The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1022723
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, September 5, 2018 B-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 Recent polls and surveys are de- livering, at best, mixed news for Republicans regarding the upcom- ing midterm elections. The good news is that prospects have turned positive for Republi- cans to win Senate seats current- ly held by Democrats in Florida, New Jersey and Wisconsin. But looking for good news in the House is a bigger challenge. Prob- ability assessments from various sources give Republicans a 25 to 50 percent chance of keeping con- trol of the House. A survey from Pew Research points to greater engagement from Democratic voters — by measures such as participating in rallies and making political contri- butions — than Republicans. So despite pockets of good news, on balance there's a lot of pessimism about Republican pros- pects in the midterms. All this pessimism brings to mind the famous response of the American General Kincaid when, during the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans suggested he surrender. His response: "Nuts! " The news about America is the best it has been in years. The economy is growing at a pace that many said would never happen again. The face of our federal judicia- ry — from district courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, as result of conservative appointments made over the last year and a half — has never been more encouraging for those who believe that law and fi- delity to the Constitution matter. Internationally, from Europe and the Middle East to the U.N. The donnybrook that has erupt- ed at Roncalli Catholic High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, over a lesbian counsellor's mar- riage is a sign of where we are as a culture, and as a whole the univer- sal church [at least in America]. The majority of Catholics who support Roncalli who have been interviewed or who have written editorials support both the school and the Catholic Church, but do not embrace the teaching that mar- riage is between one man and one woman. Without a doubt, the traditions of our fathers and their interpreta- tion of scripture and holiness have been challenged from within the church, and from secular culture. The United Methodist Church is also struggling with modern sex- uality and how to ad- dress the LGBTQ+ is- sue. At the last Gener- al Conference [2016], the Progressives and Traditionalists almost brought the confer- ence to a halt. The Conference will vote to entrust a solution to the issue to the Com- mission on the Way Forward, The Progressives have the sup- port and momentum of culture in which we live. Therefore, the church has passed the crossroads and the point of no return on the LGBTQ issue. We live in a Pro- gressive society demanding so- cial justice and inclu- sion. To the Progres- sives, the old paths and old ways were flawed, and our ances- tors were judgmen- tal people. Resistance means being chastised and besmirched with accusations of being hateful and homopho- bic. This is their reali- ty, and it has been thrusted upon American culture. The Traditionalists, who want to maintain the current teaching against gay clergy and marriage, Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Republicans must keep control Re-evaluate farm subsidies Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond The ship has sailed Taking John McCain at his word Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Heritage My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Crazy Rich Asians… Yep, that was a movie Rose and I watched this week. I wonder why it drew me to that movie? Hard to guess. A true story… When I first came to Pike County, a lot of people asked me where I was originally from. I always had a standard answer: from Sweden. Some believed that line, most did not. One day, while watching a pa- rade on Main Street, a young la- dy approached me and asked me a question in a language I could not understand. So when I got sweaty and hot and mumbled incoherent- ly, she said she was an exchange student at Pike Central School and that she was from Sweden. She was staying with the Hightowers who were hosting her. I had to tell her that was a rumor about my coun- try of origin. She said she was excited to have met somebody from Sweden if that was the case. You could see the disappointment and surprise in her face. Having gone through that experience, I had to change my mantra, that I was from Eng- land and my Scottish and Irish an- cestry was my pride and joy. That did not go too well as well. So the question asked of me frequently was if I had come from China or Japan. I wonder why? Is it because those people look alike? Wah. Lah. Anyway at this time, I declare myself a proud Asian Ameri- can who originally was born and raised in the beautiful Philippines. I have been so blessed to partic- ipate