Triad Today

Earlier this month former Facebook employee Frances Haugen told Congress that Facebook has a negative impact on teenagers, creates divisiveness, and consistently chooses profit over safety. During her testimony up on Capitol Hill, Haugen produced thousands of internal documents containing some rather alarming data. For example, 13.5% of teenage girls said Instagram worsens suicidal thoughts, and 17% said Instagram contributes to their eating disorders. Ms. Haugen also likened the addictive nature of Facebook and Instagram to that of cigarettes. Not surprisingly she called on Congress to reign in, regulate, and reform the social media giant. But as harmful as Facebook can be to kids, there is another platform that may be worse. It’s called TikTok.

TikTok is a social networking service that encourages young people across the globe to produce and post all sorts of narcissistic videos. Granted, most of the videos are merely obnoxious, but others are obscene, cruel, and encourage violent behavior. The latest TikTok craze is a series of challenges whereby students are encouraged to vandalize school property and worse. One such challenge tells students to have a bowel movement, then smear their feces on school walls. A Triad area parent recently told me about a student in her son’s school who took the challenge, and engaged in fecal smearing, then got caught when someone posted the dirty deed on video. Ironically, the mother of the vandal wasn’t upset about the fecal incident, rather she was angry that once the video went viral, her son had to endure cyberbullying from students who disapproved of the boy’s stunt.

And then there’s the “Devious Licks Challenge” and “Slap a Teacher Challenge” which have educators across the country concerned for their safety, and rightly so. Already a school teacher in South Carolina has been victimized by the challenge when a student slapped her in the back of the head. Then last week, a 64-year-old, wheelchair-bound teacher was attacked by a Louisiana high school student. Meanwhile, incidents of vandalism continue, with over a half dozen States reporting damage to and theft of school property. In Connecticut, these challenges have caused so much concern that Attorney General William Tong has asked TikTok executives to meet with parents and educators to work together to prevent any further incidents.

Such cooperation is certainly welcome, but I’m not so sure it will net any substantive results. For example, one school district in Oklahoma sent the following message to parents: “If your child uses social media, please talk to him/her about being socially responsible and kind.” It’s a nice thought, but a bit naïve, and probably too little too late. That’s because, as MyParentingJournal.com points out, “Parents must teach these things to their children at an early age.” Granted I grew up in the 1950s, but my parents drilled common sense into my head before I ever started school. I knew from age 5 not to cross the street unless I looked both ways first. I was taught not to get into a car with a stranger. And, I was taught to respect my elders, which included not slapping them in the back of the head. And please don’t tell me that I’m too old to understand “influencers” just because social media didn’t exist 68 years ago. Kids have always been susceptible to influence of one kind or another, and from all sorts of people, old and young alike. However, if they learn common sense and common courtesy early on, then they are less likely to blindly follow anyone or anything that doesn’t pass the smell test (fecal smearing notwithstanding). The problem is that not even teaching a child right from wrong guarantees that those lessons will stick. According to AConsciousRethink.com, “Some people are better at judging cause and effect than others, or understanding the consequences of their actions.” Of course, that’s true, which is all the more reason to believe that emails to parents won’t solve this problem.

Just as Frances Haugen called on Congress to reform Facebook, so too must we demand that TikTok and all other such platforms be regulated. Fortunately, our elected officials are finally becoming woke to the dangers of social media, and hopefully, their new found awareness will lead to a swift crack-down on anyone who presents or facilitates the dissemination of harmful material. So, beware TikTok, your day of reckoning may be coming soon. The handwriting is on your fecally smeared wall.

By the time I was a junior in high school, I had already embarked on a career in broadcasting. My first job was as a weekend announcer at WSJS radio in Winston-Salem. I was jazzed about the work, and all I could think about was landing a full-time position and skipping college. But no one in my extended family had ever graduated from college, and I knew it would mean a lot to my parents for me to be the first. Nevertheless, I was not going to give up my weekend job, so that meant I would need to attend a college that was close to work. That’s when I decided to drop by the UNCG admissions office and see if they would take me. Then as now, I was not particularly good-looking, but the woman who greeted me just about leapt out of her chair when she saw me. I was flattered until I found out the reason for her excitement. Not only did UNCG want me to enroll, they NEEDED me to enroll. That’s because the University was still transitioning from single-gender to coed, and on the day of my visit, women outnumbered men by a ratio of 7 to 1. It was a win/win for everyone. UNCG landed another male student, and I was able to keep my radio job, work at the campus TV station, and get a college degree. I apologize for boring you with my personal story, but I promise there is a more universal point to this saga.

