The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1108819
C-8 Wednesday, April 24, 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 Learning about the hunt My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. It's a little late to discuss this matter but I think it's never too late to learn something about subjects that interest us. So the past week I did a little reading about Easter and about Easter egg hunts. So apparently the word Easter, also called Pascha (Greek and Lat- in) is well known to all Christians as a festival and holy day celebrat- ing the resurrection of Jesus from the dead three days after he was crucified and buried. I think the story is very well understood prac- tically by the Christian believers. Now what I was not too clear about was the reason for the Eas- ter egg hunt. So I kept reading up on this subject, and I kind of think I had the correct idea since I became exposed to the Easter egg hunt custom. It apparently is a symbol of the empty tomb, and the Easter lily as a symbol of the resurrection. The Easter bunny for which I cant' find a good correlation, was mentioned as analogous to Santa Claus in the American culture— a gift giving character. Regarding the Easter parades, I understand it is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and the triumph over death. The Easter egg tradition took different forms. In some countries, the eggs were made from choco- lates, some from porcelain beau- tifully decorated with jewels and precious stones, some made from plastic. The prevailing feeling in everybody's mind is that the egg is The Cathedral of Notre Dame has burned, and the cost to rebuild will be enormous. The comments among the French people are that of unbelief and dismay. The Cathedral of Notre Dame was built across several centu- ries and was continually modified through the centuries from the generosity and sacrifice of people long forgotten. Building this Cathedral began nine centuries ago as Gothic archi- tecture began to replace the visu- ally cumbersome Romanesque style of massive walls, small spac- es, and obscure lighting. Gothic architecture allowed for the building of large open spaces, slender walls, and brilliant light- ing that flooded into the interior through stained glass windows. Today, the Cathedral is owned by the State [Law of Separation of Church and State, 1905], but the Catholic Church has exclusive right to use it for religious pur- poses in perpetuity. The archdio- cese is responsible for all costs as- sociated. The Cathedral is a cultural trea- sure that the typical Frenchman has no connection with, spiritual- ly or financially. Columnists Dee Chadwell speaks of the Cathedral's signif- icance: "It stands as a monument to Christi- anity and its founda- tional role in the sta- bilization of medieval Europe. It embodies reverence for tradi- tion, for art, for inno- vation, for beauty, for holiness. We retain so little of the past, we have history books, but they tell us little about the daily lives of those who have gone before. One can, howev- er, stand in the midst of such a ca- thedral, gaze up at its gothic-arch roof and its story-telling stained- glass windows and know that such a building does address those is- sues. It is three-dimensional time travel." But long ago, the Cathedral was abandoned by the French people as a place of worship. Pew Re- search found in a 2018 survey that 64 percent of France identified as Christians, yet only 18 percent at- tend services. It began with the French Revolution when revolutionar- ies looted the church and declared that it was not a church. It was dedicated to the Cult of Reason, and then to the Cult of the Supreme Being. Ma- ny of the treasures of the cathedral were de- stroyed or plundered; for a time, the Goddess of Liberty replaced the Virgin Mary. Napoleon restored the Ca- thedral to religious use, but the French never has recovered from this revolutionary debacle. France, along with Western Eu- rope, is in flux and ethnic turmoil. One blogger commenting upon the fire at Notre Dame added France "…is no longer replacing its popu- lation, except for the influx of an- ti-Christian Muslim refugees. Our cathedrals sit empty for mass. Eu- rope has exchanged bowing to Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond The church is generational Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Some things to ponder Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 There's a push to change laws to permit both criminals serving time and ex-criminals the right to vote. Guess which party is pushing the most for these legal changes. If you guessed that it was the Dem- ocrats, go to the head of the class. Bernie Sanders says states should allow felons to vote from behind bars. Elizabeth Warren doesn't go that far but believes felons should have the right to vote. Democrats want the criminal class to have vot- ing rights restored because they could become a significant part of the