The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1102906
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 10, 2019 B-9 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 Mower, birds and flowers My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. As I had mentioned in one of my previous articles regarding the or- igins of the names of the months, April is from the Latin word Ape- rio, meaning "to open" (bud), be- cause plants begin to grow during this month. I now notice the birds in the mornings are chirping louder and more frequent, the sun rises soon- er, days are getting longer, and yes, more trees, bushes and shrubs are awakening. Leaves and flowers are starting to appear from a deep sleep, and naturally, more people are start- ing to complain about sneezing, itchy eyes, itchy nose and tickle in their throats. Well, it's not a perfect world. I per- sonally prefer seeing more sunlight and warmth, rather than having more gloomy and cold days. Others do not mind cold and cloudy days, so to each his or her own delight re- garding weather. I somehow associate spring with planting colorful flowers, clean- ing and trimming shrubs, hanging planters, putting out my humming- bird and bird feeders, and enjoying their presence. Especially in the mornings, there is a variety of birds who flock to these feeders, and I am frequently reminded about a passage in the Bi- ble… about birds not laboring and worrying because the Good Lord provides for their needs. Now let's not forget, mowing grass will be part Christians should never be afraid to tackle tough questions, nor shy away from social, moral, and ethical concerns. Therefore, I do not know what else to say except, "I am sorry;" now what do you want me to do? We live in an age of offense by virtue of just living. I realize that I am offending a pantheon of social justice warriors [SJW], whom I do not know, but they know me by a social or ethnic trait, and take of- fense. I am a male, so I am guilty of being a sexist, misogynist and pa- ternalistic. My ethnicity is white, so I am guilty of white privilege. I live in Indiana, so I am guilty of be- ing an unsophisticated deplorable. I am a Christian, so I am guilty of X, Y, and Z [insert crimes here]. I hold Orthodox Christian values, so I am really, really guilty of A, B, C, D, and E [insert hate speech here]. In reality, I exhibit none of the previous behaviors [I hope], but because I am a white, male and a Christian, I live with a target on my back. Churches are being pressured by social justice activists to be- come reeducation camps. The pas- tors must become enlightened and demand from their parishioners fruit of repentance from possess- ing white privilege and oppressing others [such as sexism, xenopho- bia, racism, MAGA supporters and homophobia]. Granted many church go- ers may not be oppressing oth- ers or harboring hate speech, but by the fact that they are white [and possibly middle- class], they carry the guilt of their ances- tors. How far back into history do we go to make amends? In the current climate of of- fense, this is not just an academic problem. 1994 - The Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi of 1 million peo- ple 1975 -1979 – Cambodian massa- cre by the Khmer Rogue of 1 mil- lion people. Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Let us reason together Continued on page 10 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Police aren't enough Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Sometimes, during my drive to work, I listen to Clarence Maurice Mitchell IV, host of the Baltimore's WBAL C4 radio show. Mitchell was formerly a member of Mary- land's House of Delegates and its Senate. In recent weeks, Mitchell has been talking about the terri- ble crime situation in Baltimore. In 2018, there were 308 homicides. So far this year, there have been 69. That's in a 2018 population of 611,648 — down from nearly a mil- lion in 1950. The city is pinning its hopes to reduce homicides and other crime on new Police Com- missioner Michael Harrison. Another hot news item in Bal- timore is the fact that Johns Hop- kins University wants to hire 100 armed police officers to patrol its campuses, hospital and surround- ing neighborhoods. The hospi- tal president, Dr. Redonda Mill- er testified in Annapolis hearings that patients and employees are "scared when they walk home, they're scared when they walk to their cars." Philadelphia's Temple Universi- ty police department is the largest university police force in the Unit- ed States, with 130 campus police officers, including supervisors and detectives. In 1957, I attended night school at Temple University. There was little or no campus police pres- ence. I am sure that people who attended Johns Hopkins, Univer- sity of Chicago, and other colleg- es in or adjacent to black neigh- borhoods during the '40s, '50s and earlier weren't in an armed camp. In the nation's largest school dis- tricts that serve predominantly black youngsters, school police outnumber, sometimes by large margins, school counseling staffs. Again, something en- tirely new. I attended predominantly black Philadelphia