"Talk To The Hand" Some More: E-mails, They (The Courier Tribune And The Asheboro City Manager) Get E-Mails. But They Don't Answer Them.

Since I'm working OOT, I don't know what's been in the editorial pages or LTE section of the Courier Tribune since Sunday. I'm sure if there's anything juicy I will hear about it.

Continuing along on the theory (because it really is just a very sad theory) of "free speech" in Asheboro, I've contacted both the Courier Tribune and the Asheboro City Council over the last week.

As I've said before, the Courier's website is of the technological Stone Ages. Only selected "top" news stories and columns are published on-line. Letters-to-the Editor (especially of citizens talking back to the powers-that-be) are not published. The paper pretends it's hip to blogs by allowing online readers to submit "comments' on stories, but if your comment casts a dissenting or disparaging light on the coverage or point-of-view that the Courier provides, it is not published.

The Courier's publisher, David Renfro (husband to Bonnie over at the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation* . . . that would be the people with the MBA's who think they know what's best for all of us, and believe they "own" the town and everyone in it) has clearly issued the edict that my comments on the paper's "news" stories will not be published.

(*Note to the uninformed: The RCEDC is pretty much the equivalent of Greensboro's Simpkins's PAC without the racial connotations . . . or, if you give credence to Fec's theory of "scared white people", ALL of the connotations and then some.)

So much for Randolph County embracing blogging in any way that would make blogging "relevant". Hey! Maybe Edward Cone of the Cones can come back to Rotary and chat them up again.

Of course, publishing my Letters to the Editor (with or without a word limit) was found to be a lost cause long ago.

For many reasons (the biggest one being I won't roll over and die) I am dirt to David Renfro.

If he does nothing else, Mr. Renfro protects his very important friends from the tiniest iota of local scrutiny . . . even if they are supposed to be answerable to the public as "non-profit" CEO's . . . even if their flowery rhetoric (now delivered in our churches) belies their hypocritical/unethical/illegal deeds . . . and especially now that they are fronting the City of Asheboro's 20/20 "strategic plan".

Long story short, I offered to buy ad space in the Courier in order to publicize this blog to the local populace. And yes, I know I did not ask nicely. But boys and girls, I played by the rules, I went through the channels and I've done "nice" . I've got news for all of you: "Nice" does not work with these people . . . they will mow you down simply because they can. You have to go ahead and hire the lawyers and stir up the dirt/rocks (dropping a big hint to the Mountain crowd if they really want to stop this thing from going down on the City's schedule):

Mr. Criscoe,

After reading your editorial in today's (2/17) paper, I'd vote for you moving away. Maybe the moving van will hit a ragged/bottomless pothole (like the ones on my un-maintained - by anybody - road) and blow a tire/smash-up some furniture on the way out.

Do you really think anyone believes that you, as Editor of our local paper, are so ignorant that you did not know the resident's of "the Mountain" did not already have city water (which we pay for)? Did you know the City golf course (well within city limits) was required to drill a well as an "alternative source" of water? Perhaps not.

It sounds like you're on the wrong side of the same "small-town-values" that have done in so many of the rest of us. And you're taking the city's side??? Are you smoking some of the crack that is so easily bought on our streets now?

By the way, those two RN's really busted the city's chops in their letter to the Editor (referencing Chip Womick's nasty hatchet piece on the Premier building).

With these things in mind, and since I am still a resident of Dave's Mountain (a young medical professional who did not "just move away" in deference to the nasty games some of our fine upstanding citizens play), here are two submissions as Letters to the Editor or "Guest Editorials" (from my blog). Both address the subject of annexation . . . as well as the use of city/county tax dollars . . . not to mention (if you REALLY want to talk about "past mistakes" of city leaders) the CRIMINAL behavior of the non-profiteer who has fronted the city's annexation efforts (i.e. Asheboro 20/20).

Given the length of letters recently published in the Courier Tribune from unconvicted felons like Bob Morrison, you don't appear to have a word limit anymore:

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2008/02/stench-in-nostrils-of-god.html

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2008/01/by-their-fruits-ye-shall-know-them.html

As an alternative (as you know, I don't like it when my opinions are edited), I'd like some information on how I might purchase an ad for the blog/links - to be published directly across from your editorial page on a Sunday.

By the way, it's 2008. If the Courier is going to take comments on the "news" stories on its website, you need to publish them. Free speech and all that.

"Talk to the hand."

Mary Johnson, M.D., FAAP

Now, before John Robinson gets too smug about how much more "transparent" his newspaper is (because the N&R does the the fur fly in the blogs), a few years ago (when I only had a website), I offered to buy space in the Greensboro News and Record (Asheboro's "alternative" local daily). After a round of meetings with the advertising department, it was a no go. No good reasons were provided. And, of course, for several years now, I've begged JR to send a reporter down and spend just thirty minutes looking at the documents that prove my criminal case against the City of Asheboro's current front man for annexation (and by extension, alcohol). That too has been a no-go.

And like Cone, when you dare talk back to JR, you get "de-linked" from his local "links of interest" blogroll. Talk to me some more about that "community" and "citizen journalism".

Of course, JR & company tucked tail and ran from Randolph County as fast as their little high-thinking, race-baiting legs could carry them . . . after destroying the life of a local community college instructor . . . then (deservedly) having "disgruntled ex-employee" Jerry Bledsoe rake their muck-raking form of journalism over the coals.

After the grief I've taken in the GSO blogs from the blogging big-guns indifferent to my plight, but now so consumed with getting public records to which they are entitled (what my case is all about), I look at this post (on "burned citizen journalism") now almost two-years-old, and have to chuckle.

Unlike his fellow blogger thity miles south, Roch Smith, Jr. has IN NO WAY BEEN PERSONALLY DAMAGED by Mitchell Johnson's lack of generosity in releasing documents that may or may not be public record. From the view of the blogging cheap seats, I'd love to see Roch handed his "civic-minded" hat (not to mention stand in &^%$# line!) as he fights the powers-that-be at the GSO City Hall. Then he might have some (very) small idea of what being stomped on and ignored feels like. And actually, paying out some legal fees for Sam's heavy-lifting would be a real good learning opportunity for Roch too.

Roch, who (along with Cone and Sue and Hoggard and that ilk) has accused me of being "bitter" and "angry" and "terminally self-absorbed" (because I was swindled by liars - and can't get a broken/corrupt legal system to address it), sounds just a tad testy these days . . . after only "124 days" of talking to hands.

I wonder how Roch would sound after EIGHT YEARS.

I AM angry. I AM bitter. Add heart/soul-sick and disgusted. And yes, I've had to look out for myself . . . BECAUSE NO ONE IN THIS TOWN THAT CLOAKS ITSELF IN THE HIGH-MINDED MYTH OF "SMALL TIME VALUES" LOOKED OUT FOR ME . . . OR OFFERED TO HELP.

And while I'm on the subject of that Bush-hating crew in the GSO blogosphere, let me go on the record that I am absolutely DELIGHTED John Edwards' campaign went down in flames and Hillary's steam-roll to a presumed coronation is floundering. My ordeal started on the Clintons' watch. When I was a young-gun, Miss Hill was gonna fix healthcare. But despite all the self-serving rhetoric about the need for (and nobility of) public service, the lumbersome and inefficient/ineffectual Clintonian Department of Health and Human Services could have cared less about young/naive (albeit fiesty) Dr. Mary Johnson getting sucker-punched by Randolph Hospital. Moreover, as a Senator who made a lot of promises he in no way kept, John "Throw Some More Money At It" Edwards was deaf, dumb & blind to this "ordinary" doctor's plight in a small mill town.

I've digressed (sorry). I must admit, that at this late stage in the game, the "Letter to the Editor" format feels lame and constricting anyway. I would rather publicize the blog/website in an ad, as I would prefer my commentary to remain un-edited.

I have yet to get any kind of response (about buying ad-space) from Mr. Criscoe, whose childish, vindictive reasons for the collective "municipal rape" of Dave's Mountain residents were examined here.

The "Talk To The Hand" bit just does not fly.

Anyway, a few days ago (on February 19th), I sent Asheboro City Manager, John Ogburn another e-mail, asking to be kept informed of the next Asheboro City Council meeting where the public (i.e. Dave's Mountain residents) will be able to speak:

John,

I do not work in town during the week - nor do I take the Courier Tribune.

Please provide the current schedule for the City Council meetings that will address the planned annexation of Dave's Mountain - particularly the meetings where residents will be allowed to address the Council.

