The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1346684
A-6 Wednesday, March 3, 2021 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 Race for the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder By Rev. Ford Bond Reparations don't buy justice, dignity or freedom The issue of reparations to Black Americans as payment for damage done as a result of years of legal slav- ery and subsequent discrimination is back on the table. The House Judiciary Committee just held hearings on H.R. 40, which would establish a commission to look into ways in which A frican Ameri- cans could be compensated, includ- ing possible payments of trillions of dollars to individuals. The commission would examine the role of government in supporting the institution of slavery, "discrimi- nation in the public and private sec- tors against freed A frican slaves and their descendants" and "lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery ... on living A frican Ameri- cans and on society." My ancestors were slaves. And my life as a young woman was a mess. Was my life a mess because my an- cestors were slaves? I don't think so. My life was a mess because I lived a wanton, irresponsible exis- tence, defined by promiscuity, pet- ty crimes and scamming the na- tion's well-meaning but totally con- fused welfare system to the greatest extent of my ability. Did I need reparations to turn things around for me? Certainly not. I needed a wake-up call, which, to my great gratitude, I got, from a few church-going black Christians who told me the way I was living was un- acceptable. I went to church, took back respon- sibility for my life and turned my cir- cumstances around. The problem with the idea of repa- rations is it redirects attention away from exactly where attention is need- ed: on individuals' personal responsi- bility for their own unique lives. And it redirects attention in such a way to encourage individuals to be- lieve that some abstract, collective entity from the past is the cause of all their individual problems in the present. Compensation for damages is a ba- sic legal principle. It's about personal responsibili- ty. Individual A sues individual B for damages caused. Exactly what the damages were and exactly how B in- jured A must be shown in a court of law. Today, only a small fraction of our population has ancestors who were around before 1865 when slavery was legal. The idea of collective guilt, with no specific individual identified as causing the damage and no specif- ic individual showing how he or she was damaged, doesn't fly. If there is any legitimate claim of collective guilt, it is the guilt of orig- inal sin, which we learn in the book of Genesis. Every man and woman is imperfect and responsible for fix- ing themselves — and, by doing so, helping to fix the world. There is no word more frequent- ly used in political discussions than "freedom." But rarely discussed is what gives meaning to the word "freedom," and that is understand- ing that individuals have free choice — the power and responsibility to choose how to live. Only when we understand that there is good and evil, that there is sin, does free choice have meaning. It means individuals have the pow- er and responsibility to choose how to live — that their individual choic- es matter. Driving the push for reparations are policies on race that obliterate this key idea that every individual, regardless of circumstance and his- tory, is unique and has free choice. The political idea of freedom be- comes irrelevant because free choice becomes irrelevant. So-called critical race theory says everything is about culture. Because, per their claim, the USA is about what they define as white culture, the cultural script needs to be rewritten to make things fair for those who are not white. Put politi- cians in charge of making things fair. No, I am sorry; I always thought the problem with racism is it denies the uniqueness, dignity and person- Parts of this are a reprint from 2019 I was browsing through some items on the internet since I had some downtime. There was an article that caught my at- tention about solitude-the need to be sol- itary at times. According to the Web- ster dictionary, solitude is a state of be- ing alone, being isolated, being seclud- ed, being by one's self. In this current state of life, we are re- lentlessly bombarded with stimuli, like the television, radio, cell phone, i-pad, computers, and other electronic devic- es we constantly watch. Add to this the activities such as ap- pointments, schedules, social events , and so forth. Now we do Facebook, Twit- ter, Instagram, Messenger, Youtube and so on and so forth. Whew! Going through these even makes me tired. So now we had seen a corresponding increase in anxiety, de- pression, dependence, addiction and even self-inflicted harm. We really need to step back and ask our- selves, "Do we need to just be still and be quiet and secluded at times, and practice solitude? ". Now I don't mean to imply we should be isolated and not be connected with what is important in our lives. I mean we need times when we should turn off our think- ing engines just like we turn off mechan- ical devices and machines, to give them time to cool down, to cool off and reset. ••• Here's what an article on solitude shared, and I did some para- phrasing to add some clarity and a slightly different perspective and flavor to the subject. Solitude is necessary to de- tox and clean up all the noise we have accumulated. Solitude and doing nothing are ways to relax and de-stress. Because when we are able to have quiet times, clutter clears up and we become reinvigorated. Solitude helps us appreciate things around us, especially if we just sit still and enjoy nature. I was watching a T V program about My Point of View By H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Solitude Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Give Me a Break By John Stossel Save the rhino! Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore The blue states are now the beggar states Lent – Make time for a closer walk what is the most precious thing that you own, but are always want- ing more? You cannot bank it, and it is used, whether you like it or not—and once it is taken or used, you can never get it back? TIME The writer of Ecclesiastes opined, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heav- en." Notice this passage has to do with time, and it is one of those pas- sages that has been overworked and misused. The Byrds in 1965 had a hit with this passage, and they used it as a means to promote it was time for peace. In the first five years of the 1960s, there had been the Bay of Pigs fias- co, the Berlin Wall Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy Assassi- nation, and Vietnam was becoming a focal point of the Cold War. And don't forget Civil Rights. I mention the song because ma- ny young people became acquaint- ed with the wisdom of God; yet even though the song promoted the just and worthy cause of peace, it did not champion the