The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1054616
C-8 Wednesday, November 21, 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 Thanksgiving My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Thanksgiving: This week will be another memorable one for many I'm sure. There are ma- ny blessings to be thankful for. . .from the most obvious to the least obvious. There is the daily bless- ings of food, shelter, work, families and friends. Blessings of living in a country that seemingly provides us with a sense of orderliness, and peace, and security. But we also live now in a world seemingly filled with difficult is- sues that sometimes stress us be- yond our capacity and understand- ing. No matter how difficult life may seem to challenge us, we have to go on relying onfaith, courage and a sense of optimism coupled with grateful and prayerful hearts. A fter all, life is such a short jour- ney . Must we then be crushed by pessimism and despair? Or must we journey with great purpose and vision and love for each other. ***** It will be here before you know it: In four weeks, we will be cele- brating one of the greatest events in human history. Christmas will then bring upon all of us memories of joy, peace and goodwill; the spir- it of friendships, and family, and in most parts of the world glad tid- ings. It is my hope the commercial aspect of the season will not be the focus of our attention. On the other hand, we realize the sad aspects of this season. Sometimes, the push for commer- cialism can break the economic sanity of many. We also know that this is a time when broken relation- ships can be felt more severely. So therefore, it is so important not to lose the correct perspective of this season. That is, it will be a time for re- newing love, kindness, generosi- ty and forgiveness. Because that is the message of our Saviour. It has not changed over the past 2000 years. The elections are over, and the wounds will take time to heal; Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and we are about to be overwhelmed by Black Friday. Though the message in our age is buy, buy, buy and con- sume, the holiday season remains founded upon the birth of a child long ago in Bethlehem. Christianity began as a small sect, but within 300 years, it had displaced the pagan world of its pantheon of gods. So much of Christmas is cen- tered upon children that one can- not discard the place within the ministry of Jesus for children; Je- sus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Marks writes of Jesus, "And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." Jesus highlighted the val- ue of children and without ques- tion, they were to be nurtured and loved. It is beyond our abili- ty to grasp that at the time of Jesus, the cul- ture of the Greco-Ro- man world consid- ered children proper- ty that could be sold, used as slaves, sex ob- jects, and mistreated. Christianity's fixation on life rescued many children and infants who were abandoned to die, a common prac- tice when a child was not wanted. Jesus increased the value of women as he wandered into Sa- maria and broke with accepted social mores by talking to a Sa- maritan woman and instructing her about eternal life. The apostle Paul reiterated this break when he wrote to the church at Galatia, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The gospels and epistles raised the status of wom- en, and the impor- tance of women and ministry in the New Testament are men- tioned. One personal letter from the Apostle Paul to his Christian Broth- er Philemon shift- ed the way in which Christians deal with slavery. Onesimus was a runaway slave who became a Christian, and Paul had befriended him. Paul was writ- ing Philemon, a friend in Christ, to receive his servant back, but Paul added a caveat, "Perhaps the rea- son he [Onesimus] was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forev- er— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Jesus: He changes everything Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 8 Minority View by Walter E. Williams We have an identity problem Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 According to a recent report in the New York Times, Health and Hu- man Services Department officials have been circulating a proposal to define sex. Their memo says, "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biolog- ical traits identifiable by or before birth." They add, "The sex listed on a person's birth certificate, as origi- nally issued, shall constitute defini- tive proof of a person's sex unless re- butted by reliable genetic evidence." I think the latter statement lacks complete rigor. It's chromosomes, not what's on a birth certificate, that determine one's sex. Therefore, if a fetus has X X chromosomes, a female is born, and if a fetus has X Y chro- mosomes, a male is born. What's an open-and-shut case in biology can become confused in the political/social arena, particu- larly when one's sex is referred to as one's gender. By the way, before modern times, the term gender was used solely when referring to the grammar of some languages, such