The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1275803
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, August 5, 2020 B-11 vs. Minority View By Walter E. Williams Is racism responsible for today's black problems? Court Report GRADUATE Continued from page 10 ABSENTEE Continued from page 10 PROTEST Continued from page 10 THE CROSS Continued from page 10 It is a well-known phenom- enon that the United States has the most number of ed- ucational institutions that are superb to super-excel- lent, and having myself ex- perienced both worlds of the Eastern and Western paths of higher learning. I am so pleased our grand- son, Andrew, is right here in this country where students from the world dream of re- ceiving their education here in the USA. I know that first- hand. So good luck, Andrew. Keep focused and we'll be watching and supporting your next venture. • • • To all the 2020 graduates of Pike Central High School, congratulations for all the hard work you have done, and good luck and good wish- es to all your dreams and pur- suits. Wisdom of the week: "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuc- cessful men with talent. Ge- nius will not. Unrewarded ge- nius is almost a proverb. Ed- ucation alone will not. The world is full of educated der- elicts. Persistence and de- termination are alone om- nipotent. The slogan, "Press On" has solved and will solve the problems of the human race.– Calvin Coolidge than as a savior. Nevertheless, the Cross, the Blood, and the Sacrifice of Jesus is entwined like a Gordian knot and one cannot be removed from the other. To remove or deemphasize any [the cross, the blood, the death of Jesus] makes Calva- ry meaningless The message of the Cross began with the words of Je- sus, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost;" The apostle Paul reiter- ated this message: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." The entire message of the Gospel revolves around one unique historical event: the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The writer of Hebrews declares that "By one offer- ing He has perfected forev- er those who are being sanc- tified." The death of Jesus on the Cross was a sovereign act of God who brought together all the guilt and the suffering of humanity. This sacrifice put an end to the stranglehold sin had upon mankind. In order to receive God's all sufficient solution to sin, we must not only understand the importance of the cross but also make our way there. The Cross enables all who call upon the name of Jesus to approach the Father with boldness and with the assur- ance He will hear our pleas. The cross is a place of vic- tory over Satan and sin. Of- ten it is said sin must run its course—and the days of Stan being an accuser of the brethren are near an end. The cross reveals the greatness of God's love and the enormity of man's sin. Sin led to the separation from God's presence, while at the same time the cross is the source of everlasting life. Have you been to the Cross lately? Think about it! FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Jesse M. McBeth charged with count I child molesting, a level 4 felony, and count II possession of child pornography, a lev- el 6 felony. Alex Mabrey charged with count I brib- ery, a level 5 felony, count II intimidation, a level 6 felony, count III operating a vehi- cle while intoxicated and count IV oper- ating a vehicle while intoxicated, endan- gering a person, prior, a level 6 felony. Eric T. Loveless charged with count I failure to register as a sex or violent of- fender, a level 6 felony, and count II fail- ure to register as a sex or violent offend- er, prior, a level 5 felony. Logan T. McCandless charged with count I battery with bodily injury to a pub- lic safety officer, a level 5 felony, count II resisting law enforcement and count III refusal to identify self. Ashley D. Jacinto charged with pos- session of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony. Laurie Michael Veale charged with count I operating a vehicle while intox- icated and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated, prior, a level 6 felony. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike County Circuit Court Timothy L. Trinkle charged with pos- session of paraphernalia. Harold Nix charged with count I pos- session of marijuana and count II posses- sion of paraphernalia. Jason Kermit Wildt charged with count I possession of a controlled substance and count II public intoxication. Paul O. Stroud charged with count I possession of marijuana and count II pos- session of paraphernalia. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court N.A.R., Inc. sues Patricia A. Drew on complaint. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC sues Melody DeWeese on complaint. SMALL CLAIMS Pike County Circuit Court Stephen Kyle Hathaway sues Galen Yo- der on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Patience L. King charged with speed- ing, exceeding maximum 55 mph. Draven S. Huff charged with speeding. Adam Myers charged with speeding. Christopher E. Kopp charged with fail- ure to register an off-road vehicle. Anna M. O'Connor charged with fail- ure to carry registration for off-road ve- hicles and snowmobiles. Ty N. Smith charged with failure to car- ry registration for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles. Gunner M. Wellman charged with fail- ure to carry registration for off-road vehi- cles and snowmobiles. I doubt whether any American would defend the police treatment of George Floyd that led to his death. But many Americans are support- ing some of the responses to Floyd's death — rioting, looting, wanton prop- erty destruction, assaults on police and other kinds of mayhem by both whites and blacks. The pretense is that police conduct stands as the root of black problems. According to the NA ACP, from 1882- 1968, there were 3,446 black people lynched at the hands of whites. Today, being murdered by whites or police- men should be the least of black wor- ries. In