How does this get me a job?
Y’all knew it wouldn’t take long for me to bring up politics in my Highlights list, didn’t y’all? This year had me doing more at the General Assembly, mostly fighting an old battle but also jumping into a new one.
My long-running efforts to protect broadband competition continued in 2011, though this time my luck ran out when the NCGA (with Perdue’s help) passed a law to block other municipalities from providing their own Internet services to their citizens. Some otherwise good legislators like Sen. Josh Stein and Rep. Rosa Gill bought into the pro-business hype and voted for the ban, to my disappointment. I think many supporters of the ban simply didn’t realize what was at stake, in spite of the opinion piece I got published in the News and Observer. (Note: I neglected to add my op-ed to my blog until now).
On the other hand, many legislators did understand what was at stake, including Rep. Joe Hackney, Rep. Paul Luebke, Rep. Larry Womble, Rep. Larry Hall, Rep. Deborah Ross, Rep. Jennifer Weiss, and especially Rep. Bill Faison. Though it was ultimately a losing effort, Rep. Faison fought the hardest of anyone and for that I am grateful.
I kept a much lower profile on this issue this time around because I had low expectations of the outcome. The only mention was this one post of an external article.
The second battle was on the gay marriage amendment. I had just gotten “let go” from my job and had nothing to do that day, so when I learned the gay marriage amendment bill was going to be heard, I headed over to the state house to watch stupid as it was being made.
Before I left, though, I printed up a small sign which expressed frustration at the absolutely idiotic focus of the new NCGA leadership. My sign and I appeared in a large photo in the next day’s News and Observer, much to the delight of me and those who know me. I was astonished at how many people (of all political stripes, too) came out of the woodwork to thank me for the picture and tell me it summed up their frustrations as well.
As I said earlier, I didn’t take my sign in an effort to grandstand for the press. I was honestly angry that this foolishness was taking place when over a million North Carolinians are out of work. I went home disappointed when no public comment was taken on the measure, as I was absolutely going to go off on someone if given the chance!