UNCG’s coed transition aside, that same year, a national survey showed that men comprised 59% of all college students, and women comprised 41%. But a not-so-funny thing happened over the next 50 years. Last week, Scott Galloway, clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish that college enrollment is now 60% female and 40% male, with every indication that the latter figure will continue to decline. In fact, these days, there are one million more women applying to college than men. According to Galloway, we are experiencing the largest gender gap in the history of American higher education, and that gap has created “mating inequality” in our society.

“College educated women are not interested in mating with men who don’t have college degrees,” said Galloway. Ouch!

Clearly, today’s young men don’t value college as much as previous generations did. And while the cost of a college degree and resulting debt is a possible deterrent, it is also true that many of today’s males are just not very motivated, and that concerns Galloway.

“Uneducated men pose a risk to our economy and our society. If you look at the most unstable, violent societies in the world, they all have one thing in common: they have young, depressed men who aren’t attaching to work, aren’t attaching to school, and aren’t attaching to relationships. The most dangerous person in the world is a broke and alone male, and we are producing too many of them.”

Galloway’s warning implies that the only time these lonely males get off their parents’ sofa is when they engage in hacking, insurrection, or some other anti-social activity, and that is both really scary and really sad. I don’t know what it’s going to take to motivate these guys in a positive direction, except to remind them as often as possible that they have value and potential, and that somewhere, there’s an admissions counselor who would be excited to see them walk through her door.

Back in the 1960s, Fletcher’s Castoria ran a TV ad that compared the benefit of their laxative versus the number of prunes you’d have to eat each day to stay regular. It asked the question, “Is three enough? Is six too many?” Prunes aside, that commercial said a lot about common sense limits, and it harkened back to Benjamin Franklin’s suggestion that we do everything in moderation. Of course, there’s a difference between setting limits that only affect our own lives, versus those that affect everyone. And that brings me to politics. Unfortunately, the teachings of Fletcher and Franklin are lost on those of us who keep re-electing the same people over and over again, without any regard for the power that they amass, or the dangers and inefficiencies of the government that they run.

Here in North Carolina, for example, there are twice as many Democrats and Unaffiliated voters than there are registered Republicans. Yet thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans control the state legislature and have been free to pass a number of laws that are prejudicial to Democrats, Blacks, the LGBTQ community, and even to small-town newspapers. The only way to break this cycle of repression and suppression is to allow every citizen to vote on a Constitutional Amendment that would limit the terms of state lawmakers. In the meantime, we also need to put limits on the number of days the General Assembly is allowed to be in session, and restore the concept of a part-time citizen legislature.

The North Carolina General Assembly has been in session since January, and, as of a few days ago, they still had not finalized a budget, allocated the surplus, or re-drawn district voting lines. Not only that, but, as columnist Tom Campbell noted recently, it costs taxpayers about $850,000 per month just to keep the session running. That’s almost $7.7 million dollars we’ve spent for these politicians to spar with one another and accomplish very little. But isn’t that pretty much normal for every state? No, it’s not.

Currently, 39 of the 50 states have constitutional amendments in place that limit the number of days their legislators can be in session. Most often those limits are in the 60 to 90-day range, unlike North Carolina, which allows our lawmakers to stick around Raleigh like ticks on a hound. Nevertheless, our legislature is still considered to be a part-time body, as opposed to those that are full-time, such as California, New York, and eight other states. According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) lawmakers in the ten full-time states spend 84% of their time on the job, and are paid an average of $82,000. That compares to legislators in part-time states like North Carolina, who spend 74% of their time on the job and are paid an average of $41,000. In that sense, I suppose we’re getting a bargain, but the point is that we don’t need our elected state officials to spend so much time on legislative business.

If there was a competition for the “Most Enthusiastic CEO”, Jennifer Wilcox would be a finalist for sure. Though still new to the job of Chief Executive Officer (she was hired in late July), Jennifer is both leader and cheerleader for Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont, an organization that stretches across 40 counties in North Carolina, and serves nearly 7,000 Girl Scouts. Jennifer comes by her enthusiasm for Girl Scouts honestly, as she told me during a recent segment of Triad Today.

JL: You might be new to Girl Scouts in this area, but you’re not new to Girl Scouts.

JW: That’s right. I grew up in southern Indiana, and I was a Girl Scout in Jeffersonville, which is right across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. I was a Girl Scout Brownie and Junior, and I stayed in Girl Scouts until I got to middle school.

