The Importance of Copy Editors

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Copy editors are important. Don't believe it? The folks at Groupon and Mitt Romney's campaign would probably disagree with you right about now.

GrouponDeal
Groupon's daily email today featured the subject line, "Father's Day deals for the man who gave birth to you" and linked to a page with the header, "Celebrate the Man Who Gave Birth to You." Your mother would likely be shocked to learn that your father gave birth to you. She'd also likely wonder what caused her so much pain those many years ago. Sure these headlines are better than "Celebrate your sperm donor" but they're still woefully inaccurate.

Abetteramercia

Then there's the Romney campaign's photo application that lets you take pictures of various things and then overlay a pro-Romney message on them. One problem: the message that was supposed to read "A Better America" instead reads "A Better Amercia." Granted it's not really a scandalous development for the campaign, but when you're fronting the party that's become known for being led by anti-intellectuals (Sarah Palin anyone) it's not the kind of message you want to send.

There are plenty of good copy editors out there, and given what's happened to the publishing industry of late they probably come pretty cheap. Maybe Groupon and Romney's communication team should look them up. 

Side note: If you read more than one sentence of the thousands written for this blog it will become painfully obvious that this is a highly ironic post. A copy editor's "red pen" has never graced these pages and it shows.

Perfect Timing in the News

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Today the Winston-Salem Journal published the last article in a three-part series on the two major nonprofit health care systems in the Winston-Salem area, Novant and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and this particular installment focused on executive compensation. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Dr. Roy Poses, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Brown University and former physician at three academic medical centers, writes a blog called "Health Care Renewal" in which he frequently tackles the issue of executive compensation…

"The same rationales are cited to justify their treatment — executives are said to have very difficult jobs, and competitive pay is necessary to hire the brilliant people required.

"Left unsaid, however, is how difficult these managerial positions are in comparison to the demanding work and sometimes life-or-death responsibilities of health professionals, how brilliant executives are in comparison to such well-trained professionals, and why the executives deserve competitive pay when other employees may be laid off." (Emphasis mine).

Later in the morning Novant made the following announcement:

Carl Armato, president and chief executive of Novant, said in a memo to employees that the system is eliminating 82 management positions and 207 staff positions, effective immediately. The majority of the eliminated positions are in Novant's Winston-Salem and Charlotte markets…

Armato said there are four main reasons behind the decision.

"We all know there's a national mandate to lower what our nation spends on health care and to make care more affordable," Armato said…

"The poor economy has clearly changed people's behaviors and they are using fewer health-care services, including elective surgeries and outpatient testing, such as diagnostic imaging."

Armato said Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for services "is dramatically declining. Put simply, we are being paid less for our services and this trend will unfortunately not improve.

"The amount of charity care we provide has increased 200 percent over the past five years.

Pretty nice juxtaposition huh?

Question: If you had to guess, what would you say the odds are that Mr. Amato showed some leadership by taking a voluntary reduction in pay, or even a pay freeze, before deciding to seriously screw with 289 people's lives by laying them off? 

A Guy and a Gal Walk Into Town Hall

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Gay columnist Dan Savage gets a marriage license for himself and a lesbian coworker and in the process he exposes the idiocy of laws against gay marriage:

Like I said, Amy and Sonia and I didn't show up at the county building last Friday because we were planning to sue. We came to make a point about the absurdity of our marriage laws. Amy can't marry Sonia, I can't marry Terry–why? Because the sanctity of marriage must be protected from the queers! But Amy and I can get a marriage license-and into a sham marriage, if we care to, a joke marriage, one that I promise you won't produce children. And we can do this with the state's blessing–why? Because one of us is a man and one of us is a woman. Who cares that one of us is a gay man and one of us is a lesbian? So marriage is to be protected from the homos–unless the homos marry each other.

With the exception of health related concerns, and protecting underage children from being victimized by adults trying to marry them off for whatever reason, I'm stumped as to why the state has a compelling reason to try and control who marries whom.

Four Minutes of Infamy

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In 1968 Andy Warhol said, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." In 2012 a North Carolina preacher gave a Mother's Day sermon that was recorded and posted on YouTube and pretty much guaranteed that he'll be famous for more than 15 minutes. In that sermon the pastor said some pretty outrageous things as related by the Los Angeles Times:

In the video, Worley says to the sounds of laughter from the congregation that he's figured "a way out." He suggests building a large fence — 150 or 100 miles long — and putting all the gays and lesbians inside it.

"And have that fence electrified 'til they can't get out," he says. "Feed 'em. And you know what, in a few years, they'll die out. Do you know why? They can't reproduce."

