The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1000682
C-10 Wednesday, July 4, 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 Everyone should take time to steal away from life and find qui- eter surroundings; Jesus tried. We read from Luke's gospel, "When the apostles returned, they re- ported to Jesus what they had do- ne. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the king- dom of God, and healed those who needed healing." Summer is upon us, and vaca- tion time is in full swing. Many par- ents will pack the bags, round up the kids, and head out of town to get some "R and R" A time to "just be us," but not without the laptop, the cell phone, the IPod, the por- table DVD player, and don't forget the Xbox. Isn't it strange how we take all of our communication gadgets with us so we can stay in touch while we "get away from it all"? Here is my prescription: take a vacation away from your problems. In the 1991 movie, What About Bob?, we are introduced to Bob Wiley who had problems. He was multi-phobic, and he became afraid of life outside of his apart- ment. His issues had cemented him to a standstill and he could not let go of failure. What about Bob is about Bob finding a "cure" for his anxiet- ies and phobias. His psychiatrist, Leo Marvin, wrote him a prescrip- tion to take a vacation from his problems and gave him his latest book Baby Steps-and charged him for it. The problems be- gin when Bob fina- gles his way to where his psychoanalysis, Dr Leo Marvin, has tak- en his family for vaca- tion—Lake Winnipe- saukee. And the fun begins. Allow a pause here and consider why "getting away" is important. Scripture is peppered with ex- amples of Jesus TRYING to get- ting away: sometimes with the 12, and at times by himself. In daily life, we can become burned out and become weary in well doing. Trying to schedule all of life's "important" events into 24 hours find many dragging to bed at midnight realizing it starts all over in the morning. Sadly, many within the Chris- tian family have adopted the world's priorities. Not long ago, events were scheduled around church. Going to Worship on Sun- day morning was not an option or topic of discussion. Most re- tail stores remain closed. Sunday, the Lord's Day, was a time of re- laxation and family. That is gone. Unfortunately within Christen- dom, some have reached the point where they say "something has to give," and the first activity that gets "trimmed" is the Church. I've met people who assert they can worship God anywhere and they become Lone Rangers. But they fail to realize that God's not in a building, but the building is where the church gathers to worship and learn. It is the church that Christ died for—the corpo- rate body of believers. In reality, Lone Rangers have taken a vacation from church and over time they become unhealthy in- dividuals. The reasons are end- less: They need to be freed up or set loose, need to be looking for a "deeper word," or no one I know is doing it like it should be done. God doesn't call us to be Lone Rangers. He calls us to be a Body! We all need time to relax—to take a vacation from our issues—but He does not encourage us to re- treat! From the life of Jesus, we can gleam a few lessons. First, He knew when to get away. There is a time for ministry and for contemplation and self- evaluation in order to renew the spirit and body. Second, Jesus knew how to stay "connected" with the spiritu- al needs of others. Even on vaca- tion, He took time for people. And at last Jesus had a renewed focus when He returned to minis- Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Prescription for a vacation I'm reminded every Fourth of the follies of my youth... My pyro- maniac youth. Once upon a time, I was every firework-toting redneck you've ever seen in a YouTube vid- eo blowing up their dignity along with their above-ground swim- ming pool. (Before we go any further I'll just put it out there: do not try my stories at home!) There's two years in particular when I cut things especially close to the short hairs, and I'll cover one this week so I have a column in my pocket for later. My first brush with pyrotech- nic death was not even with "re- al" fireworks, but with improvised heat-based amusement. At a cer- tain neighbor's bonfire party, my middle-school self became fasci- nated with the idea that liquids un- der pressure will expand when ex- posed to an open flame. Specifical- ly, if you throw a pop can into the fire, sooner or later it will explode in a blaze of fizzy glory. A fter wasting almost half a doz- en perfectly good Sprite cans just to watch them splash and burn, I finally faced the consequences of my foolery. Up to this moment, all of my victim cans had flared out harmlessly in the confines of the firewood pile. But can number sev- en flung aluminum shrapnel and a scalding wave of caffeine-free lem- on-lime refreshment out into the grandstands, grazing me and an innocent buddy who happened to be roasting a weenie nearby. A fter much vehement exclama- tion and hopping about (very man- ly hopping, obviously), we inspect- ed ourselves and were pleased to discover we had first-degree burns at worst, and only our clothes suf- fered any