Democratic base. These are America's murderers, rapists, burglars, child molesters and drug dealers. Over two million of these people are in prison. If we add in the number of people on pro- bation and parole, there are 6.7 mil- lion people currently under correc- tional control. If cons and ex-cons get the right to vote, it's almost a guarantee that most of these peo- ple will cast their vote for a Demo- cratic candidate. Democrats don't stop with want- ing cons and ex-cons to vote. It turns out that more than 50 percent of Democrats surveyed want ille- gal immigrants to have the right to vote, as they already do in some Democratic-controlled cities. America's gun con- trol advocates have the belief that outlaw- ing guns would dras- tically reduce crime. Almost all handguns have been outlawed from private citizen use in the U.K. since 1996. Nonetheless, vi- olent crime in the U.K. has risen almost every year since the ban. Criminals love the idea of a disarmed populace. While there are few gun crimes in the U.K., there's a recent report that in 2018 there were over 40,000 knife crimes committed. It's got- ten so bad that some stores have stopped selling kitchen knives. America's gun control advocates might have some solutions for the citizens of the U.K. They might ad- vocate a thorough MI5 (U.K.'s se- cret service) background check for anyone wishing to purchase any kind of knife, including kitch- en knives. They might advocate knife registration. There might be lengthy prison sentences for any- one caught with an illegal unreg- istered knife. With London's mur- der rate higher than New York City's, Mayor Sadiq Khan has implement- ed knife control poli- cies as violent crime surges. Khan de- ployed over 300 addi- tional London police officers to stop and search anyone they suspect is carrying a knife. Here's something else to ponder: Democratic candi- dates for the 2020 presidential elec- tions are calling for reparations for slavery or for the study of rep- arations. Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Elizabeth War- ren are leading the charge. Slav- ery was a gross violation of human rights. Justice would demand that slave owners make compensato- ry payments to slaves. Since both slaves and slave owners are no lon- ger with us, such punishment and compensation is beyond our reach. So which white Americans owe which black Americans how much? Reparations advocates don't want that question asked, but let's you Continued on page 9 Trump tax cut keeps on giving Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Liberal hypocrisy about sanctuary cities Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Espionage: Forgivable LGBT petulance? No one can accuse Donald Trump of not being able to grab attention. He lobbed his latest political hand grenade, announcing that he is considering shipping off il- legals who have been arriving in droves at the U.S.-Mexico border to sanctuary cities. These are municipalities with ordinances directing local autho- rizes to not cooperate with feder- al immigration enforcement be- ing carried out by Department of Homeland Security and Immigra- tion and Customs Enforcement. States, cities and localities that have assumed sanctuary status are invariably Democratic and lib- eral strongholds. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, among the burgeoning list of Democratic presidential hopefuls for 2020, said on "Meet the Press" that he welcomes the proposal. Washington is home to a long list of sanctuary cities including Seat- tle and Spokane. "We relish it," he said. "We're built as a state of immigrants. We've welcomed refugees." Seattle mayor Jenny A. Durkan expressed similar sentiments in a Washington Post op-ed: "We will not allow a president who contin- ues to threaten our shared values of inclusion, opportunity, and di- versity to jeopardize the health and safety of our communities." This is interesting to me, hav- ing just left Seattle after a sever- al-day visit there on a speaking en- gagement. My experience was just the op- Around this time 42 years ago, I was in the home stretch of Ar- my basic training. There had been weeks of schizophrenic weather in Missouri—wintry blasts alternat- ing with warm fronts and storms. A fter an adolescence spent in the tropics and Alaska, I found the heartland thunderstorms a little scary. But now the climate had turned glorious. It seemed that the omnip- otent drill sergeants had ordered perfect weather for a triumphant graduation. The runs and push- ups that tormented us earlier that spring became faintly pleasant. I looked forward to rushing out of the barracks in the morning and feeling the gentle Ozark breeze in my face. And then it was over: hurried goodbyes to buddies, awkward congratulations from drill ser- geants, and then we flew or were bused to our Army schools to learn our jobs. Mine was the Military Po- lice School in steamy Ft. McClel- lan, Ala. I did manage a brief detour to visit my