. This is not addressing any problem–it is a mean-spirited attempt to legislate bullying, designed to inflict pain and harm on people who haven’t harmed anyone. You can learn more from this report by Carolina Forward.

2. Boycott Meta (Facebook & Instagram) May 5 -11

We acknowledge that the impact of boycotts can be hard to measure, and not everyone can participate. For those who can, boycotting META (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Whatsapp) for the week of May 5-11 is one option to express dissatisfaction with Facebook.

Facebook deserves ongoing scrutiny and criticism for the way it spreads harmful, divisive, and misleading information, collects and commodifies our data and friendships, and uses this data to empower malicious people.

3. Send a postcard on behalf of the U.S. Post Office

In honor of National P.O. Soapbox day, we read up on the value of our postal service. In addition to raising costs for all of us, privatization would hit rural communities the hardest. Send a postcard to Representative Foxx, Senator Tillis, and Senator Budd reminding them that they represent many people from rural areas who depend on the U.S. Post Office, and we want our postal service to be fully funded and to remain a public service. 

• Representative Virginia Foxx, 2462 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC 20515

• Senator Thom Tillis, 113 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510

• Senator Ted Budd, 354 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510

Additional Notes:

*Watauga County Board of Commissioners meets May 6 at 5:30 pm in the Watauga County Administration Building. A few of us will be there to monitor and report. Join us if you can–they need to know we are watching.

*A Cinco de Mayo celebration will take place Tuesday May 6 3:30-6:30 pm at 126 Poplar Grove Connector, Boone NC, including the La Monarca food truck and live music. All proceeds will go to the emergency funds for the Immigrant Justice Coalition.

*The Republican-dominated, extremely partisan NC Court of Appeals ruled to break a century's worth of precedent to take a constitutionally-appointed power over the Board of Elections away from the Governor and instead give it to some random Republican, part of their breathtakingly corrupt efforts to force losing candidate Jefferson Griffin upon us. Here’s a link to NC Newsline’s latest report on this case.