After graduating from the University of Evansville, and obtaining a Masters from Webster University, Jennifer served as the Associate Economic Development director for her hometown of Jeffersonville, then started her own non-profit agency to promote community development throughout Indiana and Kentucky. Before long, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana came calling and hired Jennifer as Chief Operating Officer. Most recently she served as Senior Director of National Events at Girl Scouts of the USA, where she created the first-ever virtual National Council Session during the 2020 pandemic.

JL: You had great success at the national level, so what attracted you to this job?

JW: The attraction to come to North Carolina and to be a part of the Peaks to Piedmont team was really about coming home. I had a fantastic opportunity with Girl Scouts USA and got to see the global reach that we have, but I had a longing to get back to the basics of our organization, and back to the basics of our mission.

JL: I’ve learned over the years that a big part of that mission is to empower girls, so how would you describe the value of being a Girl Scout?

JW: There are so many wonderful things that girls get to take away from Girl Scouts. You get to make new friends, and you get to have fun. You also have fantastic role models and mentoring. Above all, Girl Scouts is a safe space that gives girls an opportunity to try new things that they may never have otherwise tried, and you have leaders around you, and sisters around you to support you in that space.

JL: YoYou mentioned leaders and role models. How many adult volunteers do you have now, and do you need more?

JW: We have 4,000 volunteers employed across the forty counties, but we still need more. In fact, we’re in the middle of our recruitment season, and we’re looking for both girls and adult members, so this is the perfect time to become a Girl Scout.

To learn more about becoming a Girl Scout or an adult volunteer, visit GirlScoutsP2P.org or call 1-800 672-2148.

I would imagine that most wealthy nonagenarians spend their days relaxing at the beach or at their mountain villa, but not Ed Asner. After appearing in over 150 TV shows, 70 films, and countless plays, Ed had, as of late last month, no less than fifteen current projects in post-production and five more announced. Of course, anyone who knew Ed wasn’t surprised by his energy or his level of professional activity. It’s what we expected from the man whose blue-collar upbringing taught him the value of hard work. And with role models like two older sisters who were social workers, and a football coach who once explained to him the rights of laborers, it was also predictable that Ed would work hard fighting for others. Ed was an actor who didn’t just talk the talk, he also walked the walk, speaking out against everything from repression to suppression, and raising money for a plethora of charities and causes, even when it meant being criticized and blackballed. It’s no wonder, then, that The Hollywood Reporter just named Ed as their 2021 Icon. That issue came out on August 25. Ed passed away four days later. Ed Asner was 91.

I first got to know Ed back in 2010 when he was filming Elephant Sighs in North Carolina and stopped by to tape an episode of Triad Today. We stayed in touch regularly by phone after that, including discussions about politics and his reason for writing The Grouchy Historian: An Old Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs, which was published in 2017. We spoke shortly before the book was released.

Ed: My co-author Ed Weinberger and I were unhappy with how the right-wing was constantly claiming the Constitution was theirs, and we decided some counter-thrust should occur.

Jim: What’s worse, right-wing nuts who abuse the Constitution, or a President who hasn’t read it?

Ed: [laughs] What’s the difference. Trump is a P.T. Barnum like I’ve never witnessed in my life. There’s a sucker born every minute, and I think he’s corralled most of them.

Ed’s political beliefs got him in trouble with conservatives who called him everything from a communist to a socialist, to unpatriotic. But he never wavered in those beliefs throughout his career, and what a career it was. Following a brief stint in the Army, Ed performed with the Playwrights Theatre, then made a living by playing character roles in episodic television and films, before being cast as Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He then headlined the spin-off series Lou Grant, and became the only actor in history to win an EMMY for playing the same role in two different series, one a comedy, and the other a drama. He won seven Emmys in all, served as President of the Screen Actors Guild, and was named to the Television Hall of Fame.

During Ed’s visit to Triad Today in 2010, we discussed his youth, his career, and his social activism. Here are some highlights:

Jim: By now it’s common knowledge that your buddy Gavin McLeod was asked to audition for the role of Lou Grant, but deferred to you instead, because he thought you’d be better in that role. It’s also a well-known fact that you blew your first audition for MTM.

Ed: They told me I gave a very intelligent reading, which is a euphemism for saying “it stunk.” I did a second reading, and this time they asked me to be crazy, wiggy, and wild. I did and they loved it. Then they asked me back to do the same thing with Mary. Afterward, Mary said to the producers, “Are you sure about him?,” and they said, “Yeah, that’s your Lou Grant.”

