Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
My office continues to be inundated with questions and concerns regarding the election and the Governors’ executive orders regarding Covid 19. Some of these messages are from constituents who are angry and upset.
I understand your concerns and I share them. For the record, I want to respond to questions you have asked. Here is a small sample of questions I have received.
Why did North Carolina not join the Texas lawsuit?
Why did the Voter ID amendment not take place?
Why doesn’t the Legislature convene and appoint Presidential electors?
When will you notify your constituents that Governor Cooper’s orders are unconstitutional and are null and void and should not be followed?
Why doesn’t the Legislature convene and restrict the overreaching authority of the Governor?
Why is the Legislature not responding to these executive orders?
Will you support only voluntary vaccination of Covid 19?
Why are private schools able to safely open and public schools cannot?
Are our children falling behind and what can be done?
I’m tired of hearing “there’s nothing I can do. You should be doing something?”
Suits filed against other states must be initiated by the executive branch. In North Carolina, the only people who can initiate a lawsuit are Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein. Obviously, that is not going to happen.
What the Legislature can do is file suit over actions in our state, and we have done that. We filed multiple lawsuits against the Governor’s handpicked Board of Elections over their secret negotiations with Democrat lawyers that resulted in them changing the rules of the election after voting began. We took that case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We are involved in several other lawsuits that may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, to force the executive branch to implement the will of the voters on Voter ID.
The Legislature cannot call itself back in session without a 3/5 majority of the members. There must be Democrats willing to join Republicans in doing this. The Governor has the authority to call the legislators back also. Neither of these options will happen.
I will NOT support mandatory COVID 19 vaccinations. I think most people will gladly accept the opportunity to be vaccinated. Those who oppose should have freedom to do so.
I am a member of the joint legislative education oversight committee. At a recent meeting, we heard a detailed report from the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction. To say the least it was concerning.
We learned that there are roughly 15,000 students who are unaccounted for. Since last year, these students have just disappeared. Perhaps they have moved or left school and started working.
The question was asked if private schools can attend in person without incident, why can public schools not figure out how to do it safely. The answer from the Board of Education was that the Governor only has the authority to regulate public schools.
We learned that graduation rates will drop dramatically. Students are also leaving schools at unprecedented rates. I will have more to say about this in another column.
Like you, I am concerned that Governor Cooper continues to overstep his authority with his executive order. Unfortunately, the courts have ruled in his favor and are allowing him to skirt the law and keep other statewide elected officials out of the decision-making process.
The legislature introduced about dozen bills this year to try and curtail his growing executive authority. The bills that made it to his desk were vetoed and my Democratic colleagues chose not to join us in overriding Gov. Coopers veto.
We are a nation built on checks and balances. Our state is built on those same checks and balances. No one man or woman should have sole discretion to shut down the state for an undetermined period. That is why we passed legislation to reopen our state and get people back to work. Governor Cooper and his Democratic allies stopped us.
Big government paternalism is the least effective way to impact behavior, at least where I come from. It breeds resentment. I have believed since the beginning that a strict devotion to consistency would build trust, that trust would be critical, and that relentless discussion of risks faced by each population cohort is key so people can make their own informed choices.
You can choose when and how you are going to celebrate Christmas and I will do the same.
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.