One who is the author of Peace! The Byrds did not put into their song Solomon's summary on the sea- sons of heaven and earth: "I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God requires an account of what is past." Make time for peace is a good mes- sage, but the bigger message should have been "Make Time for God! " What words jump out at you during lent? • Intentional • Discipleship • A fflict • Abstinence • Purpose • Penance Notice something? The words all suggest something you need to do that maybe you are not. Why not add something to Lent? Think of the last year. What have we been forced to give up? Often when reading through med- itations on Lent, it appears the writ- er is offering a twelve-step program where at the end you will have shed some undesirable habit and em- braced God. God is not something or a hab- it one embraces. God is! To make time for God means to embrace His presence. The psalmist wrote, "If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there! " To say that I am making time for God seems a weak position because God is time. Outside of our earth- bound existence, there is no time, life and death ceases, and there are no seasons. Our experiences are connected to creation, which God brought into existence from nothing. My suggestion is to embrace God daily where we live, not where we think we should be living. The apostle Paul summarized in his letter to the Church at Philip- pi, how one can embrace the es- sence of God in daily life, "Fi- nally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are no- ble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, what- ever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." Think about it. Letters to the Editor Signed letters must be received by noon on Monday. Today's environmental activists are so hostile to capitalism that they end up killing animals they want to protect. Like the A frican rhinoceros. Poachers kill them to get their horns, which can sell for as much as $ 300,000. Poachers mostly sell in China and Viet- nam, to people who carve them into or- naments or sell them as aphrodisiacs. By the way: The aphrodisiacs don't work. When I started Stossel T V, my first video covered one man's attempt to re- duce rhino poaching by flooding the market with fake horns. Matthew Markus argued that his 3D printed rhino horn would reduce de- mand for real horns. "One way to devalue something is to create a lot of it," he explained. "When things are abundant, people don't fight, kill or steal." True. Bootleggers and Al Capone's thugs disappeared when America end- ed Prohibition. South A frica, home to the largest number of rhinos, once tried something similar. For 20 years, they al- lowed people to own rhinos and sell their horns. Rhino farm- ers put the rhinos to sleep with tranquil- izer darts, sawed off their horns (the horns grow back) and sold the horn. Farmers had an incentive to protect rhinos. South A frica's rhino population quadrupled. But in 2009, under pressure from "environmental" groups, South A frica banned sales of horn again. The sad result: Poaching increased sharply. Poachers also killed park rangers who tried to pro- tect rhinos. So, I confronted Masha Ka- linina of the Humane Society, one of many groups that called Markus' plan to sell 3D printed horn "greenwashing an illegal activity." Kalinina said legalization might increase demand for real rhino horn, as did happen once with elephant tusks. "It started up a new carving industry in China that had been dormant for de- cades," she said. I pushed back: "It needs to be long enough to bring the prices down, and Last week, I visited South Florida for four days, and what a shock: Ev- erything was open. The beaches, the hotels, the restaurants (with some sensible safety and social distanc- ing restrictions). The classrooms are full. The other strange thing about be- ing in Florida was that people were happy. They were playing tennis and golf. They were going to work and getting on with their lives. Florida is a Republican, can-do kind of place. Then, there is New York. Manhat- tan is a morose and deserted place to be. It's as if it's boarded up. People are living their lives afraid. They are depressed, which makes the whole place depressing. In Southern Cali- fornia, I experienced the same drear- iness. And it wasn't the weather, which was warm and sunny. Restau- rants were closed or highly restricted. Stores were sparse- ly attended, and people were gener- ally grimacing and standoffish. They yelp in horror if you take off your mask, even for a moment. Yet through it all, there is almost no evidence that lockdowns, business closures, stay-at-home orders and other strategies have reduced the infection rates or death rates from the virus. To take just one promi- nent example, open Florida has had a lower death rate (adjusted for the age distribution of the population) than closed-down California and New York. Even Presi- dent Joe Biden's crackerjack health officials can't explain that one. Fifty states experimented with responses to the virus, and the verdict is in: The big blue states got crushed. The highest unemployment states are Hawaii, Nevada, Califor- nia, Colorado, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Con- necticut. On average, the blue states have 2 percentage points lower un- employment, which means millions of more jobless citizens. Their rev- Heritage Viewpoint By Brent Sadler Naval power competition on horizon Once again, we find ourselves in an era of great-power competi- tion. And the pressures driving cur- rent competition among the United States, China and Russia are only in- tensifying. In China, growing demographic and economic pressures will come to a head by 2029. Ultimately, fail- ure to deliver on sustained econom- ic growth and cowing of Taiwan will challenge the legitimacy and con- tinuation of the Chinese Commu- nist Party. Complicating things, in the last year, the "One-Country, Two-Systems" construct for a peace- ful resolution of China's unresolved civil war with Taiwan has largely col- lapsed. While all that is going on, Russia remains an unrelenting strategic ag- itator, always seeking to weaken alli- ances and nations it views as hindering the advancement of its national inter- ests. It all bodes a rocky road and heavy seas ahead. As for the seas, analysts at The Heritage Founda- tion have conclud- ed that several of the gospels and assumptions that have informed U.S. maritime think- ing over the last 30 years are simply not suited to contend with this envi- ronment. In a new paper, part of our ongoing "Rebuilding America's Mil- itary Project," we propose a novel approach—Naval State- craft—which would leverage economic statecraft to exe- cute a global maritime strat- egy. The paper can be read at https://herit.ag/3svsJyp If backed by an appro- priately sized, trained and equipped fleet, this approach could successfully contest China's and Russia's com- prehensive competition and hybrid use of military force. At the same time, it would foster new part- Court