Charlotte should secede from North Carolina
PayPal, the NBA and Bruce Springsteen are well-intentioned, but they’re punishing the wrong people. I have a solution.
Charlotte, NC
By now you know all about North Carolina’s appalling HB2 – “the bathroom law” – which seeks to keep transgendered people out of the wrong restroom even though in all of history they have committed fewer crimes in bathrooms than Republican legislators. Just saying.
And you probably noted that just the other day Bruce Springsteen canceled his upcoming show in Greensboro because he cannot and will not contribute to a state so consumed by ignorant, reactionary hate spew. This legislation is, as Little Steven put it, an “evil virus.”
The most interesting part of the story, from where I sit, is the part nobody is talking about. Prior to The Boss backing out of the GSO show, the most high-profile #boycottNC moments were PayPal’s decision to nix a planned facility in Charlotte and the NBA’s threat to “monitor” the situation (the 2017 All-Star Game is set for the Queen City).
The problem? They’re punishing the wrong people. See, Charlotte isn’t responsible for HB2. HB2 was passed in a special session called specifically to override an anti-discrimination ordinance passed by the Charlotte city council.
So, to summarize:
- Charlotte passes law to protect transgender citizens.
- Hillbillies from rest of state pass law to keep Charlotte from doing the right thing.
- World bitch-slaps Charlotte.
- Then, insult to injury, Bruce piles on Greensboro. NC is like a lot of red states in that its cities are quite progressive. In 2012, for instance, Guilford County (where Greensboro is located) voted heavily Democrat.
Talk about blaming the victim.
I get the need to take a stand, but I have always been a big fan of punish the guilty, not the innocent, and the actions by PayPal, Springsteen and (maybe) the NBA are doing just the opposite.
There’s a sensible solution that makes everybody happy, though: Charlotte needs to secede from Dogpatch North Carolina. Greensboro, too, and Winston-Salem, and Raleigh and Durham and Chapel Hill.
Maybe the old gerrymandered Congressional District 12 map can help them in drawing up the boundaries…
lullaby pit 
Perhaps, as a non-resident of your ‘home’ state , you missed this change in the sales tax laws in NC. http://www.starnnwsonline.com/article/20130731/ARTICLES/130739908. Just saying that regardless of individual municipalities the state gets income for such events. I applaud the people and organizations who, knowing the full story, are taking a stand.
I didn’t refer to NC as my home state, so I don’t understand your use of quotation marks. Colorado is my home state – NC is just where I grew up. Mercifully, this kind of thing hasn’t happened in my home state in 25 years.
That is the reason for the quotation marks. Perhaps I should have said the state you are originally from. But honing in on that doesn’t address my comment’s intention. There are pocketbook as well as political implications for the state when someone like Bruce or Ringo cancel performances here.
I fully get the broad financial implications. But it’s also true that these actions punish the innocent more directly than the guilty.
Also, my solution solves all the problems. NC can be as hateful as it likes and the new state of Charlotte can be progressive and keep its money.
Your solution furthers what is wrong with the Tarheel State. Separatism only further isolates and limits real solutions. I have to respectfully disagree with your solution that ‘solves all the problems’.
BTW – jusyjust for the record -re: Dogpatch…one of the earliest (1934) Li’l Abner strips, re-posted on the web by Comics.com in March “2008, explicitly identifies Dogpatch as being in Kentucky and several 1936 strips also clearly place it in Kentucky. One 1936 strip furthermore mentions that Lee City (a small town in eastern Kentucky) is just over 100 miles away by car.”. 🙂
Pingback: Hey Brian Windhorst: The NC legislature held a special session to PASS #HB2. Why can’t they do the same to repeal it? | Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues
Pingback: NCAA decision on HB2: hey NC, stupid and hateful ain’t cheap | Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues
Pingback: WTF is the NC GOP up to with the attempted “Bathroom Bill” repeal? | Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues