{"id":848,"date":"2019-06-28T10:44:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T14:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/?p=848"},"modified":"2022-06-08T06:59:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T10:59:18","slug":"north-carolinians-to-gov-cooper-break-your-silence-on-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/2019\/06\/28\/north-carolinians-to-gov-cooper-break-your-silence-on-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolinians to Gov. Cooper:  Break Your Silence on Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> About 35 people held vigil in the hot sun outside Governor Cooper&#8217;s Raleigh office on Wed., June 26.&nbsp; They came from Mecklenburg, Orange, Durham, Wake, and Johnston counties to urge the Governor to break his silence on North Carolina&#8217;s shameful role in CIA torture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of the vigil, Jeremy Collins, Director of the Governor&#8217;s Office of Engagement, joined the group for about 15 minutes.\u00a0 He accepted 375 signatures on a petition urging the Governor and Attorney General to investigate Aero Contractors.\u00a0 He said the Governor opposes torture, and he would convey the group&#8217;s concerns to the Governor.\u00a0 He agreed to set a meeting to discuss specific action steps for the Governor to take.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Wendelgass of NC Council of Churches did a great job as MC:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-851\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-2-850x638.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Attendees represented numerous organizations, including NC Stop Torture Now, NC Council of Churches, Raleigh Friends Meeting, Amnesty International Group 213, Movement to End Racism &amp; Islamophobia, Triangle WILPF, Eisenhower Chapter 157 Veterans for Peace, Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House of Garner, and North Carolina Peace Action.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Powerful short speeches were given by:&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Robin Kirk,<\/strong>&nbsp;co-chair of NC Commission of Inquiry on Torture;&nbsp;<strong>Rev. Nancy Petty<\/strong>, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church;&nbsp;<strong>Doug Ryder<\/strong>, Veterans for Peace;&nbsp;<strong>Joe Burton<\/strong>, NC Peace Action;&nbsp;<strong>Prof. Deborah Weissman<\/strong>, UNC School of Law;&nbsp;<strong>Manzoor Cheema<\/strong>, Movement to End Racism &amp; Islamophobia;&nbsp;<strong>Vivian Taylor<\/strong>, Iraq vet, Duke Divinity student and Council of Churches intern; and&nbsp;<strong>Rabbi Eric Solomon,&nbsp;<\/strong>board member,&nbsp;T\u2019ruah: The Rabbinic Call For Human Rights.&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Manzoor<\/strong>&nbsp;speaks below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-4-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-4-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-4-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-4-850x638.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Attendees carried portraits of a few of the at least 49 people, all of them Muslim, rendered by Aero Contractors for CIA torture: <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-3-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-852\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-3-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Je26-2019-vigil-Gov-Cooper-office-3-850x638.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 35 people held vigil in the hot sun outside Governor Cooper&#8217;s Raleigh office on Wed., June 26.&nbsp; They came from Mecklenburg, Orange, Durham, Wake, and Johnston counties to urge the Governor to break his silence on North Carolina&#8217;s shameful role in CIA torture.&nbsp; At the end of the vigil, Jeremy Collins, Director of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncstn.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}