The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1191166
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 11, 2019 B-11 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 countdown is on. In about two weeks we'll all be experienc- ing one of the greatest joyful events that many places in the world cele- brate. It will be for those who wel- come the birth of our Saviour. Last week, I had an opportunity to visit the French Lick hotel with Rose and my daughter JoAnn and son in law Clint and the Spauldings grandchildren. The hotel Christ- mas decorations are just absolute- ly gorgeous. The highlight of that trip was of course a visit with San- ta. The line was quite long but the wait was worth it. All the par- ents and children looked quite ex- cited. So when it was our grand- kids' turn to sit on Santa's lap, you could see the fascination on their faces as they whispered San- ta their Christmas wish. We just could not get enough pictures to capture the magic of the moment. Thereafter, we milled around and took more pictures of the beauti- fully decorated trees and reindeers and other Christmas dec- orations. Wait a minute, I could not find the Na- tivity Scene which I thought was the real reason for the celebration. I started to feel much disappointed because our world has started to move away from what is true and accurate. I now noticed too, many of the songs being sang on Christ- mas programs and the radio sta- tions are about Santa, the reindeer, snowman, Christmas tree, mistletoe, and less and less of the beautiful classics like Away in a Manger, Si- lent Night, Joy to the World, We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard on High, etc. Folks, let's all wake up before we become real too secular. Let us assert our right to practice our precious Faith. For societies that move away from the Truth and Faith eventu- ally crumble. Pay attention to his- tory. Points to Ponder By Rev. Ford Bond Advent is hope! My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Keep Christ in Christmas Minority View By Walter E. Williams Fraud in higher education Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 This year's education scandal saw parents shelling out mega- bucks to gain college admittance for their children. Federal prosecu- tors have charged more than 50 peo- ple with participating in a scheme to get their children into colleges by cheating on entrance exams or bribing athletic coaches. They paid William Singer, a college-prep pro- fessional, more than $25 million to bribe coaches and university admin- istrators and to change test scores on college admittance exams such as the SAT and ACT. As disgusting as this grossly dishonest behavior is, it is only the tiny tip of fraud in higher education. According to the Bureau of La- bor Statistics, in 2016, only 37 per- cent of white high school graduates tested as college-ready, but colleg- es admitted 70 percent of them. Roughly 17 percent of black high school graduates tested as college- ready, but colleges admitted 58 per- cent of them. A 2018 Hechinger Re- port found, "More than four in 10 college students end up in develop- mental math and English classes at an annual cost of approximately $7 billion, and many of them have a worse chance of eventually gradu- ating than if they went straight into college-level classes." According to the National Confer- ence of State Legislatures, "when considering all first-time undergrad- uates, studies have found anywhere from 28 percent to 40 percent of stu- dents enroll in at least one remedial course. When looking at on- ly community college students, several stud- ies have found reme- diation rates surpass- ing 50 percent." Only 25 percent of students who took the ACT in 2012 met the test's readiness benchmarks in all four subjects (English, read- ing, math and science). It's clear that high schools con- fer diplomas that attest that a stu- dent can read, write and do math at a 12th-grade level when, in fact, most cannot. That means most high di- plomas represent fraudulent docu- ments. But when high school gradu- ates enter college, what happens? To get a hint, we can turn to an article by Craig E. Klafter, "Good Grieve! America's Grade Inflation Culture," published in the Fall 2019 edition of Academic Questions. In 1940, on- ly 15 percent of all grades award- ed were A's. By 2018, the average grade point average at some of the nation's leading colleges was A-mi- nus. For example, the average GPA at Brown University (3.75), Stanford (3.68), Harvard College (3.63), Yale University (3.63), Columbia Univer- sity (3.6), University of California, Berkeley (3.59). The falling standards witnessed at our primary and sec- ondary levels are be- coming increasing- ly the case at tertiary levels. "Academically Adrift: Limited Learn- ing on College Cam- puses" is a study con- ducted by Professors Richard Arum and Jo- sipa Roksa. They found that 45 percent of 2,300 students at 24 colleges showed no significant improvement in "critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sopho- more years." An article in News Forum for Lawyers titled "Study Finds Col- lege Students Remarkably Incom- petent" cites a study done by the American Institutes for Research that revealed that over 75 percent of two-year college students and 50 