Leslie Boyd's Page

I've moved my blog to http://www.dalaimama-boyd.blogspot.com/.

Things here have been pretty bleak. We had layoffs yesterday. Rob and I escaped, but we had friends who worked here a long time who got cut. I feel like I'm watching the demise of an entire industry.
But it's more than just an industry, and being a reporter is more than just a job. We felt like we had a higher calling: to be watchdogs of government and big business, to dig out the truth and to inform the public. We have been the children of the First Amendment.
Now most papers have too few peopl… Continue

WNC for Change had a health care rally in Asheville this morning and 300 people came out. That's almost twice as many as came out last fall. People are getting worried that this won't get fixed after all, and they want to tell Congress that's not acceptable.
I was the keynote speaker, telling Mike's story and noting that he was one of about 30,000 who died last year.
Rep. Heath Shuler met with about 50 of us this afternoon and assured us he wants to fix it too, but the law says it has to be defe… Continue

I was walking back from an assignment this afternoon and chatting with an older man when it started to rain. I said something about being drip-dry and he laughed and said he's lived life drip-dry all spring.
Turns out he's homeless and his camp was ransacked recently. He doesn't know who did it, but whoever did won't be punished, even if he or she is discovered, so he shrugged it off.
I wished him luck as I crossed the street and he called after me.
"Nobody's wished me luck and meant it before,"… Continue

I've been marveling at the courage of the people in Iran, protesting in the streets a million at a time.

Unfortunately, the presence of a million people in the streets hasn't changed the Supreme Leader's mind about the recent election.

Things could turn very ugly there. All of the protesters are risking arrest or worse.

The cool thing is how nonviolent the protests have been so far. People are resolute but not threatening.

This was the very basis of protests during

… Continue