The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/993587
B-4 Wednesday, June 13, 2018 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 The gospel of Christ as stated by the apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy: "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." That is what Christianity is all about, bringing lost souls to Jesus. Gnostics, Progressives, and Ju- daizers have been trying to rein- vent and delegitimize Jesus [and Christianity] for centuries. So what is new? The church has been hood- winked into proclaiming the so- cial gospel to the lost for more than 100 years; other than elevat- ing burdens, how has the church succeeded in its mission to make disciples for Jesus? All types of social and political causes have been championed by the church with mixed or disas- trous results. Over time, these di- verse causes have polarized and divided the church to the point that most protestant denomina- tions have had schisms. The church has become so en- trenched in the political and social climate of America that I fear it has lost sight as to what the Gospel as preached by Jesus and His disci- ples is. The divisions within Ameri- ca are real, and there is no sign of healing. Steve Hilton in his lat- est column: "Is Loony Left Gov. Jerry Brown Killing California? What does that mean for America? " Hilton's article tries to make that point. Hilton suggests that the ongoing cul- tural civil war is ris- ing to a crescendo where [he feels] the progressives are will- ing to give no quar- ter to its victims, and without question, the last presiden- tial election pays witness to Amer- ica is in the midst of a cultural/so- cial civil war. Hilton writes, "Exuberant Dem- ocrats – carried along by the self- righteousness of their authoritari- an and puritanical identity politics zealotry, and self-confidence in the supposedly inevitable electoral an- nihilation of President Trump and Republicans in November–are starting to see a long-cherished liberal dream as an imminent re- ality: California as a model for the whole nation." I caught that loud and clear, "California is a model for the na- tion." That is troubling because just in economic issues, as is Illinois, the state is drowning in red ink and has billions of unfunded obli- gations to retirees and social pro- grams. In just San Francis- cans alone, a recent poll suggested over 50 percent wanted to move from the ar- ea, and California as a whole is experienc- ing a net loss in busi- ness moving out of the state. But the heart of Hil- ton's article deals with the culture war that is center stage in America. He writes, "You'll get the picture if you read a widely- shared article published earlier this year by Medium, written by tech guru Peter Leyden, headlined "The Great Lesson of California in America's New Civil War." The ar- ticle is subtitled: "Why There's No Bipartisan Way Forward at This Juncture in Our history–One Side Must Win." "The vision of a Californiaized United States is captured in all its glory in the concluding paragraph of the article: "America can't afford more political paralysis. One side or the other must win. This is a civ- il war thatcan be won without fir- ing a shot. But it is a fundamental conflict between two worldviews that must be resolved in short or- Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker The road to the U.S.-North Korea summit Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond The Weekly by Alden Heuring Minority View by Walter E. Williams A cultural Civil War? June Java Past versus present Americans Costa Rica and the 'search for happiness' Continued on page 5 Continued on page 5 My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Many critics of President Trump take exception to his oft-repeat- ed phrase "America First." They read dark isolationist impulses in- to it, and predict a world where the United States has simply turned its back on the world. But the president insists that "America First" is not "America Alone." Where our interests align with others, he reassures us that America will work together to solve problems and explore op- portunities. I believe that's exactly what's happening to the decades-old North Korea problem. His "new thinking framework" has led us to the upcoming June 12 summit. In fact, as I embark on my fourth trip to South Korea this year, I can confidently say the Trump admin- istration has created the first real opportunity for negotiations with North Korea since 1999. We're at this juncture for a very specific reason: Mr. Trump doesn't limit himself to the regu- lar constraints of established for- eign policy. That is, he thinks out- side the box. The purpose of the summit, as Mr. Trump officially mentioned, is to make it clear that North Korea's dependency and obsession on nu- clear weapons is doing no one any good — not the world, certainly, and not even North Korea itself. Mr. Trump has not led the in- ternational action to apply sanc- tions for