percent of four-year college stu- dents were incapable of completing everyday tasks. About 20 percent of four-year college students dem- onstrated only basic mathematical ability, while a steeper 30 percent of two-year college students could not progress past elementary arith- metic. NBC News reported that For- tune 500 companies spend about $ 3 billion annually to train employees Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Marriage and pregnancy reduce crime U.S. should continue to support peace in Ukraine There's a general assumption in public policy discourse that eco- nomic policy and social policy are separate universes. When economic policy is the topic, we think about taxes, gov- ernment spending, business, jobs, etc. When social policy is the top- ic, we think about marriage, fam- ily, children, abortion, etc. But, in reality, the line between economic policy and social policy is ambiguous, if it exists at all. In recent years, for instance, family structure has gotten in- creasing attention as an important factor to consider in policy discus- sions about poverty. Now we have a new academ- ic paper by economists — Max- im Massenkoff and Evan Rose, both doctoral candidates in eco- nomics at the University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley — that makes it even clearer that what we general- ly think of as social policy can fall into the realm of economic anal- ysis. The paper — "Family Forma- tion and Crime" — examines the connection between the incidence of pregnancy, childbirth and mar- riage, and the incidence of crime. The conclusion, in the words of the authors: "Our event-study analysis indicates that pregnancy triggers sharp declines in crime rivaling any known intervention. For mothers, criminal offending drops precipitously in the first few months of pregnancy, stabilizing at half of pre-pregnancy levels three years after the birth. Men show a smaller, but still important 25 per- cent decline beginning at the onset of pregnancy, although domestic vi- olence arrests spike for fathers im- mediately after birth." Marriage, according to the au- thors, "is a stopping point, mark- ing the completion of a roughly 50 percent decline in offending for both men and women." The analysis, again per the au- thors, is "by far the largest such study ever conducted in the Unit- ed States." They tapped informa- tion on over a million births and, using data in the state of Washing- ton, matched records on "criminal offenses, births, marriages, and divorces." George Mason University econ- omist Alex Tabarrok discusses the work on his enormously popular blog, Marginal Revolution. Tabarrok notes his own re- search on crime deterrence, which shows that in the case of three- strikes laws, the prospect of an ad- ditional 20 years to life imprison- ment reduced criminal recidivism by 17 percent. Compared with this, notes Tabarrok, "the effect of preg- nancy is astoundingly large." Of course, demonstrating sta- tistical correlation and explaining why the occurrences correlate are different things. Why is incidence of pregnancy followed by signifi- cant drops in criminal activity in both women and men? What is it about birth and mar- riage that contributes significant- ly to reducing crime? Tabarrok conjectures it's about "socializing and civilizing both men and women." I would speculate that it is simi- lar to why, when a pregnant wom- an sees an ultrasound image of the child developing within her, she is less likely to abort that child. It's a wake-up call to the awe and mystery of life, which produces a sense of meaning and personal re- sponsibility. It follows that we ought to be concerned about the decline in Americans' sense of importance of marriage and children. In a newly published survey from Pew Research Center, 57 percent of men and 46 percent of women said "having a job or ca- reer they enjoy" is "essential for a ... fulfilling life." Compared with this, only 16 percent of men and 17 percent of women said marriage is "essential for a ... fulfilling life." And only 16 percent of men and 22 percent of women said children Modern man stands right in the middle of the First and Second Ad- vent of Christ! The faithful are reminded that as we journey into the Advent sea- son, we are reminded there was an arrival. There was Christ's FIRST com- ing – and we memorializing what has already happened, while look- ing forward to what will happen! The prophet Isaiah [chapter 13] paints a wondrous picture of a sav- ior whose attributes are breathtak- ing; He will be the son of David, from the lineage of his father Jes- se. The reader should pause and consider why did the Hebrews [and us] look into the future? Because Moses told his people there would be one coming after him-and they were to listen to him! Isaiah describes a ruler to come, with breathtaking detail; A Shoot from the stump of Jesse, the Spir- it of the Lord shall rest upon Him- of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, and knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. This man will be a greater than Moses, wiser than Solomon, he will know the mind of God! But there is more! The coming messiah will do the will of His Father, He will not judge by what he sees or what he hears, but with righteous- ness and with equity for the meek of