Save Greensboro By Boycotting The Wyndham Championship
Feb 19, 2008 at 08:50AM I'm reaching out to the Citizens of Greensboro, North Carolina and people in favor of transparent government everywhere when I say it's time to boycott the Wyndham Championship Golf Tournament to be held in Greensboro.
Don't buy tickets, don't rent motel rooms, don't support the Jaycees, don't do anything that will put money in the pockets of those people who are currently dragging our city through scandal after scandal while lining their pockets with lots of your hard-earned dollars.
Don't pay these people who rape our tax base for profit and slander those who stand up for justice. Don't give your hard-fought money to the people who orchestrated the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings for which Greensboro is infamous. Don't pay your money to the same bankers, developers and contractors who practice racism as a way to cloud the issues so that we the people fight amongst ourselves and never see what they're doing behind our backs.
Don't put money in the pockets of greedy developers like Robbie Perkins whose goal is to turn the last of our local farm lands into industrial parks far from where the majority of Greensboro's poor people live.
Don't support a golf tournament that supports robbers, thieves and racists. Don't support a city that refuses to hire enough police officers to keep our city safe from gangsta's and has thugs in the police department, There's lots of great golf tournaments all over the country and all of them are always better than Greensboro's second rate tournaments. Save your money and go to a better tournament somewhere else. Even if you live in Greensboro, take your vacation somewhere else.
Oh, and you can thank former Greensboro Mayor, Jim Melvin, a.k.a the Bobblehead, for inspiring me to write this request.
The following businesses should be added to the boycott for their support of the Wyndham Championship and its criminal backers.
Wyndham Hotels
AIG
Harris Teeter Grocery Stores
VF Corporation, makers of imported Lee and Wrangler Jeans and apparel.
Transamerica, a foreign owned banking group and its parent company, AEGON.
Update: Feb 20, 2008, The City continues to use trickery in an effort to stall the release of public records. by releasing thousands of copies of publicly available blog posts, newspaper articles and previously released info instead of the real info.
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Reader Comments (13)
The Jaycees ceded control of the tourney a while ago.
I don't think the tournament puts money in the pockets of the local powers as much as it does local merchants of the sort you urge people to boycott.
I'm excited about the move to Sedgefield, and may attend the tourney for the first time in several years.
It would be great for Greensboro if this event takes on new life.
"It would be great for Greensboro if this event takes on new life."
Yeah.
It would be great for Greensboro if we had a local government not controlled by special interest groups, too.
Sorry Ed, just doesn't fly.
The tourney is being played at a golf course that belongs to Greensboro's biggest developer. Koury Corporation.
As for local merchants suffering: Haven't Greensboro's poor and ethnic minorities suffered long enough or did growing up in Irving Park leave you so detached that you simply can't see what's going on? Besides, the local merchants you worry about aren't local at all but are in-fact multinational corporations like Marriot, Hertz, airlines, big box retailers and chain restaurants. Local merchants suffer my ass-- who are these local merchants who will suffer if the tourney is boycotted?
I guess the Grandover Hotel could be considered local but it belongs to Kourey.
Sometimes positive change hurts-- at least in the beginning-- but in the long run getting into the fat cats wallets will do more to bring clairty to local government than your constant defense of the status quo ever will.
What I really find interesting is the fact that while Bubba is usually to mine and your political right, on these local issues Bubba is left of Ed Cone in that he rails for the rights of the people of Greensboro while you use your blog to apologise for the Bobblehead and his ilk.
I'm beginning to think Ed Cone needs to rethink his political views to determine where he really stands or if he even stands at all.
Koury Corp., a company built from the ground up by a local family, does not own Forest Oaks, where the tourney has been held for many years, or Sedgefield, where the tourney may relocate. Grandover is not in the mix.
For that matter, the late Joe Koury and Jim Melvin were famous antagonists.
I just don't see how calling for a boycott of a golf tournament is a response to problems in local government, and I don't see a golf tournament as increasing the suffering of Greensboro's poor and ethnic minorities, at least beyond the threat of boring them.
Ed said, "I just don't see how calling for a boycott of a golf tournament is a response to problems in local government, and I don't see a golf tournament as increasing the suffering of Greensboro's poor and ethnic minorities, at least beyond the threat of boring them."
Only when we get in the pockets of Greensboro's "movers and shakers" will positive change come to Greensboro and while the tourney may be played at the Sedgefield Country Club might I remind you that Greensboro's most exclusive, expensive and flashiest motel, the Grandover sits next door. Why do you think the tourney was moved to Sedgefield in the first place? It certainly wasn't because the residents of Sedgefield needed people parking in their yards and throwing beer cans on their lawns.
