The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1056545
The Press-Dispatch Opinion Wednesday, November 28, 2018 C- 9 And neither could we. If Ameri- cans had not combined as a nation, our scattered episodes of resistance would have been futile. It was nation- alism that vanquished our foe and formed our identity. What do today's anti-national- ists wish for us? The British are our friends now. But there are others who want to lord it over Americans, to dis- arm, dispossess and disenfranchise us, even if they're not monarchists. They can't do that to real Americans. And so they have mounted a steady, corrosive drip-drip campaign against the legitimacy of our national identi- ty, against nationalism. I watch a granddaughter, her team- mates and coaches withhold full re- spect during the national anthem and I wonder whether grateful American- ism is undergoing the same disinte- gration as Thanksgiving tradition did. I wonder whether we are grad- ually drifting away from it, replacing it with new enthusiasms that are less connective and more self-indulgent. All I can say for sure is that I am, like the president, a nationalist. Use that word. their products, there must be a way to prevent unsolicited ads and calls from flooding our devices. Some ideas from everyone joining in on the conversation consisted of the following: Just hang up and don't say anything when the call is suspicious. Give the phone number of a law en- forcement office if you happen to en- gage in a conversation. Report the company doing the un- solicited call to the Better Business Bureau. Respond "No speak English" seems effective. Give the phone number of a person you don't like. This is a joke of course. I advise please don't do that. • • • In about three and a half weeks, we will be celebrating Christmas. The in- tensity of shopping activities will ac- celerate if it has not already happened. While our economy appears really strong and shoppers are seemingly splurging, we have to remember exer- cising a good balance between spend- ing and being sensible with one's re- sources. Very hard to accomplish in- deed. • • • Humor of the week: Sometimes I come across humor coming from my nativeland. Here's one. There was a conference of archeologists from dif- ferent countries discussing about methods of communications from centuries ago. An archeologist from Egypt said, "I have proof the Egyp- tians had used copper for sending an early form of electrical impulses. Next, the Chinese archeologist spoke and said, "We have found some evidence the Chinese inventors used mercury for conducting electrical im- pulses." Then the Japanese scientists re- ported, "We have found evidence our great scientists invented an early form of fiber optics for our communication grid." The Filipino archeologist not want- ing to be outdone said, "We dug and dug through our supposed grid but could not find any material. We then concluded that we were the first one to use wireless technology." Have a great week! Continued from page 8 MARKETING Continued from page 8 AMERICANISM Court Report CRIMINAL Pike Circuit Court James Michael Johnson charged with count I child molesting, a level 1 felony, and count II child molesting. David V. Vickers charged with count I maintaining a common nui- sance - controlled substances, a level 6 felony, count II possession of meth- amphetamine and count III operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Heath M. Gamble charged with count I possession of methampheta- mine, a level 6 felony, and count II op- erating a vehicle while intoxicated. Amy Michelle Huey charged with count I possession of methampheta- mine, a level 6 felony, count II posses- sion of marijuana and count III pos- session of paraphernalia. Joseph A. Schaefer charged with count I battery resulting in bodily in- jury to a public safety official, a level 5 felony, count II resisting law enforce- ment, count III resisting law enforce- ment and count IV theft. Bruce M. Phillips charged with count I possession of methampheta- mine, a level 6 felony, and count II ob- struction of justice. Jessie M. Hildenbrand charged with count I neglect of a dependent, a level 6 felony, count II maintaining a common nuisance - controlled sub- stances and count III unlawful posses- sion of syringe. In re: search warrant. Stephanie Renault petitions for in- trastate probation transfer. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike Circuit Court Dexter L. McCurry charged with count I possession of marijuana and count II possession of paraphernalia. Crystal Lynn Catiller charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. CIVIL Pike Circuit Court Cach, LLC sues Lynne Phillips AK A Lynne Hill on complaint. Cach, LLC sues Mark E. Allbritton on complaint. SMALL CLAIMS Pike Circuit Court Pike County School Corp sues Mac- ey Heiple on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Jen- nifer Purkiser on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Josh Vickers on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Tri- sha Bottoms on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Sa- mantha McDaniel on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Da- vid Glaser on complaint. Pike County School Corp sues Tam- my Straw on