The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/875933
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, September 20, 2017 D-7 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 We live in an era of cognitive dissonance when we are forced to mentally absorb conflicting view- points of multiple issues. The re- sult becomes a labyrinth of unin- terpretable thought. Throughout America the me- dia panders to its base which gen- erally consists of one-dimension- al thinkers. Throughout the years Ameri- cans have been enticed by the me- dia that we should or should not embrace "a, b, or c" [fill in blank with a political/social movement] from a wide variety of commenta- tors: Erik Sevareid, Larry King, Sean Hannity and Alan Combs, Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine, William Buckley, Mi- chael Savage, George Wills, Bill O'Reilly, Walter Williams, Pat Bu- chanan, Bill Kristol, Shana Alex- ander, James Kirkpatrick, Dana Loesch, and Rachel Maddow just to name a few. All of these media talking heads have one thing in common wheth- er they are left, right, center, liber- tarian, anarchist, or nihilist: they each dispense their own brand of Kool-Aid and allow no major de- viance from their stance [I often wonder how much of a commen- tator's bantering and bombastic rhetoric is just theater and enter- tainment]. William Buckley was the "god- father" of the conservative right and was noted for edg- ing out and marginal- izing those whom he disagreed with. Mark Levine is known for shouting down callers he dis- agrees with; Michael Savage uses descrip- tive nouns, verbs, and adjectives to insult those whom he dif- fers with. Sean Hannity and Rush Lim- baugh tend to allow dissidents to get their point in, but their [and most radio/T V hosts] opening monologue sets the tone for what will be debated. Senator Bernie Sanders con- tinues to fire-up his base with his brand of Kool-Aid which promise all free health care and a guaran- teed minimum wage. The question that isn't addressed is "how or who is going to pay for it." A point worth noting is Radio America, the brainchild of Al Go- re, was to be the alternative to con- servative talk radio. It crashed and burned because the progressives and left are too fractionated to sup- port any brand of Kool-Aid [view- point] except their own. Those still opining Hillary Clin- ton's failure to capture the presi- dency are carrying water for any and all reasons why she did not win in No- vember. Near the top of the list they claim is the 24 hours pro- paganda network Fox News. Kool-Aid dis- pensers. Time to turn the page and move on. Fairness in Media would point out that the Mainstream Media and Holly- wierd in general carried the mes- sage for Hillary. More Kool-Aid. America needs a slogan that all of us can embrace. It would not be "I'm Mad Too, I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore, Impeach Trump, I Live In Flyover Country," or "I Am A Deplorable." No-it should be "I Think For My- self! " All the competing voices we hear sounds like fingernails scrap- ing a chalkboard. There is a call to action in the midst somewhere but what does the typical citizen hear? The apostle Paul used this very analogy when he addressed the confusion at the Church at Corinth: "For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall pre- pare himself to the battle? " Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. We're all to blame Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Christ doesn't dispense Kool-Aid Two lawmakers unite to tackle hate crimes Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson 9/11 shows need for continued vigilance Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner How appropriate that this year's Sept. 11 anniversary should occur as Hurricane Irma continued to wreak havoc in Florida. As President Trump noted in his address commemorating that dark day 16 years ago: "When Ameri- cans are in need, Americans pull together — and we are one coun- try. And when we face hardship, we emerge closer, stronger and more determined than ever." We may fight like cats and dogs at times, and engage in debates so venomous that it seems like civili- ty is completely extinct. But when the chips are really down — be it the result of a terrorist attack, or an attack from Mother Nature — we put our differences aside and help each other out. We also do everything we can to prevent future attacks. In the case of hurricanes, alas, there's on- ly so much we can do. But when it comes to terrorism, we have more options. We can take the fight to the enemy. Our troops, our intelli- gence operatives, and all who work to ensure that we nev- er have to suffer an- other Sept. 11 can co- operate and make us safer. And it's been work- ing. There have been 97 U.S. terrorist plots since Sept. 11. But consider how the numbers are trend- ing. "With the decline of ISIS in Syr- ia and Iraq, the number of terror- ist plots in the U.S. have fallen sub- stantially," terrorism expert David Inserra writes in a recent article. "In 2015, the U.S. faced 17 Islamist plots and attacks; in 2016, 13. So far in 2017, the U.S. has faced on- ly three." If you're like most Americans, the fact that there's