You're a wash, Ed. You talk a line but have no backbone, you call yourself a liberal but stand up for the local fat cats. Fact is: that golf tournament has no effect on Greensboro's poor but the people behind the tournament are the people who are bringing Greensboro down either through deliberate actions or a failure to act.
And Ed, we all know which side your bread is buttered on so you can't make me believe that a boycott wouldn't change Greensboro for the better.
As for Kourey and Melvin's fights: they were simply fighting over who would rape the most of Greensboro. Try that crap on the newcomers, Ed, I've been here longer than you have.
Billy, you made a factually inaccurate statement: "The tourney is being played at a golf course that belongs to Greensboro's biggest developer. Koury Corporation." Not sure why my simple factual statement about the ownership of the courses in question inspires such anger.
My understanding is that the people who run the tourney want it at Sedgefield because Sedgefield is a much prettier and inviting course, better clubhouse to make the touring pros happy, looks better on TV, etc.
I don't think the people behind the tournament are evil, nor do I think that building companies and adding jobs to the local economy makes one a bad person.
If you think boycotting the tournament will accomplish some positive thing, have at it. I've boycotted the tournament for most of my life because I don't find golf tournaments interesting, but I think it's great that one exists in my hometown and I hope it thrives.
There you go comparing apples to oranges. Who cares what course the tourney is being played at or who the hell owns the course? The fact of the matter is this: THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE MONEY AND THE POWER TO SOLVE GREENSBORO'S WOES ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO PROFIT FROM THE TOURNEY AND THE DEVELOPMENT IT BRINGS AT THE EXPENSE OF GREENSBORO'S POOR!
Get it through your thick head: ONLY WHEN IRVING PARK FEELS THE PAIN WILL GREENSBORO'S PROBLEMS BE SOLVED.
Now can I be any clearer then that or would you prefer to argue over grapes and tangerines?
I strongly agree with you that Greensboro (and society at large) would be well-served if more of its wealthier citizens took an interest in all parts of our community. The uproar over the recent murder in New Irving Park shows the divide in expectations and interest, and that is indeed a shame.
That said, there are plenty of people fighting the good fight who are economically successful, and plenty of less well-off people who are part of the problem.
I guess we'll just have to disagree that the golf tournament is bad for Greensboro's poor. I don't think that it is, nor do I think that success is a zero-sum game in which every winner creates a loser.
As far as the ownership of the course mattering, you brought it up, so I assumed it was important to you.
I don't mean to steer the conversation away from your main thrust (even to the extent that I disagree with it.)
I live only a stone's throw from Sedgefield (Adams Farm-Mackay Rd. area), so I'm not really looking forward to the increased traffic.
But I agree with you to this extent...I'm getting back on board the jobs bandwagon. Like I said on my blog in response to what Mayor Y. Johnson told a group of kids Sunday...we don't need anymore part-time $9/hour service jobs. Our economic development establishment still doesn't understand why the local brain drain continues. We need serious companies to come in here, set up shop and put our citizens to work. We want to work (me included). All school board campaigning aside, I've been out of a job since the summer and it is frustrating that no one's hiring or interviewing, but plenty of part-time service jobs with no benefits exist in town. It is very unhealthy for young professionals like me with families...in terms of trying to raise a family with few professional job opportunities in town.
EC, You're exactly right and that is why it is imperative that we get into the pockets of those who run our city be they elected or high powered former elected officials. Those are the people who run Greensboro and have the power and the money to change Greensboro for the better but only when Irving Park feels our pain will things get better for all of us.
But I agree with you to this extent...I'm getting back on board the jobs bandwagon. Like I said on my blog in response to what Mayor Y. Johnson told a group of kids Sunday...we don't need anymore part-time $9/hour service jobs. Our economic development establishment still doesn't understand why the local brain drain continues. We need serious companies to come in here, set up shop and put our citizens to work. We want to work (me included). All school board campaigning aside, I've been out of a job since the summer and it is frustrating that no one's hiring or interviewing, but plenty of part-time service jobs with no benefits exist in town. It is very unhealthy for young professionals like me with families...in terms of trying to raise a family with few professional job opportunities in town.
Greensboro sure as hell is not going to attract quality businesses while it's in the political mess it's currently in, and once potential businesses find out about the budding gang issue in Greensboro they'll head to safer grounds, however, you might be able to attract some businesses with drop your drawers and bend over super deals, but then it'll take 10 years to get a return on investment! Got to clean-up Greensboro first. Beau
Beau,
I think you've got a far better handle on Greensboro issues than our local leaders have thus far.
Hmmm......for a while there I thought you were going to ask me to boycott a company with which I have a MAJOR business relationship.
However, you didn't include any of the PGA Tour sponsors on your list, and I really have nothing to do with AIG anymore, so we're cool.