When I was a child my Daddy taught me about Ringers, specifically,
"one that enters a competition under false representations"
It was common practice back in the old days for every mill to have its own baseball team. Cone Mills had a team that played home games over at the old ball field across from Revolution Mill on Yanceyville Street.
Dirt track racing was common in my Daddy's time as well. Greensboro had a dirt track located where the Greensboro Coliseum stands today.
And as with most sports, gambling on the winners was big business even though it was and remains technically illegal.
As part of his efforts to teach me the dangers of gambling my Daddy taught me of Ringers at a very young age.
Because much of Daddy's time was before television, it was still possible for the biggest names in most any sport to assume fake identities and compete in the lower leagues whenever they had the time to do so. And those who controlled the gambling along with some of the biggest gamblers, we more than happy to pay these professionals to come play at the amateur level unbeknownst to audiences and competitors alike.
Sometimes Ringers were even brought into college athletics.
Here in GReensboro we have not one, not two, but three candidates for Mayor of Greensboro who are in fact: "one that enters a competition under false representations" aka Ringers.
How's that? you ask.
Well let's begin with our current Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan. Nancy Vaughan ran on a platform of honesty and transparency but then as was reported by Margaret Moffet of the Greensboro News & Record, Mayor Vaughan charged over $8,000 in personal legal expenses related to her divorce from Donald Vaughan, to the City of Greensboro. And was leading the effort to build a downtown performing arts center part of her original platform for Mayor? No one in East Greensboro would have ever cast a ballot for her had that been her platform. As a matter of fact: Nancy Vaughan has repeatedly made promises to help people while continuing to run up expenses for monuments to rich white people.
Pretty much meets the definition of "one that enters a competition under false representations" don't you think?
Then there's Diane Moffett who lives in Jamestown but rented a house in Greensboro the very same week she filed to run for Mayor.
Now I realize that Reverend Moffett is a preacher and probably a very nice person but think about the implications of moving people to a city simply to have them hold elected office. Let's say for instance that Greensboro's moneyed interests, the rich folks behind the curtains, decided they weren't happy with who we, the people, elected to office. They could hire popular actors, sports heroes, retired business executives, military officers, etc, to move to Greensboro at the last minute, run for office, get elected based on nothing but their popularity, and become puppets to the wealthy overlords. As a matter of fact: If you'll take a look at Diane Moffett's campaign website with no platform and only her personal accolades shown it would appear that might have already happened.
Are we going to allow Greensboro to be run in this way?
And then there's John Brown.....
John Brown makes the following claims on his campaign website:
"John Brown has been a Greensboro resident for more than 30 years."
Except that as a resident of Liberty, North Carolina, John Brown filed personal bankruptcy in Randolph County in 2011while listing his home address as 5415 Cook Collier Road, Liberty, NC. 27298.
You can read numerous more pages debunking John Brown's lies by clicking here. The documents are there to back it up. Take my word for it, John Brown is a Ringer.
Me, I was born in Alamance County Hospital in 1956. My parents lived in nearby Gibsonville in Guilford County on what is now called Prison Farm Road. We moved to the east Greensboro home on Textile Drive where I live in today in 1956 along with one of my three younger brothers. My two youngest brothers were born in Cone Hospital.
In my youth I drove trucks and did construction work for a living, took several job transfers and briefly lived in Chicago, Dallas, Coburn, Va, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Compton, California but was never in any of those places long before returning home.
I've management experience in the recycling industry, trained drivers, been a mechanic and worked briefly in the structural engineering department at Carolina Steel where I learned I wasn't cut out to spent my days at a desk.
I grew up in what was then called the Bessemer Community here in east Greensboro, went to Bessemer Elementary School, Bessemer Jr High School (Grade 5), Aycock Jr High School, one year at Mendenhall Jr High, and three years in the first all integrated class at James B Dudley Sr High School where I graduated in 1974. My family were members of Bessemer United Methodist Church from 1958 until it closed in January 2017. Part of my family now attends the Presbyterian Church of the Cross on Phillips Ave.
My son, an only child, died of a massive heart attack a few years ago and I now watch after my 85 year old mother and drive her everywhere she has to go.
I'm real, I'm blue collar working class, I believe in putting people first, and I'm anything but a ringer.
