The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/885612
D-8 Wednesday, October 11, 2017 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 Hugh Hefner is dead. He lived a long and perverted life. In an inter- view years ago, Hefner said "Life is too short to be living somebody else's dream…The major civilizing force in the world is not religion, it is sex…In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweet- er life." Hugh Hefner was born into a family of fervent Methodist [just as Alfred Kinsey had]. He heard long before his launch of Playboy magazine the stories of the Bible and the call to righteous living. Somewhere along the way, he be- came a castaway. In an interview in 1974, He- fner said, "At a very early age, I began questioning a lot of that re- ligious foolishness about man's spirit and body being in conflict, with God primarily, with the spir- it of man, and the Devil dwelling in the flesh," He understood the con- cept of carnality and spirituality, but he rejected the eternal. He enjoyed a life of sensual pleasure and in the process [with the help of Alfred Kinsey and "the pill"], he left a lot of wreck- age along the way. He defined the word "Playboy" and developed a lifestyle that was hedonistic; and through glossy erotic photos and a few articles, he encouraged boys and young men to adopt and pur- sue a life of sexual gratification. The result is at least three genera- tions of men and wom- en stuck in puberty unable to mature into adulthood. His tagline to adver- tisers was "What Sort of Man Reads Play- boy? Trendland ran a piece in 2016 high- lighting 50 different answers to the ques- tion; but it was able to summarized what Hefner wanted to project to the masses: "If one is to believe the vintage ads made for the famed sexy magazine, the readers of Playboy were all young, handsome, rich, talented, adven- turous, curious, athletic and intel- ligent men, always surrounded by beautiful women." In other words, the ads project Hefner's view of himself [and Play- boy] and had little actual connec- tion with reality. But mind you, He- fner was creating a new reality of uninhibited sexuality and materi- alistic pleasure. What was left un- said but was projected through the magazine was "sex for the sake of sex! " What the magazine left out in their summary of "What Sort of Man Reads Playboy" is that he is not seeking romance, but a wom- an who will be as a fine wine or an exotic adventure: an instrument of his consumption with no strings or commit- ment attached. In oth- er words, an endless version of the movie The Summer of 42. What is his future? Hefner paid $75,000 [in 1992] to buy the burial vault next to Marilyn Monroe, co- incidentally the first Playboy centerfold. He said, "Spending eternity next to Mari- lyn is too sweet to pass up." Father Dwight Longenecker encapsulated Hefner's life in a re- cent article: "[Hefner] led a life that was not only sexually self-in- dulgent, but it objectified women, glamorized sin, and caused mil- lions to dive into sin with carefree abandon. He not only hurt wom- en, but helped in the breakdown of marriage, the destruction of the family, and contributed to the cul- ture of contraception, abortion, and death. Predictably, he is be- ing hailed as a trailblazer, a man ahead of his time, an entrepreneur and a great." The world salutes its own, hates righteousness, and hates the call to repentance by those who preach Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring Blacks vs. police Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Nothing to rejoice about Black Lives Matter, but NFL protester Ray Lewis is no snitch Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Puerto Rico can't be helped with the Jones Act Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner To say that our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are suffering is a vast understate- ment. The combined punches of Hurricanes Irma and Maria have devastated the island territories. Nearly the entire electrical grid was wiped out. In Puerto Ri- co, more than 80 percent of crops were destroyed. Over a week af- ter Hurricane Maria, 44 percent of the population still lacked access to drinking water. First responders wearing U.S. uniforms – mostly military – have been working with local emergen- cy personnel to clear roads, re- store power to hospitals, and de- liver clean water to the many com- munities cut off. As we support the relief effort and pray for those living day to day, policymakers in Washington should begin to look forward to the islands' rebuilding and renewal. With encouragement from Her- itage Foundation experts and a bipartisan coalition, President Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to issue a 10 -day waiv- er of the commerce- killing Jones Act. But this is only a start. The Jones Act, a 1920 measure that mandates all shipping between U.S. ports be done by American- made and manned vessels, was intend- ed to vitalize the U.S. maritime industry. Yet it's had the opposite effect. Instead of innovating, the U.S. shipbuilding industry hid be- hind the Jones Act and gave up the global ocean-going trade to Japan, Korea and China. The result is that