sanctions' sake. The goal of this pressure campaign has al- ways been to persuade Pyongyang to engage in meaningful dialogue about a different future for itself and for its people. So I welcome recent develop- ments as potentially leading to a resolution of the nuclear issue and much more. But let me be clear: This summit will be one small step on a long journey ahead of us. Many in Korea and the U.S. apparently expect that the situa- tion will automatically improve af- ter the summit. We need to lower our expectations to a realistic and practical level. There is no magic that can suddenly be performed to solve these problems. Yes, there are specific steps to follow. Those steps will identi- fy possible successes of the sum- mit, as well as potential improve- ments in the U.S.-North Korea re- lationship. But do not be deluded: It will be a long journey. As Mr. Trump tweeted, the summit is "possible progress," but "may be false hope." One thing we can say for cer- tain: We're at this point because of a concerted, well-honed effort by the White House. Much of the recent commentary that has stressed the president's erratic nature and unwillingness to master policy details overlooks the fact that on North Korea policy, Mr. Trump and his team have been consistent. And they've achieved that rarest of governmental goals: A single, coordinated government policy. The Department of State led with diplomacy, keeping South Ko- rea and Japan informed and com- mitted. The Department of De- fense increased military prepara- tions, flowing forces and supplies to the theater. The Department of the Trea- sury found additional economic pressures to apply to North Ko- rea. And America's ambassador to the U.N. marshaled two rounds of unanimous Security Council sanc- tions into force. The vice president, meanwhile, visibly and publicly castigat- ed North Korea's human rights abuses. The president's daughter showed the softer side of Ameri- can engagement at her Olympics appearances. President Trump, meanwhile, has turned up the heat on North Korea with ever-tighter rounds of sanctions. There are, of course, many things that could go wrong in the days ahead. But nothing changes the fact that all of the coordination listed above has brought us to the first real opportunity for real, last- ing peace on the Korea peninsula in many years. I've always been a big believer As we churn through primary season, laying the framework for November's elections, we're see- ing the emergence of a new face of the Democratic Party — more progressive, more left wing. The Democratic Party is deliv- ering more candidates around the nation like Stacey Abrams, recent- ly nominated for governor in Geor- gia. She's unabashedly boilerplate, in-your-face, hard left. Pro-big gov- ernment, pro-abortion, pro-LGBT rights. Recent Wall Street Journal/ NBC polling shows how the Demo- cratic Party has changed. In 2004, 67 percent of Democrats identified as moderate or conservative and 31 percent identified as liberal. In 2018, we see a shift to the left of 20 points. Forty-seven percent identi- fy as moderate or conservative and 51 percent as liberal. Amidst all this, what might we expect from blacks, Democrats' most consistent voting bloc? In 14 presidential elections since 1964, Democratic candidates captured an average 88 percent of the black vote. But blacks generally don't fit the new far-left profile. According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, black Democrats have very little reli- giously in common with white Democrats. Religious behavior of black Democrats is much more closely aligned with white Repub- licans. Forty-seven percent of black Democrats say they attend church at least weekly, compared to 45 percent of white Republicans and 22 percent of white Democrats. Ninety-two percent of black Next stop—Costa Rica- which according to the National Geo- graphic Magazine is one of the most joyful places on the planet. It is ranked highly with Denmark and Singapore. I briefly read on it's history and geography, just out of curiosity. Costa Rica is located in Cen- tral America, bordered by coun- tries Nicaragua, Panama, Ecua- dor and Cocos Island. It has a tropi- cal climate and year round temper- ature which averages a low of 63 degrees Fahrenheit and a high of 81 degrees. It is a rich agricultur- al land with coffee and bananas as it's main produce. It's government has been a stable democracy, with a population of 4.9 million in 2017. The main language is Spanish but English is widely spoken due to it's tourism industry. The population includes Europe- an Costa Ricans primarily of Span- ish descent, with significant num- bers of Italian, German, English, Dutch, French, Irish, Portuguese and Polish families. There is also a sizable Jewish community. It has a 97% literacy rate and has no stand- ing army since 1949, when the gov- ernment embarked on establishing an army of teachers and educators instead. Average life expectancy is 79.3 years. Since 