A Knight-In-Shining-Armor Named Buzz

MLK Day translated into a slow work day in rural Eastern North Carolina, so once rounds were done, I spent part of the day re-working the sidebar on Housecalls.  First-timers to the blog (particularly medical personnel) should be able to understand "the meat" of my story quickly - with the option to learn more - and I hope that what I did today cuts down on the links I insert in posts. 

I was prompted to do this by several recent attempts by readers to contact me through comments (my e-mail address has always been available on my Blogger Profile, but I'll admit that non-bloggers/those new-to-blogging might have trouble finding it).

I also continued to follow the thread on the N&R's story about Community One (formerly First National Bank of Asheboro) being taken over by the Feds.

As has frequently been the case since my debut in the Greensboro blogosphere almost six years ago, a commenter going by the moniker of "Kid A" immediately went for my jugular.  I was an "it".  "Endlessly screeching" about what happened to me in Asheboro.  It was all about me.  I should "embrace the paranoia".  I was not to be addressed as Dr. Johnson, but "sweetie". 

Same old CRAP in the progressive ether of the very-significant-compared-to-Asheboro-burg-of-Greensboro.  Different day.  The truth about the people who've run Asheboro into the ground doesn't matter (particularly to someone who has no stock there).  And facts are irrelevant. 

Speaking of paranoia (and given what I've learned lately via some of the aforementioned people trying to contact me), it's very hard not to believe that the boys at Randolph aren't somehow behind a lot of the online abuse.  Particularly when Randolph Hospital is on this site EVERY DAY.

(Wait.  I know.  Maybe we should get Sheriff Maynard Reid to investigate!  Yeah, you got me. I was joking.)

The N&R's moderator, "General Greensboro", as usual, was nowhere to be found to moderate the venom aimed in my direction (and I'll not take any bets than when/if he does show up, that it won't be to admonish the doctor who signs her name instead of the smug punk who flings ad hominems from behind a fake moniker).

I dug my heels in to go a few rounds.

But then a well-named-knight-in-shining-armor-who-also-signs-his-name rode in.  The knight goes by the name of Buzz:

Kid A . . . I agree with you.  Doctor Johnson does tend to always find a way to refer everything back to her.  No doubt, she's the harpy whose singing is causing Asheboro to dash itself on the rocks . . . then again, perhaps you said it best with . . . "Embrace the paranoia sweetie" . . . I regret that I didn't do so sooner.

Thanks to Mary Johnson, I now do.

I worked for First National Bank, that was the predecessor to Community One.  Crazy Mary isn't so paranoid when you consider that they kept detailed files on their customers, and I mean right down to everything, including Courier Tribune articles.  I once saw a file where a local businessman had made a comment about banks, and it was circled in red ink with comments out to the side.  I had a senior officer of the bank tell me not to make a loan because he didn't like a certain person. 

You my young man, and I'll assume that's what you are based on what you've said, need to know that in a place such as Asheboro, bad things can happen to those who don't "go along", and Doctor Johnson is not one to go along with anything which she feels is wrong. 

She stood up for what she felt was right, and paid for it, and dearly.  So, it is often about her. Then again, and I've said this plenty of times, she had more to lose than most, and almost did.

It should be about her.

My regret is that for so long I kept silent, and chose to stay away and not do the "right thing".

And if anyone had nothing to lose, it was me.  Asheboro, or rather those that run it, has a way of keeping things in order.  I quit counting the times that I heard about local employers telling their employees how to vote on an issue, or....else.  When I worked for First National, I had to contribute to some sort of bank PAC fund that Mike Miller belonged to, or . . . well . . . it didn't matter, they laid me off anyway. 

Tell me Kid A, do you have "kids"? They're not safe either. You get "out of line", and things will begin to happen to them at school, church, wherever.  Does your wife work in Asheboro?  Not good, you see her career could take a down turn should you decide to oppose the wrong side.

You sort of see why Doctor Johnson may be having the last laugh now. She's not against Asheboro, just those that run it.  She had this coming to her, just like those who wronged her have it coming to them.

I was dumbfounded by the pull-no-punches RAW in Buzz's prose.  And deeply, profoundly touched.  And very, very grateful for finding a friend such as this man.

The thing is I didn't "find" him.  I grew up with him.  In the town that used to be Asheboro.

And I would take one of him over all of Mike Miller's and Bob Morrison's "friends" combined.