U.S. coastal trade is served by an aging, slow fleet of barges and tugboats. No place is hurt as badly as Puerto Rico, which faces shipping costs twice as high as nearby foreign is- lands not covered by the Jones Act. A fter Hurricane Maria, the Jones Act has creat- ed an extra burden: It will prevent mainland suppliers of rebuilding materials from partic- ipating in the rebuild- ing effort. To be sure, the aid chokepoint for the first weeks after the storm has been on land: There are not enough trucks available to move goods inland from the port of San Juan. But once roads are cleared and fuel restored, the cost of ship- ping will again be a major barri- er to Puerto Rico's commerce with the mainland U.S. Mr. Trump would be wise to suspend the Jones Act for a lon- ger time period. As Puerto Rico begins to rebuild its shattered in- frastructure, demand for fuel, con- Let's throw out a few numbers so we can put in perspective the NFL players taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem. Ma- ny say they are protesting against police treatment of blacks and ra- cial discrimination. We might ask just how much sense their protest makes. According to The Washington Post, 737 people have been shot and killed by police this year in the United States. Of that number, there were 329 whites, 165 blacks, 112 Hispanics, 24 members of oth- er races and 107 people whose race was unknown (http://tinyurl.com/ zyz2tpq). In Illinois, home to one of our most dangerous cities Chica- go 18 people have been shot and killed by police this year. In the city itself, police have shot and killed 10 people and shot and wounded 10 others. Somebody should ask the kneeling black NFL players why they are protesting this kind of kill- ing in the Windy City and ignoring other sources of black death. Here are the Chicago numbers for the ignored deaths. So far in 2017, there have been 533 murders and 2,880 shootings. On average, a person is shot every two hours and 17 minutes and murdered ev- ery 12 1/2 hours (http://tinyurl. com/o36cqfc). In 2016, when Co- lin Kaepernick started taking a knee, Chicago witnessed 806 mur- ders and 4,379 shootings. It turns out that most of the murder victims are black. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that Chicago has a 12.7 per- cent murder clearance rate. That means that when a black person is murdered, his perpetrator is found and charged with his murder less than 13 percent of the time. Similar statistics regarding po- lice killing blacks versus blacks killing blacks apply to many of our predominantly black urban cen- ters, such as Philadelphia, Balti- more, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland. Many Americans, includ- ing me, see the black NFL player protest of police brutality as pathet- ic, useless showboating. Seeing as these players have made no open protest against the thousands of blacks being murdered and maimed by blacks, they must view it as trivi- al in comparison with the police kill- ings. Most of the police killings fit into the category of justified homi- cide. NFL players are not by them- selves. How much condemnation do black politicians, civil rights leaders and liberal whites give to the wanton black homicides in our cities? When have you heard them condemning the very low clearance rate, whereby most black murder- ers get away with murder? Do you believe they would be just as silent if it were the Ku Klux Klan commit- ting the murders? What's to blame for this may- hem? If you ask an intellectual, a leftist or an academic in a sociology or psychology department, he will tell you that it is caused by pover- ty, discrimination and a lack of op- portunities. But the black murder rate and other crime statistics in the 1940s and '50s were not near- ly so high as they are now. I won- der whether your intellectual, left- ist or academic would explain that we had less black poverty, less ra- cial discrimination and far greater opportunities for blacks during ear- lier periods than we do today. He'd have to be an unrepentant idiot to make such an utterance. So what can be done? Black peo- ple need to find new heroes. Right now, at least in terms of the sup- port given, their heroes are crim- inals such as Baltimore's Freddie Gray, Ferguson's Michael Brown and Florida's Trayvon Martin. Black support tends to go toward the criminals in the community rather than to the overwhelming number of people in the communi- ty who are law-abiding. That needs to end. What also needs to end is the lack of respect for and cooper- ation with police officers. Some po- lice are crooked, but black people are likelier to be victims of violent confrontations with police officers than whites simply because blacks commit more violent crimes than whites per capita. For a race of people, these crime statistics are by no means flatter- ing, but if something good is to be done about it, we cannot fall prey to the blame games that black pol- iticians, black NFL players, civil Lake it or not Continued on page 9 My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Regina, Saskatchewan, Cana- da. On Sunday, September 23, I searched for a Catholic church and found The Holy Child Jesus Church. Rose and I attended