At The N&O, The Threat Of Retaliation Merits A Headline. Real Retaliation Doesn't.

There's an interesting story up at the Raleigh N&O today.

A senior student at Enloe High School (Jay Zhang) wrote a letter-to-the-N&O Editor about a lack of diversity there (it's a "magnet" school . . . at one time a tool of desegregation . . . notsomuch anymore). A teacher took issue with the letter in class (it was embarassing to the school), and allegedly threatened (in a non-specific way) to rescind the young man's college recommendation letters. 

From the article:

In his letter to the editor, Zhang wrote that there's a separation between the magnet and non-magnet students at the school that can't be ignored. He wrote that he's never seen more than two black students in any of his classes at Enloe.

"Despite being hailed as a success against segregation, Enloe remains, with few exceptions, separated and unequal within," Zhang wrote.

Brave kid.  Signed his name.  Challenged the politically-correct status quo.  Reminds me of me (I should find that letter to the Editor of the Courier from thirty years back - about a long-gone school superintendent - and post it - that would be a REAL blast from the past).

Zhang even responded and signed his name in the comment thread - which boasts over 50 comments at this writing.

Speaking of comments, they're interesting too . . . many of them commenting on the hypocrisy of the liberal do-gooding elite (a favorite theme of mine) who champion the school . . . you know, the good-ole-boys-of the-deep-blue-Sleazelyish persuasion who've been so concerned about ethics and the content of people's character for so long.

I added my two cents (in red below) to the thread . . . prompted by my initial reaction the the headline, and a comment by "Libertine" (in blue below):

"Welcome to dealing with the fourth estate, kiddo.  Your personal tragedy is their amusement."

Jay, "free speech" has consequences. It often comes with a backlash - and that backlash can be brutal.

You found that out the hard way. I'm very sorry for it, but the world-beyond-the-classroom is not a very nice place, and this is a good lesson to learn while you're young. Our Libertine is spot-on about "the fourth estate" and what it chooses to dramatize and what it chooses to ignore.

You wrote a letter. You offered an opinion. You signed your name (good for you). You also fit the bill to serve someone else's agenda. You are a pawn on a bigger board and you got used.

Look at it this way. The mere threat of retaliation got your story front page (online at least) coverage at the N&O. And I don't think that you're actually going to have any trouble getting into college. Indeed, now that your rights have been so egregiously violated, I'm fairly certain you just got your free pass in to the bleeding-heart school of your choice.

As for suffering real "retaliation", call me back when it's "hung over your head" for 13 years and the brain-dead press is blowing you/the truth off. We can share war stories.

Fighting the good-ole-boys is hard work.

And NancyNC could not be more wrong. Not everyone is held accountable for their words or their deeds.

I alluded that the headline pissed me off.  It's just hard-to-take that this wet-behind-the-ears high school kid who has NO CONCEPT of what real retaliation is has front-page headlines . . .

. . . while yours truly, who has suffered nothing but retaliation from evil-doers-who've-draped-themselves-the-public-good for 13 years, cannot get the time of day from the champions of free speech and justice-for-all reporting the stories.

Meanwhile public hearts will bleed for this kid . . . a poor pitiful put-upon "victim" who can ride this "firestorm" into the front doors of the liberal arts institution of his choice . . .

. . . while they tell the doctor who actually worked and competed for her slots to "get over it" and "move one".

Of course, we don't just have the N&O doing the deaf, dumb and blind act. 

Once upon a time, a number of angry parents wrote letters to the Courier Tribune's Ray Criscoe (a consumate brown-noser who'd like his deliberately-kept-in-the-dark-readership to believe he's the poor-pitiful-victim-of-a-vengful-cyberbully).  These parents smelled a rat when it came to their Pediatrician's sudden departure . . . and suspected she had been the victim of retaliation.

They wanted the truth.  Trouble was, they lived in Asheboro.

Good ole Ray, brown-noser (I know, I said that already) and puppet that he is, only printed a few of the most watered-down letters . . . making the pathetic, cowardly excuse that it was merely an employment dispute . . . oh, and (even better) that he needed to respect the "privacy" of the Pediatrician . . . nevermind that she and her family - with an ax literaly hanging over their heads - would have WELCOMED an actual journalist nosing around and asking questions of the mill-town powers-that-be.

Too bad we didn't have any journalists in Asheboro that had not already sold their souls to the aforementioned mill-town powers-that-be.

And then there's the News & Record - where John Robinson regularly pontificates on journalistic ethics and Ed Cone-of-the-Moses-Cones-on-whose-behalf-I-was-screwed-to-the-wall occasionally drops a high-minded column.  Let's close with a comment posted by another N&O reader ("Ishami") that actually very accurately summarizes my experience in the enlightened Greensboro blogosphere:

This situation illustrates quite clearly the vile, hateful and petty nature of liberals.  Disagree with them and you get a boot squarely placed on your neck.  Disagree with a conservative and have a spirited debate.

AFTERNOON UPDATE:

It didn't take very long for a brave anon, to jump on board the N&O's thread:  "Gee Mary, Bitter much?"

Why yes, I am, thanks for asking.  And I want to thank the commenter for proving one of my points.  Leaving now to go rub my neck.