The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1092055
B-8 Wednesday, March 13, 2019 The Press-Dispatch OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Leadership isn't shown just in what you do. It's shown in what you don't do. President Trump proved this recently when he went to Hanoi, Vietnam, to meet with North Ko- rean leader Kim Jong-un and — if all had gone well — forge a deal that would lead to the denuclear- ization of one of the most danger- ous regimes in the world. But it was not to be. "Sometimes you have to walk," the president later said. "This was just one of those times." It couldn't have been easy, though. The pressure on a presi- dent to forge historic agreements such as this one — especially ones that reduce global tensions and promote peace — is obvious- ly enormous. High expectations could induce any president to wa- ver and consider signing even a bad deal to avoid the specter of a "failed summit." The real failure, though, would have been accepting a flawed agreement. The fact that Mr. Trump didn't do that undercuts the persistent image of him as an impulsive leader willing to say or do anything. If that criticism were fair, he likely would have ac- cepted the bad deal that Kim Jong-un tried to push on him. "Trump correctly emphasized principles and longtime allies over a premature peace declaration and his newfound relationship with Kim Jong-un," said Bruce Kling- ner, former CIA Korea deputy di- vision chief. "It appears North Ko- rea offered only its Yongbyon nu- clear facility in return for removal of all sanctions." That, of course, was unacceptable. Even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer couldn't fault Mr. Trump this time. "I was pleased to see the president recognize North Ko- rea's unwillingness to strike a compre- hensive deal," he said. "President Trump did the right thing by walking away and not cutting a poor deal for the sake of a pho- to op." The benefits of re- jecting a bad agreement go be- yond the Korean peninsula. Chi- na's president, Xi Jinping, can't miss what this means for U.S.-Chi- na relations — namely, that when it comes to intellectual property theft, cyber violations and forced tech transfers from American companies, the U.S. is not about to be bullied. It isn't just in Asia that the Let's talk about Lent My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Lent — according to Webster's dictionary is the period of 40 week- days from Ash Wednesday to Eas- ter, observed variously in Chris- tian churches by fasting and pen- itence. It is heartening indeed to see men and women of our com- munity gather during a Satur- day morning during Lent to have breakfast together and then lis- ten and meditate about the Word of God. So, it is truly amazing that differ- ent Churches of different denom- inations, sharing the same belief in Jesus, gather in harmony and spirit of love and respect . It sure- ly makes the world we live in a bet- ter place to be. For after all, isn't it the message of Christ- is that we love one another? • • • I came across a note in a bulletin from a Church which made a to do list for the Lenten season. For Prayer- read the Bible 10 minutes each day. Invite someone to church if they do not attend a church. Invite somebody who had left church and bring them with you. Try new forms of prayer, like prayers in your own words. Pray with your children or grandchildren as a family and al- low them to see you pray. Visit the cemetery. Pray for those in most need of prayers. Fasting- learn self control and discipline. Give up something you really like. Set aside one day with The issue of human sexuality invaded the Church decades ago and since then the main-line Prot- estant denominations have been forced to take up the issue of LG- BTQ inclusiveness within the church. The main issues are three and all interrelated: ordination of gay clergy, marriage of same gender couples by clergy persons, and performing same gender marriage in the local church. The established Protestant churches have all amended their position on gay clergy and mar- riage, except one, and recent events may signal a turning point. The United Methodist Church has been struggling with the issue of LGBTQ inclusiveness since the 1980s. As policy the denomination states: "The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all per- sons are of sacred worth. All per- sons without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or econom- ic condition, shall be eligible to at- tend its worship services, partici- pate in its programs, and receive the sacraments…." However, "The practice of ho- mosexuality is incom- patible with Christian teaching. Therefore, self-avowed practic- ing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or ap- pointed to serve in The United Method- ist Church." In addition, "Cere- monies that celebrate homosexu- al unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be con- ducted in our churches." In 2016 at the Quadrennial "Gen- eral Conference," there were 56 pe- titions covering human sexuality, and the gathering was becoming acrimonious. The delegates voted to form a "Commission on a Way Forward" to consider amending UMC Book of Discipline regard- ing human sexuality. The Commission's charge was open-ended and was to advise the UMC on how to best remain uni- fied while addressing the diver- gent issues of sexuality. The preferred plan that came from the COF was the One Church Plan. The OCP was embraced by the Council of Bishops and the progressives within the Church. In brief, the OCP would allow clergy, churches, and admin- istrative units to de- cide the issue of gay clergy and same sex marriage; a concept known as "conceptualization." Another plan offered was the Traditional Plan, which would continue the ban on LGBTQ cler- gy and marriage and provide pen- alties for individuals who could not abide by the Book of Disci- pline. This plan was embraced by the conservative elements within the church and the majority of the delegates residing outside of the United States. The Traditional Plan was ac- cepted by a vote of 438 to 384 - 53 to 47 percent. This means 54 del- Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond A turning point Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Our planet is not fragile Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cor- tez claims that "the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't ad- dress climate change." The peo- ple at the Intergovernmental Pan- el on Climate Change agree, say- ing that to avoid some of the most devastating impacts of climate change, the world must slash car- bon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and completely decarbon- ize by 2050. Such dire warnings are not new. In 1970, Harvard University biology professor George Wald, a Nobel laureate, predicted, "Civi- lization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." Also in 1970, Paul Eh- rlich, a Stanford University biol- ogist, predicted in an article for The Progressive, "The death rate will increase until at least 100 - 