NC 11 Democratic Party Annual Meeting

District 11 NC Democratic Party Meeting May 19, 2007

The meeting was held at Pisgah High School and basically started with the usual – introductions of legislators (including our freshman congressman Shuler) and election of officers for the upcoming two years. We then moved on to discussing resolutions, of which there were more than fifty. I will review the ones I think are pertinent.

Iraq: Several resolutions against the escalation of troops numbers in Iraq, asking for a timetable of troop withdrawal, and opposition to construction of permanent bases in Iraq. All these resolutions passed by acclimation, which is a big change from two years ago. It seems that everyone has finally woken up to the nightmare we have created in Iraq, and there are only a few people who think we should stay and “fix it”. Most have woken up to the reality that we cannot fix it.

Note: we passed “Out of Iraq” resolution this past January at the State Executive committee meeting. This was also passed last year at the district level. These new resolutions were attempts to further that process along.

Government and Foreign Policy: There was a resolution to oppose CIA torture flights, and to call for the NC Attorney General Roy Cooper to conduct an investigation into Aero Contractors and it’s possible illegal activity. (If it is not illegal, it sure is immoral!) They also passed resolution to demand the closing of the School of the Americas. All of these passed by acclimation and without discussion. One resolution that was discussed and defeated was the resolution to support a Department of Peace. It had passed at the county level but failed at the district level. I spoke on that issue and on how our Department of State was not doing anything about our high levels of domestic violence. One argument against the Department of Peace is that the current administration would ignore it. This is true, but then they have ignored our US Constitution also. That does not mean it wasn’t a good idea. Well, more work to do in this area until more people see the light.

We passed resolutions on our forests, universal health care and mental health care issues. This last one is becoming a serious issue in western North Carolina, since the state has turned it into all private providers and then really messed with the providers. This issue is more complicated than I have time to go into. We passed resolutions calling for reform of the Electoral Collage, so that the Electoral College votes reflects the popular vote, rather than an “all or nothing” approach. We also passed a resolution calling for public financing of campaigns and to move towards voter owned elections.

We passed several resolutions on the environment and on energy – specifically renewable energy and alternative energy and conservation. These all passed. Two resolutions were about nuclear energy plants and nuclear waste that nuclear energy causes. One had to do with the transport of nuclear waste via our highways and railroads, and the other wanted to stop the construction of new nuclear energy plants. Both of these failed – even after someone spoke about what it was like to live through the Three Mile Island incident. I spoke to how our highways and railways could easily become a “dirty bomb” from just a vehicle accident. Who knows what some “terrorist” may do?

And, amazingly, they did not vote to pass these resolutions. We are our own worst enemies.

Finally, we had resolutions on annexation and various miscellaneous things. One that I found interesting was a resolution to abolish corporate personhood, which passed this year. It had been defeated in prior years.

One issue that you may have noticed we did not bring up – IMPEACHMENT. And that is because we passed a resolution to impeach bush, cheney and Gonzales at the State Executive Committee meeting in January 2006. We passed a resolution at the State Democratic Party meeting in June 2006 asking our state legislators to file articles of impeachment via our state legislators (and it was almost unanimous). So far, they have taken no action on this issue, which is a shame. We are a Blue state – this should pass.

At the end of the meeting, I pulled out my IMPEACHMENT bumper stickers, and without trying, I sold about 20 of them. Tonight, there is a meeting of the Buncombe Country Democrat party – I bet I sell the rest of them.

And the picture above - taken by a friend of mine at Vance Monument in downtown Asheville. The Vets for Peace are a great group.