CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
Minutes of
23 January 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:00pm by Chairman BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by
Invocation by JERE GEURIN

BOB reminded us that tonight’s meeting would be a short one.  We will adjourn  not later that 6:40pm in order to get to the Train Depot before 7:00pm for the Meet and Greet with Frank Palombo (hosted by Captain Steve Miller).  We would like for as many, as can, to go (hopefully in your red shirts) to show our support for Palombo, who is running against Walter B. Jones for the Republican Congressional seat for the 3rd District which has grown by 5 counties, basically because the center part of the state’s population has grown so much.  BOB said he understood Frank was doing pretty well in raising money, however, he can always use more.  BOB said he had invited some of his friends who had deep pockets to attend and he hopes they will turn their pockets inside out.

BOB introduced Catherine (Catie) McCabe, who is with and will speak to us tonight on “Eagles Wings Ministries”:
Catie said she had passed around a brief overview of what Eagles Wings Ministries does.  She runs one of their programs which is called ‘Youth for Abolition’, but they have several different things going on.  She said she usually did a power point presentation, but was just going to give a brief overview of what her project was.  What they usually do is ‘combating human trafficking in North Carolina‘.  Usually when you hear of slavery, you think that was abolished back during the Civil War when in fact today there are more slaves in our world than there ever was during the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.  Human trafficking is modern day slavery.  In the United States the average age in forced prostitution is 13 years old.  It is estimated by the Youth Department of Justice that a minimum of 100 thousand United States children are being trafficked and exploited in the US each year.  Some estimate those averages to be more around 300 thousand.  The modern day slave auction is electronic whereas local (?) can examine and purchase via email. Women and girls from wholesalers in other countries where retail customers can order up the prostitute of their choice via email.  Whereas before it was kind of a long process, now it is very easy, almost immediate, and is constantly going on.  It is estimated that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world according to the US Department of State.  The trafficking of humans is the second most lucrative crime in the world.  Approximately 80% of the people trafficked are female and of those ½ are minors.  So 40% of the people being trafficked are little girls.  There is a big market for trafficking of children.  At any given time 50 thousand predators are prowling for the children on the internet in the US.  One point two million children are estimated to be trafficked around the world each year.  That is two children every minute.  During the first three hours of being on the street one in three kids will be forced into trafficking.  When we run into a foreign victim of sex trafficking we instantaneously sympathize with her course into sex trafficking.  But when we encounter an American girl on the street, we think why did she make this choice.  Surely she can walk away anytime she wants.  One survivor says ‘I was 14 years old when I was forced into prostitution.  Like many teens at that age, finding my identity, and defying my parents were on the top of my list.  Consequently when a man came into my life and showered me with attention and listened to me when I complained about my parents, I did not think twice about the fact that he was 10 years my senior.’  That is what is going on.  Unfortunately I know several girls that will talk to anyone on Face Book and there are other guys, girls and other teens other than the ones I know, and that is how the predators are getting in touch with these kids.  They are talking to them on Face Book, they are talking to them through social media.  They are being their friend, they are listening to them when their parents and other adults are not.  They are showering them with the love they are hoping for and then sex happens.   Yes a lot of kids are directly kidnapped but a majority are being more coerced into sex trafficking.  The reality of the ’pimp’ game.  Pimps have a great marketing tool, the media.  You can turn on TV now and see pimps glamorized on TV shows, music and movies.  Now the term pimp is so commercialized where Americans do nothing.  It has become incorporated into our vocabulary.  Teens use the terminology every day with statements like being pimped out, or your clothes are pimping.  We do not understand the reality behind this term.  Pimps prey on women and children by finding out their weaknesses and attacking them. It is easier to manipulate children because by the time they become adults they are dependent on their pimp.  After the pimp gets into your mind it is easy for him to maintain control.  From that point you have to call him Daddy and he will punish you if he feels you have stepped out of line.  You are required to bring home between $500 and $2,000 every night.  If you do not want to follow the rules he may sell you at any time to another pimp or he may just kill you.  The pimp game is not anything like the drug game because it is not territorial.  With drugs you buy and sell it once, but with people you can buy and sell them over and over again.  This is why they move you around from city to city and state to state so you can have no one to run to.  That way they can keep making money off of you.  So, local slavery is happening in our own back yard.  This past year North Carolina was ranked number 6 in the nation for human trafficking.  That’s right out of 50 we ranked number 6.  It is not just in the large cities like Charlotte.   Less than 2 years ago there was a little boy, 5 years old, in New Bern, and his adopted father was selling him over the internet.  Men were flying into the New Bern airport; having sex with this little boy; and then flying out.  It is happening here in Carteret County.  She has talked with a lady that about 20 years ago was being sold right here in Carteret County for about 15 years.  It is happening here.  What Youth for Abolition does is we educate middle school, high school and college age students about what is going on because they are the ones being targeted.  We raise awareness among them so that it is like a peer to peer type of thing of ‘let’s stop this because this is why it is happening – people do not know.’  People are not educated.  She did not know until about a year ago.  She was like ‘human trafficking is something that happens in Tai Land?  And Europe, (?)… it doesn’t happen in America.  We also raise funds to support Eagles Wings Ministries.  There are less than 100 beds in the entire US for victims of sex trafficking once they have been rescued.  When we have over 100,000 kids being trafficked and there is less than 100 beds for them when they have gotten away from their pimps.  So often in the event they are rescued they go right back because that is all they know and there is nothing out there to help them.  We say, ‘you’re free!’.  ‘Now go support yourself’.  Since the only way they know how is what they have just been rescued from, they go right back to that life because that is all they know.  Also, in teaching teenagers that the messages that the media sends all the time is not right.  It is not a good thing.  Being a prostitute is not a good thing.  She has talked to a whole bunch of teenagers and they are like ’oh yeah you can just be a prostitute to make money and do whatever and it doesn’t matter.  That is what the teen culture says now.  That is not a good thing.  It is not OK.  And then they talk to people in your generation (adults) because you all are the ones raising us.  You are the ones taking care of my generation right now.  So, if you all don’t know, how can you protect her generation?  And that is why we come and talk to groups like you.  That is pretty much where they are at right now.  What she does with Youth four Abolition is she runs their state wide program.  They have groups all over the state.  They meet once a month or so and they are getting educated and educating their peers.  They are raising funds to go into other places.  They are working with other organizations to develop programs to take into schools.
ERIC BROYLES wanted to know what the local churches are doing and are they involved.  CATIE said yes, many churches help with the funding, since Y4A does not take any federal funding.  That is the biggest principle that this organization was founded upon.  So everything they do is through donations from individuals, churches, and organizations.  It is a lot of money to have home school and psychological care in taking care of these girls. For 4 girls it is about $100 thousand dollars a year.  By the time you have the facility, help and special needs they have it can become very costly.  ERIC wanted to know if they tried to recoup some of the costs from the kids parents.  Many of the parents are poor, or the kids come from broken homes, and the parents would not be able to afford to help. The kids would just be on their own, if the services were not available.  BOB asked if this was a North Carolina based organization.  CATIE said it was.  HOWARD asked if all the help was volunteers.  CATIE said no, they have one paid employee per home because by law they have to.  BOB wanted to know where the homes are located right now.  CATIE said right now there are two, one in Asheville, and one in Boone.  The long term goal is to have one here in eastern NC.  BOB wanted to know what the current plan was.  CATIE said they were looking at Greenville.  BOB asked what was the current bed situation between Asheville and Boone.  CATIE said 8. BOB asked if they were all filled right now.  CATIE said ‘as of last week all but one bed, because one girl just finished the program two weeks ago.  Last week they got a call from the FBI office in Charlotte and they have 3 girls that they need beds for.  So as of now they are filled to total capacity.  BOB said CATIE had mentioned one girl had completed the program…how long is the program.  CATIE said ‘about a year and then they continue to help these girls afterward but some do go home or to a relative that will take them in and in some cases they will go into the foster care system.  They have a lot of connections with Social Services in the areas so they try to keep the girls near by and are very careful with them.  HOWARD asked ’was not Glad Tiding Church here involved.’  CATIE said yes sir.  KEN asked how CATIE tried to get the word out.  She said ’multiple ways, either churches a lot of times will pass the word or individuals will contact them because there are not that many organizations doing what they are doing right now especially in NC.  