Reopen NC: We’re Done Complying, ‘I want to BE free; I don’t want to SEEM free’

RALEIGH – Reopen NC held it’s third protest at the state government complex on Tuesday, again drawing hundreds of people to call for an end to the statewide Stay-at-Home order. The grassroots organization is a sample of the righteous indignation ignited by Governor Roy Cooper’s sweeping lockdown orders. It has grown to more than 70,000 members from across the state that oppose Cooper’s edicts on account that they shutter businesses, destroy livelihoods, and contravene the Bill of Rights.

Yet, while the protests will continue for as long as the Stay-at-Home order remains in place, according to organizer Ashley Smith, they are not waiting for permission. Addressing the crowd in front of the N.C. General Assembly, Smith announced that the reopening has commenced, whether Governor Cooper likes it or not.

Naturally, this is the next phase of opposition. Rallying and marching against the emergency lockdown orders is only so effective; at some point action must be taken. That’s exactly what was called for Tuesday, with calls for pastors to hold services, business owners to open their doors, and free citizens to exercise their rights to live their lives and buy whatever they want.

“I want to BE free; I don’t want to SEEM free,” Smith shouted, alluding to the state motto that adorns our great seal, ‘Esse Quam Videri,’ or ‘To be, rather than to seem.’

That spirit is already alive and well in communities across the Old North State, where small-business owners are, well, going about their business and being responsible at the same time. While some urban centers have experienced the most cases counts, for obvious reasons, the scene around the rest of the state — where the virus itself has barely impacted community health systems — is one of joblessness, half empty hospitals, and an impending economic destitution.

All brought to you by top-down, one-size-fits-all policies that lean toward arbitrary government power, and away from individual liberty and personal responsibility.

Much of the liberty sentiments expressed in Raleigh Tuesday are without a doubt held by throngs of North Carolinians in every community of all 100 counties. Some of the other sentiments, perhaps not. Still, it will be up to the individual community leaders, business owners, and workers in all 100 counties to decide when and why they reopen.

Two state lawmakers from eastern North Carolina (Reps. Keith Kidwell and Michael Speciale) took the stage Tuesday to let the people know they are actively filing bills to make sure such overreach cannot happen in future crises.

Governor Roy Cooper’s original Stay-at-Home order scheduled to expire April 29, before it was effectively extended by another month at least. The leaders of Reopen NC have a different timeline. They’re not waiting on the governor’s permission to earn a living and exercise their God-given rights.

The revival of North Carolina starts NOW.