Yankee agitators

Protest #1, on Mor-mor and Grandpa's back porch:

Protest #2, at the State Capitol:

About what? Sadly, you can pick your issue, as attested in today's lead op-ed in the New York Times, "The Decline of North Carolina." To those of you who dismiss every place south of the Mason-Dixon line as equally backwards, I should explain that North Carolinians understood themselves differently. I don't mean to whitewash the state's undeniable Confederate, segregationist history. On the other hand, North Carolina was the last southern state to secede and throughout the war had a strong core of Union sympathizers among its small farmers. A century later it was the state that gave birth to the lunch counter sit-ins that helped launch the civil rights movements. Historian William Chafe wrote Civilities and Civil Rights about that era, arguing that North Carolina had a tradition of relative tolerance and moderation compared to its neighbors and that that tradition was significant to its post-WWII trajectory. In the last quarter-century it has attracted thousands of Northeastern transplants of lefty persuasion (my family included). And it has long been known for a progressive tradition in higher education.

Now the legislature seems determined to reverse all that.

Edith liked being an activist. I figured it could go either way -- she might be overwhelmed by the noise and frightened by the tone of the chants, or (as proved to be the case) she might relish being part of a group of people collectively facing down injustice and anxiety. Fortunately, Edith saw the benefits of channeling all her own anxieties about bad guys into collective action. We assured her she could make a lifetime's work out of it.