as French, in which nouns and pro- nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter and require words syntacti- cally associated with them. Gender has become completely disassociat- ed with biological rea- soning. For example, in the past when a person signed up for a Face- book account, "male" and "female" were the only options. In 2014, Facebook introduced 50 gender options, includ- ing intersex, gender nonconforming, non-bi- nary and androgynous (http://tinyurl.com/y9sb3a3j). In addition to the muddying of waters about one's sex, race has be- come muddied. Sen. Elizabeth War- ren has long claimed that she has Native American heritage. Har- vard University and the University of Pennsylvania saw her as making a contribution to their law schools' racial diversity agenda by being on their faculties. Recently, ma- ny doubted her heritage and lam- pooned and harangued the Mas- sachusetts Democrat as "Pocahon- tas." (She also has been dubbed Lieawatha.) Warren's recent effort to settle the issue through DNA analysis blew up in her face. She is only between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American. This new liberal agenda allowing flex- ibility in determin- ing one's identity was used by Rachel Dolezal to land a job as presi- dent of the Spokane, Washington, office of the NA ACP and to be- come a professor of A f- ricana studies at East- ern Washington University. Dolezal was born Caucasian but chose to be a black person; she was outed by her white parents. The NA ACP de- fended Dolezal, saying, "One's ra- cial identity is not a qualifying cri- teria (sic) or disqualifying standard for NA ACP leadership." By the way, as far as Dolezal is concerned, she's still a black person. She has a new legal name, Nkechi Amare Diallo, which means "gift of God" in Ibo. You might ask, "Williams, what's the problem? This is America, and people are whomever they say they are." Here's something for you to Poland marks centennial of independence Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Observations By Thomas Sowell Rethinking our Christmas lists Moral bankruptcy Linda Thompson-Jenner and Da- vid Foster wrote a song entitled "My Grown-Up Christmas List" about three decades ago. No, it wasn't the kind of "grown-up" list that Hugh Hefner or Howard Stern would have handed to Santa. It was about world peace, enduring mar- riages, friendship, justice and heal- ing - that sort of thing. But it was also about Christians growing up, emerging from the materialism that gradually over- took American childhood—and children's Christmas—in the 20th Century. "Heaven surely knows that packages and bows can nev- er heal a hurting heart." It was a prayer, actually. Heartfelt, poi- gnant, and yet optimistic. But 30 years later, materialism has strengthened its grip on Chris- tians. Adults are, if anything, more materialistic than children. Our Christmas list needs to grow up. We have a family friend who is very "churchy." She sprinkles her conversation with Biblical apho- risms, enforces modesty of speech and dress in her family, and rare- ly misses Sunday worship. But she shops at Target. I don't know how she could be unaware of the boycott against Tar- get, or of the reason for it: Target allows grown men into women's restrooms and changing areas, no questions asked. The American Family Associ- ation has documented several in- cidents of menace and voyeurism against girls and women in Tar- get restrooms, in Texas, Oregon and Idaho, to name a few. But the corporation has refused to revoke its dangerous policy, and is count- ing on a strong Christmas shop- ping season to redeem its disap- pointing sales thus far this (boy- cott) year. How heartbreaking that a Christ- mas tradition would strengthen de- praved executives against decent believers, against girls who just want privacy where they remove their clothes. But how decent are Christians, anyway, who continue to shop at Target? Have the liber- tines called our bluff? Have they correctly calculated that we don't really care? Last month in Massachusetts, a man dressed as a woman fol- lowed a 10 -year-old girl into the ladies' room in a Target store. He knocked on the door of the stall where the girl sat. He compliment- ed her T-shirt, offered her candy and changed his clothes while they were alone in the restroom, her fa- ther waiting outside. Is that OK with Christian shoppers? Target's Christian clientele would deny, of course, that they in- tend any endorsement of the cor- poration's policy to allow men into the women's restrooms. And that may be accurate. But they have to stare pretty hard at the ceiling to avoid seeing that their patronage accommodates and acquiesces in the worst impulses of Target exec- utives. By prospering Target exec- utives, Christian shoppers are giv- ing the gift of impunity, and invit- ing further victimization. Bible Belt shoppers may calcu- late that transgenders are rare in this zip code, so the Target poli- cy's not a serious problem here. But that's faulty reasoning, a non sequitur. The problem at Target isn't so-called transgenders. The problem is predatory male aggres- sors