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I Fought The Law And The Law Lost! 02/04/2015 |
I
bid you welcome gentle readers, to a twisted and skewed column wherein I find
great difficulty identifying the beginning, middle or end. The last time I
presented this saga, I called it a “Turducken”, which is a turkey wrapped
around a duck, wrapped around a chicken, and more than likely, with stuffing at
the very center. Please pass the cranberry sauce and let’s have at it.
Last
week, many of you showed varying degrees of surprise, bordering on disgust, for
the flamboyant untruths that tumbled from the lips of our great and noble
leader, Brian the NASCAR emperor. If you thought that was bad, fear not; your
scribe is here to finish the job, as it were. You might want to refill your
coffee cup. This might take a while…
On
the evening of February 18, 2001, an Internet writer sat up most of the night
writing, trashing and rewriting a piece about the death of Dale Earnhardt and
the culpability of NASCAR owing to their inactions in the field of racing
safety.. That article was originally entitled, “Blood on Their Hands” and was
written by my friend and colleague, Matt McLaughlin. Bill France Jr. was much
like “The Old Man” on Pawn Stars in thinking that the Internet was a fad and
would soon go away. That column so enraged that gentleman that he referred to Matt
as, “The most dangerous idiot on the Internet.” I can’t tell you how hard I’ve
worked to hear that title applied to this scribe, but so far, it hasn’t
happened. Maybe tomorrow.
Yes,
Bill said it, but Bill never acted on it. Brian… bless his little heart, did.
Matt had written for years for the same site, bearing different names, from Speedworld to SpeedFX, to RacingOne, which magically morphed into MRN.com. Sound
familiar? It should. MRN stands for Motor Racing Network and is the property of
another familiar entity, International Speedway Corporation aka ISC… or NASCAR
by another name. It never ceases to amaze me that our government, which
purports to have strict anti-trust rules, doesn’t recognize the connection
between the two. Here’s how I see it; I have pockets on both sides of my jeans,
left and right. They are separate only to a point. Any money found in either
pocket is mine, and there is no question about it. ISC and NASCAR are merely
two pockets in the jeans of the France family… illegal as sin, yet no one
challenges.
In
the fall of 2004, my late husband’s declining health demanded that I step away
from writing, which I reluctantly did. During the early days of 2005 however,
it happened. NASCAR, which by that time translated to Brian France, purchased
the RacingOne website and almost immediately fired
Matt and purged the site of any trace of him. I came back to Insider Racing
News solely to write an article about that, because as usual, no one had the
cojones to tell the emperor he was buck naked! Here then, for openers, is that
column from 2005.
Where Have You Gone Matt McLaughlin?
First
they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a
Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a
Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for
me.
~Pastor
Martin Neimoller: Concentration camp Survivor
And
so it is that I come today to speak up for a friend.
Gentle
readers, I hadn’t planned to be here until Daytona, but sometimes something
happens that seems so egregious it begs to be addressed. Actually, I’ve
contemplated this for two or three days before writing it in an attempt to rid
my mind of phrases such as “Petty little dictator” and “Thin-skinned wimpette”, but somehow, they refuse to leave my mind.
Of
course, I’m referring to the recent enforced departure of Matt McLaughlin from
the ranks of Internet writers. For the cave dwellers among us, Matt has written
NASCAR related articles on the web since long before many of us knew there even
was a web. To my knowledge, he always wrote for the same site, though it has
undergone several name changes and face lifts over the years. (If you think I’m
going to give them a plug here, think again)
Well,
it seems that this particular website, and it is a very good one, was recently
purchased by an entity that calls itself ABC Promotions. Ha! ABC Promotions is
a property of ISC (International Speedway Corp.) the incestuous sister of
NASCAR and all three are controlled by the Family France.
[Note:
therein lies the single error in the original column. The proper name of the
purchaser was ASC Promotions, with ASC denoting Americrown
Service Corp., the subsidiary of ISC that runs the concession stands at all ISC
tracks. The error was not mine and came about through a blatant attempt to
deceive... a nice little phrase meaning "lie."]
I’d
love to believe that their purchase of the old Speedworld
site was to rid themselves of good competition, which one could possibly
construe as good business sense. Yes, I’d love to, but I don’t! The issue was
to rid themselves of something, but this old gal believes that what they
(NASCAR) wanted shed of was Matt McLaughlin, whom they viewed as a constant
thorn in their corporate paw. Three cheers for Matt!