the earth; in addition He will cast aside the wicked of the earth, and from Him will ra- diate righteousness and faithfulness. There is still more! A transformation will take place among the animals for the proph- et proclaims the carnivorous will become herbivores and the natural animosity between predator and victim will end. A little child shall be able to play with the animals of the wild. The wolf will live in peace with the lamb and the leop- ard will not hunt the goat. The lion and calf will be at peace, the bear will not attack the cow. The crown- ing transformation will be the in- fant shall play by the cobra's hole and will not fear to put his hand in the viper's den. The Hope of Advent lies in what is to come and yet unfilled. The prophet ends with a final word of Hope for all of humanity: Mankind will no longer be at war with itself and God's creation will now know the Lord seeks to find his will andthose who do not know the promis- es of God will seek and find Him! Isaiah wrote this 700 years before the birth of Jesus. The kingdom of Israel had split in two, and constant struggle and war was their lot. Reading the Book of Kings, and the Chronicles and in- to the prophets' one can sense a hopelessness was descending up- on the people. Gone were the days of glory of Solomon-replaced with animosi- ty, but Isaiah offered a glimmer of hope; but alas, this would only be understood by those who sought after God. He was saying, "Yeah, life is full of troubles just as the psalm- ist wrote-but hope and joy, and peace, and salvation is coming— and it will come through the fam- ily of David! As Kojack would say at the end of ever episode—keep the faith! When troubles arise, how each Continued on page 12 Heritage Viewpoint By Alexis Mrachek Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 For weeks the House impeach- ment proceedings have kept Ukraine in the U.S. spotlight—for all the wrong reasons. Now, how- ever, there is a very good reason for policymakers to turn their at- tention to that beleaguered nation. On Dec. 9, Ukrainian Presi- dent Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris—part of a four-way summit seeking to end the war in Ukraine. Germany and France are the other two nations participating in the discussions. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. It's something that Zelensky has desired since his inauguration in late May, and the stakes are high. The war in Ukraine has gone on for nearly six years now. A cost- ly conflict, it has killed more than 13,000 people. It needs to be re- solved as soon as possible. The U.S. has demonstrated strong support for Ukraine since the earliest days of the war. It has contributed more than $1.5 billion in security assistance since 2014. Under the Obama administration, aid was restricted to non-lethal as- sistance, but the Trump adminis- tration has broadened support to include weaponry. For example, the U.S. sold Ky- iv more than 200 Javelin anti-tank missiles in Dec. 2017, significant- ly boosting Ukraine's defense ca- pabilities. The sale of an addition- al 150 Javelins was approved last month. Ukraine has also purchased two U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats, subsequently named in tribute to two cities in the eastern Donbas region, the location of the Russian- Ukrainian war. But official support and public opinion are two separate things, and lately Ukraine has taken a hit in the court of U.S. public opin- ion. With its constant talk of brib- ery and corruption, the ongo- ing impeachment saga threatens to discourage continued strong U.S. support for Ukraine. Amer- ican politicians and policymakers should not let that happen. U.S. support for Ukraine, in any form, remains vital. Russia is a constant threat. The common border between it and Ukraine stretches more than 1,280 miles. Moscow has al- ready seized and illegally annexed Crimea, a highly strategic region of Ukraine. The hot war continues in the Donbas. Moscow also disrupts Ukrai- nian life through disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks. In Dec. 2015, for example, Russian hackers attacked Ukraine's pow- er grid, shutting down power for as many as 80,000 residents. In ad- dition, early this year, Russia pub- lished fabricated news stories and used fake online accounts ahead of the Ukrainian presidential elec- tions to undermine the democrat- ic process. As Zelensky and Putin head for the Paris summit, Washington must leave no doubt that domes- tic politics will have no effect on its commitment to a free Ukraine— that its support for those embat- tled people is as strong as ever. That demonstration of support could take various forms: addition- al military aid or weapons sales, the appointment of a U.S. ambas- sador in Kyiv, or simply positive rhetoric about Ukraine by senior U.S. government officials. Ukraine deserves U.S. support. It is a developing democracy that is actively working to fight corrup- tion within its governmental in- stitutions. In fact, it's made a fair amount of progress over the last couple of years through its anti- corruption reforms. U.S. support is especially impor- tant ahead of Zelensky's meeting with Putin. Without it, Ukraine stands little chance, if any, against the multi-faceted attacks coming from its relentlessly aggressive