On Annette Jordan And The Courier's Efforts ". . . To Make Lady Justice As Fair And Color Blind As Possible, And To Set Right Those True Injustices That Do Occur." You're Kidding, Right?

The blog is getting a little more local traffic these days.  Part of that, I think, can be attributed to the Courier Tribune, which lately has taken to accepting/publishing my comments on its stories and columns. 

You see, for a very long time, my local newspaper did not.  And that's all about the CT's old publisher, David Renfro.  He simply could not tolerate anyone dissing his very important friends . . . no matter how many laws they broke in running doctors out-of-town . . . or how many banks they ran into the ground.

"Right people" ruled.  My ex-lawyer (the one who lied to me and missed things he shouldn't have) actually coined that term during the alcohol referendum.

And the minds and hearts of the lowly/backwards plebes of Asheboro & Randolph County had to be controlled . . . guided in the "right" way to think.  Dissent and criticism of the-powers-that-be in our-fair-mill-town-ripe-with-small-town-values is not the mark of a "team player", you see.  It could be bad for economic development.

(Never mind that saying, "NOT NO BUT HELL NO!!!" to some of the plots and schemes might have been better for our mill town's economy . . . not-to-mention primary care in Asheboro.)

Moreover, standing in the way of what "the right people" deemed to be progress, might torque off Bonnie Renfro (massive journalistic/other conflicts of interests never meaning anything in Randolph County).

(Of course, our local newspapers cannot figure out why they're dying.  For instance, IMHO the N&R's Loraine Ahearn going to journalism school is way too little, way too late.  And Chapel Hill giving her a scholarship to do it is just scary.  Wait, I know!  Maybe we should ask David Wray? ) 

Back to comments at the Courier, I recently did debate on a thread gracing a column by Annette Jordan . . . on the little matter of uttering a prayer before a City Council meeting.  It's my position/opinion (even "wrong people" in Asheboro can have them) that it's not about the imposition of religion on government, but about free speech . . . and that in a representative Democracy and Constitutional republic, Christians have just as much right as anyone else to speak before, during or after a Council meeting . . . and if the Mayor or a Council-person, in representing a majority of his/her constituency, and in deference to the community's history and tradition, wants to say a prayer BEFORE the conduction of business, so be it. 

"In God We Trust" and all that.  It's on ALL the money (maybe the atheist doesn't like making/spending it?). 

And we still swear Oaths to God in Court - not that it means ANYTHING in Garland Yates' jurisdiction.  

I'm tired of ducking under tables - or running from lawyers - because some anonymous atheist somewhere wants to demonstrate his/her less-than-progressive lack of tolerance and spell God with a little "g" just to get my goat.  

But I think this thread actually gives a great demonstration of two things: (1) Why more people are not in the blogosphere - as they'd rather not be called every name in the book for taking on people who don't sign their names and hodge-podge their moral code from (among other things) Star Trek quotes, and (2) why, blogging has not developed beyond a timely tool for the Obama-zombies to facilitate real change.

Please DO NOT get me started on "citizen journalism" - there is much to lament . . . especially in the medical blogs.

Moreover (as this thread demonstrates) as an anonymous/gutless dweeb blogging under the name of a freckle-faced cartoon-character lectures me on obeying "the law" . . . and as we debate equal representation in government, and local law-as-it-is-practiced by the Asheboro bar (pun intended) . . . let's not talk about the facts . . . or what the good home-grown Doctor Johnson has been trying to get local/state/Federal authorities to investigate and prosecute since 2003. 

No.  Let's just call her every vile, nasty name under the sun . . . distort the truth, and assault her character/mental health (ONE MORE TIME!) . . . because she has refused to just roll over and let the David Renfros and Mike Millers and Bob Morrisons of this world have their way.

Yeah, that's the ticket (not to mention, great entertainment for the Clark Bells and Steve/Brooke Schmidlys of this world).

A pal of mine laughingly suggested last week that I start charging the Courier for my services (i.e. keeping the hits up at their site).

Anyway, another friend of mine called on Monday morning and wanted to gossip:  "I heard the real reason (Dr.) Mick Irwin left town". 

