The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1029239
B-8 Wednesday, September 19, 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 Trump administration is consid- ering rescinding a Dear Colleague Let- ter, sent to public school administra- tors nationwide in 2014, which provid- ed guidelines regarding school disci- pline policies consistent with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. According to Title VI, racial discrim- ination at institutions receiving federal funds is illegal. The letter was sent by the Obama administration Department of Jus- tice's civil rights division and the De- partment of Education's office for civ- il rights. The point of the letter was, accord- ing to then-Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, to provide "information on how schools and districts can meet their legal obligations to administer student discipline without discrimina- tion on race, color, or national origin." Sounds reasonable enough. But a closer look reveals that these were far more than guidelines. Behind the scenes, the Obama administration's Department of Education used the DCL to aggressively launch investi- gations to assure that school districts implemented these guidelines, which constituted a highly questionable de- parture from what civil rights law re- quires. The DCL informed school officials that they would be investigating more than disciplinary policies applied vari- ably across racial lines. Now, uniform- ly constructed and applied disciplinary policies would be viewed as noncom- pliant if they produce disparate results. One doesn't need to be a constitu- tional or civil rights law scholar to see this as a problem. And, in fact, when current Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was assistant secretary for civil rights at Secular culture had driven the Church to turmoil over the defi- nition of gender identity and mar- riage. Historically, sexual activity was to be confined to marriage, and marriage was between a man and a women. Any deviation was considered sin, period. The church has been broadsid- ed with this issue which is a direct result of the American Psycholog- ical Association, which in 1972 re- moved homosexuality from its list of disorders. Churches soon began to deal with those among them who advocated for LGBT in- clusion. The same year that the APA re- moved homosexuality as a mental health issue, the United Church of Christ became the first Christian denomination to accept gay clergy for ordination, and the church has never been the same. In the post-Chris- tian era, the moral in- fluence that under- pinned Western Civ- ilization is gone. Ho- mosexuality took the script from the civil rights movement and has gone from repres- sion to persecuting those who consider sodomy and gay mar- riage sinful, and they demand sanctions. Most Protestant denomina- tions in the US have opened ordi- nation of practicing gay clergy in- to ministry including the Presby- terian Church USA, the Old Cath- olic Church USA, the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Moravian Church of North Amer- ica, the Mennonite Church in the USA, Evangelical Luther- an Church in Ameri- ca, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). All denominations that have opted to embrace LGBT cler- gy have experienced schisms among their churches and members, with ma- ny conservative churches leav- ing their parent organization and forming new organizations. The United Methodist Church is the last large Protestant denomi- nation that is resisting the de- Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Disciplinary policies must be local After all these years, how safe are we? Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond More church controversy Getting rid of junk mail My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. I was reading a magazine called Generations which had an inter- esting article about getting rid of junk mail and telemarketing calls, mails or e mails—for good. There's some little work to do to accomplish this. The first step to- ward eliminating a large portion of one's junk mail is to participate in the DMA choice program from the Data and Marketing Association. This program was created to give you control over what mail you receive and help the DMA's more than 3,600 members avoid mail- ing to uninterested customers. The categories of mail you may opt out of receiving include cred- it card offers, catalogs, magazine offers, periodicals and promotion mailings, donation requests, bank offers, retail promotions and more. To register, visit www.dma- choice.org and enter your infor- mation, there is a $2 fee to reg- ister online, and the registration lasts for 10 years. Interestingly, I have a friend who does not mind receiving junk mail because he bundles them up and uses them for his fireplace to provide heat dur- ing winter. He is careful to choose what type to burn since apparently some glossy magazines emit more residue to the chimney. So, you can decide what to do with your junk mail if you want to continue receiving them. ***** To cancel pre-approved credit offers, visit OptOutPrescreen.com or call 888 -567-8688. If you regis- ter online or by telephone, regis- tration is valid for five years. Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 The Weekly by Alden Heuring Morality for squares Minority View by Walter E. Williams It's our Constitution not Kavanaugh Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 One of the best statements of how the Framers saw the role of the federal government is found in Federalist Paper 45, written by James Madison, who is known as the "Father of the Constitution": "The powers delegated by the pro- posed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on exter- nal objects, as war, peace, nego- tiation, and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the sever- al States will extend to all the ob- jects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liber- ties, and properties of the people." Today's reality is the polar oppo- site of that vision. The powers of the federal government are nu- merous and indefinite, and those of state governments are few and defined. If confirmed, Brett Kavanaugh will bring to the U.S. Supreme Court a vision closer to that of the Fram- ers than the vision of those who believe that the Constitution is a "living document." Those Americans ral- lying against Kavanaugh's confir- mation are really against the U.S. Constitution rather than the man — Judge Kavanaugh — whom I be- lieve would take seriously his oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. Was Madison misinformed or just plain ignorant about the pow- ers delegated to Congress? Before we answer, let's exam- ine statements of oth- er possibly "misin- formed" Americans. In 1796, on the floor of the House of Rep- resentatives, William Giles of Virginia con- demned a relief mea- sure for fire victims, saying the purpose and the right of Con- gress is to attend to not what gen- erosity and humanity require but instead what their duty requires. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce vetoed a bill intended to help the mentally ill, writing to the Senate, Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker The popular television series Spongebob Squarepants is certain- ly not known for its educational value. But having recently been exposed to some of the early ep- isodes, I couldn't help but notice a distinct moral pattern in the sto- ries that caught my interest. So, of course, I wanted to share it. Let's look at the episode "Bub- bles" as an example. "Bubbles" follows a very simple plot line. Spongebob sets up a stand to sell bubble wands and bubble blow- ing lessons. Patrick buys in (with a quarter he borrowed from his pal, Spongebob) and the two start blowing bubbles. This irritates their neighbor Squidward, who is trying to play clarinet. He lobs some verbal abuse, attempts to blow a better bubble than Sponge- bob and Patrick to show them up, fails, and when he finally succeeds (by stealing Spongebob's method and taking the credit for himself ), the bub- ble carries him and his house high into the sky before popping. Mean- while, Spongebob and Patrick spend this entire time en- couraging and cheering Squid- ward on in his selfish struggles, because they're just happy that he's participating with them. Watching this episode, the mor- al allegory is almost painfully ob- vious. Spongebob is a type of our merciful God, draw- ing others into his joy- ous existence by offer- ing bubble wands and bubble lessons. Pat- rick is the converted believer, buying into Spongebob's message and sharing abundant- ly in his bubble-blow- ing life. Spongebob and Patrick offer this same life to Squidward, who rejects the Good News of bubbles, spends the entire episode thwarting him- self, and ultimately is crushed un- der the weight of his own selfish It's a natural question to ask ev- ery time the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks rolls around: Are we safer now than we were then? The short answer is yes. We are. But there's a huge caveat attached to that, as well as some much-need- ed context to consider. To understand what I mean, let me ask you: How many terrorist plots or attacks has the U.S. home- land faced since that fateful day in 2001? Most people, I'll bet, wouldn't guess more than a dozen. Maybe more, but not much more. Very few would guess the actual num- ber: 104. That's right. Not a dozen. Clos- er to 10 dozen. Sounds incredible, I know. But should we be surprised? A fter all, 87 of those plots were uncovered by law enforcement agencies be- fore they could carry out their deadly attacks. Foiled attacks aren't report- ed nearly as widely and breath- lessly as ones that succeed. Be- sides, they're competing with wall-to-wall coverage of political food fights. Good luck breaking through the clutter. Plus, many of these attacks are smaller in scope. They'll involve maybe one or two individuals plan- ning to plant, say, a dirty bomb at a courthouse or a shopping mall. Seventeen years later, we re- member Mohamed Atta, the tac- tical leader of the 9/11 plot. But how many have even heard of Mat- in A zizi-Yarand? He's the 17-year- old North Texas student who was arrested in May before he could carry out his plan to launch a dead- ly shooting at a suburban mall in Dallas, Texas. A zizi-Yarand made the mistake of talking about his plans with an undercover FBI agent. His arrest warrant quotes him as saying, "I swear I want to achieve Allah's pleasure and kill the kuffar" (Ara- bic for "nonbeliever"). Also: "I've only been reading ISIS magazine guidelines for performing opera- tions and making bombs." We've been conditioned by 9/11 to think of a terrorist attack as something that involves a large group hijacking huge planes and driving them into some very high- profile targets and killing thou- sands in one fell swoop. But the threat has shifted. Rather than a large cell and a huge attack that can be more eas- ily ferreted out, today's terrorists are pursuing a death-by-a-thou- sand-cuts strategy. It's become one big, lethal do-it-yourself proj- ect, outsourced to freelancers who have joined the cause. At least they're attempting to. The good news is that we're more secure today. It's gotten much harder for our enemies to suc- ceed, even when they diversify the threat, so to speak. That's why I said yes, we're saf- er. But the context is that the ter- rorists are still out there. They're still trying. We can't let the lack of another 9/11 lull us into a false sense of security. Another unwelcome but neces- sary bit of context: The threat that we face now is much more likely to be "homegrown" — someone rad- icalized in the United States, not shipped in from abroad, like the 9/11 attackers were. A zizi-Yarand, for example, grew up here. He was living with his parents in Plano, Texas, when he was arrested. The caveat I mentioned is that we can't afford to let up in our ef- forts to detect these plots and stop these terrorists in their tracks. In fact, we can and should do more. According to terrorism expert Da- vid Inserra, sensible steps include: • Improving our aviation secu- rity by looking to other countries and the private sector for lessons and greater efficiency. • Continuing to stress the im- portance of lawful intelligence pro- grams that help the U.S. stop ter- rorists before they strike. • Reforming oversight of the Department of Homeland Securi- ty so that our security officials get clear guidance from Congress that lets them spend more time keep- Believe in something, but only if it's true Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 I was startled to learn that Nike is making former NFL quarter- back Colin Kaepernick the face of its next marketing campaign. Kae- pernick, you may recall, was rid- ing the San Francisco 49'ers bench two years ago, not only during the national anthem but during the games, due to inferior play. Nike and Kaepernick's support- ers are attempting to revise history at this point, claiming that he sacri- ficed his career on a matter of prin- ciple. "Believe in something," the Nike Kaepernick ad urges, "even if it means sacrificing everything." But Kaepernick's career as a starting quarterback was already over before he started disrespect- ing the flag and the national an- them. By the time he was benched, he was rated 28th out of 28 starting NFL quarterbacks. NFL defens- es had cracked the code, and his brief honeymoon in the league came to a bone- jarring halt. If I were looking for somebody to represent the Nike slogan to "be- lieve in something even if it means sacrificing everything," I'd proba- bly lean toward Barro- nelle Stutzman, own- er of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington. Mrs. Stutzman, 73, has served and em- ployed gay people all her life, but that wasn't good enough for Wash- ington state's grandstanding attor- ney general, who joined with the American Civil Liberties Union to sue the Christian lady because she refused to design floral art for a longtime customer's homosexu- al wedding. Or Jack Phillips, co- owner (with his wife) of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood, Colorado. The state ordered him to design cakes celebrating ho- mosexual marriage, or get out of the busi- ness. He took them to court instead. A f- ter several years, he won a 7-2 Su- preme Court decision this summer. The state has already trumped up another case against him. Phil- lips says that when he gets vulgar, threatening phone calls from gay allies, he takes it as an opportuni-