The Press-Dispatch

December 4, 2019

The Press-Dispatch

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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 4, 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 Did you know it will be Christ- mas in three weeks? Wow, I am still trying to clear up last year's Christmas stuff and here we go again, there's more stuff heading our way. The tough part is cleaning up the house to make it look nice and neat, and then decorating and put- ting up the Christmas tree and decorations to create a festive mood. We have a sun room in our house where the Christmas tree is up year round and I call it the spe- cial room for uplifting the spirit. Sometimes I call that room the ar- ea that beckons me to just relax and be laid back. At this stage of my life, I don't want too many challenges. Any- way, every time I look at this tree, great and happy memories come to me—the family gatherings we've had year after year, the great meals we shared and the gifts we ex- changed. I've heard some of my friends tell me the same, that they have some Christmas decors they never put away, so that tells me I'm in good company. • • • I've heard my kids talk about having a number to draw from a hat with the names and age of each of the siblings and the 11 grandkids for the gift giving celebration. They have done this for a few years now and I think that is really a smart way to do it. Years ago, everybody bought ev- eryone a gift to enjoy but I think it has just become so time consuming and rather challenging to think what appropri- ate gifts to give ev- erybody. When our clan was smaller, it was easier to do. Now that our numbers have grown so much, it has become a challenge. I also noticed when a young child receives so much stuff, they are unable to enjoyit. Before you know it, they misplace or lose or neglect to take good care of them, since there's just so much to contend with. Now I think the Points to Ponder By Rev. Ford Bond Advent begins with peace My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Christmas, here we come! Minority View By Walter E. Williams Who are the racists? Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke said that racism in America is "foundational" and that people of color were under "mortal threat" from the "white supremacist in the White House." Pete Buttigieg chimed in to ex- plain that "systemic racism" will "be with us" no matter who is in the White House. Senator Cory Booker called for "attacking sys- temic racism" in the "racially bi- ased" criminal justice system. Let's follow up by examining Booker's concern about a "racially biased" criminal justice system. To do that, we can turn to a recent ar- ticle by Heather Mac Donald, who is a senior fellow at the New York- based Manhattan Institute. She is a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent article, "A Platform of Urban Decline," which appeared in Manhattan Institute's publication Eye On The News, ad- dresses race and crime. She reveals government statistics you've never read before. According to leftist rhetoric, whites pose a severe, if not mortal, threat to blacks. Mac Donald says that may have once been true, but it is no longer so today. To make her case, she uses the latest Bu- reau of Justice Statistics 2018 sur- vey of criminal victimization. Mac Donald writes: "According to the study, there were 593,598 interra- cial violent victimiza- tions (excluding homi- cide) between blacks and whites last year, including white-on- black and black-on- white attacks. Blacks committed 537,204 of those interracial fel- onies, or 90 percent, and whites commit- ted 56,394 of them, or less than 10 percent. That ratio is becoming more skewed, despite the Democratic claim of Trump- inspired white violence. In 2012- 13, blacks committed 85 percent of all interracial victimizations be- tween blacks and whites; whites committed 15 percent. From 2015 to 2018, the total number of white victims and the incidence of white victimization have grown as well." There are other stark figures not talked about often. Accord- ing to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting for 2018, of the homi- cide victims for whom race was known, 53.3 percent were black, 43.8 percent were white and 2.8 percent were of other races. In cases where the race of the offend- er was known, 54.9 percent were black, 42.4 percent were white, and 2.7 percent were of other races. White and black liberals, who claim that blacks face a "mortal threat" from the "white supremacist in the White House" are per- petuating a cruel hoax. The primary victims of that hoax are black peo- ple. We face the diffi- cult, and sometimes embarrassing, task of confronting reality. Mac Donald says that Barack Obama's 2008 Father's Day speech in Chi- cago would be seen today as an "unforgivable outburst of white supremacy." Here's what Obama told his predominantly black audi- ence in a South Side church: "If we are honest with ourselves," too ma- ny fathers are "missing — missing from too many lives and too ma- ny homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men." Then-Sen- ator Obama went on to say, "Chil- dren who grow up without a