Despite
the gruff exterior that Matt presented (on purpose), he was always up for a
good laugh and always willing to assist some budding amateur writer such as
myself. I can only wonder how many of us would not be here, were it not for
Matt. He was not only a top-notch professional writer (The occasional typos in
his work, I’ve always suspected were put there on purpose) but one heck of a
nice guy to boot.
“So
I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse.” Upon visiting the forum
associated with the old Speedworld site, I learned
that the new forum moderator (Matt was the old one) had seen fit to delete
Matt’s final post in that venue. (How’s THAT for pure venom) It only took a
short bit of reading to find what the post originally said; it was simply the
lyrics of, “I Hope You Dance”, followed by a short message saying “See y’all
and if you’re ever in the neighborhood, stop by for a beer.” Yep, that’s some pretty
vicious stuff there. We can’t have this guy speaking freely and exercising his
constitutionally guaranteed right to expression.
Lee
Ann Womack ~ I Hope You Dance ~ Lyrics
I
hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You
get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May
you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD
forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I
hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever
one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise
me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And
when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I
hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I
hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never
settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin'
chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't
let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When
you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give
the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And
when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I
hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I
hope you dance....I hope you dance.
(Time
is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell
me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where
Those
years have gone.)
I
hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever
one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise
me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And
when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
Dance....I
hope you dance.
I
hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I
hope you dance....I hope you dance..
(Time
is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell
me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where
Those
years have gone)
"So
I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse." According to Todd Berger at Anomie Acres, (And I have no reason in the world to doubt
Todd’s veracity) Matt “was not allowed on the premises [of a race track] unless
he was a special guest of a sponsor or some other big wig.” Well, that goes
right along with a writer for a very prominent newspaper being physically
assaulted by NASCAR “Officials” in the pits last year for daring to attempt to
interview a driver during a long red flag hiatus. It seems that would have
somehow violated the exclusivity rights, which were sold to the broadcasting
network. Oh, can’t we all just get along? Nope, I didn’t think so.
Gentle
readers, perhaps you already know this, but most of us who write on the
Internet do so out of love (?) for the sport and are rank amateurs in the
literary field. This was not the case with Matt McLaughlin; he was and is
strictly professional. The blow dealt to him was not a slap on the wrist as
many of us receive from time to time; it took away his very livelihood.
Actually,
it took away more than that; at least temporarily, it took away his life. Some
three (Or possibly four) years ago, Matt was the victim of a freak accident
(Slipping on ice) that came within a whisker of costing him a leg. Although
there followed, a long period of rehabilitation and a great deal of pain,
within a few days of the accident, Matt was back at a keyboard (In his hospital
bed) doing what he loves to do best, writing.
That’s
the Matt I know and love (despite that bad haircut Darlin’)
and it’s only a matter of time before he rises like the Phoenix from the ashes.
It’s said that you can’t keep a good man down and Matt is exactly that, a good
man.
If
you get the sense that I am seething with anger as I sit behind this keyboard,
then you are correct and I’m making my point, or I will be if I can get this
past my editor. Unlike Matt, I have nothing to lose if they come for me, and I
surely can’t be bought with tainted money, so until they pry this keyboard from
my cold, dead fingers, I’ll continue to speak the truth as I know it and to
exercise my guaranteed first amendment right to freedom of speech and the press
as well.
In
closing, I’ll offer the following, which I know will bring a smile to the face
of a friend:
And
here’s to you Matt McLaughlin,
Jesus
loves you more than you will know
Wo
wo wo
God
bless you, please, Matt McLaughlin,
Heaven
holds a place for those who pray
Hey
hey hey, hey hey hey
Where
have you gone Matt McLaughlin?
A
nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Ooo ooo ooo
What’s
that you say Mr. Brian France?
My
friend Matt has left and gone away?
Hey
hey hey, hey hey hey
(But
not to stay, not to stay!)
I’ll
take my leave now, but not with the tag line that usually appears at the end of
these columns. Much like my friend, my smile is temporarily gone…there is no
joy in Mudville, Mighty Matt has been struck down.
Be
well gentle readers, and just in case they decide to come for me, I’ll make it
just a tad easier for them to find me.