They just reach out to the churches for like ’hey, here’s what is going on.  Can we come speak to your youth groups or speak to your congregation.  KEN wanted to know if they call like the minister or send them literature or what?  He knows that she has been on the radio talking about this project.  CATIE said ’in the beginning of December she was up in Charlotte speaking with elevation church.  KEN asked how many folks, besides herself, did they have talking to churches and such.  CATIE said there was her, Emily, and Kim.  There are three of them for the most part heading up the various parts of the organization.  KEN wanted to know if this was all teens, young adults.  CATIE said she was the only teenager right now; the other two are adults.  Emily has been doing this for about 20 years, working with survivors, working with getting girls off the street.  They have the prevention part, the rescue where they actually go out on the street and talk with girls.  They also basically look up the ad and call.  In the past year they have called almost 3000 times and have rescued 8 girls.  But that is 8 girls that are off the street.  BOB said what do they tell the other 2998 girls.  CATIE said you cannot rescue someone who does not want to be rescued.  BOB said ’you said they called’.  We call them.  LOU wanted to know why they could not rescue someone just because they didn’t want to be rescued.  CATIE said ’ if they are minors, that is one thing, but often they will not tell you that they are minors because they have been trained to not say anything unless a customer is specifically asking for say a girl that is 12 years old with blond hair.  Then it is ‘oh well, we just happen to have what you want.  Even if she looks like she is 9 she says she is 18.  She was talking to a lady in Charlotte about the detention center there.  They know there is a lot of girls in there that are in for prostituting and they know a lot of them are there because they are being trafficked.  But proving it, getting to trial, or getting the girls to trust anybody and get them to talk is a very long process.  Until 2000 in the US the fine for trafficking was $50.00 and 6 months in jail.  She thinks it is now something like $50,000 and 10 years in federal prison.  They just renewed that law last year.  BOB said he thought that came out of the illegal immigration and border control – with truck loads of dead Mexicans in the desert.  CATIE said in other countries one of the prime markets for people trafficking others is Americans.  Over 90% of people who buy in other countries have already bought in their own.  PEGGY asked CATIE if she wanted to tell them about the dinner they had planned; that is if she had any tickets left. She said that they are having a fund raising banquet not this weekend but next weekend, February 4th,  at the Glad Tidings Church.  She has about 8 tickets left.  They cost $10.00 and that includes a four course meal.  She is going to be speaking and the founder and president of this organization will also speak; as well as a survivor sharing her story.  Representative Pat McElraft will be there also.  BOB said if she had any tickets left to bring them next Tuesday, that he would like to have one but did not have his checkbook with him tonight.  PEGGY said if anyone would like to get a ticket next Tuesday, she will get that many tickets to bring next Tuesday.  BOB said put him down for one ticket – anyone else? KEN said he would have to check his calendar, but he thought he and DIANE would probably like to go.  He would call PEGGY or CATIE and let them know.  BOB wanted to know if this banquet was to raise funds to help build a house in this area.  CATIE said this would probably be going for education right now and have programs to implement.   KEN said it costs to provide councilors and other needed providers.  CATIE said most of the personal support received was donated but there was still a lot of costs involved.  BOB said a lot of sex slavery takes place in Asia.  Families sell their daughters mainly because they don’t want daughters.  HOWARD said one thing he found interesting was there are a whole lot of operations, but everyone is small, normally only no more that two working girls and they ARE in Carteret County.  Anywhere there is a military base and/or beach.  CATIE  said ’tourist areas’.  She said at the bottom of the sheet she had passed out were some Hope House statistics:  ie 1005 of Hope House residents have had PTSD; 20% have had personality disorder; 100% have been victims of childhood abuse; 40% have been involved in gang activity; 100% have struggled with substance abuse; 100% have been chronic runaways; 100% have been involved in the legal system; 80% have been referred by law enforcement; 20% have been trafficked by their own parent; and 80% have had at least one abortion.   One of these girls will be speaking at this banquet (many will be there) but they have worked with this girl to help guide and give her the strength to tell her story.  CATIE said the lady has been working with this young lady, encouraging her to tell what has happened to her because she is going to have to testify and if she can share her story with people outside of Hope House then hopefully she will be able to testify.  But we have to be careful – there can be no recordings or pictures while she speaks.  They have had to really work with her because you can not use the ’f’ word and many others not suitable for public use, and this is a big part of her vocabulary
.    CATIE said thank you for your time and interest.

