The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1198314
A-6 Wednesday, Januar y 8, 2020 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 Once in a while I come across a piece of literature that I think is worth sharing. Here is one. Some may like it, some might agree on some points, some may find things relevant to their lives, some might find it not relevant at all. Well, I will leave it up to your good judgment. Precisely that is why my column is titled "My Point of View." I am not sure if this is the to- tal content of the message, nei- ther do I claim absolute accuracy to it's completeness. But anyway, I find this inspiring. And so here it goes….. "You can have flaws, be anxious, and even be angry but do not for- get your life is the greatest enter- prise in the world. Only you can stop it from going bust. Many ap- preciate you, admire you and love you. Remember to be happy is not to have a sky without a storm, a road without accidents, work with- out fatigue, relation- ships without disap- pointments. To be hap- py is to find strength in forgiveness, hope in battles, security in the stage of fear, love in discord. It is not only to enjoy the smile, but also to reflect on the sadness. It is not only to celebrate the successes. But to learn lessons from the failures. It is not only to feel happy with the applause, but to be happy in anonymity. Being hap- py is not a fatality of destiny, but an achievement for those who can travel within themselves. To be happy is to stop feeling like a vic- tim and become your destiny's author. It is to cross deserts, yet to be able to find an oa- sis in the depths of our soul. It is to thank God for every morning, for the miracle of life. Be- ing happy is not being afraid of your own feel- ings. It is to be able to talk about you. It is the courage to hear a "no." It is confidence in the face of criticism, even when unjustified. It is to kiss your children, pam- per your parents, to live poetic mo- My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Opportunity for happiness Minority View By Walter E. Williams Colleges dupe parents and taxpayers Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have al- so been around for centuries. Yet, col- lege administrators assume that to- day's students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors. Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive bud- gets to accommodate. According to Minding the Cam- pus, Penn State University's Office of Vice Provost for Educational Eq- uity employs 66 staff members. The University of Michigan currently em- ploys a diversity staff of 93 full-time diversity administrators, officers, di- rectors, vice provosts, deans, consul- tants, specialists, investigators, man- agers, executive assistants, admin- istrative assistants, analysts and co- ordinators. Amherst College, with a student body of 1,800 students em- ploys 19 diversity people. Top col- lege diversity bureaucrats earn sal- aries six figures, in some cases ap- proaching $500,000 per year. In the case of the University of Michigan, a quarter (26) of their diversity of- ficers earn annual salaries of more than $100,000. If you add generous fringe benefits and other expenses, you could easily be talking about $13 million a year in diversity costs. The Economist reports that University of California, Berkeley, has 175 diversi- ty bureaucrats. Diversity officials are a growing part of a college bureaucracy struc- ture that outnumbers faculty by 2 to 2.5 depending on the college. Accord- ing to "The Campus Di- versity Swarm," an ar- ticle from Mark Pul- liam, a contributing ed- itor at Law and Liberty, which appeared in the City Journal (Oct. 10, 2018), diversity people assist in the cultivation of imaginary grievanc- es of an ever-growing number of "oppressed" groups. Pulliam writes: "The mis- sion of campus diversity officers is self-perpetuating. A ffirmative action (i.e., racial and ethnic preferences in admissions) leads to grievance stud- ies. Increased recognition of LGBTQ rights requires ever-greater accom- modation by the rest of the student body. Protecting 'vulnerable' groups from 'hate speech' and 'microaggres- sions' requires speech codes and bi- as-response teams (staffed by diver- socrats). Complaints must be inves- tigated and adjudicated (by diver- socrats). Fighting 'toxic masculinity' and combating an imaginary epidem- ic of campus sexual assault necessi- tate consent protocols, training, and hearing procedures — more work for an always-growing diversocrat cad- re. Each newly recognized problem leads to a call for more programs and staffing." Campus diversity people have de- veloped their own professional orga- nization — the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. They hold annual conferences — the last one in Phil- adelphia. The NADO- HE has developed stan- dards for professional practice and a political agenda, plus a Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, which is pub- lished by the American Psychological Association. One wonders just how far spineless college administrators will