On "Occupying Asheboro" . . . And Rumors Of My Death

Still on an extended break (which will continue indefinitely) and still working on a project that, if I can make it happen, will (before it's all said and done) ruffle more than a few "right" feathers in Asheboro, North Carolina.

In the meantime, thought I'd comment on something I got in my Inbox last week - from Mary Kay Henry, President of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). 

I'm not exactly sure how I got on Ms. Henry's e-mail list, but I'm certain it has something to with leaving no stone unturned as one ex-public service Pediatrician fought tooth-and-nail for going-on fourteen years for some small resemblance of fair play and justice in North Carolina . . . after getting fired for saving a newborn baby's life . . . by the good-ole-boys running Randolph Hospital (as I hear it lately, into the ground).

My hard-won education and board-certification, you see, did not count for anything with the fine, upstanding, God-fearing men who run the mills - and who sit on the Board-of-Directors that runs Randolph Hospital.  Nor did the fact that I was in the right.

Of course, years later, it's not like Obama's hallowed healthcare "Reform" (heavily plugged by the SEIU on their website) has gotten around to plugging all the holes I fell through on the yellow-brick-road to the American Dream.

(Why yes, boys and girls, I'm UBER-bitter about that.  And the only "therapy" I've ever needed is the American justice system doing something besides pandering to the "right people" of this messed-up country.)

Dear Dr. Mary,

By now you've seen the thousands of brave students, workers and the unemployed occupying Wall Street.

But did you know that as of yesterday, there are over 300 solidarity "occupy events" happening across the country and around the clock?

In Philadelphia, 1,000+ individuals took to City Hall on Tuesday night.

In Washington, D.C., people have camped out in McPherson Square, symbolically located on K Street, since last week.

In L.A., citizens have spent six straight days and nights outside City Hall protesting against income inequality and joblessness.

The crowds and peaceful demonstrations will only get larger and louder as more Americans find the courage to stand up and demand Wall Street, CEOs and millionaires pay their fair share to create good jobs now.

This is the moment that determines whether this movement succeeds or falls flat. Will you pledge to help the movement spread by visiting an Occupy event in Asheboro? You can sign up and find a comprehensive list of events here:

http://www.seiu.org/2011/10/seiu-supports-occupywallstreet.php

Over the last few weeks we've seen crowds of "Occupy Wall Street" protesters capture the nation's attention as they stood their ground despite aggressive police behavior and hundreds of arrests.

These courageous young activists have given us all a shot of inspiration and hope that we can indeed turn this country around.

We are proud of the actions taken by 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, SEIU 32BJ and other SEIU local unions to support the Wall Street protests.

But as we talk to other "Occupy" participants across the country, they tell us their first need is people.

So we're working with our friends at Daily Kos to see if we can help.

Find an Occupy event happening in your city and pledge to sign up to get involved. You can do that here:

As part of a peaceful, united movement we can do so much more to demonstrate the increasing urgency of the crisis our country faces and shine a light on those responsible.

Let's go for it!

In solidarity,

Mary Kay Henry
President, SEIU

Now, for the record, I do not like being called, "Dr. Mary", and if I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss life with Ms. Henry, I'd tell her that once-upon-a-time I was young and idealistic and had stars in my eyes . . . believing that I could come home to the little mill town where I was raised and make a real difference for the children there.

And I did come home.  And I was making a difference.  Until the rug was pulled out from under me by a trio of opportunistic liars on a power trip.  Since then, NO ONE has held them accountable for their despicable and ultimately ILLEGAL actions . . .

. . . as they, (much like the boys on Wall Street), draped themselves in their MBA's and the pretense of the public good, and stuffed their own pockets. 

(If the above link does not work, Google Guidestar.org.  Register - FOR FREE - and then look up Randolph Hospital, Inc.  Then check out the hospital's latest IRS 990 reports - particularly the CEO's compensation in 2009.) 

Welcome to "corporate America", non-profit/small-town style.  Wall street greed on display in our own backyard.  And then tell me (again) that I'm "crazy" for being as angry as I am about the extra-special-hell I was put through as one of this over-paid, over-rated carpet-bagger's "valued employees".