Jim: MTM was a huge hit, then you did five seasons as the star of the spin-off, Lou Grant. No one had ever attempted to take a sitcom character and have him headline a drama as the same character. There must be a reason why no one had tried.

Ed: There was. We were going from 180 degrees difference, and nobody, producers, writers, crew, nobody knew what it was like to try and take a half-hour comedy show with three cameras, and make it a one-hour drama with no audience. It took us two years to get it right.

Jim: In Lou Grant, you play a big-city newspaper editor who was sort of a throwback to the days of muckraking.

Ed: I love muck [both laugh].

Jim: Do you think that show made a difference in addressing social issues?

Ed: I know it did. For example, we did a show on dogfighting, and it helped change laws in four or five states.

Jim: While flying high with Lou Grant, you sent money for medical supplies to the rebels in El Salvador who were fighting against a dictator that the Reagan administration supported. All of a sudden, the White House and the news media painted you as some sort of communist. Why did you do it?

Ed: Because our government was supporting a dictator who sponsored death squads. They went around killing the peasants unless they supported the evil government. These squads killed nuns, they killed priests, but the American media led folks here to believe that my sending medical aid was a communist move on my part.

Jim: Bowing to political pressure, CBS then cancelled Lou Grant, and you were virtually blackballed for a while afterwards. Did you ever regret what you did?

Ed: I second guess it all the time. My great regret is that a show with ideas was removed from TV. The causes we covered on Lou Grant are still untreated, and that’s the guilt I carry.

Jim: So why didn’t you ever run for Congress and fight those causes as an elected official?

Ed: I should have because all you have to do is serve one term, and you get a good health plan for life [laughs]. In fact, everybody in this country should run for Congress and get a good health plan. I also think people who run for the Senate should do what NASCAR drivers do, and put the names of their corporate sponsors on their suit. Look, a lot of folks back then thought I was positioning myself to be governor, but I have far more power speaking out as an actor than I ever would as a congressman or governor.

Jim: Why DID you become an actor?

Ed: Two reasons. It was good therapy, and it was a romantic, safe adventure. Acting is a safe adventure.

Jim: Well, just before we started taping, I noticed that you were trying to be romantic with my wife.

Ed: I was merely resuming where I had been before [both laugh].

I last spoke with Ed this summer to get his thoughts on the passing of our friend Gavin McLeod. Now, less than three months later Ed is gone too. His lasting legacy is one of entertaining and serving others without pretense, and he will be missed. Of course, were he with us now, I’m sure Ed would want the last word, so here’s one more of our exchanges.

Jim: What would it take for you to stop being grouchy?

Ed: I don’t want to stop being grouchy. I think being avuncular is very attractive, and I like filling those shoes, so mind your own God damn business! [both laugh]

The Grouchy Historian is available from Amazon, and you can view my complete television interview with Ed on JimLongworth.com.

 
 

I’ve always had a strong affection for the Atlantic Coast Conference because we were both created at the same time. On May 8, 1953, commissioner Jim Weaver officially opened the first ACC office and made history, while my parents officially closed their bedroom door and made me. Eighteen years later I left high school, and the University of South Carolina left the ACC. It marked the beginning of a great journey for me and the beginning of the end for the real ACC.

Sixty-eight years ago, the ACC was comprised of eight schools: UNC, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake Forest, Clemson, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. Granted, none of the league’s football teams were national powerhouses in those days, but oh my, could we play basketball! Speaking of which, the competition was so great among the four North Carolina schools, that the ACC even held an annual “Big 4” tournament from 1971 to 1981. Of course, the “Big 4”, like the ACC tournament, was always held at the Greensboro Coliseum. Sure there were periodic rumblings from non-Big 4 schools who felt like they were outsiders, but only South Carolina acted on its paranoia and left the conference in 1971 (Maryland eventually pulled out in 2014). The ACC’s second commissioner, Bob James waited eight years before admitting Georgia Tech to the conference, and while many fans missed the heated competition with South Carolina, the Yellow Jackets proved a good fit for at least restoring the league of eight.

Losing the Gamecocks was a blow to ACC purists, but the real insult came in the decade between 2004 and 2014 when commissioner John Swofford allowed seven more schools to join the conference. In came Boston College, Notre Dame, Miami, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Louisville, and Syracuse, and out went the character and traditions of the ACC. Suddenly the Greensboro Coliseum wasn’t big enough and accessible enough to suit our new interlopers, so the ACC tournament was held at rotating venues including in Atlanta, Washington DC, and New York City. Not so gradually, our little regional family had morphed into a major corporation. But, hey, at least the conference office and its 50 employees would still remain in Greensboro, right? Maybe not.