been even that many may surprise you. Unfortu- nately, news of foiled attacks rarely breaks through the online clutter, with its often myopic focus on one or two "big" stories of the day. Think, for exam- ple, how much we've all heard about the fights over Confed- erate memorials and statues. Now contrast that with how much you've heard about Lionel Williams. If you're like many Americans, you're probably say- ing, "Lionel who? " The FBI certainly knows who he is. Agents arrested Williams last December. Ever since the previ- ous March, they had been watch- ing him, after one of his former as- sociates tipped them off about how Williams was posting ISIS materi- al on his Facebook page. He had al- so purchased an AK-47-style rifle the day after the December 2015 The largest threat to our pros- perity is government spending that far exceeds the authority enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Fed- eral spending in 2017 will top $4 trillion. Social Security, at $1 tril- lion, will take up most of it. Medi- care ($582 billion) and Medicaid ($404 billion) are the next-larg- est expenditures. Other feder- al social spending includes food stamps, unemployment compensa- tion, child nutrition, child tax cred- its, supplemental security income and student loans, all of which total roughly $550 billion. Social spend- ing by Congress consumes about two-thirds of the federal budget. Where do you think Congress gets the resources for such spend- ing? It's not the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. The only way Congress can give one American a dollar is to use threats, intimidation and coer- cion to confiscate that dollar from another American. Congress forci- bly uses one American to serve the purposes of another American. We might ask ourselves: What stan- dard of morality justifies the forc- ible use of one American to serve the purposes of another Ameri- can? By the way, the forcible use of one person to serve the purpos- es of another is a fairly good work- ing definition of slavery. Today's Americans have little appreciation for how their values reflect a contempt for those of our Founding Fathers. You ask, "Wil- liams, what do you mean by such a statement? " In 1794, Congress ap- propriated $15,000 to help French refugees who had fled from insur- rection in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). James Madison, the "Fa- ther of the Constitution," stood on the floor of the House to ob- ject, saying, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article in the federal Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevo- lence, the money of their constit- uents." Most federal spending to- day is on "objects of benevolence." Madison also said, "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." No doubt some congressmen, academics, hustlers and ignorant people will argue that the general welfare clause of the U.S. Consti- tution authorizes today's spend- ing. That is simply unadulterat- ed nonsense. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Congress (has) not unlim- ited powers to provide for the gen- eral welfare, but (is) restrained to those specifically enumerated." Madison wrote that "if Congress can do whatever in their discre- tion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a lim- ited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one." In other words, the general wel- fare clause authorized Congress to spend money only to carry out the powers and duties specifically enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 and elsewhere in the Constitu- tion, not to meet the infinite needs of the general welfare. We cannot blame politicians for the spending that places our na- tion in peril. Politicians are doing precisely what the American peo- ple elect them to office to do – namely, use the power of their of- fice to take the rightful property of other Americans and deliver it to them. It would be political sui- cide for a president or a congress- man to argue as Madison did that Congress has no right to expend "on objects of benevolence" the money of its constituents and that "charity is no part of the legisla- tive duty of the government." It's unreasonable of us to expect any politician to sabotage his career by living up to his oath of office to uphold and defend our Constitu- tion. That means that if we are to save our nation from the econom- ic and social chaos that awaits us, we the people must have a moral reawakening and eschew what is no less than legalized theft, the taking from one American for the benefit of another. I know that some people will say, "Williams, I agree with most of what you say, but not when it comes to Social Security. Social Security is my money I had taken out of my pay for retirement." If you think that, you've been duped. The only way you get a Social Security Material girl From time to time, I give my opinions on various topics of local and national interest. Lets go to DACA and immigra- tion. One of the things I had com- municated to our elected officials at the congressional level is to look into the possibility of inviting the heads of different nations or their representative for a summit con- ference. The purpose? To discuss what