The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1193961
B-8 Wednesday, December 11, 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 I could not help but once in a while to watch T V to keep up with the ongoing debates in our Con- gress. The topic on hand is quite mind boggling to comprehend. I am amazed by the amount of ef- fort put in by our elected represen- tatives to present their views and persuasions. Both parties are so passionate about their arguments. As I listened to both sides of the aisles address this serious matter, they seem to present their thoughts and analysis in a quite convincing manner. Personally I am not sure yet who to believe, be- cause I wonder if the arguments presented by each of the members of the judiciary committee are tru- ly in line with reality, if they are ac- curate and the honorable thing to share, and that they are the truth. I could just feel the tremendous pressure and stress and frustration of each speaker as they go through this com- plicated matter. The amount of time they have spent to stay in a room, with the cam- eras and microphones and the media and the supporting personnel present for hours and hours is just beyond human endur- ance it seems. I have heard an expression I of- ten come across and it goes like this: it is toxic and dangerous to be immersed in that kind of envi- ronment. God help our nation and our elected officials. Pardon me. Let me just take two Tylenols as I proceed with the next paragraph. • • • In order to pull away from hours of listen- ing to these lengthy debates, I had to flip to different T V pro- grams that are much lighter and entertain- ing to watch. I also had to keep busy with other things that require my at- tention. I had to spare some time reading inspiring books, listening to good music, volunteering my time to charitable work, visiting with family and friends, and doing Points to Ponder By Rev. Ford Bond Advent is joy! My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Persuasions from both parties Minority View By Walter E. Williams Morality of free markets Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Dr. Richard Ebeling, professor of economics at The Citadel, The Military College of South Caroli- na, and my longtime friend and col- league, has written an important ar- ticle, "Business Ethics and Moral- ity of the Marketplace," appearing in the American Institute for Eco- nomic Research. Its importance and timeliness is enhanced by so many of America's youth, led by academ- ic hacks, having fallen prey to the si- ren song of socialism. In a key section of his article, Eb- eling lays out what he calls the eth- ical principles of free markets. He says: "The hallmark of a truly free market is that all associations and relationships are based on voluntary agreement and mutual consent. An- other way of saying this is that in the free market society, people are morally and legally viewed as sover- eign individuals possessing rights to their life, liberty, and honestly ac- quired property, who may not be co- erced into any transaction that they do not consider being to their per- sonal betterment and advantage." Ebeling says that the rules of a free market are simple and easy to understand: "You don't kill, you don't steal, and you don't cheat through fraud or misrepresentation. You can only improve your own posi- tion by improving the circumstances of others. Your talents, abilities, and efforts must all be focused on one thing: what will others take in trade from you for the revenues you want to earn as the source of your own income and profits? " For many people, profit has become a dirty word and as such has generated slogans such as "people before profits." Many believe the pursuit of profits is the source of man- kind's troubles. How- ever, it's often the absence of prof- it motivation that's the true villain. For example, contrast the number of complaints heard about profit-ori- ented establishments such as com- puter stores, supermarkets and clothing stores to the complaints that one hears about nonprofit es- tablishments such as the U.S. Post Office, the public education sys- tem and departments of motor ve- hicles. Computer stores, supermar- kets and clothing stores face com- petition and must satisfy customers to earn profits and stay in business. Postal workers, public teachers and department of motor vehicles em- ployees depend on politicians and coercion to get their pay. They stay in business whether customers are satisfied with their services or not. In a free market society, income is neither taken nor distributed. In- come is earned by serving one's fellow man. Say I mow your lawn. When I'm finished, you pay me $50. Then, I go to my grocer and demand, "Give me two pounds of sirloin and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man pro- duced." In effect, the grocer asks: "Williams, what did you do to de- serve a claim on what your fellow man pro- duced? " I say, "I served him." The grocer says, "Prove it." That's when I pull out the $50. We might think of dollars as "certificates of performance," proof of serving our fellow man. Free markets are morally supe- rior to other economic systems. To have a claim on what my fellow man produces, I'm forced to serve him. Contrast