A Message From Nancy Barakat Vaughan

Nancy Barakat Vaughan found it unnerving that I challenged Gail Malevan LeBauer's opinion on Nancy's Facebook Page day before yesterday and again yesterday. So much so that someone deleted my comments to Ms LeBauer twice. I've little doubt the final straw for Greensboro's Mayoral hopeful and Greensboro Performing Arts Center supporter was when I left a comment to Ms Gail Malevan LeBauer that included a link to my opinion of her opinion piece in a News & Record LTE supporting the GPAC back in January in which I pointed out the THE EUGENE S. AND GAIL M. LEBAUER FAMILY FOUNDATION, INC. is broke and grasping for quick cash like so many of Greensboro's elites who are desperately pushing to build the GPAC.

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.

The GPAC Push Continues: Gail M. LeBauer

Another LTE in today's News & Record. Notice they didn't mention the writer just happens to be a member of the GPAC Task Force:

"Counterpoint: Arts center would bring us together

By Gail M. LeBauer

Following the Greensboro Massacre on Nov. 3, 1979, our community became fear-based and xenophobic, with parts of the city divided and removed from one another. During that same year, the United Arts Council, with the corporate support from Miller Brewing Co., was granted $75,000 for a city arts festival, otherwise known for the following 20 years as City Stage.

Our streets had been empty and our communities were filled with a pervasive mistrust. City Stage launched the following fall with citywide participation of 75,000 the first day, a Saturday, and 50,000 on Sunday. I remember it well because I was fortunate enough to be president of the United Arts Council when City Stage was launched due primarily to the extraordinary efforts of Betty Cone and Helen Snow, then executive director of the UAC.

Why do I write this? 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.

Somehow we have gone off track; the proposed Greensboro performing arts center and surrounding park place is not elitist, nor for only a “chosen” segment of this wonderful community. It will serve the tradition of arts throughout time as a convener of all ages, races and disparate economic factors, whether inside the arts center space, or in the wonderful outdoor spaces connecting our other vibrant resources: the library, the United Arts Council, the Historical Museum and the nearby Children’s Museum."

Well Ms LeBauer, why don't we begin with why City Stage went out of business. You and your kind don't know how to operate in a competitive environment. City Stage did fine until a little town called Asheboro dared to open an event on the same weekend charging vendors-- the backbone of your event-- 1/3 the price of a space at City Stage. In no time at all City Stage was gone. How do I know this? I was a City Stage vendor. You, Betty Cone and the rest have spent your lives living on other people's money with no idea how hard it is to make it on your own, now Betty Cone is caught for tax evasion and forced into the private sector and your money is running out so you're looking to the taxpayers to bail you out. I'll give Betty Cone 2 years before she closes her doors, PAC or not, your existence depends on GPAC and we all know it. Get a job!

We all love the arts Ms LeBauer, but like you, we like eating and roofs over our heads first and foremost. I'm sure you have family that will take you in just like my family took me in. And if not good luck at the shelters. Don't wear any rings, the addicts will cut your fingers off to steal them.

I wonder if any of the LeBauers were among those big cars coming from the direction of Greensboro?

Like I wrote yesterday, "Mark my word people, in two weeks there will be a huge effort at the next Greensboro City Council Meeting to take away your right to vote on GPAC next November and if Greensboro citizens do not outnumber the bought and paid for task force consultants and speakers who are all paid to be there the Greensboro City Council will vote to build the downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center at taxpayers expense.

And mark my word, Greensboro, this time I'm not speaking for you. You are on your own."