go when it comes to caving in to the demands of campus snowflakes who have been taught that they must be protected against words, events and deeds that do not fully conform to their extreme- ly limited, narrow-minded beliefs built on sheer delusion. Generosity demands that we forgive these pre- cious snowflakes and hope that they eventually grow up. The real problem is with people assumed to be grown- ups — college professors and admin- istrators — who serve their self-inter- est by tolerating and giving aid and comfort to our aberrant youth. Un- less the cycle of promoting and nurs- ing imaginary grievances is ended, diversity bureaucracies will take over our colleges and universities, sup- planting altogether the goal of high- Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Sin lies at the door Is the race for 5G a run or a crawl? Since the early pages of the Bi- ble, death has been a plague up- on mankind; death is the result of sin, and sin is the motivation for murder. The earliest writing about peo- ple killing is entangled in the sto- ry of Cain and Able. The story in- volves two brothers who have dif- ferent approaches to serving God; Able's attitude pleased God, while Cain was admonished that his heart wasn't right. God ask Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your counte- nance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." For all ages to come from this point forward humanity was ad- monished 1) God will accept you "if you do well"; 2) sin will wreak havoc with your life if you turn from God, and 3) you have the abil- ity to rule over sin. Cain killed his brother, so the die was cast; away with God and His ordnances; sin will be my com- panion. Thousands of years later, noth- ing has changed. Sin is not only rebellion against God; it is also hatred toward Him and His creation. The Old Testa- ment has numerous admonitions about resisting sin, and the Law of Moses was designed to be a bridge between sin and God. But the Apostle Paul would write to the Church at Rome that the Law could not bring in righteous- ness: "but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness." Sin has always been part of life, and wholesale murder [other than genocide and war] was uncommon across the world. But that is chang- ing. "Mother Jones" chronicles in the United States 118 mass murders have occurred since 1982; 948 peo- ple have been killed and 1,443 in- jured. This does not include mul- tiple deaths due to bombs, knives, murder/suicide, or serial killings. Psychiatry attempts to give an answer which centers around se- rious mental illness, sociopathic and narcissistic personality traits. However, centuries before psychiatry, the prophet Jerimi- ah wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? " The heart as the prophet used it means "the center of all desires." Who can look into a man or wom- en, and discern what they cherish or hate? How do we deal with evil? The congregants of West Free- way Church of Christ at White Settlement, Texas answered this very question Sunday, December 29, and will live with the repercus- sion for the rest of their lives. The church had an active shoot- er plan in place which law enforce- ment urges all churches to imple- ment. Police have released informa- tion that the perpetrator, Keith Thomas Kinnunen, had visited the church several times before and had received food but would get angry when he wasn't given cash [which is a standard prac- tice of most churches]. Headlines scream of Kinnunen's motive-"Drifter Sought Help, Gun- man Grew Angry over Money Re- quests, and Drifter Battling a De- mon." The man who shot and killed Kinnunen, Jack Wilson, has told news outlets, "I don't see myself as a hero… I see myself as doing what needed to be done to take out the evil threat." Jack Wilson identified the cul- prit: "evil." Evil exists. That is why we have police and a proliferation of fire- arm training courses. Evil will con- sider a church door as a barrier, much less on your home. How should we address evil and the murderous desires of men? The Church has been debating the issue for two millennium and cau- tiously sanctions [within parame- ters] the protection of others. In our own era, talented writ- ers through movies have tried to answer the question. Dr. Mahin, The Pew Research Center re- ports among its major findings in 2019 a dramatic drop in Americans identifying as Christian. In 2019, 65 percent of Ameri- cans identified as Christian, down from 77 percent in 2009. The per- centage who identify as religiously unaffiliated — that is, atheist, ag- nostic or "nothing in particular" — stood at 26 percent in 2019, com- pared with 17 percent a decade ago. I think this shift reflects less be- lief in God, rather than what God Americans choose to worship. Take, for instance, Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren. There does not appear to be a single aspect of human existence for which she doesn't have her own answer. Warren thinks she's God, and a shockingly high number of Americans seem ready to line up and worship her. Warren knows what