THYME Magazine Special Shutdown Issue III

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XIX

Taking the Narrative Back

Blogger Bill Evans Writes in a piece entitled NPR and the Power of Narrative [click to read]:

"Most of the government is shut down.” So we repeatedly hear from mainstream news outlets like National Public Radio (NPR), as they continue to hammer the narrative that American wellbeing and the interests of the common person are threatened by a small group of selfish “Tea Party extremists” who have seized control of the Republican Party in order to subvert the Constitution and representative democracy.

Of course, the reality is that the facts don’t support this narrative. According to informed estimates, 83 percent of the government continues to operate. And this, in turn, explains why lots of Americans don’t seem particularly worried, despite mainstream media efforts to portray the situation as apocalyptic or worse."

Dr. Evans continues: "Moreover, the Republican Party is, in fact, a splintered and messy conglomeration of main-street business interests, neo-cons, libertarians, cultural conservatives, religious conservatives, and yes, Tea Party types. And for the record, despite the whining of the current President, in this instance the government is working exactly as the Founding Fathers envisioned."

Dr. Evans goes on to point out that a body of citizens who possess little knowledge of how our government was designed to work look to the narrative as they form their opinions and make choices. He who controls the narrative controls the discussion. Using the example of the Matthew Shepard murder in 1998, Dr. Evans cites NPR host Rachel Martin's interview with author Stephen Jimenez about his book: The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard (Steerforth, 2014).While the narrative surrounding the murder was that it was undoubtedly a "hate crime," Jimenez' own investigation proved otherwise. Jimenez is a gay man himself, but his honest investigation and NPR's airing of the interview are laudible.

Still, the narrative of the "hate crime" became the driving force behind President Clinton's push for the subsequent Hate Crimes Legislation. Even as Jimenez, who admits wrestling with this confrontation of the truth, determined that the truth was what really mattered.

To be perfectly honest, all of us resort to the narrative. I recently considered a purported Bill Cosby quote that underscored MY narrative for inclusion in THYME. There was a problem though, my research pointed to the strong possibility that Cosby didn't say it. The quote was dropped. Another wonderful story hit my desk about NASA scientists "discovering" a "missing day," thus corroborating Scriptural accounts. The problem here was that there was no reference to any actual paper or research.

Truth matters. Sadly Mr. Jimenez is a rare force in journalism. Many in the mainstream media will continue to reinforce the narrative that "the government is shut down," but how many of them will consider the plight of those outside their narrative: "So the next time you hear NPR journalists talking about how “most of the government is shut down” (when it’s not) don’t be surprised. And the next time you notice NPR and the rest of the mainstream media studiously ignoring the people whose health insurance costs are skyrocketing because of the now ironically named Affordable Care Act, and at the same time paying no attention to part-time workers whose hours are being cut or who are losing their jobs due to the quite predictable impact of Obama Care (as anybody would have known if they had bothered to read the bill), don’t be surprised."

Taking Back the Narrative

Conservatives OUTSIDE the political process, ironically, are masters of the narrative  on their home court. (If you are reading this, you probably are Conservative or Libertarian; or one of my colleagues just being nice). Creating beautiful publications like American Conservative [click to read] and City Journal [click to read], we are great at telling a more complete, more truthful story. The problem is who we're NOT reaching.

If anything, the current government shutdown offers us a great opportunity. Our friends and family who are furloughed government workers have time on their hands... dare I suggest we give them some THYME? As self-serving as that may be, it behooves us to attempt at every turn to create provocative presentations of beauty and truth and share them. Hopefully we can insert solid dialogue and reason into the narrative.

THYME Magazine Special Shutdown Edition

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XVII

Taking Washington Back

Bob Owens [click to read] writes: "We’re cursed with a President and Senate that seems determined to use the law (when it suits them), or ignore the law (when it suits them), or descend into outright criminality (when it suits them), in order to fundamentally pervert this nation’s core beliefs.

Barack Obama has proven useless except for one thing: he has been able to bring the proverbial frogs to a boil and has imposed blatant socialism without spurring a popular rebellion so far.

