Committee Seeks to Educate Residents about Rights
By Crystal Calloway

North Carolina's legislature wouldn't ratify the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added in 1791. Now several people in Orange County want to make sure those rights continue to be protected.

For the last four years Orange County's Bill of Rights Defense Committee has met to discuss ways to educate people about what happens when they lose their civil liberties. The group is currently trying to fight ways the U.S. Patriot Act infringes on people's rights and discourages civil disobedience.

Margaret Misch is co-founder of the committee. She says people tend to ignore these issues because they are not personally being affected.

"So the problem is to try to make people aware that treating one person one way, another person should be treated the same way under the law," Misch says.

There are 402 Bill of Rights defense councils across the country. Carrboro was the eighth town to create one.