Regular readers might remember that the good doctor Irwin is the Neonatlogist-wannabe that the LDRP nurses called me in to rescue on that fateful night in 1998 (Randolph Hospital's desire to cover-up his screw-up being the reason I am here & commenting on stories at all).

And that immediately brought to mind another one of Annette Jordan's columns . . . in which she boldly proclaimed the Courier's noble efforts, ". . . to make Lady Justice as fair and color blind as possible, and to set right those true injustices that do occur."

"True injustices", Annette?  I couldn't help but take that as a back-handed slam.  For sweet ole' down-home Annette and truth-seeking Chip and the rest of the noble newshounds at the Courier obviously do not think that a home-grown doctor brought back to Randolph County with Federal and State money . . . threatened for complaining about BIG problems at the hospital . . . fired (with ZERO due process) after cleaning up Mick's mess (saving a newborn's life in the process) and reporting it to peer review . . . SLAPP-sued for telling the government-she-served the truth . . . and swindled-of-fair-restitution at settlement by a pack of lies told under Oath by "non-profit" executives posing as "public servants" . . . poses a "true injustice".

Annette and the gang at the Courier certainly did their fair share of ignoring the letters of nurses and parents . . . of down-playing and burying what really happened.  They were, in fact, very willing spectators to a series of silent crimes - indeed, in terms of distorting the truth, they wound up being accomplices.

I mean I know the Courier has BEEN ASLEEP for going on fifteen years, serving its town-killing masters, but I'm curious, Annette, exactly HOW MUCH INJUSTICE do you need?  Cuz, I'm still waiting for what was done to me to be "set right".  I've been SCREAMING for help from the local press from the moment I could take an easy breath and not risk loosing everything - and when I couldn't scream (because I was in a box) - other people did it for me. 

Where were you-all except with your noses-for-news buried WAY up inside Bob Morrison's sigmoid colon?

And I've got some bad news for you, Annette:  In Asheboro, Lady Justice is no lady.  The blindfold is off and her skirts are WAY up over her head.

With regards to Mick Irwin, I shrugged my friend off.  First, if I had to guess, the boys at Randolph (and probably Moses Cone), in their desire to erradicate anything and anyone associated with the rail-roading of Dr. Mary Johnson, really wanted him gone.  Moreover, Mick is just one of many bad memories associated with the old hometown (if he wanted to practice Pediatrics & Neonatology, perhaps Mick should have started by completing a Pediatric residency).  The notion that Irwin is going to go to some other small unsuspecting North Carolina town, and will probably pull the very same stunts he did in Asheboro without so much as a decent slap on the hand brings me no particular pleasure.

But the conversation did bring me back to an old Housecalls post that I'll probably link in the local character study I'm currently working on . . . a post that I'm sure all the hot-shot Pediatric gurus in their ivory towers would rather not get a lot of ether-play (because the truth hurts).

And the truth is, in terms of "care you can trust", my Board-certification in Pediatrics did not mean a hill-of-beans to the greedy jerks running Randolph Hospital.  And the fact that I am still here on these blogs . . . begging for help with crimes - felonies - that have NO statute of limitations (because perjury undermines the very fabric of justice) . . . FIVE YEARS after answering John Robinson's invitation to citizen journalism . . . AND after the passage of a healthcare bill that just throws mountains of good money after bad . . . more than proves that medical/legal oversight and "ethics" in this state/nation is sad/sorry lip service. 

I thought I'd link that old post again today . . . in honor of good ole' Mick (who fancied himself a Pediatrician) . . . not-to-mention the N.C. Medical Board, and the Academy & Board of Pediatrics, and the AMA and JCAHO . . . who were all right there (not) to be my advocates and take my back when my life was turned to crap for doing the right thing by a baby girl . . .

. . . in a heart-warming story . . . the kind our Annette Jordan specializes in . . . unless the protagonist is a local Pediatrician named Mary Johnson . . . and the story would step on too many "right" toes.

The post is from 2008, and is called The Devaluation of Pediatricians And The Death Of Pediatrics.

I've recently been told that part of my problem is that patients/parents don't really want to hear how bad things are/can be in terms of medical and Pediatric care in North Carolina. 

You may not want to hear it.  But it's spot-on.

So.  Annette.  You want to "set right those true injustices that do occur"? 

Here I am.  Where have you been for the last twelve years?