RALEIGH, N.C. — The 'Reopen NC' protest in Raleigh started at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Hundreds gathered to protest the stay-at-home order and subsequent closure of nonessential businesses.
An opposing group, 'Stay Home NC' said the protest was scary to virtually watch.
"It's very scary especially to someone like me that has cancer that people are just out there willing to go against medical protocols."
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Stay Home NC organizer, Michael Morgan said his group takes safety and the executive order seriously, and that's why they didn't go out there to counter-protest.
"It’s a perception sort of thing, if we could get people out there protesting they would be but we also have our own safety to think about."
PHOTOS: Reopen NC protest in Raleigh
But they came up with another way to voice their concerns, and exercise their first amendment right.
"We are hosting our own sort of counter-protest [Tuesday], we're basically raising awareness to everyone to call their state senator because our group is 15,000 strong," Morgan continued. "We have people from all over the state so we’re asking everyone to call their state senators today, and urge them to back up Governor Cooper and the NCDHHS order to stay home and follow them as closely as possible."
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Morgan said saving human lives should be the number one priority.
"We’re all in a bad situation right now, we’re all struggling and I think regardless of what side you’re on we can all agree everybody is suffering in some way through this stay-at-home order but human lives are the most important thing on this planet."
He said the lack of social distancing at the protest was most concerning.
"Also a distinct lack of correctly used masks, it’s a scary event I've been [virtually] watching all morning, and it’s sort of hard to watch."