Earlier this year, Jim Phillips took over as ACC commissioner, and by late last month, he had hired Newmark, a Texas-based real estate advisory firm, to help him decide where the conference headquarters should be located. That means sometime soon, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and a team of hand-picked ambassadors will have to do a dog-and-pony show for some guys from Texas who could care less about the Gate City, or the history and traditions of the ACC. The good news is if anyone can save what’s left of the real ACC, it’s Nancy Vaughan. The bad news is I’m afraid the handwriting is already on the moving van walls.

As far as I’m concerned, the ACC hasn’t been the ACC for nearly 20 years, so I suppose one more nail in the coffin won’t make much difference. Still, I hope I’m wrong about Mr. Phillips, but I can’t help thinking that what my parents were doing in 1953 is now being done to Greensboro in 2021.

Once upon a time, local TV stations were really committed to local programming, and I’m not just referring to local news and weather.

It was a time when locally produced programs defined the station, and the people who produced those programs did it for one reason. They loved television. That was Jack Markham in a nutshell.

Following a stint in the Navy, Jack attended UNC-Chapel Hill and was in the first graduating class of the University’s famed Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. After that he spent the better part of three decades at WFMY-TV, first working in production, and later as Program Director. During that time he either directed or oversaw the production of scores of local programs, including The Good Morning Show, What’s Cooking Today, RFD Piedmont, TV Matinee, A&T Sports Report, The Old Rebel Show, Newsmakers, Sandra and Friends, and many others. And it was Jack who authorized and coordinated a multi-station telethon to raise money for what became the North Carolina Zoo. Jack helped to put WFMY on the map, and made it one of the most successful and respected TV stations in the country. He also happened to be the best boss I ever worked for. Jack passed away last September during the pandemic, and his memorial service will be held this Saturday. Jack Markham was 93.

After learning my craft at the UNC-G studio where we produced weekly programs for UNC-TV, I was hired by WFMY to run the camera and perform other related production duties on just about every one of our local programs. Eventually, I worked my way up to late-night weatherman and promotion manager, but in those early days Jack’s door was always open to the crew, so whenever I had an idea for a special program, he would tell me to go for it. During the bicentennial, for example, he let me produce So you Think you Know the Constitution, which challenged viewers to answer questions about our nation’s greatest document. I also produced an Old Rebel tribute program, a salute to Vincent Price, and a prime-time half-hour special with Red Skelton, which was taped at the WFMY studio in front of a live audience (and can be viewed on JimLongworth.com). One year, Jack even sent me to Hollywood to tape a series of interviews with CBS stars.

In addition to being program director, Jack was also an actor, and a real ham, so I occasionally recruited him to appear in my farcical Newsreel 2 segments, which aired during the 11 p.m. Nightbeat news. One evening I was assigned to attend a cocktail party to interview celebrities who would be playing in the Pro-Am at the Greater Greensboro Open (forerunner to the Wyndham). But prior to that, Jack and I had traveled to a muddy field in Guilford County and taped an interview at what we said was the site of the Newsreel 2 Open, a fictional golf tournament that was to compete with the GGO. During that spoof segment, Jack portrayed a developer named Mark Jack, who guaranteed that the course would be ready for play that weekend. Fast forward to the cocktail party where I asked the celebrities if they would be willing to skip the GGO and instead play in the Newsreel 2 Open. Some of the celebs thought Jack and I were serious, but most of them got the joke.

Then there was that afternoon in 1977 when I came to Jack and said, “You know, Saturday Night Live is really popular, and CBS doesn’t offer much on Saturday nights, so how about letting me produce a weekly variety show?” Jack gave me the green light, and several weeks later I delivered an hour pilot titled, Grab Bag, which featured celebrity interviews, a magician, music by Sammy Anflick’s Jazz Band, and a fake telethon in which we pretended to raise money to fight dandruff, psoriasis, and venereal disease. Jack looked at the show, laughed a lot, then killed it. It was, he said, just too racy for WFMY. I was disappointed, of course, but Jack’s decision taught me about boundaries and made me a better producer in the decades to come. In fact, this is my 51st year in broadcasting, and not a week goes by that I don’t think about Jack Markham and how much he meant to me. In addition to all he did for his industry and his community, you just have to love a guy who can make up a fake golf tournament.