in the life of the American dream. Having been enriched by the Asian and Western culture, I am so blessed to be given by God Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 The Weekly by Alden Heuring Taco Tuesday Minority View by Walter E. Williams Immigrants and disease Continued on page 8 The Immigration and Nation- ality Act mandates that all immi- grants and refugees undergo a medical screening examination to determine whether they have an inadmissible health condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has technical in- structions for medical examina- tion of prospective immigrants in their home countries before they are permitted to enter the U.S. They are screened for communi- cable and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps and HIV. They are also tested for syphi- lis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases. The CDC al- so has medical screening guide- lines for refugees. These screenings are usually performed 30 to 90 days after refu- gees arrive in the Unit- ed States. But what about peo- ple who enter our country illegally? The CDC specifical- ly cites the possibili- ty of the cross-border movement of HIV, measles, per- tussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shig- ellosis and syphilis. Chris Cabre- ra, a Border Patrol agent in South Texas, warned: "What's com- ing over into the U.S. could harm everyone. We are starting to see scabies, chickenpox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aure- us infections and dif- ferent viruses." Some of the youngsters il- legally entering our country are known to be carrying lice and suffering from various illnesses. Because there have been no med- ical examinations of undocument- Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Much to my wife's dismay, I have a great love of tacos. I can (and have, several times) eat tacos for multiple meals a day, multiple days in a row, and not be even a little bit tired of them. Tacos are just a real- ly good meal! So today, I'm going to share with you my homemade taco reci- pe. Now, of course, one of the great things about tacos is that they're completely customizable! So you can adjust amounts and ingredi- ents to taste as much as you like. First, let's go over some basic ingredients. Of course, fresh and from scratch is always best, but most of us are busy and poor. So I grab some flour tortillas, a pound of ground beef, a bag of shredded cheese (most supermarkets have a Mexican blend but you can make your own blend too!), and a bag of pre-mixed salad. Again, pick your favorite kind of salad here because literally anything will work well in your taco. The last bits need- ed are some spices for the beef and some kind of sauce. I use a mix of peppercorns, paprika, and garlic powder with a little Tabasco to spice the meat. For sauce, most people like salsa, of course, but Jill pre- fers avocado ranch on her taco. Get a frying pan heating up around medium-high heat, then put your tortillas on a ceramic plate and let them sit out on the stovetop near, not on the burner. You can also bake them at a low tempera- ture if you like, as long as they are nice and warm when it's time to fill them up. No fresh-from-the-fridge tortillas! Drop your ground beef into the pan once the pan is hot and brown it. You'll want to break it up with a spoon or spat- ula while it browns, and add the spices early on in the cook- ing time so they cook into the beef. There's no real "right time," as long as the beef is browned to your taste. Rare is fine if that's what you like and if you trust your beef supplier. Once the beef is pretty much do- ne, sprinkle your shredded cheese over the beef and stir it up. You could also sprinkle the cheese in- to each taco, but it won't melt as nicely if you do that. When the cheese is melted, turn off the heat You'd think putting together a new farm bill would be fairly easy. A fter all, Congress does this very often. But it almost always turns into a tug of war. Regardless of why that happens, it shouldn't be business as usual this year. Lawmakers have an opportuni- ty to re-evaluate the $13 billion spent annually on farm subsidies, and they should take advantage of it. During the Great Depression, farm subsidies were created to sup- port the struggling family farm. Since then, however, the program has spiraled far from its original intent. As noted in a report by the Heritage Foundation, farm subsidies have devolved into one of the nation's largest corporate welfare programs. Recently, OpenTheBooks.com, a national transparency nonprofit or- ganization, released its full oversight report on the federal farm subsidy program, detailing just where the $13.2 billion in fiscal 2017 subsidy payments flowed. "The farm subsidy program was never intended to be welfare for the wealthy," OpenTheBooks Founder Adam Andrzejewski said. "These subsidies have become so lucrative that wealthy investors, large