The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1125841
C-8 Wednesday, June 5, 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 The iPhone generation My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Well, this time, the focus of my interest are the teen age group. This past couple of weeks, Rose and I attended the birthday/grad- uation of the daughter of our dear friends. Her name is Martina Victoria. She turned 18 and also recent- ly graduated from high school. The celebration was at the Holi- day Inn near the Evansville Air- port. So there were kids about her age who were classmates at the Signature School and North High School. What is truly amazing are the maturity and refined behavior of these kids. I would call them the iPhone generation because everyone who gave accolades to the celebrant read from their iPhones. It is a culture that has changed so much. From the latest statistics, there are about 295 million smart phones now used in the United States. That is mind boggling. I now un- derstand why those on the infor- mation technology amass such great fortunes beyond compre- Modern life allows the "average" person to stay abreast of not on- ly news beyond the mainstream media, but cultural critiques from those who make examining civi- lized life their passion. Butler Shaffer in a recent col- umn "Thinking Rots the Mind" laid out a long critique of Western Civilization and its future for those who find it necessary to think be- yond the reality programs on ca- ble television. His critique is not for the faint of heart, so allow me to abridge and paraphrase the more salient points. Western Civilization to those of us over 50 is being eroded by groups from within that are act- ing contrary to their best interest. It is a given that "civilizations are created by individuals, and they are destroyed by collectives." Civilization arises not by chance, but over an extended period of time. For example, the cathedrals found in Europe began as individ- ualistic undertakings whose com- pletions "extend far beyond the lives of both the designers and the workers who participated in bring- ing them into existence." At the heart of a civilization is an idea that took root, and a people flourished around it. Christian civ- ilization is rooted in the morality of Christianity and its ethics of in- dividual responsibility, along with at least a nominal connection to its values. What has happened in Western Civilization is that the collective identity has been overthrown over the last several decades by "politi- cal and ideological demands." Through the demands of so- cial justice warriors and the new socialist, each of us has been forced into an identity group in which perceived in- justices can be rem- edied, or the offend- ing group can be ma- ligned and punished. Another example of the erosion of the con- nection to shared com- munity is our abandon- ment of the concept of "peace offi- cer" and its replacement with "law enforcement," which connotes a threat of force and violence for non-compliance. What has been discarded is the peaceful and voluntary avenue in which conflict was addressed, and taken its place is confrontation and demands for immediate actions and retribution or reparations [at least social]. This means the "culture is polit- icized, and a large segment of the population believes that the most effective means of bringing about needed change is the threat of vi- olence. As can be easily observed, the move away from Christian ethics is the attack on sexuality, the fam- ily, and gender identity. Cultural historians recognize civilizations are sustained by re- specting the sacredness of the individual and his/her interests, along with the revered history, events, and people who created the culture. What we are witnessing in the Western world is the individual be- ing forced to assume a group iden- tity. This is at odds with Christian civilization, because we are no longer an individual with autono- my, but we become a monolithic character of our identity group. In short, what held America together as a civilization is be- ing eroded by identity politics, and the foun- dational aspects of our culture are being re- defined, or discarded. New definitions are circulating that describe the fam- ily, sexuality, gender, politics, and even Christianity. Much of what is proclaimed from American pul- pits on any given Sunday morning is no more than a call to do social work, or a seminar to achieve self- actualization, which has little to do with the Kingdom of God and righ- teousness. Noting the eroding of our Chris- tian civilization does not make one a curmudgeon. The Kingdom of God does not reside in any one nation, though Western Civiliza- tion foundational institutions were steeped in the ethnos of Christi- anity. Our hope as a civilization does not rest upon who occupies the White House or the other seats of power in Washington or world in- stitutions. Centuries ago, the prophet Dan- iel in a praise to God wrote, "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; He deposes kings and raises up oth- ers. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning." Therein lies our hope! The Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond We have hope Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Slavery is neither strange nor peculiar Continued on page 9 The favorite leftist tool for the attack on our nation's founding is that slavery was sanctioned. They argue that the founders dis- regarded the promises of our Dec- laration of Independence "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liber- ty and the pursuit of Happiness." These very ignorant people, both in and out of academia, want us to believe that slavery is unusual, as historian Kenneth Stampp sug- gested in his book, "Peculiar In- stitution: Slavery in the Ante-Bel- lum South." But slavery is by no means peculiar, odd, unusual or unique to the U.S. As University of Nebraska-Lin- coln political science professor Da- vid P. Forsythe wrote in his book, "The Globalist," "The fact re- mained that at the beginning of the nineteenth century an estimated three-quarters of all people alive were trapped in bondage against their will either in some form of slavery or serfdom." Slavery was common among ancient peoples — Egyptians, Babylonians, As- syrians, Hittites, Greeks, Per- sians, Armenians and many oth- ers. Large numbers of Christians were enslaved during the Ottoman wars in Europe. White slaves were common in Europe from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages. It was only during the 17th century that the Atlantic slave trade began with Europeans assisted by Arabs and A fricans. Slavery is one of the most horri- ble injustices. It posed such a mor- al dilemma at our 1787 Constitu- tional Convention that it threat- ened to scuttle the attempt to create a union between the 13 col- onies. Let's look at some of the debate. George Wash- ington, in a letter to Pennsylvania dele- gate Robert Morris, wrote, "There is not a man living who wish- es more sincerely than I do, to see a plan ad- opted for the abolition of it." In a Constitution- al Convention speech, James Madison said, "We have seen the mere distinc- tion of color made in the most en- lightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man." In James Madison's records of the Convention he wrote, "(The Con- vention) thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men." John Jay, in a letter to R. Lush- ington: "It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as jus- tice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to eman- cipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, in- volves an inconsistency not to be excused." Patrick Henry said, "I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abol- ish this lamentable evil." George Mason said, "The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind." Northern delegates to the Convention, and others who op- posed slavery, wanted to count only free people of each state to determine representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Southern dele- gates wanted to count slaves just as any other person. That would have giv- en slave states great- er representation in the House and the Electoral College. If slaveholding states could not have count- ed slaves at all, the Constitution would not have been ratified and there would not be a union. The compromise was for slaves to be counted as three-fifths of a person when deciding representa- tion in the House of Representa- tives and Electoral College. My question for those who con- demn the Three-Fifths Compro- mise is: Would blacks have been better off if northern convention delegates stuck to their guns, not compromising, and a union had never been formed? To get a union, the northern delegates be- grudgingly accepted slavery. Ab- olitionist Frederick Douglass un- derstood the compromise, saying that the three-fifths clause was "a downright disability laid upon the slaveholding states" that deprived them of "two-fifths of their natural basis of representation." Here's my hypothesis about peo- ple who use slavery to trash the founders: They have contempt for our constitutional guarantees of liberty. Slavery is merely a con- venient moral posturing tool they use in their attempt to reduce re- spect for our Constitution. Walter E. Williams is a profes- sor of economics at George Mason University. Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Hayley Tschetter is a hero Heritage Viewpoint By Edwin J. Feulner Charting a path toward fiscal balance "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every vir- tue at the testing point," observed writer and theologian C.S. Lewis. Hayley Tschetter, a student at a small Christian university, Uni- versity of Northwestern, St. Paul, knows what this means. She stands alone today with her convictions against a university establishment trying to shut her down. Tschetter felt there should be a voice on campus taking on the great issues in today's culture war, so she started a campus chapter of Young Americas Foundation ( YAF), which the university ap- proved. Her first invitee to inaugurate the new program was conserva- tive Star Parker — me. But her excitement was quick- ly dashed when the university re- jected my appearance, writing in an email, as reported by the YAF, "we really don't bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with." Given that I was asked to dis- cuss abortion and the sanctity of life, what was there that those at this Christian university could not agree with? Various Christian organizations and conservative media spoke out in protest. I stayed silent because this is a private school, and I be- lieve in free markets and free as- sociation. But now I have learned that the university intends to shut down the YAF chapter, and that Ms. Tschet- ter is under personal attack by the university establishment. Two things come to mind that tell me I must speak up. First, the famous words of con- servative statesman/philosopher Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I just completed my fifth book, "Necessary Noise," due out this September, in which I discuss at length the culture war and details of Christian conservatives being purged from our public square. I discuss stories of Christians such as Kelvin Cochran, who was fired from his job as fire chief of the Atlanta Fire Department af- Every now and then, sand- wiched between breathless ac- counts of the latest political fights on Capitol Hill, a report on the rising tide of deficit spending ap- pears. Then everyone goes back to squabbling about the most recent scandal, and the deficit again slips off the radar screen. In a sense, it's hard to blame people for putting spending on the back burner. For one thing, few lawmakers on either side of the political aisle even bring it up — although, as we'll see, they certainly should. Out of sight, out of mind. For another, we've been hear- ing about the deficit for years, and, well, the sky hasn't fallen. So do we really need to worry? In a word, yes. The latest edi- tion of "Blueprint for Balance" by The Heritage Foundation proves that conclusively. Things may look rosy now, and yes, the econo- my is quite strong now. But at our current rates of spending, we're hurtling toward well, not a cliff, but a ravine — and a very deep one at that. It's a simple problem to under- stand. You can't spend more than you take in forever. You can mask the problem for a while by using credit cards, but if the problem isn't addressed at some point, you're asking for trouble. Individuals can't spend more than they take in. Families can't do it. And neither can govern- ments. Oh, the latter can paper over the problem for longer, but sooner or later, the bills come due for everyone. Still, some Americans may as- sume overspending is a prob- lem for government, not them. Wrong. "The impact will be felt by all Americans," the Heritage report says. "Economic research shows that countries carrying such high levels of debt, especially if the debt is on an upward trajec- tory, experience slower econom- ic growth. Slower growth means less take-home pay for work- ers and fewer opportunities for Americans to improve their eco- nomic well-being and attain fi- nancial security." Think of our growing econo- my as a hot-air balloon. Thanks in large measure to policies such as the Trump administration's drive to cut taxes and reduce un- necessary regulations, it's trying to soar. And for now, it's able to do so. But growing levels of deficit spending are like a huge sand- bag tethered to the balloon. It's acting like a drag, keeping the economy from rising as high as it otherwise could. And that sand- bag is growing all the time, get- ting heavier and heavier. Worse, the fastest growing por- tions of the federal budget — So- cial Security, health care, and in- terest payments — are on auto- matic pilot. If lawmakers do noth- ing, those three are on track by 2041 to consume every dollar the government takes in. That doesn't mean we can wait 20 years to fix this, by the way. The longer we let it go, the hard- er it is to fix, and the deeper we get into the ravine. We'd all feel it — through infla- tion, for example. Through high- er prices on everyday goods and services. Through higher inter- est rates, which would make it tougher to get a loan to start a business, purchase a car, or buy a better house. That's what deficit spending amounts to. It's not some dry eco- nomic problem for Congress. It's something that, left unchecked, will weaken our economy. Cause prices to rise. Put dreams of home-ownership and becoming their own boss out of reach for many Americans. It's a shame Heritage's "Blue- print" isn't viable in today's tox- ic political environment. If imple- mented, it would reduce spend- ing by $10.8 trillion over 10 years and eliminate budget deficits by 2029, as well as permanently ex- tend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of