200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years." The year before, he had warned, "If I were a gam- bler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000." Despite such harebrained predictions, Ehrlich has won no fewer than 16 awards, including the 1990 Crafoord Prize, the Royal Swedish Acad- emy of Sciences' high- est award. Leftists constant- ly preach such non- sense as "The world that we live in is beau- tiful but fragile." "The third rock from the sun is a fragile oasis." "Remem- ber that Earth needs to be saved every single day." These and ma- ny other statements, along with apocalyptic predictions, are stock in trade for environmentalists. Worse yet, this fragile-earth in- doctrination is fed to the nation's youth from kindergarten through college. That's why many millen- nials support Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Let's examine just a few cata- clysmic events that exceed any destructive power of mankind and then ask how our purport- edly fragile planet could survive. The 1883 eruption of the Kraka- toa volcano, in present-day Indo- nesia, had the force of 200 megatons of TNT. That's the equivalent of 13,300 15 -kiloton atom - ic bombs, the kind that destroyed Hiro- shima in World War II. Before that was the 1815 Tambora eruption, the largest known volcanic erup- tion. It spewed so much debris in- to the atmosphere that 1816 be- came known as the "Year Without a Summer." It led to crop failures and livestock death in the North- ern Hemisphere, producing the worst famine of the 19th century. The A.D. 535 Krakatoa eruption had such force that it blotted out much of the light and heat of the sun for 18 months and is said to have led to the Dark Ages. Geo- physicists estimate that just three volcanic eruptions — Indonesia (1883), Alaska (1912) and Iceland Choosing what's in America's interest does not mean embracing 'America alone' Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Observations Sowell Democrats' Michael Cohen circus Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson How to muzzle a skeptic President Donald Trump's two- hour speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference was filled with zingers that seem rea- sonably representative of what we can expect in the 2020 presiden- tial election. "We believe in the American dream, not in the socialist night- mare." And perhaps more boldly, "We have people in Congress that hate our country." Overly hard-hitting? I don't think so. Given where the other side wants to take the country, this is no time for pulling punches. A few days earlier, on the other side of town, Trump's former per- sonal attorney and operative Mi- chael Cohen testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, in a hearing convened by Democrats supposedly to air in- formation that might shed light on possible criminal wrongdoing by the president. But just as the president gave his CPAC speech with an eye to 2020, Cohen's House hearing was designed with 2020 in mind. Cohen presented little sub- stance to nail any kind of criminal culpability to the president, but he had plenty of dirt. There was little beef but a lot of stench. And sully- ing the public persona of Trump was really the point of the exercise. The committee's chairman, Eli- jah Cummings, gave an impas- sioned summary at the end about what this hearing was allegedly about. "We're better than this," said Cummings. "As a country, we are so much better than this." He said he had told President When we really want to win an argument in America, we claim that science is on our side. There is a potent and lucrative expert wit- ness industry in our court system, advising judges and juries on ev- erything from mental illness to economic impacts of monopolis- tic mergers to DNA evidence and blood spatters. If you want to make somebody sound dumb, just say that the ex- perts disagree with them. For ex- ample, liberal arts majors like John Kerry and Al Gore love to tell you that 97 percent of scientists agree that human activity is the cause of global warming. What kind of im- becile would disagree with 97 per- cent of the experts? This is not a new tactic. When dissidents dug in their heels against intrusive, tyrannical state socialism in the USSR, Soviet of- ficials called in the psychiatrists for "scientific" diagnoses of the obvious mental disorder, and to prescribe Marxism-Leninism as an actual therapy. Thus the Gulag Archipelago began to metastasize. Alfred Kinsey, an academic whose professional expertise was in the study of insects, marshaled the prestige of "science" to trans- form Western sexual culture and behavior, under the protection of his university president, Herman Wells, and a hedonistic millionaire publisher, who had their own rea- sons for blocking downfield. All three men mastered the art of in- tellectual fraud in an atmosphere of condescension and rhetorical smoke. Kinsey's so-called research has been thoroughly debunked by Dr. Judith Reisman. It is a total fraud, not even borderline. But academia and the mainstream media are not interested in exploring the impli- cations of Kinsey's unmasking, be- cause the culture has already shift- ed, his frauds are too foundational to be renounced now. This is what the Left is trying to accomplish in its public opin- ion stampede on global warm- ing. Their position will certainly be exposed as a fraud sooner or later, but they want to move us so far down the road in public invest- ments, policy commitments and student indoctrination that it will be too late to turn back. The co- ercive potential of environmental extremism is just too delicious to forego. Like Kinsey, entomologist Paul Ehrlich was a New Jersey native who went west in his academic ca- reer (to Stanford) and eventually tired of insects. California environmentalist Da- vid Brower, executive director of the Sierra Club, persuaded him to write The Population Bomb in 1968. Brower was in a hurry because he hoped Ehrlich's book would in- fluence the outcome of the 1968 election. Ehrlich produced the first draft in about three weeks. The book had no impact on the election, which Richard Nix- on won, but Ehrlich promoted the book relentlessly and eventual- ly got his big break when Johnny Carson invited him on for the first of several interviews. Carson's au- dience was in the tens of millions, and Ehrlich became a household name. "Sometime in the next 15 years, the end will come," Ehrlich told CBS News in 1970. "And by 'the end,' I mean an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to sup- port humanity." The entomologist's theory was that our planet simply could not sustain the human population, and that population reduction was our only hope. "Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make," he told Mademoiselle magazine in 1970. "The death rate will increase until at least 100 -200 million people will be starving to death during the next 10 years." He predicted "famines of unbeliev- able proportions" no later than the 1980s. In that decade, Ehrlich told The Progressive in 1970, about 4 billion