Later, he bellows, referring to President Obama's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage: "I'll tell you right now. Somebody says, 'Who you gonna vote for?' I ain't gonna vote for a baby killer and a homosexual lover!" He added that he understood the shocking nature of his language, and would stand by it. "You said, 'Did you mean to say that?' You'd better believe I did!"

Also during the sermon, Worley says he was "disappointed, bad" by Obama's recent announcement that he supports same-sex marriage, and he went on to suggest that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would get his vote in November.

As bad as that was, it kind of got worse when one of the members of his congregation agreed to appear on Anderson Cooper's show and engaged in an exchange that caused the website DangerousMinds to label her the Dumbest American (Ever?) Found. She may not get 15 minutes of fame, but it's certainly four minutes of infamy:

I'm not sure Warhol could have ever envisioned this.

WFMY in Lewisville

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I drove through downtown Lewisville this morning and saw the WFMY van parked by Shallowford Square and wondered what would drag the Triad's CBS affiliate, based in Greensboro, so far west. Murder and mayhem? Bear sighting? Missing blonde woman? Nope, none of the morning show news staples were cause for reporter Tracey McCain to visit our fair town. Rather, she was there to do a regular segment for the morning show that involves her "betting" $5 with the studio hosts to see if they can answer trivia questions about the town she's visiting that morning. The result is a nice little story about Lewisville featuring interviews with Mayor Dan Pugh. Enjoy.

Lewisville Native Leading Opportunity Nation Campaign

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Kevin Jennings, CEO of BeTheChange, wrote in the Huffington Post about a campaign his organization is promoting called Opportunity Nation, and in the process he shares a bit of his life story which began here in Lewisville, NC:

Opportunity Nation is a campaign to bring Americans of all ideologies and backgrounds together around a plan to return the U.S. to the Land of Opportunity that it once was. We are working with scholars from the Heritage Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the Brookings Institution to come up with concrete, bipartisan policy proposals that will make a difference in people's lives. We've organized a coalition of more than 250 organizations, representing more than 50 million Americans, to support this policy agenda. And we've built a leadership council of nearly 100 prominent Americans — from Mayor Mike Bloomberg to journalist Arianna Huffington to Rev. Rick Warren — who are committed to using their influence to promote opportunity.

I realized this weekend that I never really escaped that trailer park in Lewisville, North Carolina, because today I have undertaken the same work on a macro level that my Mom took on in a micro level way back in the seventies: making sure the next generation has it better than mine has had it. And I am proud of that fact: after all, it's the American thing to do.

Here's a video of Jennings sharing his story:

 

Real Men Ignore the Twerps

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At Letters of Note we find this letter from Ronald Reagan to his son Michael in the days before Michael's wedding. Basically, it's about the true value of remaining faithful and in it he provides the best definition of being a "man" that I've seen:

Sure, there will be moments when you will see someone or think back to an earlier time and you will be challenged to see if you can still make the grade, but let me tell you how really great is the challenge of proving your masculinity and charm with one woman for the rest of your life. Any man can find a twerp here and there who will go along with cheating, and it doesn't take all that much manhood. It does take quite a man to remain attractive and to be loved by a woman who has heard him snore, seen him unshaven, tended him while he was sick and washed his dirty underwear. Do that and keep her still feeling a warm glow and you will know some very beautiful music.

Justin’s 16

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So the "baby" of our family is 16. He's also 6'2" and still growing. He's smart as a whip, funny in a subversive kind of way, and is so easy going and quiet that I often wonder if he's sleeping with his eyes open. Don't be fooled – this kid can consume a 400-page book in hours, and if he put his mind to it, could probably memorize the Declaration of Independence in one sitting. He's also capable of playing Xbox Live for 36 hours straight without even breaking a sweat, and he plays a mean trombone. In short he's a 21st century Renaissance man, and every day he awes me more and more.

Next year his siblings will both be at college and the household will be quite different with an "only child." While Justin's brother and sister can blow up a room with noise and energy the second they enter it, he glides in and out quietly, always observant and rarely calling attention to himself. When he does speak it pays to listen, because it's always interesting and insightful and it feels like you've found a rare jewel because he guards his words so jealously.  

It's been wonderful watching him grow from a boy to a young man these last couple of years, and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years as he continues that journey. I think he's going to absolutely blow the doors off of life and I can't wait to see him do it.

Oh, and did I mention he's a kind of "Kid Whisperer"? Check him out with his young cousin's and our neighbors' boys – truly amazing.

JustinWithKids

Happy birthday J!