BOB then called on KEN to tell us about NC20.  NC20 is an organization that is composed of the 20 eastern counties on the coast.  They have been doing some pretty decent work.  They’ve most recently over the last year, year and a half, there was an effort by the Governor and her ’quote’ science panel to establish some criteria on sea level rising that would have really devastated eastern NC from the standpoint of resale of property, being able to ensure property, etc.  NC20 was successful in having that panel basically disbanded and their report blocked because it was not scientific.  They were going in and talking about how global warming was going to cause flooding of the coast up to 3 foot level which would have devastated this area, but they had no scientific evidence.  Since they were successful on that, they decided another issue that is extremely important and hard to deal with right now on the coast is wind insurance.  Some of us went to a meeting with the Insurance Commissioner and 10 or 12 legislatures.  NC 20 gave a presentation and they had asked that citizens turn out to support them while at the meeting to let the legislatures know that we are interested in this down here on the coast.  He, Diane, Gus and Judy Wilgus, and Shirley went to the meeting and NC20 gave a really good presentation.  Pat McElraft and Norm Sanderson were there from our area but there were 10 or so other legislatures there besides.  Just to give you an example of the difference in rates it costs somebody who lives in Charlotte (Mecklinburg County) about $360.00 (+ or -) a year for their wind insurance.  People down here are paying anywhere from $1,700/$1.800 to $3,000.00 depending on the value of their home.  So we are paying 3 or 4 times more than what other parts of the state are paying.  But yet, the amount of money spent on repairing homes in the state is higher in the western and middle part of the state.  Wind damage includes tornadoes and thunder storms as well as hurricanes.  As you know we also have inland hurricanes that do a lot of damage inland.  Another statistic that was interesting was that the $300 and some dollars that they are paying in Mecklinburg County now is less than they paid in 1995.  Our rates have continued to go up while theirs have gone down.  There was a lot of discussion about the beach plan.  If you don’t know what the beach plan is; it is a plan that was created by the legislature that was supposed to actually supplement the insurance companies in case of a catastrophic hurricane like Katrina or something like that.  Anyone know how many category 5 hurricanes we have had on the coast of NC?  NONE!!  Zero.  Hazel was a 4.  We have never had a category 5 hurricane since records have been being kept and named.  We have only had 3 category 4’s and Hazel was the worst.  Most of the insurance companies will come along and tell you “well, one of the reasons why we are doing this is because we have to protect ourselves from a Katrina event when we have never had one in eastern NC.  The other thing he asked NC20 afterwards is ’wait a minute, Katrina was a bad hurricane but the insurance companies were down there telling people they could not cover them because they were only covered for flood insurance and not wind insurance or vice versa.  They were scooting away in trying to figure out a way in not paying anything.  The US tax payer paid most of the cost down there.  It wasn’t the insurance companies.  What is happening with the beach plan right now is all big insurance companies are dumping people into the beach plan and what is happening when you go to renew your insurance…a friend of his was with Nationwide at the time and they told him that they were not going to write him any wind insurance, he would have to go to the beach plan.  His insurance State Farm did the same thing to him last year.  What happens when they dump us in there (in that category) that means they are not responsible for paying insurance claims due to wind damage any more.  That means they get zero risk against wind damage claims; however they make 15% of all the premiums paid into the beach plan.  The idea behind it was the insurance companies were going to have to service those claims.  It is not the insurance agents, your local neighbors who are selling insurance and writing policies that are getting that 15%.  It is going to the big guys in the insurance companies.  Another statistic.  The insurance industry in the US has cash reserves, investments, and things like that …5 trillion dollars.  You have all these real rich companies now.  The other thing they do with the beach plan is it is common with insurance companies that when they insure a high risk type of event they do what is called ‘re-insurance’.  That means they’ll go to some company like Lloyds of London, (all are overseas), or some place like that and they will buy the insurance policy so that if they have a devastating event that causes so much damage that they get reimbursed out of this re-insurance plan.  That is our money paying for that re-insurance out of the beach plan.  They do no buy that insurance themselves they use our money to buy insurance to cover their loss in the case of some catastrophic event.  If you think that is bad .. They are investing in re-insurance companies, so they are buying insurance from companies that they have investments in using our money to make more money.  It is pretty sad.  In 1944 Congress passed a law in the US that absolves insurance companies from anti-trust suits.  They are the only company in the US that is not prohibited from anti-trust and that means that the Presidents from State Farm, Nationwide, etc can get in a room together and set prices for insurance.  It is a terrible story and very complicated.  There is a board (can’t remember the name) an insurance board in the state of NC.  The way it works (he should have brought the piece of paper where he had written all of it down)…you have insurance companies that sit together and decide what the risks are, what the rates are going to be based supposedly on risks.  Those risk assessments are determined by computer models.  Guess who writes the computer models?  The insurance companies write them.  Then they make a recommendation to a board, and NC is like one of three states that has one of these boards.  The board reviews what the insurance companies have proposed as a rate increase.  Guess who composes the board under NC law?  Over half of it is made up of insurance executives and then some other part of it is also made up of other people tied into the insurance industry one way or the other and then you may have a few normal, regular citizens.  They are appointed by the Governor.  They make a recommendation on the proposed rate increase to the Insurance Commissioner who is an elected official and right now he is a Democrat.  There is no prohibition in the state of NC that this guy can’t himself be a former executive.  However, this one is not.  He is a lawyer.  He could be a retired insurance executive and most of his friends and contacts are within this group.  Someone sent him a real nasty email, because he is posting some of this information on our web site.  You can read it on the web site.  Basically they said that our current insurance commissioner is a really nice guy and what Ken had said in his article he felt was an attack on him, which it wasn’t.  All he did was express the facts as they were presented at this meeting.  They basically said there is a statute that requires a public hearing for a rate increase.   Well, the current insurance commissioner has had one public hearing for a rate increase on insurance.  And he did disapprove the rate increase, so he gives him credit for that.  All previous insurance commissioners have never had a public hearing.  They ignored the statute.  He did not hear anyone at the NC20 hearing state that there was a statute but he is trying to find out whether on not he had heard right.  It is irrelevant since they never had one until
the current commissioner.  So the public had no input in these rate increases.  What NC20 is doing is they are trying to convince the legislature that we need to fix the beach plan.  And we need to do a scientific analyses of how insurance companies are setting rates in the state and why the rates are different on the coast.  Write your representative a letter, or if you have some friends in Pamlico, or Craven or Onslow Counties, get them to write letters to their representatives also.  Harry Brown had a representative there too.  That is what they need.  They need support from the people down here on the coast because we are outmanned.  The 20 counties down here are outmanned by 80 counties on the other side of I95.  It is going to be an uphill battle but he will give the legislature credit they are looking into this and hopefully, if we keep a Republican Legislature, maybe they will do something about it.

