There has been a troubling trend the last few years all across the country that has impacted the lives of every last American, and it has reared its ugly head both nationally and locally.
These days it’s whoever’s voice is the loudest is the one that gets heard rather than the most logical or most accurate.
You see it all over the national news all the time, and it can begin as innocuously as the local weatherman reading the week’s forecast before blowing up into epic proportions. Take the incident between Covington Catholic (Ky.) student Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips for example.
The initial video of their encounter and the subsequent rhetoric by national media outlets depicted Sandmann as a racist. It wasn’t until other angles of the encounter came out and the true facts came to light that Sandmann’s character was restored, and he ended up being compensated greatly through settlements with CNN, The Washington Post and others because they savagely attacked him without having all of the facts. They screamed the loudest because it fit their liberal narrative, and it came back to bite them rather severely.
Take the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in Seattle as another example. The occupation protest that saw a citizen group create a self-declared autonomous zone was pumped up as peaceful with a “block party atmosphere,” according to Mayor Jenny Durkan and national media outlets. But in reality that wasn’t the case at all.
The New York Times surprisingly released an article Friday detailing what it was really like inside CHOP and how minority business owners were harassed, had their businesses shut down and vandalized and witnessed the destruction of the neighborhood they chose to help build up. The primary voice in the article is Faizel Khan, a coffee shop owner of Middle Eastern descent, who detailed how he had to have permission from armed guards just to get in and out of his business.
“They barricaded us all in here,” he was quoted saying in the story. “And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.”
But the national narrative that was being pushed to the masses was that everything was all peaceful all the time inside CHOP because it fit the narrative of the group being the loudest. It was hailed as “liberation — from police oppression, from white supremacy — and a catalyst for a national movement” as part of the defund the police movement, according to Nellie Bowles’ article.
Police refused to enter the zone despite crimes being committed because Durkan supported the movement. It wasn’t until there were multiple shootings in the “autonomous zone” that Durkan finally allowed police to retake the area.
She catered to the voice of the people screaming the loudest, and it cost her city big time. That cost is sure to skyrocket soon with cleanup and renovations estimated in the millions from protesting and looting, along with a massive lawsuit against the city filed by business owners in the area.
It happened right here in Marion County last week when the county schools decided to push back their start date even further to Aug. 17. They were originally slated to begin Aug. 6, then pushed it to Aug. 10 and ultimately Aug. 17. It stems from the school district’s July 27 meeting when nearly 30 people showed up to voice their opposition to school reopening.
The first time school was pushed back at least made some sense, but the second time really felt like the district caving to the public pressure because the voices of a few opposed to reopening schools were being much louder than the majority that were in favor of returning.
It’s important that leaders in every regard use reason when making key decisions on tough issues and not give in to whichever narrative is being yelled the loudest. It can be a recipe for disaster when they don’t. n
Joshua Campbell is sports editor of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at joshua campbell@columbianprogress.com or call (601) 736-2611.