It’s human nature to blame someone or something else when we screw up. We all do it, but only up to a point. On the other hand, there are some folks who carry the blame game to an absurd and often offensive level. In 2015, the man who murdered several students at an Oregon community college blamed his crime on the fact that he was a frustrated virgin. In 2017, an Ohio man who slaughtered two people said that pain pills made him do it. Every year we hear of a young mother who kills her baby and blames it on post-partum depression. And then there are the husbands who get caught cheating and blame a sex addiction for their bad behavior. Speaking of bad behavior, how about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo? During his resignation speech, Cuomo said he wasn’t aware that groping women was wrong, and blamed his ignorance on a generational and gender divide.

In almost every instance of the blame game, whether it involves groping or murder, offenders like to say, “That’s not who I am”. But the truth is, that’s exactly who they are, and nowhere is that more evident than in cases in which someone has gotten caught using a racial or ethnic slur. For example, in 2006, actor Mel Gibson was pulled over for driving drunk and then preceded to lambast the arresting officer with a string of anti-Semitic slurs. Later, Gibson blamed his behavior on alcohol.

In 2018, Roseanne Barr went on a late-night Twitter rant in which she claimed that Valerie Jarrett (Barack Obama’s former Chief of Staff) was the product of a marriage between the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. At the time, Roseanne was riding high with the revival of her former ratings winner, Roseanne. But the racial slur got her fired from her own show. When making a public apology, Barr claimed she didn’t know that Jarrett was Black, and blamed the sleep aid Ambien for the slur.

In 2020, while competing in a virtual race, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson cut loose with the “N” word, and later said, “I wasn’t raised that way.” Earlier this year when he thought his microphone was switched off, an announcer for an Oklahoma high school football game also uttered the “N” word. The next day he blamed his behavior on low blood sugar. And recently, country music star Morgan Wallen got caught (again) using the “N” word in public, then blamed his utterance on being sleep deprived.

Let’s be clear. Alcohol, Ambien, virginity, low blood sugar, and lack of sleep do not make White people say the “N” word. You either have that word in your vocabulary or you don’t. Put another way, if someone gets caught using the “N” word, you can bet they’ve used it before. And if you’re that comfortable using a racist slur, then you are a racist. Just once I’d like for one of these high-profile offenders to admit that they are racist, instead of saying, “That’s not who I am” and then blaming their prejudice on something else. I’d much rather deal with a racist than a liar.

According to PetFoodIndustry.com, Americans spent $36.9 billion dollars on pet food and treats in 2019. Meanwhile, CompareCamp.com suggests that this year, those figures will rise to over $38 billion dollars. On a micro level, PetPedia.com says that pet owners in this country spend an average of $300 per year on pet food. However, over 40% of pet owners spend two or three times more than that, in part because their veterinarians prescribe a special diet to improve such things as digestive health and urinary tract ailments. In truth, these specialty pet foods do contain healthy ingredients, but they are not deserving of the name “prescription.”

A prescription, by definition, is “a written order, especially by a physician, for the preparation and administration of a medicine or other treatment.” However, there is no medicine contained in any prescription dog food. And that brings me to a 2016 lawsuit that was filed in California by plaintiffs who alleged that the accused pet food companies were, “in violation of antitrust and consumer protection laws for making certain veterinary diets available by prescription-only, in order to willfully overcharge consumers.” Plaintiffs also charged that these companies mislead consumers, “into believing the foods contain some kind of drug or controlled ingredient to justify the prescription labeling.”

A California District Court dismissed the lawsuit in July of 2017, but in July of last year, an Appeals Court ruled that the case could continue. In that ruling, the Appeals panel concluded that plaintiffs, “sufficiently alleged that the sale of the prescription pet food exclusively through vets, or with veterinary approval was a deceptive practice. In addition, plaintiffs satisfied the heightened pleading standard for fraud because they alleged sufficient facts to show that prescription pet food and other pet food were not materially different.”

In reporting on the lawsuit for iHeartDogs.com, Dina Fantegrossi wrote, “They (the plaintiffs) feel that the prescription-only status misleads consumers into believing the foods contain some kind of drug or controlled ingredient to justify the prescription labeling. In truth, veterinary prescription diets do not contain any ingredients that cannot also be found in conventional foods.”

And while there has been a recent surge in the sale of so-called prescription pet food, the underlying problem is anything but recent.

According to TruthAboutPetFood.com, prescription diet pet food companies have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with veterinarians, dating back to the 1960s. In fact, By the late 1980s, these companies even began supplying vets with prescription pads as part of their marketing effort. That alone should have alerted the FDA to the alleged fraud, but, as DogsNaturallyMagazine.com reports, “While the FDA practices enforcement discretion when it comes to veterinary diets… the FDA has not reviewed or verified the health claims on any veterinary diet.”