schools from 1942 to 1954. The only time we saw a policeman in school was during an assem- bly where we had to lis- ten to a boring lecture on safety. Today, Phil- adelphia schools have hired more than 350 police offi- cers. What has happened to get us to this point? Will hiring more po- lice officers and new police chiefs have much of an impact on crime? No doubt hiring more and bet- ter trained police officers will have some impact on criminal and dis- orderly behavior — but not much unless we create a police state. The root of the problem, particu- larly among black Americans, is the breakdown of the family unit where fathers are absent. In 1938, 11 percent of blacks were born to unmarried women. By 1965, that number had grown to 25 percent. Now it's about 75 percent. Even during slavery, when marriage be- tween blacks was illegal, a higher percentage of black children were raised by their biological mothers and fathers than today. In 1940, 86 percent of black children were born inside marriage. Today, on- ly 35 percent of black children are born inside marriage. Having no father in the home has a serious impact. Children with no father in the home are five times more like- ly to be poor and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more like- ly to be in prison. Our generous welfare system, in effect, allows wom- en to marry the gov- ernment. Plus, there is shortage of mar- riageable black men because they've dropped out of school, wound up in jail and haven't much of a fu- ture. Unfortunately, many blacks followed the advice of white liberal academ- ics such as Johns Hopkins profes- sor Andrew Cherlin who in the 1960s argued that "the most det- rimental aspect of the absence of fathers from one-parent families is not the lack of a male presence but the lack of male income" Cher- lin's vision suggested that fathers were unimportant and if black fe- males "married the government"; black fathers would be redundant. Most of today's major problems encountered by black people have little or nothing to do with racial discrimination and a legacy of slav- ery. People who make those excus- es are doing a grave disservice to black people. The major problems black people face are not amena- ble to political solutions and gov- ernment anti-poverty programs. If they were, then they'd be solved by the more than $20 trillion dollars nation has spent on poverty pro- grams since 1965. As comic strip character Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Walter E. Williams is a profes- sor of economics at George Mason University. Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Two interceptors score a direct hit Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Change Social Security to a program of ownership Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Eyes on Christian charities I have been an advocate for years of changing our Social Secu- rity system to a program of owner- ship rather than government tax- ing and spending. To those walking around with the idea that Social Security is some kind of pension in which you have been investing for years — forget it. Current retirees get their mon- ey from payroll taxes paid by those currently working. It's a govern- ment tax-and-spend program. The problem is that because Americans are living longer (good news) but having fewer children (bad news), the number of work- ing Americans per retiree keeps shrinking. The only way to keep the program going is raising tax- es or cutting benefits as the work- er-to-retiree ratio continues to shrink. D-Day, when the whole thing is now projected to collapse, accord- ing to Social Security Trustees, is 2034 — just 15 years away. Reve- nues projected for that year will cover only 79 percent of the funds needed for payout to retirees. Keeping the finances in balance will require a 21 percent benefit cut, a 27 percent tax increase or some combination. But the problem really isn't just one of demographics and arithme- tic. It's a problem of principles. A fter President Franklin D Roo- sevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, its constitutionality was challenged. That case, Hel- vering v. Davis, in which the Su- preme Court found Social Security I have been listening to Chris- tian radio since I returned from the Army with a wife and two young daughters more than 40 years ago. Some of the preachers have died off and been replaced, and one host was apparently de- posed by his protege, but one thing has never changed: all the programs ask for money at some point during their half hour on air. I don't have a problem with that. It's not cheap to produce and broadcast a daily radio program, and you can't expect the techni- cians or the on-air talent to work for free. They, too, have their fam- ilies to support. Several of the affiliated organi- zations provide important servic- es off-air, and printed materials. These must be staffed and funded. I view it as Biblical philanthropy, money well spent. Sometimes you can contribute out of your abun- dance, and sometimes it's a sacri- fice. You sure hope they're spend- ing it as promised. In the television niche, there have been too