The plan for the next three months or so is to take a bit of a break from Housecalls. I will post infrequently on stories that interest me (taking more of a "blurb" approach, like Cone) and do more flittering about - like I did in the beginning (just call me "Cheripicker";). Comments will remain closed.
Let's move on to local stories that have interested me over the holiday weekend:
The Editorial Board at the Greensboro N&R seems to be relishing the ugly self-inflicted beating that Community One Bank/FNB (based in Asheboro) stock is taking. The same story has been front page online for 3 days.
Of course, since the days Mike Miller & his ilk (serving not so "honorably " on the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors & Corporate Membership) looked the other way & blew this badly-burned doctor off in favor of burying bad PR & pumping profit, there's been no love lost by Dr. Mary Johnson on the First National Bank of Asheboro.
Knowing that I'd probably get some ugly push-back (and I did . . . apparently I'm "racist" - for knocking rich white guys . . . not-to-mention "bipolar" - for having spurts of blogging activity that turn on what I now do for a living), I posted my two cents. Excerpts as follows:
Interesting that we in Asheboro are not reading these stories in our own hometown newspaper - The Courier Tribune.
Of course, if it cannot say anything nice about the rich-white-men who've run the town/banks/schools/medicine into the ground over the last decade, that newspaper does not say anything at all . . .
Asheboro and its biggest bank (once a solid institution) are in heapum big trouble because the people running it for the last 15-20 years (the aforementioned rich-white-men) could never say NO to the get-rich-quick schemes - and could not tolerate/hear dissent from within (kinda my point about the newspaper). Their "vision" lasted only into the next fiscal quarter . . . not to what they were doing to the town. Yes-men need only apply with this crowd. And you don't get excellence by catering to mediocrity.
Here's a question for you: WHO brought in the uber-cheap labor (to be used for private profit - with all of the associated social fall-out dumped on the schools and the medical system)? WHO said yes to all the bad loans (from what I hear some of the worst "non-performing" loans did not go to "minorities")?
As a result, the once-stellar public schools are in the toilet (and RCC is on some kind of probation), the town's biggest community bank is drowning in toxic assets, and the hospital (which back in the day REFUSED to market to East Asheboro because the Health Department was seeing all those kids) is holding poorly-attended "healthcare forums" because the powers-that-be can't figure out what they've done wrong.
In 2008, the town was listed on Forbes"top ten" list of dying towns. But hey, for pointing all of this out, I'm "crazy" and "racist".
I really like the way Bill Bruton styled "being out front" (i.e. greed) as some kind of self-inflicted noble wound. Great spin. No really, I mean it.
I'm sure FBC's shareholders are eating it up.
As I noted in the comment at the N&R, Randolph Technical College is also in some hot water. Of course, the Courier pulled out all the stops taking Dr. Shackleford's back (trotting out Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison and Sheriff Maynard Reid and even Asheboro City Schools Superintendent, Don Andrews to extol the virtues of RCC grads). But (no offense intended to the grads) something REALLY smells here. There's something we still don't know. I commented at Fox 8. An excerpt:
. . . it takes a big screw-up and/or administrative communication/other failure to put an organization (particularly a reportedly well-performing organization) on probation/warning.
Moving on along, I'm very, very sorry he's on the critical list, but as a "wrong person", I'm wondering where Maynard's deputy bought his booze. Of course, it's Randolph County. So despite the DWI (i.e. the FACTS), I expect that if the deputy survives his injuries, he will get off.
And that's because black and white evidence of wrong-doing holds no sway in a Randolph County Courtroom - or to DA Garland Yates.
Finally, I came across an article at the Courier Tribune that really brought back the warm fuzzy memories (another girl named Johnson - no relation - has come home to work as Randolph County's new Director of Elections) . . . for once-upon-a-time, I got welcomed home by the hometown newspaper too.
That was before, Bob Morrison, trying to shut me up, played his ugliest card, and David Renfro's front page broadcast that I was a liar.
And/so I left my very first comment-that-actually-posted at the Courier:Ah, This Article Really Brings Back Some Memories
(Sincerely) hope Ms. Johnson has a better experience coming home than Dr. Johnson:
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2009/12/dr-mary-johnson-vs-randolph-hospital.html
We'll see how long the comment stays up;)
(Or, if more anonymous trolls pounce.)
7/6 Update: The N&R removed a comment on the Triad-Banks-In-Crisis thread alleging that I was "bipolar" (translation LIBEL) this morning . . . only 2 days after the fact and AFTER the story had moved off the front page.
No agendas there.