grandmother, Ruth Pot- ter, at the farm in Muren. I stuffed my face with strawberries and pie crust, slept like a teenager and watched cartoons. It was sublime. MP school went by quickly that summer. Some of it was self-paced material, and I graduated while it was still hot. But departing from MP school wasn't as efficient as departure from basic training. I got stuck there after graduation, "painting rocks" as the cliche goes. I'm not sure I ever actually paint- ed a rock, but I mowed a lot of grass, ran a lot of errands, hid out and provided some foul-tempered assistance to long lines of newly ar- rived privates who were picking up laundry and finding their bunks. My first actual MP duty sta- tion was the Panama Canal Zone, which, in those days, required a Secret security clearance. That's the middle level of clearance, above a Confidential but below a Top Secret. They'd had about eight months to investigate my back- ground since I filled out the appli- cation, but they weren't finished. There were questions about marijuana, seditious in-laws and the big one: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party USA or any oth- er organization that seeks or advo- cates the overthrow of the United States government by violence or other unlawful means? " No. Then came the question wheth- er I had ever belonged to an orga- nization on the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations? Well, kind of. The Attorney Gen- eral had abolished that list a few years earlier, but they were still asking us the question. I was briefly a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, which made the list. It was fre- quently smeared as a Communist union, and it was indisputably radi- cal, but purists would observe that it was a bitter rival of Communists rather than an ally. As you can imagine, that re- quired extra sheets on the appli- cation for my security clearance, explaining the arcane doctrine of classical anarchists to unseen clerks who were almost certain- ly uninterested. Their eyes prob- ably glazed over as quickly as my mom's. She was concerned about my ex- tremism years earlier, but an uncle reassured her with the Churchill quote about young radicals and old conservatives. Apparently the Ar- my was reassured as well, and in due time I got my security clear- ance and flew out to my Canal Zone duty. Years later, when I became an interrogator, I had to start all over again and give an account of my life on a new clearance application. It was a nuisance, but I was glad somebody was minding the store, glad we were methodically check- ing people out before entrusting secrets to them. Times have changed. Guidelines Another Tax Day is behind us, but negative media coverage of President Trump's signature tax- cut legislation continues. Many reporters and pundits didn't even wait until the tax cut was signed into law in December 2017 to begin mischaracterizing it. Of course they called it a sop to the rich, but they went one bet- ter than that old chestnut, insist- ing it would shaft the middle class and the poor. According to many, it was designed to do exactly that. Never mind that the real-world experience of most Americans in the wake of these articles contra- dicted these gloom-and-doom pre- dictions. Almost immediately, numer- ous employers — including Boe- ing, AT&T, FedEx, CVS, and oth- ers — began offering bonuses to their employees. Nearly 200 com- panies, including Walmart, an- nounced wage hikes due to the 2017 tax cut. Still others enjoyed higher contributions to their re- tirement plans. The benefits soon went beyond that, however. The tax cut contributed to the strong economy we've been enjoying, lead- ing many business- es to hire more and more workers. The United States added more than 2.6 million new jobs in the year following the passage of the tax cut — near- ly a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Unemployment is way down, with jobless claims at their lowest since 1969, thanks in large part to the tax cut. There's something you don't hear on CNN and other me- dia outlets. The media have continued to claim the tax cut was entirely too narrow — that it helped wealthy Americans at the expense of oth- ers who are less well-off. So The Heritage Foundation used IRS da- ta to produce a special report last year that shows how widespread the tax benefits tru- ly are. They found that in 2018 taxpayers would save an average of $1,400. Even better, married couples with two children would save more than twice that: $2,917. And the good news was truly nationwide. Their report showed that every U.S. congressional district would enjoy these tax benefits. That's not to say that every last taxpayer would get a break. A lot depends on an individual's circum- stances — his job, deductions, credits, withholdings. But the da- ta plainly showed that most Amer- icans would be better off directly. And obviously everyone benefits in some measure from the effects of a stronger economy.