that requirement to gov- ernment handouts, where a politi- cian says to me: "You don't have to get out in that hot sun to mow your fellow man's lawn. Vote for me and I'll take what your fellow man pro- duces and give it to you." Ebeling says that those deserv- ing condemnation are those who use government coercion to gain at the expense of others. There are thousands of such examples: gov- ernment subsidies at taxpayers' ex- pense, paying farmers not to grow crops or guaranteeing them a mini- Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker The pivotal black vote Will China's censors bring us the splinternet? Some polls in recent weeks have provided an encouraging picture for President Donald Trump of strengthening support among black voters. I like these kinds of reports. But I wonder how much of reality they are really capturing. The Wall Street Journal, for in- stance, reports on new polling from the Kaiser Family Founda- tion showing outsize support from blacks for "Medicare for All." According to this report, 74 per- cent of blacks compared with 69 percent of Hispanics and 44 per- cent of whites support a single- payer health care plan. Even when told that there would be a high likelihood that such a plan would mean eliminating pri- vate insurance and raising taxes, a large majority of blacks still sup- port the idea. This isn't exactly the kind of poll- ing data I anticipate from a popula- tion that is supposedly discovering that socialism is not a good idea. Additional recent polling from The Economist/YouGov on Dec. 1-3 gives more reasons to ques- tion that there are seismic chang- es taking place in black political at- titudes. The pollsters asked, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago? " Among all respondents, 46 per- cent said that they are better off now, and 32 percent said they were better off four years ago. However, among blacks, only 30 percent said they are better off now, and 42 percent said they were better off four years ago. Given the headlines about a ro- bust economy and historically low unemployment rates, you have to wonder what black voters are thinking. Black unemployment is now at a historically low 5.5 percent. This is 4 full percentage points lower than the 9.4 percent unemploy- ment rate where black unemploy- ment stood exactly four years ago. Such a change is transformational. Yet it doesn't seem to have impact- ed black political thinking. Hispanics also do not seem to be swept away by the good econom- ic news. Despite Hispanic unem- ployment now at 4.2 percent, 2.2 percentage points less than it was four years ago, only 37 percent say they feel better off now, and 39 per- cent say they were better off four years ago. In contrast, 50 percent of whites say they are better off today, and only 29 percent say they were bet- ter off four years ago. White un- employment now stands at 3.2 percent, 1.2 points less than four years ago. Layering on to the sobering news about black attitudes toward those now in charge in Washing- ton, according to The Economist/ YouGov poll, 71 percent of blacks compared with 50 percent of the general population say the country is "on the wrong track." And 73 percent of blacks com- pared with 45 percent of the popu- lation at large say the House should impeach President Trump. I think all of this should ring a loud wake-up call for Republicans, and for blacks and Hispanics. Republicans should wake up to the fact that very good econom- ic news that positively impacts all Americans does not seem to be moving black and Hispanics vot- ers to a more positive attitude to- ward President Trump. Blacks and Hispanics should wake up to the fact that if, indeed, they get the country larded down with the big government they seem to want, they, their children and their grandchildren will pay a dear price. Thirty-one percent of blacks and 38 percent of Hispanics are under the age of 21 compared with 23 percent of whites. The burdens of increasingly large government spending, and the debt that goes along with this, will fall dispropor- tionately on those parts of the pop- ulation that are now the youngest — A frican Americans and Hispan- ics. And the costs of an economy that grows more slowly, the inevitable result of expansion of government, At this time of advent, the faith- ful have moved through the light- ing of the Advent candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy. The lighting of each candle rep- resents an attribute that Christ would embody as he ministered to those who would hear Him. He had an abundance of grace and mercy to dispense to the repentant. Christ could give because he had each gift in abundance; how- ever, there is an old adage that ap- propriately embodies the inabili- ty mankind to dispense love and peace to others "you cannot give what you do not have." All people [Christians and non- Christians] should consider that there are those who do not share the joy of Advent and Christmas as the most wonderful time of the year. I suspect a large percentage of Americans are haunted by the Ghosts of Christmas past —past hurts, expectations, and more— those memories and feelings re- surface year, after year, after year. Perhaps if we would take time to digest the story of Advent, we can gain a perspective