And speaking of prescription pads, if you should run out of “prescription” food when the vet’s office is closed, there are a couple of chain stores that sell it, but only if you have (you guessed it) a written prescription. It’s like trying to buy Sudafed. It’s not really a prescription sinus medicine, but I can’t buy it without showing a driver’s license, because the government thinks I’m going to start a meth lab in my basement. Likely as not, the FDA will eventually mandate that greedy pet food companies stop calling their products “prescription.” which, in turn, could lead to a lowering of the inflated prices being charged for these non-medicinal foods. It’ll be a win/win for everyone unless your dog needs Sudafed. In that case, he’ll need a driver’s license.

Over the past couple of months, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina has taken steps to expand its services, first by opening a satellite warehouse in Greensboro, then by breaking ground on a new hub facility in Winston-Salem. The two projects are coming none too soon for people in our area who go hungry every day. And just how bad is the food crisis?

According to Feeding America, over 1.4 million North Carolinians don’t have enough to eat, and 420,000 of them are children. We’re also one of the ten worst states for senior hunger. FoodShuttle.org reports that 32% of all seniors live in or near poverty, and 18% struggle with hunger.

It’s no wonder that TruthOut.org ranks North Carolina as the 9th hungriest state in the nation. Fortunately, Second Harvest Food Bank is committed to waging war on hunger in our area.

“We provide the main support to the area food assistance networks, and we have over 430 programs that we support across 18 counties. We actually supply 81% of the food that food pantries, shelters, and other programs provide to our neighbors,” said Eric Aft, CEO.

Eric was a guest on Triad Today back in April, and before we talked about the new expansion projects, I asked him to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on hunger.

Eric: Well, it was a great challenge before the pandemic, and then the hunger crisis spiked as we entered the pandemic. Early on the government programs helped, like unemployment and food stamp benefits, but we continued to see a tremendous need. To give you an idea, pre-pandemic we were distributing about 38 tons of food out of our warehouse every day. We’re now at over 50 million tons of food per day. It’s amazing how the community has helped us, but it’s also very sad that, due to the economic impact of the pandemic, the need is so substantial.

Jim: What are you looking for over the next few months?

Eric: I think we’re going to be at this sustained level for quite a while. What keeps me up at night is when the moratoriums on rent and utility payments end, and when those bills come due for those families, they’re going to need additional assistance. We’re prepared to respond to that, but I worry for those families.

Jim: Tell me about your new facility.

Eric: Our goal is to get food where it is needed most, so we’ve opened a satellite facility in Greensboro. It will enable us to get more nutritious food to those who need assistance and support. As you know, items that are kept in a refrigerator or freezer are also the most expensive things for us to purchase, whether it be dairy, meats, or produce, and this will enable us to get more fresh food out to the eastern counties that we serve, but not impacting what we’re able to do here in Forsyth and to the west. We’ll also be able to extend nutrition education work that helps people understand how to use food to keep them healthy.

Meanwhile, the new hub facility in Winston-Salem will be up and running by the summer of 2022, allowing Second Harvest to put all of its operations, including refrigerator storage, under one roof. The hub will be located at Whitaker Park, formerly home to R.J. Reynolds manufacturing. To learn more about the food bank or to make a donation, visit SecondHarvestNWNC.org.

US map showing the states color coded according to the strength of their animal protection laws in 2020. Green are strongest, gold in the middle, red are weakest. North Carolina was ranked 39th in 2020. The rankings are according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s annual U.S. State Animal Protection Laws Rankings Report.

Here in the United States, an animal suffers abuse every 60 seconds, and each year more than 10 million animals die from abuse. Given those statistics, you’d think that we as a nation would inflict extremely severe punishment on the abusers. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Take, for instance, NFL quarterback Michael Vick who tortured, burned, hung, and killed at least eight dogs, and abused dozens more. He served a mere 21 months in prison, then returned to the playing field to loud cheers, and saw his jersey become the NFL’s top-selling item. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture? Does the public care so little about animals that we easily forgive and reward people who abuse them? Perhaps so. After all, state legislatures and the courts don’t consider animal torture a serious felony, only a minor one. More on that in a moment. First, let’s take a look at a couple of recent abuse cases closer to home.

