To whom it may concern:
I write to register an ethical grievance and solemn protest against the unlawful and threatening correspondence which I received from your “director” Lizzy Hazeltine earlier today. (I reproduce her email below.)
Be advised that I have made copies of the “Twitter direct messages” as well as all of the emails (a total of 12 emails, 11 of which were merely “copied” to Ms. Hazeltine) which she pretends are some form of “harassment”, but which were entirely lawful exercises of the freedoms of speech and press. I intend to send these documents to District Attorney Satana Deberry.
Just in case you think I am some kind of “schizophrenic blogger” or something, I will have you know that I am a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, MA and the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My works have been published in The Phillipian, The Daily Tar Heel, The Star-News, The News & Observer, Encore, and CounterPunch, and I am of course otherwise an independent journalist whose correspondence is protected by constitutional and international law.
I do not defer to Ms. Hazeltine when it comes to the First Amendment, and will say that it is obscene and disturbing that people who purport to be “journalists” would instinctively and almost-casually threaten a fellow-journalist with “contacting the police” or “legal remedies” (Ms. Hazeltine is probably naive about this, but according to her twisted understanding, these two things are actually one and the same. “Contacting the police” in response to my correspondence is neither “legal” nor a “remedy”, it is “white supremacy”.)
I think you all should be honest with yourselves that Ms. Hazeltine’s true motivations have nothing to do with her personal safety, privacy, nor dignity (which in any case I did not threaten nor interfere with in any way.) No, it has everything to do with the “progressive” ideology of the “NC Local News Lab”, whose purpose is to swallow the so-called “information ecosystem” of our State into the belly of the philanthropic establishment, and to make propaganda for North Carolina Democratic Party through promotion of a certain limited “Southern neoliberal” ideal. Which is to say that you all think you are so enlightened, but your “director’s” thuggish and pseudo-learned language gives the game away.
I write only to make my views known, and hope they will be received in a spirit of good faith as “constructive criticisms”. I would not have bothered “contacting” Lizzy if I did not consider her a friend and colleague. When I first gave a public performance of “Evening Prayer Manifesto”, my long poem about the impact of the murder of Eve Marie Carson at UNC Chapel Hill, Lizzy was in the audience, and came up to me afterwards to simply say “That took guts”. I am no different than I was back in those days, I have just continued my struggle, while many of our common acquaintances and associates have shifted their loyalties.
I would be sincerely dismayed to learn that Ms. Hazeltine was tone-deaf to such principled and earnest arguments as these. Thank you for your attention and concern.
Yours truly,
Dawson Gage
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William Dawson Gage. 高大文
513 Orange Street
Wilmington, North Carolina 28401-4609
United States of America
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1-910-322-5853
@gageagainst
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