fa- ther are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more like- ly to end up in prison." White liberals deem that any speaker's references to personal responsibility brands the speaker as bigoted. Black people cannot af- Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Democrats want to save the planet, not our babies Congress shouldn't get paid until it does its job Students stormed the football field at halftime at the Harvard- Yale game and held things up for about an hour, demanding that the schools divest holdings in fossil fu- els investments. The disruptors were cheered on by presidential candidate Eliz- abeth Warren while actress Alys- sa Milano decried wealthy univer- sities "invested in the destruction of the planet." When you have important work to do like saving the planet, you certainly have a right — it's as- sumed by these activists — to vio- late the time and property of oth- ers as you wish. But these same environmental activists, who feel empowered to interrupt our personal and com- mercial lives in the name of their planet-saving crusade, conclude just the opposite when it comes to unborn children. In their view, it is not our right to use the cheapest and most read- ily available energy and electrici- ty, because they have decided this endangers the planet. But at the same time, they insist it is the right of any woman to destroy the un- born child developing inside of her. This point of view characteriz- es the current field of Democratic candidates running for president. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has entered the fray, supposedly to provide a more moderate alter- native for Democrats. But Bloomberg is also a climate change activist who believes de- struction of unborn children is just fine. Save the planet while we de- stroy our children. I guess clear thinking is not a prerequisite for becoming a billionaire. Bloomberg boasts of having re- duced the "carbon footprint" of New York City while he was may- or from 2002 to 2013. But New York City also has a well-deserved reputation as the nation's abortion capital. The abortion rate in 2016 in New York City — the number of abor- tions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 — was 31.1. In the U.S. in 2014, per the Guttmacher Institute, it was 14.6. How about black women? Reported Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal in 2018: "In New York City, thousands more black babies are aborted than born alive each year, and the abortion rate among black mothers is more than three times higher than it is for white mothers. According to a city Health Department report released in May, between 2012 and 2016 black mothers terminat- ed 136,426 pregnancies and gave birth to 118,127 babies. By con- trast, births far surpassed abor- tions among whites, Asians and Hispanics." Former President Barack Obama stood out in the Demo- cratic "save our planet, not our ba- bies" school. He was the first sitting Amer- ican president to address the na- tional meeting of Planned Parent- hood, the nation's largest abortion provider. And Obama led us into the Par- is climate agreement, concluded at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The U.S., per this agreement, committed to 26 to 28 percent carbon emissions re- duction below 2005 levels by 2025. The Heritage Foundation esti- mated that the agreement would have cost an American family of four 13 percent to 20 percent more in annual electricity costs. In 2017, President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of this agreement, saying he was elect- ed to represent "Pittsburgh, not Paris." One characteristic that dis- tinguishes the "save our babies" crowd from the "save our planet" crowd is humility. When most of us hear the weath- er forecast for one week out, we Advent is upon the Christian world. The message of the season is about waiting with great antici- pation for the coming of the Lord's Christ. The reoccurring themes of the season focuses upon Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love, each repre- sented on the Advent Wreath by a purple or a pink candle. Advent 2019 for many churches begins with peace, a promise that would heal the nations and bring in fellowship with God. The prophet Isaiah wrote around 700 years be- fore the birth of Jesus, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Year after year, right on cue! Right on time! Everything is timed perfectly with our candle lightings and carefully selected readings and hymns! By the time we light the glorious Christ candle, we should be fully enlightened . . . our darkness dis- pelled. And it will then be said of us: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who had dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." I wish it were that easy. I wish that just declaring it made it so. I wish that with four powerful Ad- vent Sundays all could experience the illumination of Christ and fellowship with God. O that Advent can- dles COULD shat- ter the darkness that covers our lives. Alas, we know that even the most elab- orate Advent season held in magnificent settings will not bathe us with the glorious light of salvation and deliverance from self that