corpora- tions, and farm-estate heirs use tax- payer money to maximize their own return on investment." Through the federal farm subsi- dy program, rich farmers are getting richer. Last year, nearly 400 entities including farmers, corporations and agri-businesses received between $1 million and $ 9.9 million each in farm subsidies. Since 2008, more than $11 billion in farm subsidies flowed to just 6,618 recipients who reaped at least $1 mil- lion each. Farm subsidies are intend- ed to alleviate farmer poverty, but most of these subsidies go to com- mercial farms that don't need taxpay- er help to stay afloat. Even billionaire businessman Glen Taylor, owner of the Minneso- ta Timberwolves NBA team and No. 350 on the Forbes 400 list, received $116,502 in farm subsidy payments last year. Does Mr. Taylor need tax- payer funding to run his egg-and- dairy farm in Iowa? Top farm subsidy recipients are hoarding the payments. Since 2008, the top 10 recipients each received an average of $18.2 million. The me- dian household income in Amer- ica is $ 60,000. That means these rich farmers received more than 30 times the average yearly income of U.S. families. Farm subsidies were designed to aid small family farms, but not all "family farms" are small. Nor are they struggling. Today, most farm subsidy recipients are not from tra- ditional "family farms." In fact, fam- ily-farm owners who reside in Amer- ica's most populated cities have their payments sent directly to their ur- ban address. Between 2015 and 2017, more than $ 626 million flowed to recipients in America's urban areas with more than a quarter million residents, and no farms. These city-dwelling recipi- ents might own a family farm some- where. But should thousands of dol- lars in taxpayer-funded farm subsi- dy payments really flow to city apart- ments rather than farms? Often, these recipients aren't ac- tive on the farm — they're working other jobs. Nearly $ 8 million in farm subsidies flowed to recipients in Chi- cago, Ill., over a three-year period. In 2017, for example, nearly $50,000 in payments designated for Big Run Farms LLC flowed to the owner's dental practice in the city rather than to the Iowa farm. Find- ings such as these should raise a red flag to Congress, reminding them just how dire farm-subsidy reform actually is. And why haven't lawmakers pur- sued real reform? Perhaps because members directly in charge of re- form benefit from the program al- ready. In 2017, at least a dozen mem- bers of Congress pocketed thou- sands in farm subsidy payments. This is Congress' fresh chance to show commitment to farm subsidy reform. Considering recipient wealth when allotting farm subsidies would considerably downsize the program. Whatever specific steps that law- makers take, it's time to put the myth that taxpayer subsidies help strug- gling farmers out to pasture. Ed Feulner is founder of The Heri- tage Foundation (heritage.org). August is rainy season in Pana- ma, and so perhaps the Naval offi- cer held an umbrella over his wife 82 years ago as they made their way into the Coco Solo hospital in the Canal Zone, if he wasn't out to sea. I could conceivably ask her myself someday, because she's still kicking and reportedly feisty at 106. I went to the Coco Solo emergen- cy room a couple of times in the 1970s, but they weren't telling any John McCain stories there, and I never saw the maternity ward. If the infant McCain had snatched a cigar from his father and demanded a match, it would not be the most astonishing sto- ry I've heard about him. Not even close. I'm not sure what to believe about John Sidney McCain III. He has the most ferocious de- tractors, who accuse him of in- forming on fellow captives in a North Vietnamese pris- on, and betraying crit- ical military informa- tion that enabled the enemy to shoot down more U.S. aviators. His accusers range from obvious flakes to some people who appear pret- ty credible to me. But he has credible die-hard defenders, too, who insist that he conducted him- self honorably under the most ex- treme conditions. All we know for sure is that he went into harm's way in his country's service, was held in captivity for five years and came home in great pain, unable to comb his own hair. Like most Americans, I'm inclined to give a banged-up ex- POW the benefit of the doubt. But McCain himself was not so generous toward POW/MIA ac- tivists, whom he rid- iculed as "hoaxers" and "charlatans." I have no firm opinion whether we left a sig- nificant number of soldiers and Marines behind in Vietnam. I don't pretend to know. But if the government sent one of my loved ones off to war and he or she never came back, I think we would be entitled to the utmost transparency. At last count, there are 1,597 unexplained missing. The government is accountable for each citizen it sent into harm's way. That's what Congress acknowl- edged in the Missing Service Per- sonnel Act, including enforce-