If the Republicans will stick to their guns—and Obama keeps showing his arrogance to a public that has willfully buried their heads in the sand until now—there is a chance that the rising tide of anger could sweep this administration away.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Barack, and may it spell the beginning of the end of all the crony socialism you hold dear."

As the government shutdown enters its second week, some things are becoming quite clear. We've seen what can only be called pettiness on the part of an administration that is determined to assert how essential it is to our collective well-being.

Flights of Honor bring WWII veterans to Washington to visit the monument, constructed with private donations, in their honor. Can you imagine their feelings when they arrived only to find an open air monument barricaded and patrolled by more park rangers than are seen there on a normal day? The troops, who had stormed places like Omaha Beach and fought heroically to liberate the European continent, broke down the barricades.

The image of elderly gentlemen in wheelchairs taking back THEIR monument [1.] is one of the first memories we take from the current struggle. The Vietnam memorial was barricaded too, along with the Marine's Memorial across the Potomac River. While veterans struggled to get into their monuments and PXs on military bases were closed, President Obama's favorite golf courses remained in operation [2.]... not a great lesson in 'shared sacrifice.'

Park Service personnel admitted to having been ordered to 'make things difficult' for visitors [3.], even going so far as to block private businesses [4.] that had to be accessed from roads like the Blue Ridge Parkway. They even tried to shut down Mount Vernon, which is run by a private foundation. They did so by closing a parking area they maintain for Washington's home. They tried to deny access to Mount Rushmore [5.], forgetting that the STATE owns the road from which one views it!

Terror at Talladega, Government Gone Wild [click to read]: Angie Creswell McGhee has her own tale of bureaucracy run amok. At Talladega, government officials endangered the safety of riders and horses and ignored reasonable pleas from riders in an event that, ironically, was a BENEFIT for a camp in the National Forest! The forced evacuation of their campground sounds like something from Germany in the 1940's! The exhausted riders were TERRIFIED!

Congress, mandated by Congress with control of the public purse, passed individual bills to fund government operations all would consider necessary. Harry Reid and the President refused to consider them. The National Institute of Health was shut down and Congress passed legislation to fund it specifically. Harry Reid found himself opposing clinical trials [6.] that would help children with cancer.

When asked why he wouldn't want to "help one child with cancer?" Reid snapped back: "Why would we want to do that?" Do we REALLY want these people in charge of our healthcare?

Thomas Sowell [click to read] writes: "If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility.

You cannot blame other people for not giving you everything you want. And it is a fraud to blame them when you refuse to use the money they did vote, even when it is ample to pay for everything else in the government."

Sowell continues: "When Barack Obama keeps claiming that it is some new outrage for those who control the money to try to change government policy by granting or withholding money, that is simply a bald-faced lie. You can check the history of other examples of "legislation by appropriation" as it used to be called."

Which brings us to the core of the struggle. President Obama and the liberal factions used every trick in the book to "pass" the "Affordable Care Act" over reasonable opposition [7.] The "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Selling of Stupak" were just a few of the tactics employed to pass the bill that Nancy Pelosi said: "we had to pass... so that we could see what is in it!"

Turns out Ms. Pelosi was telling the truth. The 2000+ page legislation was nothing more than a framework for bureaucrats to flesh out into actual operations. It provided mandates and fines, but did far too little to address actual reforms that would help people with pre-existing conditions and cut medical costs.

Budget projections that exceeded promised limits, unpopular mandates and general confusion led to scores of companies seeking exemption. The administration's 'signature legislation' simply wasn't ready for 'prime time.' As the stalemate continues, Congress' move to delay 'Obamacare' seems far more reasonable than the hysteria the administration seems determined to display in protecting it.

Give us This Day Our Daily Scolding [click to read]
Chaplains "Non-Essential?" [click to read]
Amber Alert Website Closed while Mrs. Obama's Open [click to read]
Park Personnel Ordered to 'Make Life Difficult' [click to read]
Obama's Golf Course Spared in Shutdown [click to read]
Illegal Aliens Can Have Mall During Shutdown [click to read]
NPR and the Power of Narrative [click to read]
Even More from THYME [click to read]