Dreams from MY Father...

"That's One Small Step for [a] Man..."


The first step on the Moon. NASA Image.

"...One Giant Leap for Mankind." -- Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong is gone. The first man to step onto another heavenly body has stepped into Eternity. I remember that July in 1969, gathering with the family around the television to watch the first blurry images as Armstrong and Buzz Aldren walked on the lunar surface.

I grew up in a NASA family. Dad had met Mom at Glenn L. Martin's Middle River Plant in Baltimore building and testing seaplanes for the war. Dad married his chief number cruncher and went on to start his own structural testing lab. In the early 'Sixties, he joined the space agency, doing work that greatly increased the reliability of spacecraft. His partner in much of this work was a hansome Turkish engineer named Ali.

NASA, in its wisdom, sent Dad and Ali to advise the European space agencies... landing them in Paris during the push for Algerian separation. As tanks rolled through the Parisian streets, Dad made his way through the city with a man many suspected was an Algerian! Those were interesting times.

Dad and Ali were good friends. We entertained Ali at our house, Mom carefully avoiding the foods that would be offensive to his Muslim culture. Indeed, NASA brought together great minds from a host of diverse backgrounds. A cast of thousands developed the technology that put the man from Wapakoneta, Ohio on the Moon. Here was the true brilliance of NASA; the terrible technology of Peenemünde was turned on its head as Wernher von Braun now led its mission to take human aspirations to the stars.

From the national anxiety created by Sputnik, the designers of NASA brilliantly shifted the technology advances necessary for our defense from the Army Missle Agency to a civilian agency. John F. Kennedy raised humanities collective aspirations with his charge to: "put a man on the Moon in this decade, and return him safely to Earth."

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, the world watched. That moment seemed to welcome a new era of human progress.


Neil Armstrong's official NASA portrait. Nasa Image.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXXV

The Mind of Mitt...

When Mitt Romney chose running mate Paul Ryan he sent a clear message that he was going to roll up his sleeves and work on real solutions using real numbers. Ryan, who earned the respect of many on both sides of the aisle, including Clinton advisor Erskine Bowles, who opines: "Have any of you all met Paul Ryan? I'm telling you this guy is amazing. He is honest; he is straightforward; he is sincere; and the budget he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, honest, serious budget." [1]. Clinton himself is overheard consulting with Ryan on Medicare reform (1:50 minutes into the tape footnoted here) [2].

Ryan's Blueprint for American Renewal [3] is precisely the kind of document a real CEO, intent on real solutions, would ask for. The man who saved the Salt Lake City Olympics and grew companies while working at Bain Capital clearly wants to show up in January ready to govern.

Despite efforts to paint him as an elitist and 'out of touch' with the average American, Romney is more like the businessman next door than the media makes him out to be. The 'other' weekly news magazine this week presents: "The Mind of Mitt." We think that is a mind worth knowing. Consider his opinion of the people he will lead:

"... The American people are the greatest people in the world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God-loving, family-oriented American people." -- Mitt Romney

The Son of Michigan Governor George Romney, Mitt saw his Father fight for civil rights and was introduced early to public life. In 1984 he started Bain Capital with ten employees on a shoestring budget, originally focusing on venture capital. It wasn't until 1986 that their big investment to turn Staples into a super-sized company happened. Romney knew what it was like to make a car last longer, make a payroll and stretch a budget. Those who long to see sound business principles applied to government will be pleased.

His Latter Day Saints upbringing taught him to see the Faith Community as essential to meeting the needs of the community and he's no 'Jack-Mormon' when it comes to tithing... the much sought-after tax returns show a healthy percentage of charitable giving and show that he is living off of the results of some good investments (13% would be a reasonable rate for income from investments... the base having been earned under a rate closer to 40%, perhaps). Romney understands the need to protect Religious liberty and individual initiative in the mission to revitalize America.


Television trucks stretch their masts heavenward in Ashland, Virginia.

The Mind of Barack Hussein Obama

"We know very little about him" was the oft-repeated phrase in the MSM about our current President. That is lazy research in the minds of those of us on THYME's highly overrated staff. Dreams from My Father was available for them to read! Had they looked into it they would have seen a man who's roots and upbringing would have been quite unfamiliar to most of us [4].

From his Indonesian school years to his apprenticeship to Frank Marshall Davis, from his friendship with Bill Ayers to his sitting under the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, it is clear that Obama's vision for America is far different from that most of us cherish. In Fact, his upbringing has some unusual moments [5]. Consider the time when his Stepfather Lolo introduces him to the towering statue of "Hanuman, the undefeated demon fighting monkey god." It is clear that young Barack, in the words of Glenn Beck: "didn't go to many Fourth of July picnics... didn't hear a lot of John Phillips Sousa music." Here's Mr. Beck [click to listen] playing the quote from Dreams from My Father. Militant Anticolonialsm, Black Liberation Theology and Marxist thought are all too evident. James Cone (promoter of Black Liberation Theology, Marxism couched in Christian terminology) has undoubtedly had a greater infuence than James Madison in the worldview formation of our current President.

