Tweet
The business community has been largely silent about Amendment One; certainly the ballot initiative will profoundly affect the ability for forward-thinking businesses to recruit and retain the best and brightest if it looks like the state is moving in the wrong direction — restricting rights, rather than extending them.
In a surprising development, the CEO of Duke Energy, Jim Rogers, took the opportunity as a keynote speaker at a business forum to take questions and he was asked about the amendment by Taylor Batten of the Charlotte Observer’s O-pinion blog. Rogers took the plunge:
Rogers hesitated, but then couldn’t stop himself from telling the crowd of 200 or so how he felt.
If North Carolinians put the gay marriage ban into the state constitution, Rogers said, “You’re sending a message to the world that we’re not inclusive.”
Rogers emphasized that he was sharing his personal view and was not speaking on behalf of Duke Energy. He said “I believe we’re all children of God,” and that it’s wrong to pass measures that discriminate against individuals.
“If this passes, we’re going to look back 20 years from now, or 10 years, and think of it like Jim Crow laws” that discriminated against African-Americans. North Carolina is competing with the world for business, he said, and “we have to be inclusive and open.”
Batten also noted that the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the N.C. Chamber of Commerce have not taken a position on A1, though Durham’s and Chapel Hill’s have put out statements strongly opposing it.
***
Did you know that today is the last day to register to vote for the May 8 primary in NC?
How do you register to vote? There are several ways to get a registration form to fill out and return by tomorrow:
• Visit your county Board of Elections during regular business hours to register.
• Obtain a voter registration form at any public library and return it to your local Board of Elections (must be postmarked April 13, 2012).
• If you are a student, be aware that high schools are required under state law to have registration forms for you to use.
• Obtain a registration form at your local Department of Social Services or public health office and return it to your local Board of Elections.
*Use Same Day Registration & Voting to register and vote on the same day at designated sites during the Early Voting period only (beginning April 19 in many areas.) Keep in mind, you may not use this “same day registration” option on Election Day (May 8)!
Before you turn in your registration form, review it carefully. Be sure you sign and date it, fill in all the questions, including your date of birth, and check all the appropriate boxes. Spell out your name as it appears on the identification card you provide. If you do not give your NC driver’s license number or the last 4 digits of your Social Security number, be sure to provide the documents requested on the form, or be prepared to show one of those documents when you first vote in person. Include a phone number on the form; it’s only used by election officials to call you for missing information.
If you have trouble understanding the form, review this tip sheet or call your county Board of Elections. It’s that important…so make it happen!
And remember, anyone can vote on May 8 and AGAINST Amendment One. Republicans will get a Republican ballot. Democrats will get a Democratic ballot. Registered Independents can choose to vote on either of those ballots. People who don’t want a ballot affiliated with either major party can get a wholly non-partisan ballot that will exclude partisan races and only have things on it like ballot initiatives.
CLICK HERE for more answers to your Election FAQs from your friends at Equality NC.
9 Comments
Mr. Rodgers is exactly right. Any law that targets a small group of people to deny them a basic right is a ‘Jim Crow’ law.
Going forward, in the US History books 20 years down the road you’ll read about the 1950′s and 1960′s during the Civil Rights Era…and the 1990′s and 2000′s of the second Civil Rights Era.
…I can’t wait to read the book.
I was inspired enough to contribute to the cause…I live in Las Vegas and when I see men like Jim Rogers go out on a limb then I certainly think that there is hope for the defeat of this amendment in North Carolina. There are BROAD implications nationally if this amendment can be defeated. Chip in folks…It’s crunch time!
I worked at Duke for a couple of years. Fine school with a lot of good people there, but it’s about time someone besides the Duke students did a little something to atone for all the decades of the “We’ve got ours. Fuck everybody else!” ethic.
I would add: of course, the “CEO” we REALLY need to be raising hell about equal rights for Gays, is the one sitting in the White House.
Right, Pam?
)
True enough, but Ha!
The business community calculates. They will generally cast their lot with whatever is fashionable, respectable, or incurs the least short term threat, or gains the largest profit. What is likely to pass at the ballot might be expendable, as long as. . .
Jim Rogers’ heart, and/or Duke’s, may or may not be in the right place. We’ll never really know simply based on dulcet tones about Amd’t One.
The proof in the pudding would be what Duke Energy’s thoughts are about ALEC, no? And would Duke take interest in helping establish a progressiove counterweight there?
We can wait ’till Hell freezes over to hear about that one.
I think the American public is just ready for gay equality on all levels. Forward thinking people, those in contact with reality, and a good share of everyone else, is just so ready. In short, I think it’s more than fashionable. Except for a hand full of lunatics, and Barack Obama, everybody wants equality for gay folk.
That’s the problem with Obama: the opinions of the lunatics carry more weight than all the rest of us.
Response to #6. . .
I agree with you.
My point is that what’s heard from corp reps on social issues will necessarily reflect the least inflammatory option simply for the reason I cited. It’s rarely about the merits, themselves. That is, we can’t assume otherwise, or take such support at face value.
From the corp world there will be “support” when it’s safe to do so. Otherwise they will avoid a tough but worthy issue entirely.
That’s why I brought up the ALEC example as a more telling case. Or it could be, say, committing Duke’s support to a union campaign to delete NC’s right to work status. These are the sorts of worthy issues which put a corp’s stance seriously on the line for progressivism — there’s more risk involved, and maybe that’s the point.
Meanwhile Duke’s criticism of Amd’t One is fine, but it doesn’t give them a pass on anything else, no?
“If this passes, we’re going to look back 20 years from now, or 10 years, and think of it like Jim Crow laws” that discriminated against African-Americans. North Carolina is competing with the world for business, he said, and “we have to be inclusive and open.”
And is another 40 years we’ll look back and say, “80 years of nuclear power and we’ve created a million years of toxicity – what were we thinking?”