The Press-Dispatch
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C-10 Wednesday, Januar y 2, 2019 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 Conservatives at the Universi- ty of California at Berkeley got an early Christmas gift this year: a victory for free speech. It's been a rocky road lately for the First Amendment on campus, at least for those who don't hold to the usual liberal orthodoxy.,Invite a controversial speaker, as certain student groups have done, and you're courting trouble. For one thing, your event may not even happen. Spooked by the threats of those who oppose your speaker, nervous school officials may force you to rescind your in- vitation. Those who manage to appear, however, will likely be harassed so fiercely that they'll hardly get a chance to speak — which, of course, is the point. The media calls those who target such speakers "protesters." What a joke. As I've noted be- fore, protesting has a long and hallowed his- tory in America. If a controversial speak- er comes to a campus, and peo- ple who disagree with his mes- sage want to speak up, fine. Hoist your signs, distribute your litera- ture, etc. But do it outside the event. Don't fill the seats and scream at people, or block en- trances, or pepper- spray individuals, as has occurred on cer- tain campuses. That's the sort of re- ception that Milo Yi- annopoulos got when he arrived to speak at Berkeley on Feb. 1, 2017. As for- mer vice president of Berkeley Col- lege Republicans Naweed Tahmas pointed out in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, "An army of masked Antifa agitators besieged Berkeley, attacking bystanders and causing more than $100,000 worth of property damage — all to prevent a one-hour lecture." But there are other ways to sti- fle speech, as Berkeley alumnus David Horowitz discovered when he was invited to campus to speak. University officials imposed a $ 6,000 security fee on event or- ganizers, along with restrictions in their unwritten "high-profile speaker policy." Three guesses Endings and new beginnings My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. As the year 2018 ends, it is al- ways good to review what had hap- pened this past 12 months. But first of all, we all recognize that the number 2018 refers to 2,018 years A.D. ( Anno Domini or year of the Lord). Naturally, B.C. means Before Christ. The reference point of history is heavily impacted by the birth of Christ- before His birth and after His birth. Interestingly enough, the en- tire world has used this reference point even though many countries and many people do not necessari- ly subscribe to the Christian faith. We do know that even atheistic countries use our Christian calen- dar for commerce and world order. I think I am getting sidetracked, but that's alright. Now, get this. There was a push to get this B.C. and A.D. out of history. When I had the good fortune of visiting Isra- el years ago, the historical time frames on the captions of various billboards got changed to B.C.E. meaning Before a Certain Era, and C.E. meaning a Certain Era. So, I thought hmmm, there is again a rejection by some group of people about the historical fact of Christ. There will always be a rejec- tion about the reality of the histo- ry of redemption, as stated in many warnings in the Bible. What con- soles me is that our calendar based on the Christian time frame likely will never be changed, because to do so would collapse the order of history and commerce. ******* So let's get back to endings and beginnings. The past 12 months for many of us have brought the cycle of life- births amongst fami- ly members, friends and acquain- tances; weddings, birthdays, an- niversaries; graduations, new ven- I just finished Dr. F. F. Bruce's seminal work Israel among the Na- tions, and for me, it was captivating reading. Israel from its inception was a conflicted nation with cove- nant allegiance to God, yet refus- ing to discard their carnal desires. The intrigue is captivating: mur- der, assassinations, political alle- giances, simony, taxes, revolt, trib- ute, oppression, banishment, nep- otism, war and intrigue all come into play as one reads the story of Israel and what led to its destruc- tion. As I read the book, it remind- ed me of the modern era and our own political intrigue. Does his- tory repeat itself? Maybe not, but it rhymes because humanity is mired in sin and refuses to inoc- ulate itself against carnality. The antidote is Jesus Christ. The words of the apostle James rings true today as much as it did when he wrote to the church in the first century AD: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your plea- sures." James not only iden- tified why factions de- velop within church- es, but also why peo- ple quarrel and why nations go to war. The sin identified by the previ- ous passage is "covetousness:" a craving or lust for wealth, power, prestige, and/or another person's possessions. And so we should also under- stand that covertness is the ba- sis for politics and political par- ties. Political power and party ap- paratus is about exercising power over others; controlling the levers of government which includes who receives the distribution of taxes and tribute extracted by the gov- ernment from its citizenry. As I write this column, the gov- ernment is in partial shutdown with President Trump and Sen- ator Chuck Schumer intransient and unwilling to com- promise on funding a part of the border wall with Mexico. We have witnessed hysteria and hand- wringing from both parties after President Trump announcement he will bring 2,000 troops home from Syr- ia and deescalate the 18 -year war in A fghanistan. A few have suggested impeachment. The nation has been here before with a shutdown over policy. At is- sue is how much of this is actually policy versus theater for the 2020 presidential election year? The political parties long ago cast adrift the citizenry of the na- tion and have focused upon poli- tics of destruction and internation- al nation building. This pattern of dominating oth- ers was set in stone long ago by covetous men who sought to rule over others without Godly pre- cepts. It is found in the history Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond My New Year resolution Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Disparities galore Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Much is made