Dinesh D’Souza [click to read] has provided a lot of good research into the background and mind of the President. His 2010 work: The Roots of Obama's Rage is the basis for the film: 2016: Obama's America. Born in Mumbai, India, D’Souza came to the U.S. as an exchange student and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983. From there he went on to work in the Reagan White House as a policy analyst. Today he is President of King's College in New York.

Mitt Romney introduces Paul Ryan in Ashland, Virginia on August 11.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXXIV

Your PHONE isn't Changing the World...
...but YOU Can Use it to Change the World!


There's no smartphone app for courtesy... Richmond Times-Dispatch.

This week the 'other' weekly news magazine is featuring The Wireless Issue [click to read] and touting 'Ten Ways Your Phone is Changing the World.' Cool!, but humans have been creating new ways to do things since the Garden of Eden and the new phones, pads, tablets and apps are but the latest iteration of Divinely inspired creativity.

Samuel Morse typed out "What hath G-d wrought." when he first activated the telegraph. Alexander Graham Bell simply blurted "Mr. Watson, come here, I need you." into the newly created telephone. (To be fair, Bell had just spilled some acid, and... er... needed Mr. Watson)! They were pioneers in communications, to be sure, but they were not the first pioneers.

Smoke signals, flags, semaphores all helped people to connect. Marconi took us wireless with the radio (albeit one-way). The internet took us to another level. Vannevar Bush, an engineer who graduated from Tufts College in Massachussetts, actually developed the principles underlying modern hypertext research.

In 1945, thirty years before the invention of the personal computer and 30 years before the creation of the internet, Bush wtote: "As We May Think."  In it he first presented his idea for a Memex machine: "designed to help people sort through the enormous amount of published information available throughout the world." His article described a Memex as a "device in which an individual stores his books, records and communications and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory."

Tim Berners-Lee is actually credited with creating the internet, based on the work of many people in the private sector and in government. Al Gore didn't build it... it's probably all  Bush's fault.

Technology: Triumph or Terror

We know that Hitler and the National Socialists developed the Volkswagen and the ICBM. The fruits of man's creativity can be used for great good... or great evil.

Pastor Chuck Balsamo, of Stuarts Draft, Virginia has on his phone message: "Hello, World Changer!" Indeed he is using the medium to mentor many in the doing of great good! In the 1960's, new technologies were developed as NASA raced to put a man on the Moon. The technology later found its way into a host of "spin-offs" such as artificial hips. What we DO with technology is the bulk of the story.


Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXIIIa Special Edition

At the 'Center of the Universe' with Romney and Ryan

Ashland, Virginia proudly bills itself as the 'Center of the Universe.' Former mayor Dick Gillis came up with the slogan in the 1980s:  "...supposedly because it was close to the mountains, the beach, Richmond, and D.C. It is right along the railroad line and it is a college town: home to Randolph-Macon University." Travel writer Peter Greenberg took issue with the claim and advised his readers not to go there. Enjoying a fine dinner with my lovely wife at Ashland's Trackside Grill, I have to conclude that this is Mr. Greenberg's loss! Ashland is a lovely place!


Mitt Romney meets the crowd in Ashland...


...along with Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan.


Ann Romney warmly greets supporters.

Presidential candidates, fortunately, ignore Greenberg's advice and this made for a great trip for my lovely wife and myself. In fact, SHE even suggested it when she saw the campaign stop mentioned in the Times-Dispatch. When we signed up we did not imagine how historic the day would be! True, Sarah Palin had made a campaign stop four years ago at Homemades by Suzanne, another Ashland eatery, but we had little reason to suspect history would repeat itself.

Driving along Interstate 64 that morning, we turned on the news and learned that Paul Ryan of Wisconsin had indeed joined the ticket... being introduced at the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk! In a packed auditorium at Randolph Macon, the mood was electric! Ryan's straightforward effort to tackle the Federal Budget [click to read] uniquely qualifies him for the work that lies ahead. Ryan and his family joined the Romneys in Ashland, making the day one to remember!

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXXIII

What We Can Learn from Mars

The 'other' news magazine this week muses: What We Can Learn from a Robot 154 Million Miles Away [click to read]. THYME asks: "What can we learn from a novel set 154 million miles away that hits close to home?"

I first discovered The Martian Chronicles in my youth, looking for anything about space, rockets, astronauts and worlds unknown. What I didn't realize when I picked up Bradbury's famous work, was where it would take me.