who are empowered and em- boldened by Target's restroom pol- icy to menace girls and women be- hind closed doors, undeterred by security, retail staff or the victims' own male family members. It's a green light for voyeurs, exhibition- ists and assailants. At the very least, Christians who shop there have to admit that they have subordinated their val- ues to their materialistic desires. Whatever they're selling in those stores must be more important to them than decency, privacy, mod- esty and the physical safety of girls and women. The only alternative to that conclusion is that they do not hold those values in the first place. It's not just Target. In February, Walgreen's announced it too will allow men in the ladies' room in We celebrated a significant milestone this Veterans Day: 100 years since the end of World War I. But another noteworthy anni- versary fell on that day. Nov. 11, 2018, also marked the centennial of a free Poland, one of America's most important allies in Europe. It's been a rough journey, though. The road since that his- toric day in 1918 has been pock- marked with strife. Being situated between Germa- ny and Russia is the global equiv- alent of drawing the short straw. World War II officially began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Hitler's army invaded Poland from the west. On- ly 17 days later, the Soviets rolled in from the east. Thanks to the post-war Warsaw Pact, Poland wound up in the So- viet bloc of states, its people ruled by communists who did Moscow's bidding. But this state of affairs was not destined to last forever. The deter- mined and courageous efforts of certain key leaders — from Pres- ident Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatch- er, to Pope John Paul II (the first Polish pontiff ) and Solidarity lead- er Lech Walesa — effected a re- markable transformation in the 1980s. Together, they and the freedom-loving people of Poland re- wrote history. Their country today is a NA- TO member and a loy- al friend of the United States. I was back in Poland just (some weeks) be- fore its recent round of elections in Octo- ber and met with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Once again, I was struck with what a vibrant de- mocracy it is. It also features an open and growing economy — the Europe- an Union's sixth-largest, in fact, thanks in part to a strong man- ufacturing sector. Poland ranks 45th out of 180 countries in the latest "Index of Economic Free- dom." Sure, it has a couple of weak spots, but considering how long the country suffered under com- munist rule, that's really a remark- able accomplishment. Poland's strong institutions, the Index editors note, enabled it to be- come the only European country to record economic growth during the 2009 credit crisis. More importantly for the United States, Poland is key to a safe Europe. It is a vi- tal bulwark against Moscow's geopoliti- cal designs. As histo- rian Lee Edwards has pointed out: "As the next-door neighbor of Ukraine and with uncertain- ty about Russia's next aggressive move, Poland matters. Adjoining as it does the three Bal- tic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — all prime targets of Russian President Vladimir Pu- tin's imperialist design — Poland matters. As the largest, most pros- perous, and most entrepreneurial member of the old Warsaw Pact, Poland matters." Poland certainly does matter, which is why Americans should be grateful that relations between our nations remains strong. Georgette Mosbacher, the U.S. ambassador to Poland, and Piotr Wilczek, Po- land's ambassador to the U.S., just penned a joint op-ed to praise what they called "a high point in bilater- People who follow politics, even casually, learn not to expect high moral standards from politicians. But there are some outrages that show a new low, even for politi- cians. Among the consequences of Democrats' recent election vic- tories, especially at the state and local levels, is the election of officials who have publicly an- nounced their opposition to char- ter schools, and their determina- tion to restrict or roll back the growth of those schools. What have the charter schools done to provoke such opposition? Often located in low-income, minority neighborhoods, these schools have in many cases pro- duced educational outcomes far better than the traditional public schools in such neighborhoods. A Success Academy charter el- ementary school in Harlem had a higher proportion of the children in one of its classes pass the state- wide math exam than in any other class at the same grade level, any- where in the state of New York. As a result of the charter schools' educational achievements, it is not uncommon for thousands of chil- dren to be on waiting lists to get into such schools—in New York City, tens of thousands. This represents a huge oppor- tunity for many low-income, mi- nority youngsters who have very few other opportunities for a bet- ter life. But, to politicians depen- dent on teachers' unions for mon- ey and votes, charter schools are expendable. In various communities around the country, charter schools are al-