complaint. Elissa D. Carter and Joseph P. Mornson sue Natashia Airman on complaint. Continued from page 8 TREATY This seems to happen with other international agreements. We comply, they don't. We threaten to leave, everyone predicts gloom and doom. It gets a little old after a while. The other problem with the INF Treaty is China. It wasn't a party to the agree- ment, which isn't surprising: 31 years ago, it wasn't the rising military superpow- er that it is now. But as I've been pointing out, things change. Today, Beijing has the world's second-largest mil- itary budget. And it's been building up its forces for some time now, including in areas that threaten Amer- ican interests. "China has developed and deployed a significant con- ventional and nuclear ballis- tic and cruise missile arse- nal as part of its rising super- power status in the interna- tional system and its efforts to assert its interests in the Pacific region — and be- yond," writes Mr. Brookes. Guess who's been critical of Mr. Trump's announce- ment that he might abro- gate the INF Treaty? Bei- jing. Think they'd agree to join the agreement? Don't bet on it — we proposed that in 2007, and the Chinese ob- jected. So that's the situation: Russia is violating the trea- ty, China is building up its missiles, but if we withdraw from the treaty, we're the "destabilizing" party. Makes about as much sense as using a Compaq Portable III in 2018. Why trust our security to an out- moded treaty that ties our hands? Ed Feulner is founder of The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org). Continued from page 8 COLLEGE students to report — of- ten anonymously — their neighbors, friends and professors for any instanc- es of supposed biased speech and expression. A recent Brookings In- stitution poll found that nearly half of college stu- dents believe that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. That's nonsense; it is. Fif- ty-one percent of college students think they have a right to shout down a speaker with whom they disagree. Nineteen per- cent of students think that it's acceptable to use vio- lence to prevent a speak- er from speaking. Over 50 percent agree that colleg- es should prohibit speech and viewpoints that might offend certain people (http://tinyurl.com/yayx- t45u). One shouldn't be surprised at all if these vi- sions are taught and held by many of their profes- sors. Colleges once taught and promoted an under- standing of Western cul- ture. Today many profes- sors and the college bu- reaucracy teach students that they're victims of Western culture and val- ues. Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech." Much later, Su- preme Court Justice Pot- ter Stewart said, "Censor- ship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an au- thoritarian regime." From the Nazis to Stalinists to Maoists, tyrants have al- ways started out support- ing free speech, just as American leftists did dur- ing the 1960s. Their sup- port for free speech is easy to understand. Speech is vital for the realization of their goals of command, control and confiscation. The right to say what they please is their tool for in- doctrination, propagan- dizing and proselytization. Once the leftists gain con- trol, as they have at many universities, free speech becomes a liability and must be suppressed. This is increasingly the case on university campuses. Much of the off-campus incivility we see today is the fruit of what a college education has done to our youth. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Continued from page 8 POLITICS It is still too early to un- derstand what ramifications this action by the Patriarch of Constantinople will pro- duce, but at the center are the geopolitical events of the Western world with Russia and the Ukraine, which es- calated in 2014 with an in- ternal revolution when an opposition party in effect overthrew its democratical- ly elected government, and declared it was breaking re- gional ties with Russia. Rus- sia responded by annexing the Crimea when that re- gion voted to succeed from the Ukraine and join Russia. Politics is tying a Gord- ian knot in this ecclesias- tical difference. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshen- ko remarked upon hearing of the announcement, "This is a victory of good over evil, light over darkness." This has the makings of a very dark period among the faith- ful in the Ukraine. Politics will injure the Ukrainian church as it is ap- parent that its aims are na- tionalism, and not spiritu- al. Churches in the Ukraine will have to choose, or be forced to choose, whether to follow the newly auton- omous Ukrainian Church or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Pa- triarchate. Only in a world far re- moved from ours can one es- cape politics. Centuries ago, Aristotle wrote that man "is by nature a political animal." Politics, simply stated, is the "process of obtaining and using power." Holding and exercising power has perks, such as wealth, status, and privilege. This very fact leads to the unequal distribution of re- sources [such as mentioned wealth and privilege]. Sad- ly, no group regardless of in- tent [including the church] is exempt. For example, on a dai- ly basis in India, the caste structure