On Bubba's Request

I took a blogging break over the holidays . . . a real one . . . where I barely looked at my own blog and only read/commented on one or two for well over a week.

It was actually quite nice. I wasn't sure I wanted to come back. I'm still not sure.

Last night, I became aware of a raging debate on Roch Smith Jr.'s and (Dr.) Sue Polinsky's blogs . . . over Bubba's request that other bloggers not use his real name in our online forums. Of course, given recent events, my name came up.

Dr. Polinsky has a policy of not commenting on me or my comments/posts.

Except when she does.

It seems to me that Bubba's request is a simple/reasonable one - especially if any of these progressive bloggers screaming "hypocrisy" have ever, EVEN ONCE, given credence to the comments or opinions of someone posting anonymously.

Yes, a good many of us know who Bubba is . . . just like we know who a lot of local people who blog under pseudomyms are. And the fact that I know who he is lends Bubba all the credibility he needs to blog.

He's not really anonymous, IS he?

It's the blogosphere, not a fricking Courtroom (not that it actually matters - because people lie there all the time and we're supposed to get over it).

Bubba has made the argument that he is concerned about the safety of his family. And from the cheap seats in Randolph County, it is a very credible argument.

You see, I was not the only local blogger targeted for cyber-abuse by Jeff Martin (aka, "Fec") late last year. Bubba got e-mails too . . . his home address typed into the header . . . threats in the body of the mail . . . sent from a man who did not live very far away.

Of course, this happened before "Fec" turned his sights on me . . . because I took one of his posts to task on Housecalls (only because he was deleting dissenting comments/banning people on his blog).

What I did is called blogging. And I acutally used a technique that Sue employs - lifting a topic from another blog and featuring it/discussing it on my own. It's actually what I'm doing now. There's a name for it. But I forget what it is.

As I understand it, "Fec" backed off Bubba fairly quickly. And he backed off because our Bubba is Bubba, and does not put up with crap. You threaten Bubba/his family and you WILL have a problem (and again, from my perch in the cheap seats, you should). Moreover, in firing off those e-mails, Fec crossed a line . . . as much as several of our more prominent bloggers don't want to admit it.

Except when they kinda do. Extending a recent stream of logic . . . "Electronic mail is just as much a record as any traditional paper record . . . ". So. When you think about it, what Roch is actually saying is that "Fec" might as well have sent his threats and slurs (to Bubba . . . and to me) via U.S. Mail.

The last I heard, Bubba has elected not to purse criminal charges against Martin.

But that does not mean Bubba does not have just cause to still be concerned/worried. As he floated various defenses for what he did to me online, Martin bragged about previous brushes with the law (almost as if he is above the law - of course, that seems to be all the rage in Randolph County). He's going to take Mary Johnson down.

Nice.

Moreover, since pressing charges for what Martin did in November, people I don't know . . . who don't know me . . . who don't really know Jeff Martin . . . and who don't have a clue as to the background of this story . . . have hurled ugly threats & insults . . . and libeled/ridiculed me online.

Of course, it's all done in red-white-and-blue good fun . . . for in America "free speech" includes making threats and publishing libel. Victimizing others makes YOU the victim. Ooo-rah!

The logic escapes me. But I long ago stopped trying to understand how some people rationalize their actions.

The issue here is simple. While the argument of Mr. Smith and Dr. Polinsky (and others) might be that "the cat is out of the bag" with regards to Bubba's real name (and it is), the fact remains that for his own protection, and that of his family, Bubba has asked that we use his pseudonym in all blogging forums.

To use an old argument that many in Greensboro's privileged upper echelons (and journalistic circles) often employ to justify their actions, maybe Bubba knows something we don't know.

Bubba doesn't want his real name splattered all over blog posts and threads. Even if his real name is "out there" he doesn't want it to be particularly easy to find. Given recent events, I certainly understand and respect that - and will hereafter honor his request.

We are adults. Bubba has asked people to STOP. So GROW UP, get your heads out of your butts, and STOP.

If Jeff Martin had stopped last November, he would not be going to Court in February.

Back in 2005, when I first took the blogging class and dived in (it seems like a lifetime ago), I debated for a long time as to whether or not to use my own name in this ether. At the time I made it, it was a difficult decision . . . because doctors in the blogosphere had/have suffered horrible professional/personal consequences for their blogging (most of the time when they blogged too openly and liberally about specific situations under pseudonyms - and were afterwards "outed").

But I'm here for a reason and a cause, and that requires credibility. I don't have a choice if I want change. And signing my own name keeps me honest.