lacerations. Somehow, we even stayed friends. But while that was the last can this idiot ever threw into a fire, it wasn't the last time I endangered my own life and the lives of others for the sake of an explosion. Tune in next week for another episode in my sordid history of pyromania, and have a safe and happy Fourth! On May 22, 1856, Representa- tive Preston Brooks entered the floor of the United States Sen- ate, approached abolitionist Sena- tor Charles Sumner, and beat the senator with a cane, almost tak- ing his life. Brooks was provoked by a pas- sionate anti-slavery speech that Sumner had delivered in the Sen- ate three days earlier, in which he assailed Senator Andrew But- ler of South Carolina, a relative of Brooks, for his pro-slavery stance. This sad and gruesome history is related on the website of the U.S. Senate, which concludes saying, "The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tum- bled onward toward the catastro- phe of the civil war." We ought to be concerned that again, today, the nation appears to be flirting with this uneasy territo- ry where "reasoned discourse" is breaking down. The president's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virgin- ia, where she was having dinner because, well, she works for Don- ald Trump. Stephanie Wilkerson, owner of the Red Hen restaurant, said she asked Sanders to depart because "there are moments in time when people need to live their convic- tions. This appeared to be one." But what exactly are the "con- victions" that Wilkerson was living in this incident? That you refuse to talk, associate, do business with anyone you disagree with? This is America? A few days before, Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was harassed in a D.C. restaurant and then at her Northern Virgin- ia home. Longtime Congressional Black Caucus member Maxine Waters followed, calling for all out warfare on the Trump administration. "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a de- partment store, at a gasoline sta- tion, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not wel- come anymore, anywhere," Wa- ters told a crowd in Los Angeles. According to the vision state- ment of Waters' Congressional Black Caucus Foundation: "We en- vision a world in which all commu- nities have an equal voice in pub- lic policy through leadership cul- tivation, economic empowerment, and civic engagement." Another dose of liberal hypoc- risy. "Reasoned discourse" can take place only between parties who share the same values and a simi- lar worldview. This is what broke down in America in the 1850s and brought the nation to a horrible civil war. Reasoned discourse is not possi- ble between someone who thinks it is acceptable for one race to be enslaved to another and someone who finds this abhorrent. President Lincoln reached into the Gospel of Matthew and pro- phetically observed, "A house di- vided against itself cannot stand." America in 2018 is becoming again a house divided. The world views of liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Re- publicans, secular humanists and Christians, regarding what Amer- ica is about, regarding what life is about, are so entirely different that all common ground seems lost and we appear to have arrived again to the "breakdown of reasoned dis- course." Half the country is on one page and half on another. We can't seem to talk to each other, let alone re- spect each other anymore. Certainly, I am not predicting another civil war. But I am predict- ing that the kind of civil discourse that is essential for a country like ours to function as intended is be- coming increasingly impossible and something will have to give. Florida's Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi required a police escort to protect her from screaming thugs while exiting a movie theater in Tampa, Fla. Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 The Weekly by Alden Heuring Fourth failures America divided, again Minority View by Walter E. Williams Diversity and inclusion harm, II Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 My column a fortnight ago, ti- tled "Diversity and Inclusion Harm," focused on the dumbing down of science, technology, engi- neering and mathematics curricu- la to achieve a more pleasing mix- ture of participants in terms of race and sex. Heather Mac Donald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan In- stitute, wrote about this in her ar- ticle titled "How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences" (http://ti- nyurl.com/y9g8k9ne). Mac Don- ald quoted a UCL A scientist who said, "All across the country the big question now in STEM is: how can we promote more women and minorities by 'changing' (i.e., low- ering) the requirements we had previously set for graduate lev- el study? " The National Science Foundation and the National In- stitutes of Health are two federal agencies that fund university re- search, are consumed by diversi- ty and inclusion ideology, and have the power to yank funds from a col- lege if it has not supported a suf- ficient number of "un- derrepresented minor- ities." In recent years, the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration has al- so