1941, the government has provided universal health care to it's wage earning residents. Continued on page 5 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 5 Will more blacks vote Republican? Having enjoyed my 82nd birth- day, I am part of a group of about 50 million Americans who are 65 years of age or older. Those who are 90 or older were in school dur- ing the 1930s. My age cohort was in school during the 1940s. Baby boomers approaching their 70s were in school during the 1950s and early '60s. Try this question to any one of those 50 million Americans who are 65 or older: Do you recall any discussions about the need to hire armed guards to protect students and teachers against school shoot- ings? Do you remember school po- licemen patrolling the hallways? How many students were shot to death during the time you were in school? For me and those oth- er Americans 65 or older, when we were in school, a conversa- tion about hiring armed guards and having police patrol hallways would have been seen as lunacy. There was no reason. What's the difference between yesteryear and today? The logic of the argument for those calling for stricter gun control laws, in the wake of recent school shootings, is that something has happened to guns. Guns have behaved more poorly and become evil. Guns themselves are the problem. The job for those of us who are 65 or older is to relay the fact that guns were more available and less con- trolled in years past, when there was far less mayhem. Something else is the problem. Guns haven't changed. People have changed. Behavior that is accepted from today's young people was not accepted yes- teryear. For those of us who are 65 or older, as- saults on teachers were not routine as they are in some cities. For ex- ample, in Baltimore, an average of four teachers and staff members were assaulted each school day in 2010, and more than 300 school staff members filed workers' com- pensation claims in a year because of injuries received through as- saults or altercations on the job. In Philadelphia, 690 teachers were as- saulted in 2010, and in a five-year period, 4,000 were. In that city's schools, according to The Phila- delphia Inquirer, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or oth- er staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or vic- tims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threat- ened, or bullied in a school year." Yale University legal scholar John Lott argues that gun acces- sibility in our country has never been as restricted as it is now. Lott reports that until the 1960s, New York City pub- lic high schools had shooting clubs. Stu- dents carried their ri- fles to school on the subway in the morning and then turned them over to their home- room teacher or a gym teacher — and that was mainly to keep them centrally stored and out of the way. Rifles were retrieved after school for target practice (http://tinyurl.com/yapuaehp). Virginia's rural areas had a long tradition of high school students going hunting in the morning be- fore school, and they sometimes stored their guns in the trunks of their cars during the school day, parked on the school grounds. During earlier periods, people could simply walk into a hardware store and buy a rifle. Buying a rifle or pistol through a mail-order cat- alog — such as Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s — was easy. Often, a 12th or 14th birthday present was a shiny new .22-caliber rifle, given to a boy by his father. These facts of our history should Just because it's 90 degrees outside is no reason to curb your coffee addiction! Today I want to share three ways you can enjoy a cup of joe at home even in the mid- dle of a heat wave. First up is the easiest: iced cof- fee. Just brew a pot as usual, and fill up a tall glass with ice cubes or crushed ice while you wait. Don't skimp on the ice! For the drink to "work right," there has to be enough ice to get the coffee to a frosty temp from fresh out of the pot, without watering it down too much. Of course, with all that ice in the glass you won't be getting much coffee per cup, but there's noth- ing stopping you from having more than one cup. Add milk or creamer on top of the coffee if you wish to help cool it down. The diffusion effect al- so looks cool if you're watching it through the side of a glass. Second, frappe! In- stead of making a pot of coffee, use espresso powder and mix with ice, milk, and condensed milk in a blender. A good mix would be three parts ice, one part milk, 1/4 part condensed milk, and a spoon- ful or two of espresso powder. Ad- just to your taste. Add any toppings or sweets you like to the finished product. Lastly, you can do what I do, and beat the heat with your coffee in a more literal sense. Simply get up before sunrise and sip your java, boiling hot, just like always, in the cool of the wee hours. Then drink three more cups throughout the morn- ing so you don't waste the pot! Have a great week and stay caf- feinated!