The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1086608
C-8 Wednesday, Februar y 27, 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 Getting dumped is never fun, but when it happens on Valentine's Day? That really twists the knife. Case in point: Amazon, which announced on Feb. 14 that it had rejected one of the most ardent suitors for its much-ballyhooed "H2Q" site — New York City. "Amazon just took their ball and went home," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio later pouted. He cast Am- azon darkly as "corporate Amer- ica" and "the 1 percent" (boo! hiss!), rejecting a "fair deal" from the Big Apple. Talk about sour grapes. Imag- ine the compliments Mr. de Bla- sio would be lavishing on the same retail giant if it had said "I do" to his multi-million-dollar tax-break package … er, generous proposal? It's a shame the mayor can't see the real lesson here: Crony capi- talism is bad policy. Sweetheart deals for a select few, especially if they adhere to a politically correct agenda, isn't just morally wrong. In the long run, it's a losing strategy. "Employers want to set up shop in places where they can grow and succeed," writes budget ex- pert Rachel Greszler. "The best environ- ment for that is a lev- el playing field with minimal government interference and low, broad-based taxes — not picking winners and losers through special-interest sub- sidies." New York City doesn't have anything remotely approaching a level play- ing field. Even a fat tax-break pack- age can't make up for: • A top state marginal corporate tax rate of 17.2 percent (compared to a U.S. median of 6.8 percent); • Onerous zoning and land-use laws (which, Ms. Greszler notes, "could have prevented Jeff Bezos from arranging special helicopter pad access") • Outrageous property taxes • Numerous heavy- handed labor regulations, such as Mr. de Blasio's proposal to man- date that employers provide all workers with two weeks of paid vaca- tion. Why blast Ama- zon for realizing that it wouldn't pay, quite literally, to build its new headquarters in New York? This isn't a case of some mean ol' one-percenters leaving the city in a lurch. New York did this to itself. And if it doubts that, then why is Virginia still in the running for the big H2Q project? The payout the Old Dominion has offered Am- azon is smaller than the one the Big Apple held out. But on "Rich States, Poor States," the ALEC- Laffer State Economic Competi- tiveness Index, New York ranks dead last in the overall econom- ic outlook, while Virginia ranks among the top 10. Who do you believe? My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. This past few weeks have been rather tough. When I watch T V and listen to the news from various news sources, I get confused as to who to believe. Everybody seems to have a claim to what is accurate, what is truthful and who holds the correct perspective. I try to figure out which news alert I should pay attention to, as everything seems to be the "breaking news." When I go to Facebook and read up on postings, it seems there are a lot of topics on politics from both the right and the left leanings. I'm not sure, am I the only one who feels bewildered? Sometimes up- set and disappointed? When I start reading comments by every- one interested about certain con- troversies, I console myself with the thought that we have this privi- lege ..... that everyone has the free- dom to express their opinions. Some comments are very bold and bordering offensive. Some make very eye opening ideas and perspectives. I try to be open minded and see where people are coming from, and then make my own hopefully enlightened con- clusions. Sometimes I make com- ments and post them because I think in a democracy and a free society, I also have some notewor- thy thoughts. I try to be careful and tactful and avoid posting inflammatory state- ments. We live in a society where I believe civil discussions are more respected and are more credible. Ah, democracy, you can be a won- The next two columns will focus on Lent. This week will be on en- couraging the faithful to take up the call to engage in Lent, with the following week-Ash Wednes- day, will discuss following a Lent- en discipline. The practice of observing Lent can be traced to the early fourth century where the term tessara- koste ["forty days"] is mentioned in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea [AD 325] Before that [around the third century AD], the Church began to set aside the weeks before Eas- ter as a time of preparing the neo- phytes for baptism, and for the lapsed to do penance before be- ing restored. The first use of the word LENT can be found in the 13th century and has come to mean "a period of 40 days before Easter, during which Christians do not eat certain foods or do certain pleasurable ac- tivities as a way of remembering the suffering of Jesus Christ." Lent encompasses the weeks leading up to Passion Week, which Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday observances culmi- nates in Easter Sunday. For 2019, the West- ern Churches will observe Lent from Wednesday, March 6 through Saturday, April 20 – with Easter Sunday being the next day. The observance of Lent is somewhat con- fusing for the novice in how the days of Lent are counted. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Sat- urday, a total of forty-six days. The six Sundays that occur dur- ing Lent are not counted among the forty days, for each Sunday in considered a "mini-Easter," cele- brating Jesus' resurrection. That leaves exactly 40 days of fasting during the Lenten season. The observance of Lent extends to the [Greek] Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church calls their season of preparation the "Great Lent." In many ways, the Great Lent is similar to Lent in Western Christianity. The major difference between the Orthodox and Western Chris- tianity is the Orthodox Church calculates the date of Easter differ- ently. Most years, the Eastern Church cele- bration of Easter falls after the Western Eas- ter [and it may be as much as five weeks later]. However, Great Lent lasts for 40 days, but in contrast to the West, Sun- days are included in the count, and Lent begins on a Monday. For 2019, Great Lent begins on Mon- day, March 11, and ends on Sat- urday April 27, 2019 – with Easter Sunday being the next day! The scriptures do not mention Ash Wednesday or Lent, and the early Church did not observe these days. So why bother to observe a tradition not supported by scrip- ture? If we answer, "You are right; so let's don't," we could also dispel with much of what we call liturgy Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Afflicting the soul Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Plunder: An American way of life Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Frederic Bastiat, a French econ- omist and member of the French National Assembly, lived from 1801 to 1850. He had great admi- ration for our country, except for our two faults — slavery and tar- iffs. He said: "Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the pro- tection of every person's liberty and property." If Bastiat were alive today, he would not have that same level of admiration. The U.S. has become