can be done to the dreamers and the undocumented immigrants. We can easily look into which coun- tries have a high level of their cit- izens who flock into our country without legal papers, and ask why these precious human beings leave and risk their lives to come to the United States. Then see if they can be welcomed back to their native countries. One of the things I no- tice is the absence of input from the different governments about ana- lyzing and helping their own fami- lies and their own children. This will put the various gov- ernments into focus and hopeful- ly help our own government make a major solution to this very com- plex problem. In other words, put them on the spot. Because what has happened is our nation has al- ways been on the spot and we car- ry the heavy burden of solving the problem. It might take a full gener- ation to make a major improvement to ease the immigration problem. DACA and immigration Continued on page 9 Continued on page 8 It's every father's not-quite- worst nightmare, and it's happen- ing to me. My daughter is into jewelry. Not to wear, mind you - to hide around the house. Flannery has made a habit of raiding her moth- er's jewelry stash and finding new places to store it. Places like the crevices between the couch cushions, the bedframe, the front porch, her toy box... It's someplace new every day. And of course, she started this new hobby with a big score, Jill's wedding rings, foist- ed away from the nightstand to parts unknown while Jill slept. We found them safe and sound – about a month later. Since then, it's been jewel-thief preschool in the Heuring house. Bangles in the basement, earrings underfoot, and so on, and so forth. If it's shiny, and she can hide it somewhere, Flannery will make off with it. Of course, one must acknowledge that Jill is making it easy by storing all her jewelry loose on top of her dresser. Per- haps it's a game between the two of them to which I'm not privy. Either way, I'm not looking for- ward to letting my magpie of a daughter loose in the mall a few years down the road. I'm not sure which is worse: the thought of her shoplifting jewelry from "Justice - Just for Girls! " ...Or the thought of her spending all my money on it. But that's just my inner Scrooge talking. Maybe I should nip all this in the bud right now and just invest in a good jewelry box. Speaking of jewels, here's the stuff of the week. Read: Maybe "read" isn't the right term, but NASA has post- ed the last photos taken by the space probe Cassini just before it vaporized in Saturn's atmosphere. Check them out and feel tiny as you face the black, yawning enor- mity of the cosmos. Also, Saturn's rings are pretty. Listen: The Fountains of Carrots podcast (it's free!) goes deep on Continued on page 8 I recently forced myself to read an insulting article in the Indianap- olis Star entitled "Two Lawmakers Unite to Tackle Hate Crimes." The headline is false. The two lawmak- ers united, alright, but did nothing to tackle hate crimes. The white Republican and Black Democrat congratulated them- selves for being morally and in- tellectually superior to the "rural white" (and therefore racially fear- ful) opponents to the hate crime proposals that have failed in Indi- ana's legislature. There are few political spec- tacles more nauseating than a smarmy elite trying to expand his base by disparaging and betraying the people whom he represents. Ordinarily you see it in presiden- tial politics when a senator or gov- ernor suddenly decides to "pivot" on abortion, or when a nominee de- ploys an "etch-a-sketch" strategy in the general election. Few, I say, but this instance was all the more nauseating because of the reporter's complicity, lard- ing his article with euphemisms and insinuations, un- willing to ask the hard questions. He might as well have just pub- lished their press re- leases. The white Repub- lican promised to fi- nesse the dumb hill- billies who don't want unequal penalties for the same crimes. The Black Democrat felt vindicated by the Charlottesville violence after he warned hate crime bill oppo- nents in the State Senate that some unspecified tragedy was likely. But unlike Indiana, Virginia has hate crime laws. Did it prevent the violence at Charlottesville? I be- lieve homicide is already against the law in Virginia, and in Indiana. Why task police with investigating criminals' social views, when it's already a crime to commit violence or to damage other people's prop- erty? Do either of these Indiana legislators think the Charlottes- ville crime would have gone unprosecuted or undercharged without hate crime enhance- ments? Rural white con- stituencies are jus- tified in feeling that the hate crime legis- lation targets them, that it won't be applied equally to ethnic mi- norities. This instinct for even the most law-abiding citizens to object to unequally applied criminal sanc- tions has a long Constitutional ped- igree, in the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection un- der the law, and in the prohibition of "bills of attainder." According to the most recent FBI statistics, Blacks are dispro- portionately victimized by hate crimes: although they comprise 13 percent of the overall population,