So Nancy sent me the following message via Facebook at 4:06 yesterday:
"Billy, I appreciate your passion regarding GPAC (and other issues). However, please consider that this is MY facebook page and I want my "friends" to feel comfortable posting their opinions. Why don't you start an I hate GPAC page or find ways (Real Progress for Gso etc) to have people engage on your page? I agree that a difference of opinion is healthy, but there is a fine line between disagreeing and being disagreeable. People are entitled to their option without being grilled. I don't mind (and I expect) if you challenge me. I can take it. This is a social network. Please honor my request and take it in the spirit in which it was intended. I am going to send the same message to George. Thank you for your consideration."
Let me begin by saying that Councilwoman Vaughan has every right to express her opinion. She has the right to control the content on her Facebook page. Greensboro City Councilwoman Nancy Barakat Vaughan has every right to freely associate with anyone she wishes. These rights are the basis for everything we believe in.
Councilwoman Vaughan is also right that I'm disagreeable. I find it works to my advantage more times than not. As I once told a boss, "It's not that I don't respect authority, I don't respect stupid authority."
Allow me to also make clear that Councilwoman Vaughan has not and is not engaging in any form of censorship. Mayor Perkins attempted to censor us but so far Councilwoman Vaughan has not attempted to do so. Facebook is not the government (Not yet, anyway) and I am still free to express myself through lots of other means including challenging Greensboro Mayoral candidate Nancy Barakat Vaughan. I'm doing so right now. And to be clear, Nancy Vaughan hasn't even gone so far as to block me on Facebook although the other Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann did block me on Facebook.
Councilwoman Vaughan has broken no rules... yet.
The problem with what Greensboro City Councilwoman and 2013 candidate for Mayor of Greensboro, Nancy Barakat Vaughan is doing is that in trying to protect Gail Malevan LeBauer's refined sensibilities she and others like her continue to contribute to the murders of young men like 24 year old Reginald Demarcus Wrenn while they continue their campaigns of Institutional racism and classism.
So I offended Gail Malevan LeBauer's sensabilities. Big fucking deal. While Gail Malevan LeBauer is busy being offended, people on my side of town are busy dodging bullets and trying to stay alive. I mean seriously folks, our very home was the target of a drive by shooting in the 1960s. The bullets passed just over my head. It's been going on in East Greensboro and other Greensboro communities for that long and what does Gail Malevan LeBauer have to say about it:
"The role of the arts has always been to be a convener of people; arts has always bridged economic, racial, and religious divides to unite us. Our city came alive again and people did what they always do when spaces and places are filled with sounds, aromas and arts in action. "Is this lady really so dizzy she believes City Stage did anything to solve race and crime issues in our communities? That's laying it on pretty thick, Lady. My mother and I had dinner last night with some of our black neighbors here in my east Greensboro neighborhood where my family has lived for over 50 years. They invited us because they have been reading this blog and they are sick of all this talk about a GPAC when their dear black children are dying on Greensboro streets. I bet you won't set foot in my East Greensboro neighborhood and try and pass off that bull shit. People 'round here, black, white and hispanic will pick it up and throw it back at you.
You know what's bridging the racial divide here in working class Greensboro? Hatred of GPAC, the Greensboro City Council and the local "non profits."
So Nancy, in reply to your message: Sure, no problem. Give Gail my best. And remember: while you're worried about your friends getting their feelings hurt, I'm worried about my friends being murdered because your friends have no sence of priorities. No sense of right and wrong. But then how could they, none of you have ever watched children kill one another outside your bedroom window. For them it's out of sight and out of mind. Think about that the next time you tell me you appreciate my passion. Think about that the next time someone like Ms LeBauer tries to tell us art will solve our problems. Think about what it would be like if you had to worry about your own daughter being gunned down while playing in your Irving Park neighborhood. And when you do you'll realize how petty your concerns for Gail and your other elitists friends really are.
Yes Nancy, I'm passonate. I'm passonate because I've felt the blows and the cold steel of razors and knives, looked down the gun barrels and narrowly escaped the bullets myself. I'm passonate because my son was taken away from me and because I don't want Greensboro's working class children to become like me. And I'm passonate because every time I turn around I see some politician telling me to be nice to the very people and institutions that created this fucked up mess in the first place. You want more people like Billy Jones angerly attacking the status quo here in Greensboro? Just keep on doing what you and Gail Malevan LeBauer have been doing all along.
And remember: Without East Greensboro you will not be mayor-- ever.