Written in 1950, the Martian Chronicles carries the darkest fears of a world dominated by the Cold War into a 'future history.' The devastation of Hiroshima and Nagisaki was still in recent memory as the West faced off with a nuclear Russia. Against this background the exploration and colonization of Mars takes place. The meeting of Earthlings and Martians eerily mirrors the meeting of Europeans with Native Americans in the colonization of the New World. Eventually the Native Martians succomb to Chicken Pox, a clear allusion to the animal borne pathogens that killed Native Americans in our own history.

 In a 1950's vision of 'green technology,' scientists begin to plant trees and other vegitation to transform the atmosphere of Mars. Eventually the oxygen level is raised, making settlement possible. This settlement strangely resembles the American Midwest in appearance. A trip to Mars begins to resemble a journey to Kansas! The original novel even contained references to American racism. At one point all the African-Americans are preparing to move to Mars, but the reference was later was eliminated from the 2006 William Morrow/Harper Collins, and the 2001 DoubleDay Science Fiction reprinting of The Martian Chronicles.

There was once a museum that had aquired a fine Etruscan horse sculpture in the Nineteenth Century. A hundred years later, a noted art scholar declared it a brilliant forgery. When asked how he came to that conclusion, the expert stated: "The artist has brilliantly copied everything he knows about the Etruscan period... and everything he DOESN'T know about the Nineteenth Century!" Here is where Bradbury's novel is brilliant. Chronicles describes everything Bradbury knows about history mingled artfully with everything he didn't know about his own era.

In the novel the worst of our Cold War fears are realized. Almost everyone returns to Earth and nuclear Armageddon takes place. In an eery passage, the household robots of a vaporized family in Allendale, California dutifully put out breakfast every morning and clean the table afterwards... continuing to serve though their masters are gone. The limits of their programming does not allow them to see the vaporized sillouettes of the family, (a clear allusion to Hiroshima,) in the wall of the house.

The final story in the Chronicles is that of a man who takes his family to Mars in a rocket that was meant to be used in the conflict. He burns his old tax records and papers, destroys the rocket and eschews a 'misguided way of life.' Promising to show his sons a Martian, he takes them to one of the canals where they gaze on their own reflections. They are the new Martians.

I was born a year after Chronicles was first published. The Cold War was clearly a dominant feature of those years. We took the Cuban missle crisis seriously. A trip to the county fair would often include visiting a display on how to build a home fallout shelter. Dad would always interrupt our morbid curiosity about such things and sweep us along to the livestock and the tractors. Still the point was well taken that the world was a dangerous place. When the missle ships turned away from Cuba, our entire class cheered.

Chronicles resonated with the world where I lived and provided a unique mirror in which it could be observed.


Image taken by Curiosity of the Martian Landscape. NASA/JPL Image.

The First Thing We See is Imago Dei

A Celebration of the Beautiful Variety of Humankind


There is that innocent moment when children simply see children. Source: Unknown

The musical: South Pacific takes place in the madness of a world at war. It is a time when thousands are dying and a time of cold-blooded genocide. Sadly, we have not been able to see a time when cold-blooded killing has been ended. In the musical, Lieutenant Cable sings this song:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!


Sikh Children. Photo: The Beckett Fund

The Creative Mandate of Bezalel and Oholiab

Exodus 35 and 36, Skill, Ability and Knowledge
This is the Second in a Series [click to read]


Xaver Wilhelmy's Design for a memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York. The memorial features a 3000 pipe organ to give a voice to everyone who's voice was lost on that terrible day. Rendering by Bob Kirchman


Xaver Wilhelmy's design for a pipe organ enclosure for St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Davis West Virginia. Model by Bob Kirchman and Laney Riley.

Bezalel and Oholiab

"Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of G-d, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills —  to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.”

Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary." -- Exodus 35:30 - 36:3

In Genesis, G-d invited mankind into the studio to name His creation. Mankind was also given the mandate to 'replenish' creation. When G-d chose to work through a specific people as part of his purpose, he again invited those He had created into His work. Bezalel and Oholiab are specifically mentioned by name. Bezalel, it says, is filled with the "Spirit of G-d, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills." Clearly G-d is the giver of artistic gifts. Bezalel and Oholiab both are given the ability to teach by G-d. In the Tabernacle, G-d has these artisans construct the space that He will occupy!

The cubic Sanctuary, the Ark, the tools, fabrics and furnishings were all inspired designs executed by inspired artisans. The Presence of G-d would transform Israel, but Israel participated in building the place for the Presence! Later this same scheme would be repeated in stone and cedarwood for the Temple of Solomon. That form would be repeated in the rebuilt Temple of Zerubbabel's day. The Prophet Haggai again called the people to the work of G-d. Haggai ends his writings looking to a time when G-d will establish His throne in Heaven and on Earth.

In Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21, 22 we see the reign of G-d established and a New Heaven and New Earth. The form of Jerusalem described in Revelation is a cube large enough to encompass all of mankind! Here is restoration of fellowship with G-d and a return to that close fellowship seen in Genesis before the fall. Today the artist who has faith is uniquely equipped -- and called to the building of the Kingdom of Heaven! We possess a mandate to replenish the Earth, to use our gifts in the building of that which G-d is bringing about.

Consider the mission of The Culture House in Kansas City, Missouri. Janie B. Cheaney of World Magazine describes it like this: "an arts organization... that brings a Christian ethos of excellence for the sake of others and cultural leadership for its students." Founded by Jeremiah Enna, the Culture House offers programs in visual arts, dance and theatre... all from a perspective of submitting these gifts to G-d's purpose. In a recent production: Underground, the theatre group tackled the issue of slavery.

The popular narritive often approaches this narritive from the perspective that "America is evil." Underground's prooducers said instead: "we wanted to show America overcoming evil." Stressing the role of the Church in abolishing slavery, their narrative became: "G-d is the Hero!" In the Centuries past, faith was the inspiration for building great cathedrals and transformative movements in culture. Alvin Schmidt documents much of this in his book: Under the Influence. It is no stretch to conclude that much of our present tolerance for diversity springs from the influence of faith.

In the writings of Moses there are specific protections given to aliens living among the Israelites. In Genesis 12:3 G-d says to Abraham: "...all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you," giving a unique insight into the Divine Heart. The line of David includes Rahab (the woman of Jerico who hid the spies) and Ruth the Moabite. Moses himself had a Cushite wife (she was black). In Isaiah 60 we hear G-d's Heart speak:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." -- Isaiah 60:1-3

"Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations -- their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined. The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place for my feet. The children of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel." -- Isaiah 60:10-14

Looking forward to G-d's transformative work, the artist of faith has a unique place and unique giftings to speak into his or her world.


Mr. Wilhelmy worked out the placement of wind chests and pipes using the model built by the Kirchman Studio.


Xaver Wilhelmy's design for functional stained glass organ pipes embedded in a window. Rendering by Xaver Wilhelmy and Bob Kirchman

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXXII

Playing 'Chicken' With the 1st Amendment

The 'other' weekly news magazine this week features "Buying the White House." Of course, they are concerned about big Republican money, overlooking of Soros money as they lament the demise, as they see it, of the 'small' donor ($5 - $10).

But the small donor is alive and well. They are the individuals who contribute to groups like Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity. They are the ones who show up for Tea Party events and are making their mark in politics, most recently in the Texas primary! They are the ones TIME is casting as irrelivant! They ARE the First Amendment today! They showed up yesterday!

Yesterday's events surrounding Chick-fil-A nationwide were not about Homosexual rights or chicken sandiches so much as about basic Human Rights as expressed in the First Amendment: Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech; and they were about the G-d given duty to be true to one's core convictions.


The crowd at Chick-fil-A in Waynesboro, Virginia.

Core Convictions and the Cost of Conviction

Every Olympic year I dust off that old classic: Chariots of Fire and watch Ian Charleson's beautiful portrayal of 1924 Olympian Eric Liddell. Liddell was the Scottish runner who's convictions about keeping the Sabbath led him to not participate in his best sprint event. He won gold in the 400 meter race and died in occupied China doing missionary work. I mourned when Charleson, who was gay, died of AIDS.

Samuel Truett Cathy is also a man of convictions. A member of the Jonesboro Baptist Church, he has taught Sunday School there fo fifty years. He, like Liddell, has strong convictions concerning the Sabbath. Beginning with his Dwarf Grill, founded in 1946, Cathy began the practice of closing his business on Sundays. At Dwarf Grill, Cathy created a chicken breast sandwich as an alternative to the ubiquitous hamburger. His Sons Dan and Bubba helped out in the grill and Dan eventually became CEO of the Chick-fil-A corporation that grew out of that first venture. Chick-fil-A still closes on Sundays.

Banned in Boston

In an interview with a Baptist news publication, Dan Cathy affirmed the company's support for families and Biblical values. Homosexual activists took Mr.Cathy's comments and created a firestorm, calling for a boycott of the chain. The Mayor of Boston issued a statement that he would bar the chain from opening stores in his city. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also said he would ban the chain.

But Michael Sherer, who writes for the 'other' weekly news magazine reports: "No evidence has been presented to suggest that Chick-fil-A discriminates against gay or lesbian customers or employees. There is nothing to suggest that the company has broken the law in any way. In his comments to the Baptist Press, Cathy did not even mention same-sex marriage. He simply said that he and his company supported traditional marriage. The only issues at play are the personal view of the owner of the restaurant chain and the philanthropic efforts of the private company."