prescribes how the populace [the four rec- ognized castes] will inter- act, and this is an accepted way of life. Inequalities are accepted as fate. Maybe in the next life, the Hindu dev- otee will rise above their pre- vious caste. The Church of Jesus Christ has no caste struc- ture, but all denominations have some recognized pow- er structure where decisions are made that will impact the lives of millions. The early church dur- ing the first three centuries placed the local bishop at the heart of the church, and each bishop worked as col- leagues to settle questions and practices of the faith. Eventually, that gave way to the demands of the bishop at the church at Rome who de- manded that he be accorded the honor of primacy. I am often bewildered as to the political maneuver- ings of the church in poli- tics and how it shepherds the faithful. At times, I think it misses the intent Jesus had when he told his disci- ples how they should treat one another [exercise pow- er], "You know that those who are considered rul- ers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but who- ever desires to become great among you shall be your ser- vant." Think about it! Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker A lesson in racial politics from Florida Now that, finally, the elections in Florida have reached a conclusion, there are lessons worth learning. One is on the subject of race. There was a fateful anomaly in ra- cial voting in the governor's race be- tween Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Rick DeSantis, now Flor- ida's governor-elect. Given that Gillum, formerly may- or of Tallahassee, was running to be- come the first black governor of Flor- ida, we might have expected black enthusiasm for his candidacy on the order of the waves of black enthusi- asm for the presidential candidacy of Barak Obama. But it didn't happen. Gillum received a lower percentage of the black vote than did Democrat Senator Bill Nelson, who lost to Rick Scott in the senate race. White Democrat Nelson got 90 per- cent of the black vote and Republican Scott got 10 percent. In the governor's race, black Demo- crat Gillum got 86 percent of the black vote, four percentage points less than Nelson, against Republican DeSantis' 14 percent. Given the razor-thin margins, that difference in black support meant a lot. When Gillum finally conceded the election, he was behind by 33,683 votes. Each 1 percent of the black vote equated to about 10,000 votes. So if Gillum had received 90 percent of the black vote, as did Bill Nelson, rather than 86 percent, he could well have had another 40,000 votes, which would have been his margin of victory. Forty thousand votes is about 35 percent of the 112,911 votes by which Donald Trump won Florida in 2016. It's 55 percent of the 73,189 votes by which Barack Obama won Florida in 2012. So understanding why Gil- lum received 4 percentage points less of the black vote than Nelson, and why De- Santis received 4 percentage points more of the black vote than Scott could make all the difference in what presiden- tial candidate wins Florida in 2020. Adding to the puzzle is the fact that racial politics played a high profile and nasty role in the Gillum-DeSantis con- test. Gillum was aggressive in his alle- gations of racism against DeSantis. "Now, I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I'm simply saying the rac - ists believe he is racist," he said. He accused DeSantis of getting finan- cial support from white supremacist groups and speaking at their events. DeSantis, a conservative former Republican congressman, made his support of Trump a centerpiece of his campaign, and President Trump cam- paigned for him in Florida. So how does this all compute? One convincing line of speculation is that DeSantis campaigned aggres- sively on parental choice in education and keeping in place and expanding the tax-credit scholarship program en- acted under Governor Jeb Bush. Gil- lum campaigned on closing down the program, which empowers parents to use these funds to send their children to charter and private schools. Polls consistently show that blacks support parental choice in education. And for good reason. Black children are disproportionately trapped in failing, vi- olent public schools. Black parents want alternatives for their kids. Gillum took the left- wing party line on edu- cation choice, against the sentiments of black constituents. This could have made all the difference. The lesson here is that blacks care about issues more than they care about skin color. It's an important lesson for Republi- cans going forward. They need to tune in to black concerns, which often are not the same as those of whites, and explain how the best solutions for those concerns are the conservative solutions. In addition to education, this means addressing issues such as housing, ur- ban violence and prison reform. The governor's race in Florida gives us good reason to believe that a more aggressive, targeted effort by Republi- cans in reaching out to minority com- munities could make all the difference in the outcome of the presidential elec- tion in 2020. Star Parker is an author and presi- dent of CURE, Center for Urban Renew- al and Education. Contact her at www. urbancure.org.