about observed differences between sexes and among races. The nation's aca- demic and legal elite try to sell us on the notion that men and wom- en and people of all races should be proportionally represented in socio-economic characteristics. They make statements such as "Though A frican Americans and Hispanics make up approximate- ly 32 percent of the US population, they (constituted) 56 percent of all incarcerated people in 2015" and "20 percent of Congress is wom- en. Only 5 percent of CEOs are." These differences are frequent- ly referred to as disparities. Legal professionals, judges, politicians, academics and others often oper- ate under the assumption that we are all equal. Therefore, inequal- ities and disparities are seen as probative of injustice. Thus, gov- ernment must intervene, find the cause and engineer a policy or law to eliminate the injustice. Such a vi- sion borders on lunacy. There's no evidence anywhere or at any time in human history that shows that but for some kind of social injus- tice, people would be proportion- ally represented across a range of socio-economic attri- butes by race and sex. Indeed, if there is a dominant feature of mankind, it's that we differ significant- ly over a host of socio- economic characteris- tics by race, sex, eth- nicity and nationality. The differences have little or nothing to do with any sort of social injustice or unfair treatment. Let's examine some racial, ethnic and sex dis- parities with an eye toward iden- tifying the injustice involved. We might also ponder what kind of pol- icy recommendation is necessary to correct the disparity. Jews constitute no more than 3 percent of the U.S. population but are 35 percent of American Nobel Prize winners. As of 2017, Nobel Prizes had been award- ed to 902 individuals worldwide. Though Jews are less than 2 per- cent of the world's population, 203, or 22.5 percent, of the No- bel Prizes were awarded to Jews. Proportionality would have cre- ated 18 Jewish Nobel laureates instead of an "unfair" 203. What should Congress and the United Nations do to "correct" such a disparity? Should the Nobel committees be charged with racism? Jews are not the on- ly people taking more than their "fair share" of things. Blacks are 13 percent of the U.S. population but, in some seasons, have been as high as 84 percent of NBA players. Com- pounding that "injustice," blacks are the highest-paid basketball players and win nearly all of the MVP prizes. Blacks are also guilty of taking 67 percent, an "unfair" share, of professional football jobs. Blacks are in the top salary catego- ry in every offensive and defensive position except quarterback. But let's not lull ourselves into com- placency. How often do you see a black NFL kicker or punter? First Amendment often suffers on campus Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Protect our nation and build the wall Somehow a Grinch always manages to show up to ruffle our Christmas spirit. This year, the Grinch is the form of the Democratic leadership that is blocking the Christmas pres- ent that President Donald Trump wants to deliver to the nation in the form of a wall to defend our south- western border. Trump wants $5 billion for the wall as part of a bill to continue funding the federal government. The Democrats say, "No," so now we're in another of the all too fa- miliar standoffs, producing a gov- ernment shutdown. Why is this wall, which was a key component of the platform on which Trump ran and was elected, so important? I spend a lot of time on air- planes. It has always struck me that when the flight crew delivers the message before takeoff about the possibility of using an oxygen mask, they note that adults travel- ing with children should don their mask, before helping the child. It's counter to the instincts of most adults to do this. Which is why the instructions are explicit- ly given. You can't help your child, your neighbor or anybody else if you are not around to perform the task. The first job is look after your own personal safety. This is true of nations as well as individuals. Is building this wall on our southwestern border contrary to the message of the Statue of Lib- erty, which stands in New York harbor, inviting to our shores the world's "tired... poor... huddled masses, yearning to be free"? Certainly not. The wall is about protecting our nation and making sure that it continues, strong and free, so that the distressed of the world can continue to see America as a light, a refuge and a bastion of the world's greatest ideals. It just so happens that there are those around the world who are not huddled masses, but terrorists, drug dealers and others who want to undermine our national safety and integrity. Let us recall that those who pi- loted the planes on that horrible day, Sept. 11, 2001, leading to the deaths of more than 3,000 Amer- icans, trained in our country dur- ing the presidency of Bill Clinton. Latin America is a hotbed of un- stable, despotic regimes that pro- duce the horrible conditions caus- ing so many to want to leave. Des- potism produces dangerous bed- fellows, and pernicious regimes around the world see these des- potic regimes in Latin America as an opportunity for adventurism in our back yard. The Wall Street Journal's Amer- icas columnist Mary O'Grady has been regularly documenting this. Just last week, she wrote about Russia's penetration in Latin America, quoting head of U.S. Southern Command, Adm. Kurt W. Tidd, that "Russia's increased role in our hemisphere is particu- larly concerning... could eventual- ly transition from a regional spoil- er to a critical threat to the U.S. homeland." O'Grady also has written about the penetration of Iran into Latin America. "Iran has targeted Lat- in America since the mid-1980s by establishing mosques and cultural centers to spread the revolution," she writes. The point is there are real threats. Would anyone have op- posed spending $50 billion or $100 billion if it could have stopped 9/11? The federal budget is now more than $4 trillion. We are talking here about $5 billion, one-tenth of 1 percent. For perspective, in 1958, 60 per- cent of our federal budget went to defense and 25 percent went to social spending. Now 70 percent goes to social spending and less than 20 percent to defense. Some very confused people want to claim this wall is about racism. That conclusion is only possible if