become consumed by diversity and inclu- sion. Prior to becom- ing so, the FA A worked with about 36 colleges to create the Air Traf- fic Collegiate Training Initiative. The colleges offered two- and four- year non-engineering aviation de- grees requiring basic courses in air traffic control and aviation ad- ministration. Graduates of these programs became qualified candi- dates for training as air traffic con- trol specialists. The FA A gave hir- ing preferences to veterans, those with AT-CTI program degrees, ref- erences from administrators and high test scores. In 2013, President Obama-ap- pointed FA A Adminis- trator Michael Huer- ta deemed that these hiring standards had not produced a pleas- ing mix of air traffic controllers when it came to race and sex. He announced plans to "transform the (FA A) into a more di- verse and inclusive workplace that reflects, under- stands, and relates to the diverse customers" it serves. The FA A dis- carded its longtime use of the dif- ficult cognitive assessment test and implemented instead a new, unmonitored take-home person- ality test — a biographical ques- tionnaire. Among the questions asked are: "The number of high school sports I participated in was..." "How would you describe your ideal job? " "What has been the major cause of your failures? " "More classmates would remem- ber me as humble or dominant? " In other words, the FA A opened air traffic control training to "off- the-street hires" — any Eng- lish-speaking citizen with a high school diploma — despite the fact that most high school diplomas are fraudulent documents. All air traf- fic control applicants are required to complete the biographical ques- tionnaire. Those who "pass" are deemed eligible. The question- naire gives more points to an ap- plicant who answers that he has not been employed in the previ- ous three years than it does to an applicant who answers that he has been a pilot or is a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background. Michael Pearson, an air traffic controller for 27 years who is su- U.S. and G-7 tariffs hurt importers and exporters Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner My column a fortnight ago, ti- tled "Diversity and Inclusion Harm," focused on the dumbing down of science, technology, en- gineering and mathematics cur- ricula to achieve a more pleasing mixture of participants in terms of race and sex. Heather Mac Don- ald, a senior fellow at the Manhat- tan Institute, wrote about this in her article titled "How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences" (http://tinyurl.com/y9g8k9ne). Mac Donald quoted a UCL A scien- tist who said, "All across the coun- try the big question now in STEM is: how can we promote more wom- en and minorities by 'changing' (i.e., lowering) the requirements we had previously set for gradu- ate level study? " The National Sci- ence Foundation and the Nation- al Institutes of Health are two fed- eral agencies that fund university research, are consumed by diver- sity and inclusion ideology, and have the power to yank funds from a college if it has not supported a sufficient number of "underrep- resented minorities." In recent years, the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration has al- so become consumed by diversity and in- clusion. Prior to be- coming so, the FA A worked with about 36 colleges to create the Air Traf- fic Collegiate Training Initiative. The colleges offered two- and four- year non-engineering aviation de- grees requiring basic courses in air traffic control and aviation ad- ministration. Graduates of these programs became qualified candi- dates for training as air traffic con- trol specialists. The FA A gave hir- ing preferences to veterans, those with AT-CTI program degrees, ref- erences from administrators and high test scores. In 2013, Presi- dent Obama-appoint- ed FA A Administra- tor Michael Huerta deemed that these hiring standards had not produced a pleas- ing mix of air traf- fic controllers when it came to race and sex. He announced plans to "transform the (FA A) in- to a more diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects, under- stands, and relates to the diverse customers" it serves. The FA A dis- carded its longtime use of the dif- ficult cognitive assessment test and implemented instead a new, unmonitored take-home person- ality test — a biographical ques- tionnaire. Among the questions asked are: "The number of high school sports I participated in was..." "How would you describe your ideal job? " "What has been the major cause of your failures? " "More classmates would remem- ber me as humble or dominant? " In other words, the FA A opened air traffic control training to "off- the-street hires" — any Eng- lish-speaking citizen with a high school diploma — despite the fact that most high school diplomas are fraudulent documents. All air traf- fic control applicants are required to complete the biographical ques- tionnaire. Those who "pass" are deemed eligible. The question- naire gives more points to an ap- plicant who answers that he has not been employed in the previous three years than it does to an appli- cant who answers that he has been a pilot or is a veteran with an air