The discussion was no longer about legitimate issues such as legal protection for non-traditional families; it became an effort to destroy a good business. Efforts to hurt Chick-fil-A ignored the chain's actual practice of treating all people with dignity and respect...a courtesy not returned by critics like Roseanne Barr, who directed a string of expletives toward the chain. Former Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee called for a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day on August First. There was an outpouring of popular support for the business. The crowds were friendly and celebrating American liberty.

But we've been dragged here before. Consider the case of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist organization who own a pavilion in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Following the Biblical beliefs they hold, they did not allow a same-sex ceremony to be performed in their pavilion. In 2007 they were stripped of their tax-exempt status by Neptune Township for that. In Massachussetts and Illinois, Catholic Adoption Agencies were forced by legislation to either close or offer services to same-sex couples, against their beliefs. They chose to close.

Closing Catholic Charities

The elimination of Religious institutions that provide an important service is tragic, particularly when same-sex couples have other alternatives available. History shows us that these institutions often stepped up to provide services when government couldn't. Consider the flood of immigrants in the Nineteenth Century. Catholic Charities were there first, providing assistance and schools.

A number of Liberal-leaning journalists and the ACLU have come to the defense of Chick-fil-A. Apparently they are well aware of the fundamental liberties at risk in this. Perhaps it is time to put aside all politics of destruction and have an honest discussion about real issues. Same-sex couples DO have legitimate concerns about legal recognition when it comes to hospital visitation, shared property and medical directives. While they should not be able to rashly legislate their views over those with Religious convictions, society must always treat all with the dignity conferred by Imago Dei.


Cars waiting to enter Chick-fil-A in Waynesboro, Virginia.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXX

The 'other' weekly news magazine this week features the cover: "How Guns Won." Joe Klein concludes that the debate over gun control has gotten out of control. Indeed, the rush of some journalists to blame Second Amendment advocates and talk radio hosts was ill-timed. A nation needs time to simply mourn and process the unthinkable when it happens.

Unfortunately, unthinkable events have been the recurring nightmare of history. Genocides and enslavements are nothing new. Sadly there has been no evolution out of such horror. In fact, the great reengineered societys such as Socialist Russia, built on the promise of eliminating the horror, created their own unspeakable horrors. While the National Socialists in Germany were killing millions, Stalin's Russia was killing millions as well. Because Hitler lost, we saw the horrible pictures of his atrocities. Stalin's often went unreported, but for millions of Ukranians, were they any less real?

Yet, in the face of every horror, heroes emerged. The 'Righteous Gentiles' who hid their neighbors in Holland during the occupation remain part of our history as well. Now we see the faces of the men who died shielding their wives and girlfriends in Aurora. We think of a time forty years ago when a brave weightlifter blocked a door as he tried in vain to keep terrorists out of the Israeli Olympic quarters.

On Monda, April 16, 2007, Holocaust survivor Dr. Liviu Librescu was teaching his students at Virginia Tech. As a gunman tried to break into the room, Dr. Librescu blocked the door and told his students to jump out of the windows. Dr. Librescu sucessfully held the door shut as bullets ripped through his body. His quick thinking saved many lives, but he died in the process.

Into every period of history, those who answered man's basest instincts were opposed by those who answered to a higher authority... aspired to a loftier mountaintop. This issue of THYME is dedicated to their memory.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXIX

The Athletes Next Door
Special Olympics Opens Opportunities

"Special Olympics strives to awaken the world to the precious abilities and dignity of every human being."

The 'other' weekly news magazine is featuring their "Summer Olympics Special." Far from the glitter of London, another special breed of Olympians are training. They come from 170 different countries. They are kids you know... they're in your church and community. They're the participants in Special Olympics.

"Special Olympics began in 1968 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver organized the First International Summer Games at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The concept was born in the early 1960s when Shriver started a day camp for people with intellectual disability. She saw that individuals with intellectual disability were far more capable in sports and physical activities than experts thought.

In December 1968, Special Olympics was established as a nonprofit charitable organization under the laws of the District of Columbia, USA. The National Association for Retarded Citizens, the Council for Exceptional Children and the American Association on Mental Deficiency pledged their support for this first systemic effort to provide sports training and athletic competition for individuals with intellectual disability based on the Olympic tradition and spirit. Since 1968, millions of children and adults with intellectual disability have participated in Special Olympics around the world." -- Special Olympics Website

In 2011, about four million athletes competed in the world event, but Special Olympics is a year-round training program that reaches into many localities.

Lani DeMello was born with intellectual disabilities and a heart defect. Her doctors told her mother Ana, "Take her home. She’s never going to achieve anything." Flash forward 25 years and Lani is a Special Olympics gold medalist and a source of inspiration to her friends and family.

