It’s a word tossed around like a big bag of potatoes, but have you ever stopped and thought about what it REALLY means to be “professional”? We did, and we consulted the big and thick copy of the Meriam-Webster dictionary, which is kept on the stand just inside the WSVM Speaks office. Here’s what it said about what defines professional:

“exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace”.

In recent weeks, WSVM Speaks has spoken out about certain activities and about certain public servant professionals’ performance of their duties. WSVM Speaks has expressed its opinions regarding about what has appeared, for the most part, in the erstwhile newspaper, the Morganton News Herald. We didn’t make it up, we just quoted the articles and asked questions based solely on what the Morganton News Herald’s reporters had written. It wasn’t personal. It was strictly professional, and any of you could have done the same thing, and perhaps you did.

WSVM Speaks questioned how could a “professional” craft a contest in which there were no rules to speak of.

WSVM Speaks has questioned whether a private 501c3 corporation has the lawful right to charge citizens to use a public parking lot and then pocket the money without disclosing how and when the money will be used, and what “professional” public servant would be complicit in it.

WSVM Speaks has questioned as to whether a “professional” public official would initiate a news release purposing to retire and continue to work for less money, and, in a time when people were losing their jobs, making public a salary in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.

WSVM Speaks has brought to light certain actions of governing bodies regarding the timing of apparently frivolous expenditures during a time of tightening municipal budgets and layoffs.

WSVM Speaks spoke out about the alarming Burke County Public School AYP and reading and math scores, and urged that those involved in the School Board debacle stop the strife and get on with the education of our children.

Again, there was nothing personal here, just “professional” criticism from one “professional” to another. Or, at least, that’s what we thought.

Because of the WSVM Speaks publicly expressed opinions, some of the people associated with the WSVM Speaks Editorials have been subjected to threats, harassing phone calls, rude and harsh treatment, and even attempts to get certain individuals fired from their jobs all by certain public figures and their emissaries. There are even certain public employees who won’t speak to or even acknowledge members of the WSVM staff. We won’t call their names today, but we might a little later.

All of this is due to one thing, WSVM Speaks dared to disagree publicly with the status quo and the powers that be, and offered an alternative to what was published in the erstwhile newspaper the Morganton News Herald. It was already public knowledge. Did it not occur to these “professionals” that someone might read the stories they gave to the newspaper? Or did they secretly acknowledge what the industry already knows: Only the “letters to the editor”, sports page, and the obituaries are heavily read to any real degree.

At any rate, WSVM Speaks finds the behavior of certain public servants less than: “exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace”. In fact it’s more like it “implies inexperience often combined with audacity with resulting crudeness or blundering”…and that’s the definition of an amateur.