Is the Civil War about to Renew in Belhaven? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    It is drawing nigh to August 25, the date set for hearings to begin over the battle between Vidant Medical Group, LLC, and the citizens of Belhaven who are up in arms over losing their local hospital.

    That hospital began as WWII ended and people returned home. The original deed was recently found in the Beaufort County Register of Deeds office by Annabel Park, award winning videographer. Eric Byler is the principal photographer and editor of film. Annabel recently shared her emotional story of that discovery:



    Her heart is now wrapped around this small town and its plight over medical care. Rather than an impartial reporter, she has become one of the strong advocates for them. She has been covering what she calls the "summer of turmoil" in NC. It goes from Tea Party / Moral Monday / Thankful Tuesday (conservative response). There is even a piece on Diane Ruffino who heads the Tea Party here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch_videos?title=Popular+uploads&more_url=&type=0&video_ids=3CRSK0HItoI%2CO-9d0E5JpG4%2CHdeHQ0uR3xc%2CvKBVtLn5T1k%2CLO0UR7y6OhI%2CCHvJGjPLyxc%2Cpfd5CcgzBdo%2CZoo3GEfhPwo%2C1m4Tq-nrLoI%2ChuJymrV-YVo%2C9NgDiLG21OM%2CuzIbKQDPrcU&index=2&feature=c4-overview

    The links above will get you up to speed on the entire issues involved. It is more than complex---even on the eve of a hearing in Federal Court. I have talked and met with some people, not at the forefront, but wisely observing as part of the drama. Many of them see problems on both sides and will quickly admit too much emotion and hate are involved.

    Here are the issues and core of the drama:

    •  Who owns that hospital in Belhaven?
    •  Is Vidant "guilty as charged" of being a bully hiding behind a Tax-Exempt Non-Profit LLC?
    •  Are the Mayor, Adam O'Neal, and beloved Dr. Charles Boyette the "rascals" Vidant believes them to be?
    •  How can any hospital making big money legitimately be "Non-Profit"?
    •  Is it fair for the wealth and income of any Hospital Corporation pay no taxes, just like churches, Boy Scouts and Red Cross?
    •  Why have the ACLU and NAACP become involved?
    •  Is the Secretary of State, under the Attorney General's Office, doing what they should to monitor and certify any 501(c)3 Corporation in NC? Jim Bakker was such in Charlotte.
    •  On a national scale (the Mayor was covered by CNN as he marched to Washington DC a few weeks ago), what is the issue for many small communities whose little hospitals and clinics are being sucked quickly into Corporate Medicine like Vidant?

    Like the ramp up to the Civil War, Southern pride and religious zeal are involved. The residents of Hyde and Beaufort Counties are deeply affected. This is "for sure" the modern day version of "poverty vs wealth." Vidant now owns and operates the former Beaufort County Memorial Hospital in Washington. Pungo Creek LLC is caught in the middle as their local duties are being strongly criticized --- as if they were an "agent for evil" Vidant over in Greenville "thieving+."

    As with the Civil War, slaves (or their descendants in both Counties) are involved.

    The North saw it as a moral battle over slavery. The South saw it in a wider scale of States Rights. The South felt a Federal Government was allowing rich northern industrialists to work them over. No war has ever shed more American blood than in years surrounding 1865.

    The Industrialists paid little for raw goods found in the South (cotton, iron ore, sugar, etc.). Once it was manufactured into nails and plows they needed, the price was abnormally high! When cotton came back as finished and dyed cloth, the price of raw goods vs. Finished product made farmers use toe sacks for clothing. They could not dress their little children in anything nicer than a flour sack for "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes. Shoes, except in winter, were impossible to buy.

    The battle lines are drawn. I have tried to be an "agent for reconciliation" and some are accusing me of being a "traitor" to the hospital cause. Nobody wins. Everybody is taking sides. Belhaven citizens who have been opponents, some since the 40's, are now together in a way. People are not sleeping at night over the angst. One word, wrongly spoken, turns you instantly from "friend" to "enemy."

    Meanwhile, average citizens know only that their lives and health are endangered for the lack of a hospital in their corner of Eastern NC.

    It is going to be battle royal. It has already begun. The first skirmish was before a Judge in Wilson a few days ago. He found that Vidant was, indeed, the current owner of the Belhaven Hospital despite their lawyer's protest that "they had nothing to do with it." That wise Judge ordered them to court.