I think it was both "brave" and "courageous" to fight back against these thugs-in-suits . . . given that every card in the deck was stacked against me from day one.

The thing is, at day one, I did not know it.

In short, people, (despite what Ed Cone-of-the-Cones says) it's NOT just about Wall Street.  And if you believe that, at this point in the game, you're just plain stupid and DESERVE whatever you get.

It's about what has been going on in our own small corners of the world . . . right under the masses' mostly up-turned/disinterested-unless-it-directly-affected-them/largely ignorant noses.

And the ignorance is mostly because ALL of the local ugly was methodically, deliberately ignored by the so-called "journalists" of the world . . . who sold their souls (and ours) to the highest bidders (their advertisers) . . . who could not say anything bad about the leadership of the towns they were simultaneously trying to "market" . . . and who cannot now understand why they have no credibility with the public - or why their circulations are in the toilet.

As for this home-girl who once drank the Koolaid, the very ugly story is all in the Housecall's sidebar folks. 

READ the links there.  Because in terms of spoon-feeding, I'm DONE jumping through the hoops for the likes of Greensboro's Edward Cone and his gang of online bullies disguised as enlightened & progressive do-gooders . . . holier-than-thous who have no agenda but a warped "social justice" which always seems to amount to robbing hard-working Peter & Penny in order to pay for Paul & Paulina's every whim and vice . . . while winking and nodding (in Clintonesque fashion) at the ugly swirling about in the rarefied air of their own ivory towers.

In the comments of Ed's post, I think Jerry Bledsoe's response to The Poet (Billy Jones) hit the nail squarely on the head of hypocrisy:

Billy, as Ed likes to say, here’s the real question: Why don’t you guys occupy Ed’s house?  His family obviously exploited the poor people of this state for decade upon decade, and he benefited from it immensely. Now that he’s on the side of the exploited, he couldn’t possibly object.

Jerry's re-telling of history was a hoot.  But here's another little history lesson for those new to Housecalls and the Greensboro blogosphere: Once upon a time, Ed Cone, blogging journalist and high-profile scion of the Cone family, had a chance to BE relevant and help right a wrong . . . a wrong actually worked by the non-profiteers-fancying-themselves-captains-of-industry running Randolph Hospital - in order to pander to the good graces of the healthcare system that bears Ed's family name . . . a wrong offered up to him on a silver platter by a newbie blogger he invited into his online backyard for the reporting.

It was a very ugly, (you could say, "hyper-local") story of how corporate medicine, often cloaked in charity, is eating the young and idealistic of the medical profession.

(You could also say it's very relevant to the news of the day.)

But Ed and his do-gooding, justice-seeking pals could not be bothered.  People lie in Court every day, you see.  And when they're caught doing it . . . and the justice system does absolutely NOTHING about it, we-the-people-screwed-by-the-lie-documented-in-the-black-and-white-of-sworn-Court-documents are supposed to just get over it and move on . . .

 .  . . just like all the folks hosed by the lying, cheating fat cats on Wall Street - and in Washington - are supposed pick up their shattered lives and keep buying the made-in-China merchandise with what's left of their retirement plans . . .

. . . just like all the folks in Asheboro hosed by the Miller Millers of our community are supposed to suck it up and silently smile, as our useless daily newspaper softens the sideways-slide of failed bankers into university presidencies (so they can teach the next generation of newbies how to screw over their fellow man) . . . or tells us that a few bars downtown will "revitalize" a town decimated by mill-town right folk embracing the global economy for a fast profit.

After busting our asses all of our lives to get where we are, we're "crazy" you see . . . "tea-baggers" and "racists" and "bigots" to think that some of that "social justice" that nobel, well-named Ed keeps lecturing about should apply to us.

Alas for Ed, Dr. Mary's story-of-mill-town-woe did not exactly reflect well on Hillary's village, or John Edwards' sorry, self-serving job performance, or the noble, way-over-sold goals of Obamacare.  You just cannot blame this one on Bush.