recent times, there is an aver- age of 9,252 black-on-black murders every year. Over the past 35 years, that translates into nearly 324,000 blacks murdered at the hands of oth- er blacks. Only a tiny percentage of blacks are killed by police. For exam- ple, in Chicago this year, there were 414 homicides, with a total of 2,078 people shot. So far in 2020, three peo- ple have been killed by police and four were shot. Manhattan Institute schol- ar Heather Mac Donald reports that "a police officer is 181/2 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer." Crime is a major problem for many black communities, but how much of it can be attributed to causes such as institutional racism, systemic racism and white privilege? The most devastating problem is the very weak black family struc- ture. Less than a third of black chil- dren live in two-parent households and illegitimacy stands at 75% . The "legacy of slavery" is often blamed. Such an explanation turns out to be sheer nonsense when one examines black history. Even during slav- ery, where marriage was forbidden, most black chil- dren lived in biological two-parent families. Pro- fessor Herbert G. Gut- man's research in "The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750 -1925" found that in three-fourths of 19th-century slave families, all the children had the same mother and father. In New York City, in 1925, 85% of black households were two-parent. In fact, "Five in six chil- dren under the age of six lived with both parents." During slavery and as late as 1920, a black teenage girl rais- ing a child without a man present was a rarity. An 1880 study of family structure in Philadelphia shows that three-quar- ters of all black families were nucle- ar families. There were only slight dif- ferences in family structure between racial groups. The percentages of nuclear families were: black (75.2 %), Irish (82.2 %), German (84.5%) and native white Americans (73.1%). On- ly one-quarter of black families were female-headed. Female-headed fam- ilies among Irish, German and native white Americans averaged 11% . Ac- cording to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, only 11% of black children and 3% of white chil- dren were born to unwed mothers. As Thomas Sowell reported: "Going back a hundred years, when blacks were just one generation out of slavery, we find that census data of that era showed that a slightly higher percentage of black adults had married than white adults. This fact remained true in every census from 1890 to 1940." The absence of a father in the home predisposes children, especially boys, to academic failure, criminal behavior and economic hard- ship, not to mention an intergenera- tional repeating of handicaps. If to- day's weak family structure is a leg- acy of slavery, then the people who make such a claim must tell us how it has managed to skip nearly five gen- erations to have an effect. There are problems such as gross- ly poor education, economic stag- nation and poverty that impact the black community heavily. I would like someone to explain how tearing down statues of Christopher Colum- bus, Thomas Jefferson and Confed- erate generals help the black cause. Destruction of symbols of American history might help relieve the frus- trations of all those white college stu- dents and their professors frustrated by the 2016 election of President Don- ald Trump. Problems that black peo- ple face give white leftists cover for their anti-American agenda. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Letter to the Editor Local industry could keep youth in Pike County County government spending When you are young, you do not see past your home, your yard, maybe your community. You grow up believing it is idyllic and you want to be part of that community. As you aged, and realized that you did not fit into a career of being a farmer, teacher or coal miner, all fine and noble professions, there was never much choice for you other than to leave the one place you really loved and was proud to be from. Now, having had a 22-year career that spanned consulting for some of the larg- est food and pharmaceutical companies in the world, I have traveled and lived in some amazing places, Ireland, Puer- to Rico, South A frica, Switzerland, and Germany to name some. What strikes me is that each one of these is beautiful and I love them. You do not spend five years of your life in Puerto Rico without a love for the island. That said, I started to have a cultural awakening to the world outside of my own four walls and now I realize that there are so many good people and places out there, my mind will never be boxed in by walls again. However my heart and who I am doesn't change. Kindness, love, honesty… these are traits I associate with my home of Pike County. I had envisioned my life growing up. I wanted a house in Petersburg. I blew my chance at working for the grain pro- cessor in Washington. I took what was available. I wound up moving to north- ern Illinois because I had to. Now I am my own boss who owns a 20 person engi- neering firm that I built from the ground up. In all things work wise, I have been successful. Personally though as the di- vorced father of three, I have made some mistakes and some of that was from the fact that I had to move away from my family. My parents who you all know I am sure do not get to see their grandchil- dren whenever they want. Imagine not having your children near you as you are aging. That is both mine and their real- ities. My life has no longer been idyllic. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like had I been able to stay in Petersburg, but then I snap back into re- ality and appreciate all that I have been given and that while yes, my life has had some ups and downs, in the end, it has been good. My one regret is that my kids do not get to be around their grandpar- ents like I wish they could. I also wish I could be around my parents more, but that wasn't to be reality because of a ca- reer I wanted that was not able to be sus- tained in Pike County. Now I have learned that Pike Coun- ty has a unique opportunity to build out the economy to manufacturing, energy through solar (yes you should do this im- mediately because you want to see your grandkids more than once a year), and whatever else may come. You have the opportunity to create jobs and you owe it to yourselves to allow your kids to have the option to work and live in the most idyllic place I can think of in the world. Do not let the inconvenience of hav- ing something industrial come into your county or the perception that business- es are going to want to magically locate there without incentives prevent you from knowing your grandchildren, be- cause if you do not, you are setting your- self up to not have that familial closeness through generations that even I would love to have. Brian Weathers Pike Central Valedictorian 1994 ing in knowledge of the vot- ing process, the infirm, the poor, and those with limit- ed skills in the English lan- guage" for their absentee ballots. The trial judge said this case provided a "text- book" example of the "chi- canery that can attend the absentee vote cast by mail." Just two years ago, a North Carolina congres- sional race was overturned by the state election board because of "concerted fraudulent activities relat- ed to absentee by-mail bal- lots." And the New Jersey attorney general has just charged four people in Pat- erson with engaging in ab- sentee ballot fraud so per- vasive that it has cast doubt on the results of the city's recent municipal, all-mail election. This brief review doesn't even take into account the millions—yes, millions— of absentee ballots that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission reports were either misdelivered by the Postal Service or rejected by election officials after they were returned by vot- ers in the last four federal elections. Using all the same safe- ty protocols recommend- ed by health experts that are allowing us to go to our grocery stores and phar- macies, there is no reason we can't vote safely in our polling places in Novem- ber, rather than hoping that someone else—includ- ing the Postal Service—will deliver our ballot in time to be counted. Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues – including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration. sacrifice their freedom in an environment like this. We must take the initia- tive to open our schools, our churches and our busi- nesses. Amidst the chaos, citi- zens need to take control of their own lives. They have a civic duty to do it. It will help the nation and its recovery. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Re- newal and Education and author of the new book "Nec- essary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This is Good News for America." Readers can respond to Star's column by emailing star-parker@ur- bancure.org. To the Editor, Seldom, if ever, when discussing coun- ty government do you hear, we can save money. When you, the taxpayer, are short on money and you can't take from others, you have only one thing to do, reduce spending. Wouldn't it be a surprise to see government, especially county gov- ernment, operate this way? Let's pretend it really happens. First, you do not give raises especial- ly to councilmen and commissioners, the wasteful ones. Money saved, a large amount. Second, if you are a councilman or commissioner, you are not on county in- surance if your employer where you now work or retired from offers company in- surance. Wo,w you just saved the taxpay- er almost $100,000. Third, if you don't work 40 hours a week (Commissioners and Councilmen), you are not on PERF. Saves 11 cents on every dollar paid. Fourth, if your spouse has employer in- surance, the county does not pay yours. Over $16,000 more saved. Fifth, if you are recognized as a state employee, you are not on county insur- ance. Just saved $16,000 more. Sixth, if you are the county lawyer, paid from county coffers, you pay your own in- surance. Another $16,000 saved. Seventh, let's go get the roads we gave to Solar Sources and put them back on road inventor,y and collect state road tax money again. Eighth, the really, really wasteful one, no more bonuses. Let's go for the big one. Ninth, Martin County is still paying around $250,000 per year for ambu- lance service. We are still paying around $1,250,000 per year. Saved $1,000,000. If we had contracted the ambulance ser- vice when Knox County ambulance was wanting to, we could have saved almost $7,000,000 by now. The total saved is al- most $2,000,000, $ 9,000,000 if we had contracted the ambulance service. Four thousand, five hundred taxpayers would not have to pay property taxes. Would you like to be in that number? I don't want you to think everyone is wasteful. The prosecutor actually turned in a budget with reduced spending. Thanks, Mr. Prosecutor. It takes the average property taxes, paid by 11.5 taxpayer,s to pay $22,944 wages and benefits for just one council- man. It takes the taxes paid by 80 taxpay- ers to pay $160,608 for seven councilmen. Maybe three could do the job as well as seven. My guess is two don't know what is going on and two don't care. It takes 47.5 taxpayers to pay $ 91,836 for three commissioners. One person could do the job. One person with the two maintenance supervisors and the com- missioners' assistant runs the show any- way. We just saved over $150,000 more. This is only scratching the surface of the waste and political. If you want to work your mind a little, study this. There are 140 tracts of land in Pike County classified as forest reserve. The properties range from 10 to maybe 70 acres. Property taxes on these proper- ties are none to minimal. Currently, there are 8,300 parcels in Indiana, with 410,000 acres set aside. The stated goal is to add 10,000 more acres per year. Every acre set aside reduces money going into coun- ty coffers and requires all of the taxpay- ers to make up the revenue from no tax- es being paid on this land. Jim Johns