that can gen- erate Joy, because the history of mankind is not a joyful experience. The story of Advent begins with sin – and the future does not look promising. There is no joy that can be detect- ed within the heav- ens as God gave the promise of a redeem- er as found in Gene- sis 3: 15, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." From this point onward, hope re- sides in the future, which leaves Adam and Even to wrestle with the present. Over the next three millenni- um, God unveils the personage, the characteristics, and the man- ner of birth of a Savior. Further- more, no one prophet is entrusted with telling his people of when and how the savior will appear. The reader begins with Gen- esis and traces the promise of a redeemer through the law, the psalms, and the prophets; each passage of scripture, each piece of the story gives hope to the faithful. By the fourth century BC, the Hebrews understand that God has promised a savior, and He will be the son of man and the Son Of Man! From the book of Numbers we read He will spring from the seed of Jacob; from Deuteronomy, He will be like Moses; From Isaiah he will be from the offspring of Jes- se, and be born from a virgin; and From Mi- cah He will be born in the City of Bethlehem. As time progressed toward the birth of Christ the Hebrews re- gardless of circumstances could revel and have confidence just as Job embraced as he struggled with his tribulations, "I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth." As the psalmist wrote JOY is found with the hope of God's prom- ises, "But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ev- er shout for joy, because You de- fend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. The stirring message that Mat- thew paints in his goispel of Eliza- Continued on page 9 Heritage Viewpoint By Mike Gonzalez Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Russia has drawn a lot of criti- cism for its heavy-handed manipu- lation of U.S. social media, and de- servedly so. But almost unnoticed, another nation has been trying to control what Americans think by censoring free expression at our universities, the internet, media, movies and even sports clubs: Chi- na. There are signs, however, that civil society and our leaders are fi- nally fighting back. And not a moment too soon. Beijing is trying to do nothing less than "impose its speech re- strictions on the rest of the world," as Facebook founder Mark Zuck- erberg pointed out in a speech at Georgetown University on Oct. 17. His embrace of free expression against repressive tendencies in Beijing and here was a breath of fresh air. China's obsessive actions rep- resents nothing less than an at- tempt by a foreign power to shape the views of a democratic elector- ate whose opinions, translated through the ballot box and other means, shape public policy. Beijing gives millions to univer- sities in exchange for silence on its human rights transgressions, forces Hollywood studios to sub- mit their productions to Chinese censors and buys radio stations here. More recently, it censored what NBA players and executives can say about China, even threat- ening NBA Commissioner Adam Silver with "retribution sooner or later." China's communist leaders want Americans to be presented with a sanitized picture of a Chi- na with no concentration camps for Muslim Uighurs, no repres- sion in Tibet, no violation of prom- ises made to Hong Kong, no re- pression of dissidents, no denial of freedom of speech or conscience and no expansion into the South China Seas. In other words, an unrealistic picture. Sure, China has come a long way from the crazed chaos un- der Mao Zedong. The market re- forms introduced by Deng Xiaop- ing starting in the late 1970s have given it economic success. But that has not translated into politi- cal freedom; China remains a re- pressive state. That's why it's important that America resist attempts to intro- duce its values here. In his Georgetown speech, Zuckerberg offered a stark choice. The global Internet, he predict- ed, will be operated either with American or Chinese ethics. Zuck- erberg vowed to run his company on American values. It amounted to a remarkable turnaround for a man who has seen his company as not really American, but trans- national. But which social media hege- monic model will other countries adopt? Not long ago, it looked like America's, Zuckerberg said. Now, it's an open question. Some say it will go both ways: the "splinter- net." "China is building its own inter- net focused on very different val- ues, and is now exporting their vi- sion of the internet to other coun- tries," Zuckerberg warned. "Un- til recently, the internet in almost every country outside China has been defined by American plat- forms with strong free expres- sion values. There's no guarantee these val- ues will win out. A decade ago, al- most all of the major internet plat- forms were American. Today, six of the top 10 are Chinese. "We're beginning to see this in social media. While our services, like WhatsApp, are used by pro- testers and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quick- ly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the U.S. "Is that the internet we want? " he asked. Zuckerberg gamely used the