many scandals in which charities and ministries didn't. Donations to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Praise the Lord (P TL) ministry, for example, sup- ported their extravagant lifestyle, underwrote some catastrophic business ventures, and paid hush money to at least one young wom- an who accused Jim of sexually im- posing himself on her. And so it was a great reassur- ance when Christian psychologist James Dobson invited guests on- to an episode of his daily Focus on the Family radio broadcast to describe the newly created Evan- gelical Council for Financial Ac- countability (ECFA). About 150 founding Evangelical nonprofits, congregations, denominations, schools and ministries commit- ted in 1979 to seven bedrock stan- dards of accountability, includ- ing doctrine, transparency, board governance, fundraising, financial audits, compensation and arms- length business transactions. Like the Better Business Bu- reau, however, the ECFA is pow- erless against non-members. It is a private voluntary association, not a government enforcement agency or regulator. Feed the Children (F TC), best known for its heart-wrenching television fundraisers depicting listless, starving A frican children, was not a member. Feed the Chil- dren loaned $ 950,000 to its pres- ident Larry Jones's son 20 years ago to start a business. That busi- ness went broke and defaulted on the loan. It was a public scandal, and Jones's son left the charity. But there's more than one way to skin a cat. The younger Jones ended up on the payroll of A ffili- ated Media Group. Without a vote of the board, and without competi- tive bids, Larry Jones signed a tele- vision buying agreement that paid A ffiliated between $ 35 million and $40 million per year. According to board minutes admitted as evidence in federal court, "there has been a less than satisfactory accounting by A ffili- ated of the true cost of the televi- sion time." All this escaped public notice earlier because the charity didn't separately identify the payments to A ffiliated on the required IRS form that is subject to public in- spection. Although the son was no lon- ger an employee, he still had a Feed the Children credit card and used the charity's offices, equip- ment, vehicles and storage space, according to the American Insti- tute of Philanthropy's Charity- Watch. Board minutes indicated he used about 17,405 square feet to store his pontoon boat, Sea- Doo personal watercraft and oth- er personal items. Feed the Chil- dren paid for electrical work done at young Jones's home, and for a garage door that he had installed. He later reimbursed the charity. For two or three years, Jones's son oversaw a large call center in Elkhart, Indiana for him. Dur- ing that time, men from a sepa- rate company systematically loot- You probably didn't hear about the latest test of the U.S. missile- defense system. And that's just the way the military wanted it. Not because it was bad news. Far from it. When two interceptors were fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California against an intercontinental ballistic missile- class target launched from Kwa- jalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, they scored a direct hit — exactly as they were designed to do. It's another vindication of the philosophy behind the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). In fact, the March 25 test came just two days after the 36th anniversary of when President Reagan gave his famous SDI address from the Oval Office. He took a lot of heat for pro- posing what was then derided as "Star Wars." Critics insisted you couldn't hit "a bullet with a bul- let." But as usual, betting against American willpower and technol- ogy proved to be a losing position. You'd think they would have learned after the moon landing, but no. For some peo- ple, it's too impor- tant to score political points than to dream big. That's exactly what Reagan did. In his ad- dress to the nation on March 23, 1983, he said: "What if free peo- ple could live secure in the knowledge that their secu- rity did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could inter- cept and destroy strategic ballis- tic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies? " The arguments against SDI were always flimsy. Sure, it would take time, effort, patience and a lot of trial and error to get it right. But that's the kind of challenge Ameri- cans have always thrived on. And when the stakes are so high — life and death, quite literally — why wouldn't we try? Would those who decried SDI pre- fer the alternative? For decades, the world lived in a kind of lethal detente. Throughout the Cold War, the United States and the Sovi- et Union built up vast arsenals of missiles both big and small. Peace (if you could call it that) was kept through a sit- uation known as Mutually Assured Destruction. It hardly seems coincidental that the acronym was MAD. Was living with each country holding a gun to the other's head the best we could do? Reagan didn't think so, thank God. As defense expert Michaela Dodge noted recently: "Monday's test validates the wis- dom of his vision born from the