To the NC General Assembly:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”
The rest is easy to fill in.
“…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
We know these words as the most radical declaration of what we are entitled to by virtue of our humanity. In 1776, thirteen colonies at the edge of a continent largely unknown to European rule decided that they deserved better than what they had. They decided they would collectively strive for a better future for their children and their children’s children. They decided to radically change the world they knew. The world the founders wanted to build was a world free of tyranny and ideological oppression.
While many of us know the above excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, what follows — I think — is the most important part.
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”
This sentence outlines the basis for why I am writing to you today.
When the governed can no longer consent to who governs them, we fall in to tyranny. Unfair electoral maps and gerrymandering for any purpose are direct assaults on our unalienable rights as Americans and as North Carolinians. It is undeniable that our democratic process hinges on free and fair elections. The People have been endowed the right to choose their governments, and when that right is obstructed in any way, our democracy fails. You drew the maps with the intent to secure yourselves against opposition. You drew the maps to spite those who have challenged you. You drew the maps with the intent to promote your legislative agenda without the consent of the People. You drew the maps to consolidate blocks of voters with whom you do not look like or agree with. You drew maps that the courts have struck down time and time again. You have failed our democracy. You have failed your country and your state, and you have failed your constituents.
Members of the North Carolina General Assembly, I do not think of you as wholly tyrannical. I think of you as unjust, as conniving, and as power hungry. The sole reason I do not consider you wholly tyrannical is that you opened yourselves up to public comment. I doubt this gesture as sincere, but many of you sat in a room for hours and listened to your constituents, your neighbors, your fellow North Carolinians, express their disappointment and repugnance of the unfairness of your actions.
I hope their words did not fall on deaf ears.
You have the opportunity to redeem yourselves. I urge you to commission a truly nonpartisan redistricting committee to draw maps that are fair, so that you and others who wish to serve in public office are fairly evaluated by the strength of their character and the goodness of their ideas.
I write to you today not as a woman, or a grad student, or a community activist, or a Democrat. I write to you today as a North Carolinian. I write to you today as a constituent. I write to you today as someone who has to live with the consequences of your actions. I write to you today as someone who demands better of their elected officials.
And you can do better.
“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
