20
Opinion
Smoky Mountain News
Plenty of room in the arena I
No newspapers? No thanks To the Editor: Imagine a world without your local newspaper. Imagine a world without any newspapers. Where would you get your news about upcoming elections or about what the DOT and county commissioners plan to do with that stretch of road near your house? Would you turn to Facebook? Twitter? Platforms that have been reprimanded repeatedly for allowing the dissemination of false stories meant to manipulate and mislead readers? Speaking of Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg made it very clear that he has no intentions of stopping the spread of fake news across his platform. Why should he halt it? He’s making money either way. A couple of weeks ago McClatchy Publishers, parent company of the Miami Herald and Kansas City Star announced a filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy. The plan, according to McClatchy’s creditors, is to reorganize in order to offload massive debt totaling $700 million across the 30 newspaper titles they own — including our state’s two largest papers, The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. Reorganize is a fancy way of saying trimming the fat, which is a colloquial way of saying putting journalists out of work.
met with uneducated opinions that will in no way bring about change and progress. Then the bleeding heart in me became angry at my fellow community members before I remembered wise words from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Well, actually I remembered Brené Brown — Ph.D. research professor at the University of Houston who has written several books on courage, shame, vulnerability, and empathy — using the FDR quote often as she encourages her readers to not heed News Editor criticism from those who don’t understand the struggle.
Jessi Stone
became aware of a Facebook group recently called “Finding Solutions — Waynesville.” On the surface it appeared this group was looking for solutions to the town’s social issues of homelessness and addiction, so I joined in so I could observe and perhaps offer valuable resources to the discussion — after all, The Smoky Mountain News has covered these issues extensively in the last several years. I quickly realized many members of the group are more determined to dismantle the efforts that have been made to address the problem. There were so many posts and comments from people complaining about how homeless people and those suffering from substance use disorder impact their lives and people wanting Haywood Pathways Center and The Open Door Ministries gone from Waynesville. Based on the commentary, it’s clear many people in the community still don’t understand the complexity of these social issues — they don’t know how counties are funded for behavioral health or how much funding the state has cut to Medicare and Medicaid providers in Western North Carolina. They can’t grasp how much money it costs county taxpayers to incarcerate people who really just need rehabilitation. But, what is so disheartening is to read so many comments that show people’s lack of empathy for those experiencing homelessness and or addiction. Many in this Facebook group are determined to bash the nonprofits working diligently to provide resources for our most vulnerable populations. Someone even put “nonprofits” in quotes as if to signify that these hard-working people have ulterior motives. Being the objective reporter that I aim to be, I offered links to articles, research studies and census data to help people understand and answer their questions, but again I was just
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” So yeah, I could use this entire column to complain about the people complaining from the cheap seats, but it would be pointless. I want to speak to those who are in the arena every
LETTERS If you haven’t noticed, this trend of newspapers going belly up, whether shuttering entirely or restructuring at the expense of journalistic integrity, has been a steady occurrence for several years. According to PEN America, 20 percent of all U.S. newspapers have closed since 2004. Dwindling advertising dollars combined with the onslaught of digital takeover by Google and Facebook, has absolutely crushed print media. Today, 225 counties across the U.S. are without a newspaper and of the newspapers still operating, a sizeable number are so broke they can only afford to publish what comes down the wire from the Associated Press. This means no local news for the people living in those communities. The thought of not having a local newspaper may not strike others as something worth fretting over, but for me, the thought is terrifying. It should be terrifying for anyone who gives it consideration. Newspaper journalists are the eyes and ears of what’s happening in your community. They are the first on the scene and the ones who literally do the legwork, often thanklessly, of gathering facts and information to share. In fact, 90 percent of the commentary you see on television news and read online comes from the labor and work of newspaper reporters. Your favorite talking heads would be silent bobbing heads if it weren’t for the efforts of journalists. Or worse,
day marred by dust, sweat and tears as they fall, fail, dust themselves off and get right back up the next day to keep fighting in hopes of rejoicing in another small victory. The work people at Pathways and Open Door as well as our behavioral health and addiction nonprofit providers are doing to make a difference in this county is thankless, exhausting and depressing. But for every failure to reach someone, there’s hope to save someone — that’s what keeps them going. In my reporting I’ve met so many dedicated people working to overcome the devastation drugs have brought to our community. They work to provide education, prevention, mental health resources, diversion programs, jail ministries and peer support — anything they can think of to make a dent in the epidemic. It’s not perfect and we can always do more when resources are available, but until we come to terms with the fact that addiction is only a symptom of larger systemic issues we’re just treading water. Our state has to invest more resources into understanding trauma and how it impacts people’s lives forever if it’s not dealt with properly. We need more school counselors, more mental health funding and more affordable housing options for people. What we don’t need is for this community to stop supporting the organizations that don’t cost taxpayers any money and are funded by private donations. I don’t want to discourage public discussions regarding these important issues, but I want their opinions to be welleducated. Before you criticize, go cook a meal for people staying at Pathways Center; offer to teach the residents a valuable skill that could help them lift themselves up; keep bottles of water, healthy snacks and hygiene products in your car and give them out when you encounter someone in need. There are so many ways to be a part of the solution and not the problem. I challenge those up in the cheap seats to make their way down into the arena — there’s plenty of room. (Jessi Stone is news editor of The Smoky Mountain News. jessi@smokymountainnews.com)
your talking heads would simply be spokespersons for the biggest spenders in advertising. So why care? Because news matters. An absence of press and the disappearance of local news outlets is an invitation for the growth of misinformation, misunderstanding and propagation of false narratives. It’s handing over the voice of your community to whichever power has the strongest grip (and deepest wallet). The loss of free press is the unraveling of the foundation of our society. As journalist Richard Kluger once said, “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, history itself is denied a devoted witness.” Amanda Singletary Waynesville
Expand Medicaid without work mandate To the Editor: At the recent Waynesville Town Board meeting on Feb. 11, there was a motion to support Medicaid expansion under House Bill 655. I appreciated the input of law enforcement, medical professionals, and community members to endorse this expansion. However, I take issue with the work requirements put forth in the bill.
I am personally able to afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, though by a shoestring. I have a $7,000 deductible and, beyond the cost of my premium, I spend around 200 additional dollars each month for mental health care. It is not a stretch for me to imagine that others in our community struggle to access healthcare at all. Haywood County has a 16.6 percent poverty rate, or almost 10,000 people. The wage gap that prevents our neighbors from accessing healthcare is between $6,000 and $16,000. Work requirements do not solve the problem of access to healthcare. Sixty percent of those with Medicaid coverage already work, and those who don’t are unable because of disabilities, caregiving, or inability to find fulltime work. They are the ones in need of healthcare, in order to be well enough to work in the first place. Not to mention, work requirements cost taxpayers more money, due to the cost of bureaucratic paperwork to enforce the work requirements. Haywood County faces a current crisis, linked between the issues of homelessness, mental health, addiction, and poverty. Work requirements will not properly address these issues. I support HB5/SB2 to close the Medicaid coverage gap. I demand that our town council members do the same as we move forward with this issue. Abigail Ahlberg, DownHomeNC Waynesville