As a young girl, Lani took an interest in dance. She spent several years taking classes at a local ballet studio, yet was unable to keep up with the other dancers. At 13, a friend recommended that she sign up to participate in Special Olympics. There, Lani finally had the support she needed and at her first gymnastics competition, she won almost exclusively gold medals.

From that day on, Lani’s parents made the commitment to drive their daughter 52 miles twice a week to the nearest gymnastics training facility in Georgia. Now Lani has received her coaching certification and has been assisting the Georgia gymnastics program and interned for the Special Olympics International Technical Delegate for Rhythmic Gymnastics at the World Summer Games in Athens.

Private donations make this wonderful program possible. Their Website [click to read] offers more information and the opportunity to help.


The view from Betsy Bell Mountain in Staunton, Virginia.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXVIII

Caring for the Souls of Soldiers
A History of Chaplains in the Service

In 1756 George Washington appointed a minister for his Virginia Regiment. In July 1775, the Second Constitutional Congress voted to pay chaplains $20 a month ... just above first lieutenants. Washington sought Divine Providence as he fought the British and looked to chaplains as an important link in the chain of command. In addition to providing religious services, chaplains counselled the troops, visited them when they were sick (disease was often a more deadly enemy than hostile fire), and read and wrote letters to and from home for the soldiers who could not read and write.

In the early days, with regiments coming from specific geographical areas, often the same communities, it was relatively easy to select a chaplain and there were few rules necessary in the creation of this office.

"Chaplains have been counseling soldiers since 1775 on things like trying to stay sober; don't cheat at cards; don't gamble away your pay, send it home; all that sort of thing. But in World War II, because the armies were so big, the chaplains got involved in a major way in trying to counsel the soldiers. We even had chaplains in Nuremberg to try to counsel the German POWs." -- John Brinsfield, U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Hstorian

The World Wars, with regiments created with men from all over the country, presented new challenges for the chaplaincy. In World War II, the armed services set quotas for chaplains of various faiths, attempting to match the proportion of each denomination in the general population. Today the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest mainline denomination providing chaplains to the military, while a general shortage of Priests hinders the provision of Catholic clergy.

Today the honest discussion of how to minister to entire regiments with respect for diverse traditions is often muddied by demands for political correctness. Consider the case of  Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a chaplain and a priest with the Evangelical Episcopal Church:

"Aboard the USS Anzio, his first post, he backed a Jewish sailor's request to receive kosher meals and tried to get permission for a Muslim crewman to take a turn offering the nightly benediction over the ship's public address system. But Klingenschmitt also insisted on his own right to preach what he believes as a born-again Christian. " -- Alan Cooperman

Klingensschmitt was sanctioned for expressing Biblical distinctives of his faith in sermons that were given in a setting where attendance was optional. The fact that most applicants for the chaplaincy today are Evangelicals makes the issue of religious freedom and free speech for Evangelical chaplains a lively one.

Yet the spiritual needs of soldiers remain the same. Today soldiers wrestle with a lot of the same issues as their forefathers; Relationships back home, stretching their paycheck, parenting in absence and isolation, to name a few, and on top of that dealing with the stress of combat. Deployments to areas such as Afghanistan, which are nothing like home, present unique challenges.

This week TIME discusses the suicide rate among soldiers, one that begs the question of how to bring our best resources to the caring for their souls?

Sunset on Blackrock in Shenandoah Park

Evening Light Paints the Rocks and Ridges


Camping near Blackrock allows you to watch the evening light and the dawn in this wonderful place. This is my painting of the evening light on the rocks.

Snowy Afternoon in Sugar Hollow

A Favorite Family Spot in a Different Season
 

When my children were growing up, we often picnicked and played along the banks of the river here. One winter day I wandered up to our favorite spot as snow transformed it with a silent blanket of white. Here is my painting of it. Today this spot no longer exists as portrayed. A major storm has toppled the big sycamores and the river flows through an open place in the canyon.

The Creative Mandate of Genesis 1 and 2

The Unique Responsibility Conferred in Imago Dei



"And G-d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So G-d created man in his own image, in the image of G-d created he him; male and female created he them.

And G-d blessed them, and G-d said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." -- Genesis 1:26-28

New York artist, Makoto Fujimura and others have found in the first chapters of Genesis, a unique charge to mankind. Scripture states that mankind alone bears the Divine image, and as such carries unique responsibility. G-d calls on Man, created in his own image, to 'replenish' the Earth. Many read over this passage and see it as similar to the charge given to fish and fowl... to populate the planet, but read further and G-d involves mankind in something far greater:

"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." -- Genesis 2:19

Here the Divine does not simply present animals to the newly formed person and tell that person their names... G-d invites Adam into the studio, as it were, and charges him with naming the new creations!

