A lovely place, truly. One that I traipsed around as a four year girl when I attended and graduated from Salem Academy. How to describe such a place and the women that I call dear friends over twenty five years later? This is a slice of Salem Academy’s website:

“Since 1772, Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has focused solely on educating young women. Our Moravian founders believed that a first-class education could make a profound impact on a young woman’s life, and that belief lives on today as a hallmark of a Salem Academy education. Salem’s faculty ignite brilliance and help students to find and follow their unique talents and passions.While a Salem education is elite, our culture is not elitist. We’ve created a caring community where young women are encouraged to embark on their own intellectual, spiritual, and social journeys. The triumphant Salem graduate emerges ready for the future, equipped with the skills and confidence to succeed in anything she pursues”.

This is not the way I had planned to write about Salem but I, as a Salem graduate, am called to utilize that magnificent education, a schooling that not just drilled the basics but inspired thinking, writing, speaking, and the opportunity to present masterful opinions in classrooms which were filled with heated debates and guided by the professors that fueled the fire. Regardless of the sad memories that surround Salem for me (my older brother died after my freshman year and that year long battle with cancer), I am propelled to speak and so, Salem did her job properly; the skillful instruction of determination runs through my blood and it was until this evening that I realized the root of my need for soulful query.

I call out now to my Salem friends and those folks in North Carolina that have been educated and empowered to believe that your voice makes a difference. Do you believe like me that you must always speak out when there is an opportunity for change? In this case, BCBS has continued to travel around our state and it wasn’t enough that they came to my hometown of Edenton. No, they had to share a story about Old Salem which is my story to share, not theirs. I am the writer and they are the health insurance company that employs independent writers and their own employees to write about our magical state. If your family is like mine, you should wonder and protest why BCBS NC is financing a travel blog. I will not remain silent, particularly when I know that Amos is desperate for speech therapy and our health insurance company’s priority is to flood my newsfeed with beautiful accounts of my very own domains.

Can we all stand together and say NO to the insurance giant? No, BCBS of NC. No more travel blogs for you. We want services for children like Amos and the families like mine that pay more to you than our own mortgage. I am a Salem girl and you will not defeat the very way I was educated and the principles Old Salem was founded upon.

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