"Weighing In" On Greensboro's Most Recent Public Demonstration Of Inglorious Stupidity

It is bemusing to me how so many bloggers in Greensboro wait for Ed Cone to weigh in on something. And when he does weigh in, he says nothing at all.

He's left many of us wanting more for years. And not in a good way. So I'm thinking that we've got to stop giving Cone so much credit. There is a point that being among the first to do something doesn't matter if you do nothing at all with it.

The several-day Greensboro "Blagosphere" mud-fight that has ensued from two morons (one white & conservative and one black & liberal) pushing & slugging it out at a political protest last week (with most of the participants in the ethereal mud-fight weighing in predictably) is exasperating and almost sad to me.

I just got an e-vite to a rally in support of Mr. Tabor. Forgive me if I pass. I'm tired of being the punching bag.

But the bright note is that there is one point upon which almost everybody can agree (and that's progress in this ether). The only way to get local press attention is to grab a video camera and act like an ass . . . and even then, the News & Record isn't going to touch it until it's been plastered all over YouTube and debated on Fox News.

(Moreover, even when you act like an ass . . . and break the law . . . and give interviews to the press expounding on how much of an asshole you were/are . . . because being an ass is your "hobby" and your "right". . . you'll be found "not guilty" because the other party somehow deserved the punches you threw.)

On a semi-related note, there was a post a at Kevin's this week . . . featuring an essay in Newsweek . . . authored by a Pediatrician (Dr. Karen Li) who, frustrated with "bureaucratic impediments" and low reimbursement, left Pediatrics forever.

Forever. Think of what a WASTE that is.

I could not help but note the irony. Because for over five years . . . as a home-grown-Pediatrician-done-way-beyond-wrong-in-Asheboro-by-people-who-now-have-the-unmitigated-nerve-to-host-forums-on-healthcare-"reform" . . . as someone still practicing Pediatrics AND fighting for some resemblance of "justice" in her spare time . . . I have begged and pleaded with the journalists in the Greensboro blogosphere (an area of the country where "citizen journalism" was supposedly going to be "relevant" and make a real difference) for some substantive/real help in dealing with/exposing "bureaucratic impediments" that make Dr. Li's troubles look like a walk in the park on a cool & breezy spring day.

(Please remember folks, that there is a REASON I hate lawyers.)

But Dr. Li quits and immediately has an essay in Newsweek.

???

So, I asked an honest question at Kevin's . . . "What the hell does it take?". It's a question I've asked of Cone . . . and Robinson . . . and others.

An interesting back-&-forth ensued . . . including some of the same "arguments" I've heard before . . . and some very kind words (nice, for a change). But I still don't have an answer.

Well, actually I do. A friend of mine (talking about "justice" and journalism in Asheboro and Greensboro) said fairly recently (I'm paraphrasing from memory), "Mary, with this bunch of inbred jerk-offs & "right-people", you could slit your wrists in protest on the Courthouse steps with the original documents proving Randolph Hospital executives' crimes pinned to your shirt over your heart as the blood seeped out of its chambers . . . but law enforcement would hold their posts scanning suits for shanks just inside the Courthouse's air-conditioned doors . . . and the journalists would back their vans over your body on the way to interview the next poor-pitiful-victimized crack-head-and/or-crazy-woman-with-eight-babies-courtesy-of-seven-fathers who can't afford to feed them (and wants you to pay for their medical care & build her a house while you do) . . . or the dancing local bank President who "retired" after turning good stock into pennies . . .

. . . Oh, and the bloggers would tell your still warm corpse to start your own blog and/or tell it to Jerry Bledsoe."

While my opinion might not be nearly as important as Mr. Cone's, I "weighed in" at Joe's this morning on the latest demonstration of what I like to call "inglorious stupidity" in Greensboro:

You know (with no offense intended to anyone here) . . . it blows my mind . . . it really does . . . that two IDIOTS getting into a shoving match on a city street (again, where were the Greensboro police?) . . . one of them STUPID enough to throw a punch on camera . . . can generate this much intense/pointles debate/analysis and wailing/gnashing of teeth.

It's just inglorious stupidity, people.

And while you-all fight over two moron's "right" to act like assholes in public, you're one Pediatrician down, going for two.

Like I said, I'm gonna skip the rally.