the Mass service. Strange, the sur - roundings were familiar, and felt like home, looking at the stained glass windows, the candles, the statues, the choir, the priest and servers. There were many members of the congregation who came from A small world indeed, continuation Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Flannery breathed in her first gulps of lakeside air this weekend during our family trip down to the Land Between the Lakes, and we saved a lot of money on entertain- ment from her constant misadven- tures. The little toddler that could (could what exactly?) got us off to an explosive start halfway down the road. We grabbed supper at a Tex-Mex steakhouse. She enjoyed some chips, some surprisingly spicy guacamole, and bites off ev- eryone's plates, but she saved a lit- tle for later in her cheek pouches. Well, maybe she saved a lot. It sure seemed like a lot when she spit it all out (not vomited—just a massive spit-take) on me and the door of the family car as we were loading her into her seat on the way back out. The chunky orange mess on the door handle had some notes of sweet potato, some honeyed but- ter, a bit of nacho, and maybe the slightest hint of refried bean, and we went through two baby wipes getting it off the door, then gave up halfway trying to get it off me. Our suite had a rustic balcony overlooking the lake, and we spent both mornings doing some lake- overlooking ourselves and sipping coffee. The first morning, however, was interrupted when we discov- ered that, that funny-looking leaf on the balcony was actually animal droppings. We knew this, because it stuck to Flannery's hand when she picked it up and brought it over to show us. A vigorous hand-wash- ing or three later, we got back to our coffee and sipped it while call- ing housekeeping. Breakfasts at the hotel were a Kentucky-style buffet, featuring French toast sticks, bacon, other non-bacon meats, and, I dunno, some other stuff I didn't have room to eat after my bacon and French toast sticks. Flannery liked the French toast sticks too; in fact, she liked them so much she couldn't eat them a bite at a time. We got a little bit concerned the first time we watched her fold up and stuff an entire French toast stick in- to her mouth, but like most cra- zy crap kids do, we got used to it eventually. We're driving back now, and I'm sitting in the middle of the back seat and writing this while Flan- nery snores. She saw and ate and grabbed a lot of new things in the Land between the Lakes, so I guess she's earned it. Have a great week! STUFF OF THE WEEK Listen: The tropical jazz stylings of Grover Washington were a nice backdrop to the long, long ride to Kentucky and back. Read: Redwall by Brian Jacques, especially if you're hungry, be- cause the books all contain pag- es-long descriptions of medieval feasts. Great attention to food de- tail is probably one of the author's strongest selling points. Eat: French toast sticks! Like French toast, except you can dip them. In 1968, penniless college sprint- ers Tommie Smith and John Carlos were persuaded by a secure, well- paid California sociology professor to disrespect the flag and national anthem from the winners' podium at the Mexico City Olympics. The two young men were promptly sus- pended from the American team, and evicted from the Olympic ath- letes' village. Last week the NFL's Baltimore Ravens played the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, England. The entire Ravens team, Fox Sports commentator and ex-Raven Ray Lewis among them, knelt in sul- len protest as the U.S. national an- them played, then stood and ren- dered respect to the Union Jack as the British played their own an- them. No player will be disciplined for this ugly unpatriotic display. Ironically, our anthem was in- spired by the British bombard- ment of Baltimore. The incom- ing rockets' red glare, and bombs bursting in air, failed to subdue the lusty patriotism of the Baltimore defenders, but only proved that our flag was still there. The glare of NFL contempt has reflect- ed light, too, on the image of Jesse Owen, the legendary Black sprinter who marched the U.S. flag past Hit- ler in the 1936 Berlin Olympics opening ceremony, the only flag that was never dipped to Hitler that day. In view of Aaron Hernandez's brain autopsy, it's difficult to say whether we can rightly hold Lew- is accountable for his actions. May- be he just got the respect and pa- triotism knocked out of him. But I'm glad he wasn't carrying the flag in Berlin. Lewis, of course, is insulated and protected from angry people (and from unsentimental thieves) by platoons of police officers, the people he despises enough to embarrass and ac- cuse from the football field, on national tele- vision. They kiss their mates and children goodbye before night shift and enter the neighborhoods Lewis no longer has to live in. They don't have the option of making grandi- ose gestures like NFL princelings. They can't just write a check, pose for a few photos in the 'hood, then retreat with a private sigh of relief to a privileged and protected sub- urban existence. They actually have to deal with the consequences of fatherless- ness, claustrophobic failed city