Fujimura and others see in this a Divine mandate: if those gifts of creativity... expressed in the art, culture and industry of mankind, are indeed an extension of 'Imago Dei, their exercise takes on a new importance.

Dr S. Lewis Johnson writes: "One of the scientists who has written on the Book of Genesis has said, “The first introduction of animal life was not a fragile, blob of protoplasm that happened to come together in response to electrical discharges over a primeval ocean as evolutionists believe. The water swarmed with swarms of living creatures.” But we are not to think from this statement, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures” that it is the waters that have brought forth these creatures. It is evident that they are the product of the word of G-d. It is not they, the waters who have created. It is G-d who has created. So when we read, “Then G-d said”, the power of this creation rests in the word of the Lord G-d. So the creation is from G-d, but as a result of his word the waters teem with swarms of living creatures."

Each new phase of the creation account begins with G-d speaking. In Genesis 2:19 the Divine calls Adam to speak... naming specific elements of what G-d has made.

Today G-d calls the artist to an active role in replenishing society. Indeed the artist has always been at the forefront of the cultural discussion. Sadly, in a world that relegates Faith to a position of diminished importance, the artist who is a person of Faith often has taken a back seat in the dialogue.

The secular world itself gives greater weight to the naturalist, who operates in the gritty world that is seen. Beauty and Truth, particularly when seen as the product of Faith's influence, are discounted. In response, artists of Faith have often settled for a less than transformative role, content to produce icons, but unwilling to participate in the transformation of culture.

This does not mean that only a few great names are to participate. For thousands of years, art has been produced by people in the simplest of cultures. Consider the rich tradition in textiles. People have always blended richness and color into their daily lives. Printing presses have made it possible for everyone to have a Rembrant on their walls... but richness is lost when ink replaces real paint. Consider the joy preschool children experience as they apply color to paper! Society seems to dull that, relegating the flow of color to 'experts,' but it can, and should be recaptured as a part of the human experience... especially as a part of our Worship and Wonder!

In her later years, my physicist Mother found joy in creating woven garments and in throwing pots on her wheel, rekindling that Sacred spark. There resides in Imago Dei a deep need to express one's creative spirit. How wonderful when that expression serves the Divine purpose!

How does the creative mandate align itself with the charge to build the Kingdom of G-d? Most certainly! Pictured here are details of very large paintings a young artist has prepared for Vacation Bible School. Just imagine the wonder of children being surrounded by this majestic world... right out of Genesis 1:22! Imagine the power art, writing, theatre and music have in the hands of the Faithful to address our culture today!




Top: Swimming Penguins, Center: Whales, Bottom: Dolphins; Details of 9' x 6' Canvases by Muralist Laney Riley prepared for St. John's United Methodist Church in Staunton, Virginia

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXVII

"Robert's Rules" or Roger's Rule

The "other" Weekly News Magazine [click to read] reports this week on the recent Supreme Court decision and the role of Chief Justice John Roberts. For fifteen pages they lavish praise for this "brilliant" decision.

Brilliant Decision? Consider the case of Dred Scott, now cited as the ultimate example of a bad decision. When it comes to precedent cases, the court's record is less than stellar:

"Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), also known as the Dred Scott Decision, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants, whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens. Since passage of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the decision has not been a precedent case, but retains historical significance as perhaps the worst decision ever made by the Supreme Court."

In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, (pronounced TAW-NEE), declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permiting slavery in all of the country's territories.

The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott, a slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state of Missouri, had appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of being granted his freedom.

Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery and intent on protecting southerners from northern aggression -- wrote in the Court's majority opinion that, because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The framers of the Constitution, he wrote, believed that blacks "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it."

Referring to the language in the Declaration of Independence that includes the phrase, "all men are created equal," Taney reasoned that "it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration. . . ."

Abolitionists were incensed. Although disappointed, Frederick Douglass, found a bright side to the decision and announced, "my hopes were never brighter than now." For Douglass, the decision would bring slavery to the attention of the nation and was a step toward slavery's ultimate destruction. -- PBS [1.] 

The framers of our founding documents though, had wisely changed the definition of G-d given rights from John Locke's "Life, Liberty and Property" to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," thus sowing the seeds for invoking a higher principle in the eventual overturning of slavery.

The 'Right' of Privacy

More recently, in the case of Roe vs. Wade, the court overturned state laws protecting unborn children from abortion, citing a 'right of privacy.' The decision is generally considered poor law, though Pro-choice advocates still stand by it. One has to wonder though, since anyone rushing to aid an endangered child behind a sea of "No Tresspassing" signs would in all likelihood be lauded as a hero rather than arrested for tresspassing.

