PHOTO/STEVE EBERHARDT
ATLANTA — On Saturday, April 5th, Moral Monday GA joined forces in Atlanta with other organizations and supported the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) rally to oppose deportations taking place under the Obama administration. Then Moral Monday GA rallied at the Governor’s mansion April 7 and the group delivered a petition containing 65,000 names to the governor demanding that he veto the bad bills passed by the Georgia Legislature.
The bills are immoral and are attacks on the workers, women, the poor and the disenfranchised. There have been nine mobilizations of Moral Monday GA in opposition to these and a call for support during the legislative session for: Access to Healthcare; Economic Justice and Workers Rights; LGBTQ Equality; Protecting Public Education; Racial Justice and Ending Stand Your Ground; Voting Rights; Women’s Rights and Reproductive Justice and Stop Guns from going into restricted areas like bars, Churches, and Airports.
One of the bills that Moral Monday GA wants Governor Nathan Deal to veto is HB 990 and to Expand Medicaid Now! It’s a matter of life and death—10 people die everyday in Georgia for lack of healthcare. The final version of HB 990 requires an act of the Legislature before Medicaid can be expanded via the Affordable Care Act. But there are other bills that are just as contentious. One of the bills would subject some food stamp recipients to drug testing and another takes away unemployment compensation to seasonal public workers such as school bus drivers.
As in other states, the regressive legislators are influenced by the corporations to privatize public entities such as prisons, public schools, probation, child welfare, etc. There is constant media attention on those who “take” from the system. Yet, taxpayers are asked to fork out $17 million for the parking lot at the proposed new Falcons stadium. The media doesn’t analyze how the rich get richer with tax rebates and that they are the real “takers.”
Moral Monday GA will continue to rally around issues, even though the Legislature is no longer in session. This summer the group will implement Freedom Summer 2014 in recognition of the 1964 Freedom Summer actions that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. In Georgia, this year, the state legislators passed legislation putting restrictions on voting.
Tim Franzen, one of the leaders of Moral Monday GA says “The Moral Monday movement that started in North Carolina and spread across the region is just the beginning of a new era in the South, as more and more people are rising up against politicians who aren’t listening and don’t represent the will of the people.”