Just because it annoys the crap out of Sue and Roch and that whole uber-progressive-yet-not-when-it-comes-to-Mary crowd, I'll (briefly) re-state the cause. I'm here because I was a home-grown doctor in public service who had everything she held dear ripped out from under her because she did the right thing by a patient/newborn baby (a baby who just as easily might have been Sue Polinsky's or Ed Cone's or John Robinson's child or grandchild) . . . I'm here because I am a well-educated professional woman (dare I say, like Sue) who was called a liar (not-to-mention "crazy") for blowing-the-whistle on bad care and despicable/unethical behavior - and for telling the truth to the government she served (a government that, if the Rochs and Sues of this world have their way, will shortly be given even more to screw up) . . . I'm here because I'm an ordinary citizen who was battered by "public servants" using the legal system as a weapon (on the public's dime) AND swindled by in-your-face bad-faith and perjury on the part of "right people" in our Court system (not that any of the bloggers now so intent on "outing" Bubba" . . . people who once teamed up with local journalists and told the world they'd tell stories like mine . . . have ever cared about that).

So "Dr. Mary Johnson" it is.

I use "Doctor" because I earned it - and because it differentiates me (just a little bit) from the 27,998 other women named Mary Johnson in the United States.

And yeah, the story I came to what Bubba calls the "blahgosphere" to tell IS (don't ya just love that word? ) all about me.

But it IS also VERY MUCH about what could happen to YOU or your loved one in a LOCAL hospital or a Courtroom.

But, with an Obamaload of "I told ya so's," just over the horizon, and with the world turning to crap all around us, THE GREAT ISSUE of the day for Roch and Sue is whether or not Bubba uses his real name online.

I don't know if Bubba has a civil or criminal cause-of-action against anyone who continues to do use/abuse his name online, but I'd certainly entertain/consider the notion.

And no, answering her not-so-rhetorical question, I honestly don't believe for a second that Sue actually felt "threatened" by Bubba's "keep it up" at Dr. Joe's . . . most certainly not in the same way that I felt threatened on 11/13/2009 (and was compelled to take immediate action with the Medical Board to protect myself/my livelihood because I felt that way).

For the record, the law Dr. Polinsky that has heard about, as it is written, is NOT just about "annoying" someone (I love it when fact-checkers lecturing the rest of us about "situational ethics" selectively read legal statutes - as opposed to a warrant hastily written out by a Randolph County deputy). North Carolina's cyber-stalking law SPECIFICALLY addresses E-MAILS (as opposed to blog quarrels) that are sent for the purpose of "abusing, annoying, threatening, terrifying, harassing, or embarrassing any person."

Jeff Martin managed to accomplish all six.

It is my opinion that Dr. Sue Polinsky (raging, deep-blue progressive GSO blog-mama) is making a stink about Bubba because that's what she does when she really HATES somebody. And, despite all the blather about "tolerance", it is my opinion that she really HATES Bubba (both for his world view and his tenacity) . . . just as she has long hated Dr. Mary Johnson (angry, done-wrong, red-state, redneck-woman-with-a-cause) . . . for taking her to task over Elizabeth Edwards' self-serving/politically-polarizing appearance at Converge South back in 2006.

And we all know how the sad/sorry Edwardian saga played out. Two families for each of the two Americas and all that.

Which doctor was the better judge of characters? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't the one with the Doctorate in Cultural Diversity Studies.

What Roch and Dr. Sue are doing to Bubba right now is being done with real forethought and deliberate, methodical malice. And it's very ugly to watch . . . certainly not becoming of two of Greensboro's blogging "big guns" (I know, some of my readers hate me using that term to describe them) . . . particularly if they want more people to come out and play in their yard.

Moreover, the supposedly enlightened "big guns" who are determinedly poking Bubba with sticks right now are among the ones who scream the loudest about "civility" in the blogosphere.

If one really wants civility in the blogosphere, one needs to start by walking their own talk, and BEING CIVIL . . . never mind that someone else might not be.

Despite what Sue thinks (and "Fec" is going to want a judge to think), some of us have had a LOT of practice at holding our tongues . . . BECAUSE we sign our names.

I also have to wonder where we might be right now if some of Greensboro's blogging finest had actually tried that tactic with the already way-beyond-deeply-wounded Dr. Mary Johnson (as opposed to their patented "routine brusque web style")?

I "broke Ed Cone's heart".

But NOT BEFORE he and Sue and their friends stomped all over the pieces that used to be mine.

The "malignant narcisisst" is signing off now (you'll note that, back in the day, "Fec" loved that one).

My very best to Bubba.

And Brandon, I gotta say, you are making me proud.

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