what he fought against for most of his short life. Bastiat observed that "when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that au- thorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." You might ask, "What did Bastiat mean by 'plunder'? " Plunder is when someone forci- bly takes the property of anoth- er. That's private plunder. What he truly railed against was legal- ized plunder, and he told us how to identify it. He said: "See if the law takes from some persons what be- longs to them, and gives it to oth- er persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen him- self cannot do without committing a crime." That could de- scribe today's Ameri- can laws. We enthusi- astically demand that the U.S. Congress forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another American. You say: "Wil- liams, that's insulting. It's no less than saying that we Americans support a form of slavery! " What then should we call it when two- thirds to three-quarters of a $4 trillion-plus federal budget can be described as Congress taking the property of one American and giv- ing it to another to whom it does not belong? Where do you think Congress gets the billions upon billions of dollars for business and farmer handouts? What about the billions handed out for Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing allowances and thou- sands of other hand- outs? There's no San- ta Claus or tooth fairy giving Congress the money, and members of Congress are not spending their own money. The only way Congress can give one American $1 is to first take it from an- other American. What if I privately took the prop- erty of one American to give to an- other American to help him out? I'm guessing and hoping you'd call it theft and seek to jail me. When Congress does the same thing, it's still theft. The only difference is that it's legalized theft. However, legality alone does not establish morality. Slavery was legal; was it moral? Nazi, Stalinist and Maoist purges were legal, but were they moral? Some argue that Congress gets Don't blame Amazon, New York Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Observations Sowell In health care, we need less government, not more Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Smollett is heir apparent to Tawana Brawley In a new Gallup poll, 35 percent say government is the worst prob- lem facing the U.S. In the 55 years that Gallup has asked the ques- tion — "What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today? " — this is the highest percentage of people who have identified the government as the nation's worst problem. Given how many Americans see the government as a large prob- lem, you have to wonder about so many Democratic politicians' am- bitions to give government increas- ing power over our lives — partic- ularly in an area as important as health care. "Medicare-for-all" is the new rage among Democrats, and each of the announced Democrat pres- idential contenders favors some version of this. However, as Democrats surge to the left, the enthusiasm of the na- tion as a whole for government-run health care is more muted. A De- cember Gallup poll shows just 40 percent in favor of a government- run health care system. Given what we should be look- ing for in a quality health care sys- tem — the best quality health care at the lowest possible prices, mak- ing sure that those who are eco- nomically challenged get care, too — the answer is less government, not more. University of Michigan econ- omist and blogger Mark Perry makes a strong case for why we would be better off with open, com- petitive health care markets. According to Perry, in the 20 Black homosexual actor Jussie Smollett is out on bail now after Chicago police arrested him for filing a false report that white at- tackers in Trump campaign hats thrashed him, shouted racist and homophobic slurs, looped a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him and screamed "this is M.A.G.A. country." Fortunately, an abundance of surveillance cameras disproved Smollett's false accusation. He paid two young Black friends to stage the fake attack. Smollett is the latest hustler to attempt to cash in on Liberals' ea- gerness to lynch toxic (conserva- tive) males. He may spend some time in jail because he was clumsy, and failed to study the lessons of Clarence Thomas, Roy Moore and Brett Kavanaugh before launching his own false accusations. If he had played it smarter, he'd be a martyr now, on the college lec- ture circuit, invited to deliver wit- ty comments on MSNBC and CNN news panels. But he was dumb. Smollett's factual claims were unambiguous. They were subject to evidence. No memories faded in three weeks. Recorded video from about 55 public and private surveil- lance cameras, including residen- tial doorbell cameras, presented an obstacle for Smollett's recent scheme that Anita Hill, Leigh Cor- fman and Christine Blasey Ford never had to overcome. False racially-charged accusa- tions have a long history in our country. The age of powerful re- action against racial outrages dawned, perhaps, with the brutal August 1955 lynching of 14-year- old Emmet Till in Mississippi, based on a white woman's false ac- cusation that the boy had grabbed her waist and muttered obsceni- ties. Emmet's mom brought his body home to Chicago, insisted on an open-casket funeral and forbade the mortician to clean up the boy's bloated and mutilated corpse. Tens of thousands came to view the body, and it was photographed and published in the Black press nationwide. It galvanized Black racial solidarity and confronted white people of conscience. The power of outrage to mobi- lize support was impossible to ig- nore, and the Civil Rights move- ment continued to draw strength from outrages at Little Rock, the University of Mississippi, Edmund Pettus Bridge and Birmingham. Unfortunately, outrage is agnos- tic. It can serve injustice as well as justice. In my day, there was the hoax in which Tawana Brawley, a 15 -year- old girl managed by Al Sharpton, accused white police officers and a white prosecutor of kidnapping and sexually degrading her over a period of several days. Bill Cosby offered a $25,000 re- ward for information leading to a conviction. Boxing promoter Don King offered $100,000 to pay for Brawley's education. Nation of Is- lam leader Louis Farrakhan led a march of 1,000 people through the streets of a neighboring town. A gulf of 34 percent opened between Blacks and whites, as 85 percent of whites but only 51 percent of Blacks said Brawley was lying. Brawley's grandmother took refuge in churches to avoid police who wanted to question her about the girl's whereabouts. Police were so concerned about the possibili- ty of race riots that they decided not to enter the churches. The al- leged victim Tawana defied a sub- poena to testify. An investigating grand jury heard 180 witnesses, including high school classmates who said young Tawana came to late-night parties during the period when she was supposedly held captive. One witness saw her climb into the dumpster where she was discov- ered nude, wrapped in trash bags and smeared with feces. The rape kit showed no evidence of sexual assault. Vulgar and racially inflam- matory words were written on her