will end the darkness that surrounds us. Life will still entrap us with its fragileness; we still have the anx- ieties of life to overcome, but you should remember God is Now with You – I - US! More than anything else in our lives and world, we need peace! Astute biblical scholars have writ- ten that the first step in reaching a place of peace is overcoming the darkness; the light of Christ pen- etrates that darkness; peace does not dwell in darkness because darkness is devoid of the Light of God! The darkness we describe is spiritual darkness. Humanity knows something cre- ated the cosmos, but why is it in chaos? Religions try to point man to God. Religions try to shine a light in- to the darkness, so we might see the creator! John wrote, "And the light shines in the dark- ness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." The apostle is writing to his own countrymen who should have re- alized the light was the Lord's Christ! It is easy to spot darkness around us, and in others. Never- theless, Christians are not exempt from spiritual darkness when they are not reaching for the prize that is found in Christ Jesus! When Isaiah spoke of walking in the light of the Lord, he was not re- ferring to the darkness of foreign enemies and the light of God's awaited reign. Isaiah was much more concerned with the deeper, internal darkness that threatens the human soul. Jesus said as much, "And this Continued on page 10 Heritage Viewpoint By Justin Bogie Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Congress is likely to vote next week on its second continuing res- olution of fiscal year 2020. Another continuing resolution will prevent a government shutdown, but there's not much to celebrate. The fact that a month-and-a-half into the new fiscal year none of the 12 annual appropriations bills has been enacted is a sign of how dys- functional the congressional bud- get process is. Thankfully, more members of Congress are taking notice of the breakdown in the budget process and are putting forth reforms to not only create a more efficient budget process, but one that is also more transparent and responsible. Republican Representatives An- dy Biggs, of Arizona, and Ralph Norman, of South Carolina, on Nov. 14 introduced the Budget Process Enhancement Act. The bill would make two major changes to im- prove the current budget process. First, it would remove the as- sumption that federal programs grow at the rate of inflation from the Congressional Budget Office's baseline. Next, it would institute a "no bud- get, no pay" policy. If Congress didn't pass a budget resolution by April 15 of each fiscal year, law- makers would receive no pay un- til it does. The Budget Process Enhance- ment Act is a positive first step to- ward removing the bias in favor of higher spending from the baseline and eliminating an accounting gim- mick used to skew the impact of budget decisions. Including a "no budget, no pay" provision should encourage mem- bers of Congress to debate budget and appropriations bills in a time- ly manner. Congress should continue to pur- sue reforms that will create a bet- ter functioning and more responsi- ble budget process. Assuming that spending will au- tomatically increase with inflation creates two problems. First, it allows Congress to claim spending cuts relative to the base- line when spending is actually in- creasing when compared with non- inflation-adjusted levels. In other words, Congress may still be in- creasing spending, just not at the same pace as inflation would oth- erwise have increased it. Second, it creates a bias in favor of higher spending. The Congres- sional Budget Office arbitrarily as- sumes that agency funding will in- crease with inflation, not based on actual needs or proposals. Biggs and Norman's bill would end the practice of adjusting base- line projections for inflation and re- quire agencies to justify additional funding needs. Federal budgeting should be about prioritizing funding toward constitutional responsibilities. Re- moving inflation from the baseline is unlikely to address the broader need for spending reforms that lim- it the reach of the federal govern- ment, but forcing agencies to jus- tify new spending should slow the growth of discretionary spending and bring more transparency to the budget process. One of the reasons that federal spending has grown over the past several decades is that lawmakers spend little time engaging in the broader federal budget outlook. Rather, they focus on discretion- ary spending, which is about one- third of total federal outlays. That strategy has left the coun- try $23 trillion in debt. Adopting a "no budget, no pay" law would force Congress to more actively engage in the budget pro- cess. Thoroughly debating the broader fiscal outlook every year should bring more awareness to the unsustainability of the current budget path and lead to reforms to mandatory spending that lower spending and stabilize the nation- al debt. Passing a budget and appropri- ations bills is one of the few jobs that lawmakers are required to do each year. Yet, it has been nearly 25 years since Congress completed

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