A member (Verne Thompson) I think, said they have a house in Pitt County.  His insurance there is 3 or 4 hundred dollars.  We have a smaller house down on the coast and the insurance there is 14 hundred dollars.  KEN said what the insurance companies are doing are beginning to move inland.  It is projected that more and more counties will be dumped into the beach plan because there is nothing prohibiting them from right now dumping other policy holders into the beach plan.  If it is east of I95 it is considered coastal.  Just because you have it now it doesn’t mean you are going to keep it unless something is done.

EULA PARKIN said she had some good news and some good news.  The good news is, remember when she first came here to the first meeting and told us ‘wow, between January and February $35.00 had disappeared out of her survivors benefits plan.  Well, she got a pay raise this month, and much more than the $35.00; plus if you look at your Social Security, she got a pay raise in that also.  Combined together was almost $100.00 a month.  As for insurance she doesn’t know how many of you are military but she has been with USAA for 57 years and they cover you everywhere, (Europe, Asia) everywhere but New Jersey.  They couldn’t get insurance there.

JERE GEURIN asked to speak a few minutes before we adjourn.  He said he had passed out information about the Marriage Protection Amendment which will be on the ballot in May Primary.  Of all times, they put it on the Primary ballot.  He doesn’t expect anyone to memorize the data he had handed out, and we did not have time to read it, but please read it in your own time and pick out the main points so you can be ready to tell others about what is in this handout.  He has some other information (4 other handouts) but will not be bringing them all at once because there is just too much to swallow all at one time.  HOWARD told JERE that he had been approached by a Community Baptist Church in Newport that is having an outside speaker come in to speak on this defense of marriage act.  He does not know the date yet.  It will be on why churches need to get involved in politics in this day and time.  The guy that told me about this meeting is going to tell me the day and time because he is planning to go to listen to him.  JERE asked if it was the Community Baptist Church up on 70?  HOWARD said yes it was across from the Oceanside Auto Sales.  JERE said he had been to their worship.  He asked HOWARD to let us all know as soon as he finds anything out.

BOB called on ERIC BROYLES.  He said he did not know if we had heard about it Iowa did vote for the ‘right to work’ state.  Much applause.

KEN said he had a lot more information to share because most people were not aware how much their insurance was going up.  Most are not aware of the increase, because they pay it in their escrow and only know the escrow went up.  People who are renting are also paying because the landlord is just passing it on to you.

BOB adjourned the meeting so all could get to the Train Depot down town to meet with Frank Palombo.  Capt. Steve Miller has rented the building to enable those who are interested in finding out where Palombo stands can have an opportunity to meet and talk with him tonight.  He had requested the TEA Party group to please attend and wear their red shirts, to make Palombo feel among friends.

Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary Crystal Coast TEA Party Patriots.