I would also appreciate notification of any changes to this schedule. As the city seems determined to railroad this thing through - and not provide alternative ways/times (i.e. a night other than Thursday) for residents/citizens to provide feedback, I will need to schedule a day off work to attend.

Once again, anything that Bob Morrison is associated with winds up costing this smart, (not-so-young-anymore) professional money. I hear he has a nice big screen TV. I wonder if he got a nice raise after schmoozing $1,000,000 out of City & County coffers?

Mary Johnson, M.D., FAAP

In terms of having their voices heard, with all of these City Council meetings being held on a week-night, many "Mountain" residents who actually don't work in Asheboro are at a clear disadvantage.

Reminds me of the lawsuit days, when I (often working far away, and paid by the hour for my Locums work) was always at a disadvantage to the big-boys at Randolph . . . what with their way-beyond-inflated salaries (not to mention legal fees) subsidized by a public kept in-the-dark and clueless by Bob's good pals at the newspaper (who can't seem to hold up their pens when Dr. Mary Johnson appears at a Council meeting). Every time something big came up, I had to take days or weeks off, and make the trip/buy the gas.

All Bob had to do was put on his expensive sport-coat and hop on over to the Courthouse in his Beemer.

Oops. Digressed again. When these Asheboro City Council meetings are all said and done . . . the "Mountain people" will not really have had any say. The City is going to do what the City wants to do. It's just for show.

The supreme irony here is that when my neighbors and I finally do have a voice/vote . . . the City of Asheboro is expecting us "smart" folks (as opposed to the citizens they fairly obviously dismiss as "dumb" and/or religious zealots) to raise our voices and cast our votes in support of the Council's underlying goal. Make no mistake kiddies, that goal is to get alcohol in Asheboro.

It will be good for economic development . . . not to mention do wonders for "business" at the hospital.

The gangs and drug-runners should love it too. The second baby step to addiction (after cigarettes and before that joint) is an easy ice cold beer with your food or groceries.

Anyway, John (like the newspaper, and the state of North Carolina for that matter) has yet to answer my e-mail. Now his argument is going to be that it's all been published in the newspaper and is online. But it's not just about dates that have already been published in the paper. What I'm really looking for is an assurance from our City Manager that once I do the schedule flip-flops and once again take the financial hit (a day's pay) to get there, the meeting is not canceled or moved.

Not that would be a classic "Asheboro" move.

So I sent another e-mail:

John,

I am waiting on an answer to this e-mail (in your capacity as Asheboro City Manager).

It's bad enough that free speech is a joke in our small town, and our local daily newspaper is determined to bury voices that do no tow the party line (or worship at Bob Morrison's feet). But the City of Asheboro - that wants to annex my neighborhood and tax my home/property does not have that luxury.

As far as I am aware, unless you/the City have done something to identify me a "spam", there are no problems with me sending or getting e-mail.

Mary H. Johnson, M.D., FAAP

I simply do not understand why/how city & state officials get off thinking that it's okay to simply ignore the correspondence of citizens regarding civil matters.

I could, of course, rag all day on those civil matters as they pertain to the sorry state of healthcare in North Carolina . . . where billions have been wasted in public programs poorly overseen by a government that loves to hand out the money (the massive screw of Medicaid called "disproportionate share" is now only a distant/quickly-buried-by-the-press memory). But today, the Raleigh News & Observer is doing it for me.

Yeah baby. Talk to me some more about government oversight of how public healthcare dollars are spent. Once it's in the private sector (which includes our so-called "non-profits" . . . from small town hospitals to the insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield), the money is GONE. Say bye-bye.

As a physician, I answer many calls a day . . . every evening, before I ever leave my office, every phone call in the logs is answered . . . either by me or one of my staff. I cannot always give people what they want (because medicine is not Walmart . . . as much as some politicians & citizens would like it to be), but they do get an answer.

I would never dream of not returning a call or not answering a question . . . especially working in ANY public service capacity.

If I practiced medicine the way these people run government, I would be out of a job.

But hey, the phone calls were answered, and I was out of a job in Asheboro anyway. (Let me take this opportunity to say hello to Courier golden-girls, my ex-"partner" Dr. Kathleen Riley and the poison-pen-wielding dentist Dr. Cheryl Freeman: Randolph Hospital did not care about the truth or fair play then, and it still doesn't.)

So why these public servants still have theirs?

Why are WE THE PEOPLE still "Talking To Hands"?