Last month, a particularly evil individual snuck into Martin Luther King Park in Statesville and proceeded to use ducks for target practice. He also beat some of the ducks over the head and cut the feet off of others. A total of 43 ducks were tortured and killed. That person is still at large. Not so with Caleb Dewald, a 19-year-old man from Winston-Salem. Dewald was arrested last month on multiple counts of animal cruelty, including electrocuting squirrels, and cutting off the ears and noses of other animals while they were still alive. Fortunately, Dewald was stupid enough to post the torture online, otherwise, he might never have been caught. But catching and arresting an animal abuser is one thing. Convicting them and putting them behind bars is quite another.

Here in North Carolina, animal torture is a Class H felony, so a convicted abuser faces only a maximum of 25 months in jail. That needs to change. Our state legislature should re-classify animal torture as a Class B felony, which carries at least 8 years in prison. Unfortunately, a lot of folks don’t agree with me. They don’t value the life of animals, and they think that prison is too harsh a punishment for abusing, torturing, and killing them. But even if you don’t care what happens to animals, you should care about what else their abusers are capable of.

According to the humane society, 71% of domestic violence victims reported that their abuser also targeted pets. In fact, pet abuse occurs in 88% of families under supervision for physical abuse of their children. These statistics are consistent with a report by the Animal Legal and Historical Center, which revealed that 85% of battered women entering shelters say that pet abuse occurred in their families. And what about young people who torture pets? What becomes of them? For decades, FBI studies have warned that children and teens who torture animals often grow up to commit violent crimes, and even become serial killers. Such was the case with Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Purdue University professor Gail Melson concurs, concluding in a recent report that, “Animal abuse is often the first sign of serious disturbance among adolescent and adult killers.”

The warning is clear: people who turn a blind eye to animal abuse might also be turning a blind eye to violence against humans. That’s why we must lobby our state representatives to make animal abuse a more serious felony. Criminals who torture animals deserve to be locked away for a long, long time. For all of our sakes.
 
 

Former senator John Edwards is best known for his scandal-ridden, failed presidential campaign, but he did manage to succeed in gaining more awareness for poverty as a national crisis. During his 2004 run for the White House, Edwards often spoke of the economic disparities between the haves and the have-nots, something he called, the “Two Americas.” Seventeen years later, those disparities are not only still with us, but they are growing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are over 34 million people living in poverty, and 12 million of those are children. It’s a sad situation caused by low wages, where these families are living off of $26,000 a year or less. But hey, we’ve just come out of a pandemic, so everyone is hurting, right? Wrong.

Last year, while America was under siege by COVID-19, the average CEO made $15.5 million, while the average nonsupervisory worker made $43,000. That’s a ratio of nearly 300 to 1, which prompted former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns to tell Reuters, “Astronomical CEO pay during the pandemic is abuse.” But in many cases, the gap is much wider. In 2019, for example, Disney CEO Bob Iger made $65 million, or 1,400 times more than what he paid his average employee. Closer to home, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe’s Companies, made $23 million last year, which is 940 times what he paid his average worker. That report comes from a recent article by the Winston-Salem Journal’s Richard Craver, who also revealed that Hanesbrands CEO Stephen Bratspies made nearly 700 times what he paid his employees, 88% of who work in third world countries.

One could argue that CEOs have always earned more than the people they employ, but the greed factor was never this extreme. According to the AFL-CIO, in 1982, the ratio of CEO to worker pay was only 42 to 1. But by 2012, that ratio jumped to 354 to 1, and there’s no indication that the pay gap will significantly decrease any time soon. So what’s the solution?

Fixing the pay gap can be achieved in one of two ways, either by self-regulation or by government regulation. 68% of the Swiss people chose the latter back in 2013 when they voted to enact the “Popular Initiative Against Abusive Executive Compensation.” Among other things, the initiative bans golden parachutes either at the point of recruitment or severance. Lord Wolfson, former CEO of NEXT Clothing, chose the former option for reform when he decided to give his $3.7 million bonus to his employees. And, long-time Bank of South Carolina CEO Fleetwood Hassell, agreed to cap his salary at four times that of his average employee, who, eight years ago made $48,000 per year. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to enact tax penalties for any company whose CEO pay ratio exceeds 100 to 1. Each approach has merit, so perhaps the best solution is for Congress and industry leaders to work together to create a hybrid initiative that encompasses the best elements of each. In any event, we need to make a course correction sooner than later.

In Craver’s report, he cited a 2018 study by the Institute for Policy Studies, which concluded that if something isn’t done, “the typical employee would have to work at least a thousand years to earn what their CEO made in just one year.” Unfortunately, there will always be a pay gap between executives and employees, and that’s why there will always be two Americas. But there’s no reason why the two Americas have to exist so far apart.