Media Advisory: Women Rising Up NOW: NC NOW State Conference October 20, 2018

October 10, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Gailya Paliga, President, NC National Organization for Women, president@raleighnow.org, www.northcarolinanow.org

Lori Bunton, NC NOW VP of Membership, lbunton53@gmail.com

WOMEN RISING UP NOW: NC NOW STATE CONFERENCE ON OCTOBER 20, 2018

Raleigh, NC, 10/10/18 – North Carolina National Organization for Women (NOW) will hold its annual conference on October 20 from 9 am to 4 pm at NC Advocates for Justice building in Raleigh. We are proud to announce our keynote speaker is civil rights attorney Anita Earls. This year’s conference theme is ‘Women Rising Up NOW!’

Never has the need been greater than in 2018 for women to push back and move forward. Decades of progress towards women’s equality is being turned back by the current administrations in Washington, D.C., and in North Carolina. “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,” Thomas Jefferson said so long ago.

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October #StopKavanaugh Events – Women are Rising Up! 2018

We already know about three #StopKavanaugh this first week of October, 2018. And I know a lot of women and allies will get out and party when this unfit #SCOTUS nominee goes down, either for his history of sexual assault or his perjury during the 2018 and 2006 hearings. He should be disqualified based on his terrible behavior during the Ford/Kavanaugh hearing alone (see cartoon). We are counting on the FBI to do its job, and to help them, many of Kavanaugh’s former classmates have publicly contradicted what Bratt Kavanaugh said about his drinking, his temper, and the sexual things written in his yearbook.  Since he lied about those basic things, how can he believed on anything else.

Weekly rallies at Senator Thom Tillis’ office in Raleigh include this walk around the fence, so his staff can see us! Photo Credit: Michael Eisenberg

Insightful #BelieveWomen Posts on Social Media

Capturing some great posts about the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett #Kavanaugh testifying on Thursday, 9/27/18. Will the Senate Judiciary Committee actually take a vote tomorrow when only one of many accusations will have been heard in any way by the committee, and this one barely explored, not investigated. This is a crazy way to handle these accusations which are part of Kavanaugh’s job interview. As his potential employer, I’d be running like the wind to get away from him. But also, there are 5 major different accusations against Kavanaugh, each of which has other related witnesses. Just talking to the first woman, with no witnesses and no plans to talk to other people, is completely insufficient for any investigation. We need the FBI involved for a real investigation, and so there are consequences to lying.

Would like to mention how beautifully Dr. Ford has been handling it, and how badly Senator Chuck Grassley, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is handling himself. See “People Are Fed Up With Sen. Chuck Grassley Interrupting Women In Senate Hearing,” HuffPost, 9/27/18. The way #Kavanaugh behaved during his time will be the stuff of legends, and some of that behavior is referenced below.

Quotes:

If you don’t believe there’s such a thing as rape culture and that it still prevails in the US, please consider the fact that Mark Judge, who was involved in the sexual assault with Kavanaugh, is allowed to hide away in some luxury beach home during all this, while his victim, Blasey Ford, is forced to publicly relive what is undoubtedly one of the most, if not the most, traumatic events of her life in front of the whole nation in front of a panel of men whose sole goal is attack, degrade, and discredit her.  
– SS, Morrisville, 9/27/18

Rally to Stop Kavanaugh, Urge Senator Tillis to Vote NO

Rally to Stop Kavanaugh, Urge Senator Tillis to Vote NO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From: NC National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, Action-NC

CONTACTS:
Gailya Paliga, http://www.northcarolinanow.org, president at raleighnow.org
Lynne Walter, https://prochoicenc.org/, lynne at prochoicenc.org
Kevin Rogers, http://www.actionnc.org/, kevin at actionnc.org

Raleigh, NC, 9/26/18 – Local leaders and advocates will gather outside Senator Tillis’ office on Thursday, September 27^th at 9:30 am to protest the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Following the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford about Kavanaugh’s past sexual misconduct and claims by two additional women who have stepped forward with similar stories, local constituents will urge Senator Tillis to immediately signal opposition to the Supreme Court nominee and reject his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh confirmation is in serious trouble. 9/18/18

Many topics were covered at the 9/18/18 #StopKavanaugh protest, including the threat Kavanaugh poses to disabled people, his views and comments about Native Hawaiians’ rights, and the current status of Kavanaugh’s situation thanks to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of sexual assault. This post includes links to the speeches on threats to disabled people and how the confirmation situation is in serious trouble. Speakers were at the Tuesdays With Tillis rally in front of Senator Thom Tillis’ office. Tillis is on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Chanting outside of Senator Tillis’ office in Raleigh. Photo Credit: Michael Eisenberg

Kavanaugh is a right-wing ideologue (it takes a special talent to see birth control as a form of abortion) whose confirmation would endanger health care, workers rights, women’s control of their own bodies, voting rights, consumer protection and more, for generations. He also sounds more like a Republican politician than a conservative judge, as Senator Dianne Feinstein said in her LA Times op-ed,”Why I’m voting ‘no’ on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.”

“Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win” Message at #StopKavanaugh Rally on 9/11/18

We had many exceptional speakers at the #StopKavanaugh rally at Senator Thom Tillis’ office on 9/11/18. Five of of our regulars spent days in Washington DC at the #KavanaughConfirmationHearings. Four of five of them got arrested as part of their protesting.

Photo Credit: Michael Eisenberg

Rev. Dr. Portia Rochelle, president of the Raleigh/Apex NAACP spoke of dangers of Kavanaugh and also of NAACP suing over perjury! She talked about what a Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court will be like for minorities and for women. “Appointing #Kavanaugh would result in civil rights rollbacks.” Also .. there would be “rollbacks in voting rights, reproductive rights, health care – things that affect our daily living.”

Series of podcast summaries of Kavanaugh hearings

Sharing the series of summaries on the #KavanaughConfirmationHearings. Here is the set for the first week from this legal journalism team on rewire.com. So worth hearing!

 

Day 1 – https://rewire.news/multimedia/podcast/boom-lawyered-kavanaugh-hearing-day-one-changing-the-rules/

 

Day 2 – https://rewire.news/multimedia/podcast/boom-lawyered-kavanaugh-hearing-day-two-stolen-emails/

 

Day 3 – https://rewire.news/multimedia/podcast/boom-lawyered-kavanaugh-hearing-day-three-exposed/

Day 4 – https://rewire.news/multimedia/podcast/boom-lawyered-kavanaugh-hearing-day-four-witness/

Media Advisory: Stop Kavanaugh 2, 9/11/18, in Raleigh

Activists rally again in Raleigh to demand that Senator Thom Tillis reject Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. As was revealed in the hearings last week, Kavanaugh commited perjury in current testimony and in testimony to become a Circuit Court judge in 2006 and 2018!! Also, the Senate Confirmation leadership pushed through the confirmation hearings in terrible circumstances and many valid complaints, like 1) not having access to much of Kavanaugh’s work in the White House under President George W. Bush, 2)  getting access to 42,000 more pages just the night before the hearings began, 3) President being investigated for crimes related to ‘winning’ the presidential election, etc. Last week, we had speakers cover many areas that Kavanaugh threatens, and this week we have more areas to cover.

In addition, we have our own sheroes and heroes who went to the confirmation hearings in Washington DC to protest and got arrested one or more times on our behalf! We will hear some of their exciting stories.

David Freeman and Ruth Zalph after another arrest at the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in Washington DC!! Photo Credit: David Freeman

Here are some of our speakers:

#StopKavanaugh Event Summary, Raleigh, 9/4/18

The first day of the Senate Confirmation Hearings on nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh were like a three ring circus. Democrats protested loudly that most of Kavanaugh’s work records had not been released to them.  Senators and protesters took turns interrupting the event – all with good reason. Including that “hours before Kavanaugh nomination hearings, Bush lawyer releases 42,000 pages of documents to Judiciary Committee!“

Multiple media sources ran articles and video with the same title in print – “Chaos marks start of Kavanaugh hearings!” 9/4/18, Washington Post. Online longer titles were used, like “Partisan fury bursts into the open as Kavanaugh hearings begin.” But it wasn’t only Democratic Senators who were trying to delay the hearing to make for a fairer and more informed process. Most of the protesters were women.  The same article said, “The protesters, who were predominantly women, repeatedly heckled the senators and Kavanaugh, arguing that installing Trump’s second pick to the Supreme Court would irreparably end access to abortion and dismantle the Affordable Care Act.” 

My favorite summary of Day One is two women reviewing it on Rewired.com at “Boom! Lawyered: Kavanaugh Hearing, Day One—Changing the Rules.”

Regrouping after the walking and chanting phase, getting ready for another set of speakers. Photo Credit: Gailya Paliga

Women Rising Up NOW! In Raleigh on 10/20/18

We have record numbers of women running for office in 2018 because women are rising up! We have women organizing regular protests around the state – NC has weekly protests in Raleigh and Wilmington! Mostly women are protesting at the Kavanaugh hearings and around the state and country. Because Women are Rising Up NOW! 

Please join us at our NC NOW State conference to meet some of these women in NC and learn some skills to help you rise up as well! Register for the conference online here. Register by mail using NC NOW News Fall 2018 Registration Page (v2) (print and mail).

We are honored to announce that our keynote speaker is Civil Rights attorney, Anita Earls.

Civil Rights Attorney Anita Earls at Women’s Rally On Raleigh, 1/20/18. Photo Credit: Yevonne Brannon