~PattyKay
Lilley
(Be
it noted that at the time of this writing, I used only my first and middle
names, for privacy reasons, writing as Patty Kay. This would have been the
first time my whole name appeared on the Internet, but my then editor refused
to print it. That was the only word changed in the entire article)
Matt
did come back, of course, but the NASCAR Gestapo had so thoroughly purged his
name from the Internet that my column was about the only reference Google could
offer when searched for his name. At first, he
wrote for a small website called Racingstalkers.com, so as each request I
received about Matt came in, I was able to pass along the web address to the
seekers without divulging his personal email. To each person receiving the web
address, I'd ask that he "Tell him Patty sent you." Hey, it got some
smiles from a man busy picking up the pieces of his life. Anyone familiar with
Matt will know that his last writing years were spent at Frontstretch.com, a
large and extremely reputable site that features only the best writers.
And now, to wrap the duck around the chicken,
here is a link to Matt’s farewell column at
Frontstretch.com. When you read that, please take careful note of the second
and third word of the piece. That is a literary device your scribe has used
since high school, and I shall be eternally grateful and proud that Matt chose
it as a part of his farewell. The article was tinged with sadness, as are all
goodbyes, but something came to light in the comments after the article that
worked out wonderfully well, both for Matt and for me. In those comments… and
they are myriad… you’ll see Matt state that a computer crash had taken his only
copy of that article on Earnhardt’s death that caused all the ruckus, and with
it had gone his copies of his history anthology, “50 Years of NASCAR Racing”,
which ran originally in 1998, coinciding with NASCAR’s 50th
anniversary.
Read a bit further through the comments and
you’ll see me tell Matt to check his email, and wish him a Happy Birthday. What
I sent him was his article on Dale’s death, though unfortunately not the
original “Blood on Their Hands”, but the slightly edited piece that replaced
it, entitled “At What Price Entertainment.” If I could remember the bit that
was deleted, I’d share it with you, but alas, that was 14 years ago and though
I read it before the ink was dry, I failed to either copy it or memorize it. Still,
this bulldog is not without talent, and not only could I provide Matt with the
missing article on Dale, but I also handed him the keys to his history
anthology, as filed on the original website. I’m not sure, but I think he
cried. He had thought that well over a year of his life had been wasted because
folks would never read all that he’d written in praise of NASCAR and the way it
was through those 50 years.
Of course, you now see those pieces here on
Race Fans Forever, because Matt was going off to work and would have no time to
work with them, or rerun them anywhere. He gave them to me in gratitude, to
care for and make them my own. I’ve been free to edit them, correcting typos
and misspellings only, and to illustrate as best I can, since the original
illustrations are no longer attached. Every time I read one of them, I get this
warm, fuzzy feeling that just that one time, I fought the law, and I won! Sorry
Brian, but I’m not careless by nature. All of my work is backed up more than
twice, and in different places. A recent computer crash here cost me nothing
but some Outlook files. All of my writings are safe and intact, covered in
multiple spots. They cannot be erased. You may have all the money, but I have
the truth, and I love to tell it.
Matt, my friend, I do hope this finds you in
better health then when last we spoke. My Christmas wishes for you went
unanswered. Be well my friend; please be well.
Gentle readers, this article, even though
shortened some, has still run on far too long. The turkey has been wrapped
around the duck, and here’s how we cook the whole thing. If any or all of you
would like to read that article about the death of Dale Earnhardt, let me hear
from you… here on this page, NOT on Twitter. If we don’t get enough requests
here, then it shall remain with me, and I already know what it says.
It’s Classic Country Closeout time now, and
today, let’s have a bit of fun with some songs of a different sentiment. This
first one has always broken me up, as it showcases a multitalented artist at
his best, which is being a smart-ass with the whole world listening. Yes, all
the voices on this recording are the many faces of David Allan Coe, singing his
massive hit, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name.”
And if you thought that was fun, here’s Merle
Haggard, being a bit of everyone but himself… Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Johnny
Cash and Buck Owens. These impersonations were out on an album years ago, but
darned if I can remember the name. He’s good enough to scare you though!
In closing today, we have one that I have
always loved, as it seems a perfect salute to a simpler way of life. This was
originally recorded by Billy Ed Wheeler, but your scribe prefers this version,
also often heard, by Bobby Bare. Here’s Bobby, giving you the “Ode
to that Little Brown Shack out Back.”
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep
smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay