Past Action Alerts – 2024

ACTION ALERT!

ACTION ALERT: Write to Gov. Cooper to Commute Death Sentences for People on Death Row

Date: December 10, 2024

Dear FCNCL Friends,

In keeping with our testimonies of Peace, Equality, Community and our Antiracism Policy, and in partnership with the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, please ask Governor Cooper to commute the death sentences for the 136 men and women on North Carolina’s Death Row.

Governor Cooper’s term ends soon and he must act to commute death row sentences soon, before it is too late.

Please address your postcard or letter to: The Honorable Roy Cooper Governor of North Carolina 20301 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-0303

What Else Should I Know?

  • NC has the 5th largest death row in the nation;
  • 60% are people of color and nearly half of these were sentences by overwhelmingly white juries;
  • 43 people have been executed since 1976;
  • 12 innocent people have been exonerated, 11 of them people of color;
  • 2006 was the year of the last execution;
  • The death penalty has its roots in racial terror lynching;
  • The death penalty does not prevent violence or keep communities safe;
  • NC’s death sentences are outdated, with 2/3 imposed during the 1990s under vastly different laws;
  • Executions are cruel and inhumane, and add more violence and grieving to the world;
  • No person is beyond redemption.

For additional information, please refer to the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty website.

URGENT: Ask your State Representative/Senator to Support Gov. Cooper’s Veto of House Bill 10, the Mini-Budget intended to allocate more funds for the private school voucher program

Date: October 6, 2024

The North Carolina House passed a mini budget on September 11, 2024 which allocates an additional $463 million to clear the waitlist of 55,000 students for the Opportunity Scholarship Grant Program. Income eligibility limits were removed in 2023, exponentially increasing funding over the next decade.  On September 20, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, calling it the “biggest threat to public schools in decades.”

To All Participants in the Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation, in keeping with our testimonies of Equality, Integrity, and Community, please ask your legislators, especially those in rural counties, to uphold the Governor’s veto of HB 10 – this is urgent, as a veto-override vote could occur very soon since the NC legislators are returning Oct 9 to vote for hurricane relief funds and could even add the private school vouchers to the bill for hurricane relief:

  • The Office of State Budget and Management reported that the expanded funding could decrease public school funding statewide by nearly $100 million in the first full year;
  • Public education is the cornerstone of the nation, and provides the commonality that is the basis for community; threats to public education threaten the fabric of rural life;
  • Although schools would have fewer children to educate, their expenses would not decrease;
  • Public schools are the largest employer in many rural counties, and local governments will have difficulty making up the gap in funding;
  • Most of the private schools that will get the voucher money are in urban areas, and thus taxpayer money will mostly benefit urban counties.
  • Furthermore, given the damages to public education infrastructure sustained in Western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, funding for public education is particularly crucial.

For additional information, please refer to the FACT SHEET:

UPDATE on Expanding School Vouchers in North Carolina: How do school vouchers align with Quaker Values? You can read it HERE.

Find your own House representative here: www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators

Take Action to Advance Proposed State Standards for PFAS Chemicals

Date: August 5, 2024

To All Participants in the Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation:

The NORTH CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION (EMC) is considering proposed state standards for PFAS, or “Forever Chemicals.” The standards would establish health-based limits on the allowable concentration of certain PFAS compounds in ground and surface water.  Members of the EMC have delayed action on these standards, but the EMC must take action soon in order to protect the Public Health and the Environment in North Carolina.

On September 11th and 12, 2024 the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC) will once again have the opportunity to move forward proposed state standards for PFAS in groundwater and surface water. The standards, which establish health-based limits on the allowable concentration of certain PFAS in surface water and groundwater, would continue through the rulemaking process to receive public comment before they are finalized. State PFAS standards will protect public health, support a clean environment, and help keep customers of public water systems in North Carolina from paying high rates to remove PFAS from their drinking water.

For more information see the FCNCL Factsheet on NC State PFAS Standards HERE.

SUGGESTED ACTIONS to encourage the EMC to advance the proposed standards:

  • Contact commissioners serving on the EMC Water Quality and Groundwater committees Member Contact Info.
  • Contact your state legislators and encourage them to speak on the importance of state PFAS standards to product public health and the environment. You can find your state legislators HERE. 
  • Write a Letter to the Editor or an op-ed in your local newspaper
    • News sources that have reported on state PFAS standards and the EMC include WRAL, the News & Observer, WUNC, Port City Daily, and others. For tips on writing an effective letter to the editor, you can find them on our website HERE.
    • Consider penning a letter to the editor the Raleigh News and Observer and submit it HERE.

HELP US GAUGE OUR EFFECTIVENESS: TELL US YOU TOOK ACTION – CLICK HERE.

As Quakers, led by the Quaker testimony of Stewardship of the Earth and in support of the Piedmont Friends Yearly Meeting Minute on Climate Change, we support the vital protection of our earth and healthy biosystems through the promotion of clean energy, air and water, and in support of our FCNCL Minute on Antiracism.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

FCNCL Communications Committee

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