That, and she did not fit a standard "victim" subclass as appoved and pandered to by fair and imparital Ed's beloved Democratic party. 

So Dr. Mary had to be publicly eviscerated for having the balls to telling the truth about what happened to her in public service in her hometown of Asheboro - where "small town values" rule . . . on a Democrat's watch no less.  And, as time went by in "Blogsboro", she was delinked, banned, and even cyber-stalked by one of Ed's fawning lackeys who thought he was somehow justified in hurling vicous insults and threats into a woman's personal Inbox . . . and brazenly libeling her online.

His "reasoning" for the abuse (inasmuch as what went on can be likened to "reason") was that I broke Ed Cone's heart.  How lame.  How PATHETIC.

Of course, that didn't cross any lines with Blogfather Cone because, well, it was Mary . . . and, as a thorn in the side of his perfect life walking his dog and raising his children and pushing his left-of-center utopian visions in a "revitalized" Greensboro, the good-doctor-done-very-wrong-by-just-about-everybody-in-the-right-circles-to-which-his-name-allows-immediate-access DESERVED to have "brave" Jeff Martin shoot more even more holes through her soul . . . and then hide his despicable deeds behind a lawyer like a little girl . . . and then boast of a Courtroom victory where the Randolph County District Attorney's office once again threw Dr. Mary Johnson under the bus.

It was all in good "fun".  Reality almost as good as reality TV.  HaHa.

So from my perch in the blogging slums south of Blogsboro's city limits, part of Edward Cone's "legacy" as a hyper-local blogger and well-named journalist, is that, in the "brave" and "courageous" department, he is sadly lacking. 

I was just one more plebe to be exploited - this time for entertainment value and hits on his blog.

Wishing me well doesn't make well happen, you see.  Robert Kennedy was actually right about it taking one person to make the difference.  That person just has to step up.

Once upon a time, in my chosen profession, I did.  No one had to beg me to do it.  It was the right thing to do.  But Edward Cone didn't.  The son-of-a . . . physician turned a deaf ear. It's as simple as that.  And after the way he/his pals treated me when I begged him for help, I'm not going to let him forget it.

The thing that Edward doesn't seem to get now - as he lectures the world on strategy and proportionality and priorities in restucturing our broken world  . . . the thing that most of the progressive left doesn't yet get as it denigrates about half the population in order to serve its pseudo-socialist agenda. . . is that what we need most . . . from over-indulged, hedonistic top to uber-entitled bottom . . . is to get back to the notions of personal responsibility and accountability . . . of personal ethics and of simple right and wrong . . . of the rule of law applying equally to everybody . . . to understanding that freedom is NOT free, and your fellow Americans should not have to pay for your pursuit of happiness . . . and that NO, we-on-the-wrong-end-of-a-screw-turn-by-people-charged-with-the-public-good DO NOT NEED TO GET OVER IT.

So, dear readers (and my dear Billy Jones), you'll forgive me if I didn't pick up a sign and march for "Occupy Asheboro" on Saturday.  I'm not French.  And I had better things to do.  Moreover, there would be no point.

You see, I've been there done that - several years ago.  The daily newspapers and TV stations did not show up.  And the Asheboro police were not there to "protect" me, but to arrest me if I stepped one foot off their script.

To close this post, and on a side note before I dive back into my break, this was in my Inbox . . . from another well-named friend . . . over the weekend:

For those detractors of yours who only read the print edition of the News & Record, there will be a brief moment of euphoria, but only brief. You see Doctor, in the print edition of today's N&R under the obituary listings by city and county, there is a "Mary Johnson" listed under Randolph County, and only if you read the actual obituary on the following page is one made aware that it is not "that woman"......

ASHEBORO — Mary Ella Geddie Johnson, 96, died October 6, 2011.  A memorial service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church.  Arrangements by Pugh Funeral Home, Asheboro.

I hope Mary Johnson rests in peace.  For if she lived in Randolph County for all of her 96 years, she most certainly deserves the rest.

And I'll take one Buzz Armfield over an army of Ed Cones any day.