If it Walks like a Mandate...

No doubt, the recent decision to recast the healthcare mandate as a tax creates vast powers for the Federal government. Using such logic, I can now be legally taxed for not buying a Prius, or not buying a salad at McDonalds. The distinct possibility of Nanny State gone wild exists in the tax code.

There is power in a name. Because the legislation has been dubbed "healthcare," a vote against it has been cast as a vote against healthcare! Nothing could be further from the truth!

I have read enough of the legislation to see that it is heavy on creating mechanisms to generate new revenue (16,500 new IRS agents), and lean on actual reform. [2.] It shuns market driven reforms and sets up the mechanisms for rationing care. In addition, there will be mandates for "Reproductive Health Services" (read Abortion), that will be an intrusion into the religious liberty of certain institutions. CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf says of the legislation:

"CBO has not completed an estimate of all of the discretionary costs that would be associated with H.R. 3590. … [S]uch costs would probably include an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion over 10 years for administrative costs of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)."

The media coverage of this vote has continued to drown out the voices of those who would offer a more reasoned and specific package of reforms. Here are a series of articles by David Karaffa outlining real reforms requiring minimal legislation:

Real Health Care Reform Secrets (Part 1) [click to read]
Real Health Care Reform Secrets (Part 2) [click to read]
Real Health Care Reform Secrets (Part 3) [click to read]
Real Health Care Reform Secrets (Part 4) [click to read]

Black Bear in the Back Yard!

Here is a Bear Cub in an Oak Behind My House


Ursus Americanus.

We were in the back yard with my Daughter and her husband when my Son-in-law said: "there goes a bear!" Lucy, my beagle, got very excited and I looked up quickly enough to see the small bear retreat to the forest at the edge of the property.

Dusk was falling rapidly, but I heard a rustling in the oak above me as I walked softly into the woods. There, on a branch, was the bear! He was straddling the branch and raised his head when I approached. He was young enough that there should have been a Mother nearby. Perhaps the recent storm caused him to be separated from her. I wished the little fellow a pleasant rest as he settled down on his branch.

Preparing for 'Operation Overboard'

Vacation Bible School at St. John's United Methodist


Staunton muralist, Laney Riley paints an underwater scene as a backdrop for St. John's Vacation Bible School: "Operation Overboard." The VBS runs July 8-10, beginning each night with a free dinner at 5:30pm. The Program runs from 6:00pm to 8:00pm each evening. For more information, please phone 540-886-1500.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Issue XXVI

America's Revolution... A Model to Emulate
"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty G-d and those who have the superintendence of them into His Holy keeping." -- George Washington

"If my people...shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face...then shall I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." -- II Chronicles 7:14
The 'other' Weekly News Magazine [click to read] features the cover headline: 'The Revolution that Wasn't.' Today's revolutionaries would do well to remember at least a very basic history of revolutions.

The French Revolution (1789-1799) created chaos. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 led to another dark tyranny.

Rare in history is the casting off of tyranny successfully accomplished and followed by the creation of a system of government that allows for the peaceful transfer of power... through the ballot box.

It is well known that George Washington inspired his men through the difficult days of Valley Forge and the Battle of Trenton... the nation's future very much in the balance. Perhaps not so well known is that Washington had to put down mutinies by Continental soldiers after the war... unpaid by a bankrupt Congress.

Our nation's survival of those days was miraculous. The creation of her Constitutional government was no less miraculous. Today, Federal judges invoking the Commerce Clause participate in an equally miraculous continuation of that same experiment.

Their Freedom is Not Our Freedom

These Observations [click to read] by Diana West in Jewish World Review give clarity to what 'they' want. Universalists believe all peoples prefer freedom to its absence, which is probably true. But they also believe all peoples define "freedom" in the same way. Is that true?

Celebrate Arab democracy? [click to read] by Caroline B. Glick in Jewish World Review.

No summary will do this damning article justice.


True wisdom. ht/Joy

The Revolution that Wasn't

This week the "other" weekly news magazine laments the "revolution" in Egypt, saying: "the generals are still in charge." I hope, for the sake of Coptic Christians and other miniorities, that some stable heads are in charge. One of our Constitution's unique characteristics is that it limits government and affirms the rights of the individual citizen as G-d given. When Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, he wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." -- American Declaration of Independence

In 1789, the Bill of Rights further asserted: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Carefully making the case that human rights com from G-d, the founders codified limits on the state in keeping with that belief.


ht/Joy.

THYME Interactive [click to read] brings you even more of our famous Nanny State Updates and other  news you need in this crucial election year.

Deists and Atheists? [click to read]. Dr. Roger Shultz discusses the Founding Fathers from a historical perspective. A special Independence Day presentation.