is just and unjust, how much wealth is too much for any particular individ- ual and how much is not enough. And she feels totally empowered to take from one and give to the other to make the world what it is supposed to be. Needless to say, in her exalted, divine wisdom, she is ready to de- liver the last word on sexual identity, mar- riage, family and, of course, life and death. I'm focusing on Elizabeth Warren be- cause she is the most unabashedly outspo- ken and detailed in her views represent- ing the American left. But she is really the Ameri- can left itself. At a recent Democratic debate, Warren said: "I believe abortion rights are human rights. I believe they are also economic rights." I wonder when candidates make these declarations why the moder- ators never ask, "How do you know that? " It would give Warren the op- portunity to clarify by saying, "I know because I am God." Warren said that abortion is a "hard decision" but "the one entity that should not be in the middle of that decision is the government." This appears to be the only area in all of American life where War- ren does not believe the govern- ment should be involved. The Wall Street Journal recent- ly surveyed "60 -some policy pa- pers" from Warren's campaign, which show that no details of the life of every American will escape government dic- tate. There is the wealth tax; the "Medicare for All" tax; the corporate surtax; higher capi- tal gains taxes; higher income taxes on "the wealthiest individuals and giant corporations"; the overturning of "right to work laws" to shore up unions; the end of federal funding for charter schools; the vast expan- sion of government management of our currency, our jobs and our industry; a $ 3 trillion Green New Deal; the break-up of the big high tech companies, etc., etc. Let me make a few distinctions between the God of my beauti- ful leather Bible that I read every day and the self-anointed God Al- mighty Elizabeth Warren. The God I worship made man in His image and gave free choice and personal responsibility. My God made man a free, responsi- Continued on page 7 Heritage Viewpoint By Diane Katz Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 In what is widely characterized as a "race" for technology domi- nance, fifth generation wireless networks are being deployed in Europe, Asia and North Ameri- ca. But the mammoth task of re- vamping the cellular landscape will likely take at least a decade— as well as trillions of dollars. In ac- tuality, the "race to 5G" is more like a slog. There are advantages to launch- ing 5G services sooner rather than later, of course, but the value of 5G is not the infrastructure per se. The technological leaps will large- ly spring from the "intelligent" sys- tems and immersive activities en- abled by 5G's blazing speeds, its unparalleled capacity and its ul- tra-low latency. Such innovation is America's strategic advantage. The United States leads the world in the launch of 5G com- mercial service, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. China is al- so aggressively pushing its state- owned telecom operators to "catch up and surpass" the United States. (Elsewhere in Asia, deployment is occurring rapidly, particularly in Japan and South Korea.) Europe lags both the United States and Asia. By year's end, 5G commercial service—albeit limited—is ex- pected to be available in at least 18 countries. Analysts predict that the majority of deployments, including a denser array of anten- nae and base stations, new and up- graded towers, optical fiber rollout and redesigned "core" process- ing—will occur after 2020. But once achieved, 5G service will yield enormous benefits. A study commissioned by Qualcomm Inc. concluded that full 5G implementa- tion by 2035 will generate as much as $ 3.5 trillion in revenue globally and support some 22 million jobs. The 5G network in the United States is expected to reach 50 per- cent of mobile connections in 2025, covering 80 percent of the U.S. population, according to GMSA In- telligence. Among the most vex- ing barriers to deployment are the availability of spectrum—refer- ring to the government-controlled radio frequencies on which wire- less signals travel—and access to public infrastructure for siting the additional antennae equipment necessary to network 5G function. The political nature of U.S. spectrum allocation (primarily public auctions for leasing) leads to years-long procedural wran- gling. The Trump administration has directed federal agencies to cooperate with the Federal Com- munications Commission to free spectrum for 5G use, but not all departments are eager to relin- quish their radio-frequency real estate. Indeed, the FCC has even had public run-ins with the De- partments of Defense and Com- merce over spectrum allotments. Conversely, China's central- ized, authoritarian government has allocated spectrum licenses at an accelerated pace compared to the United States and Europe. It is also actively subsidizing Hua- wei, which supplies 50 percent of China's wireless network equip- ment. Indeed, 5G network deploy- ment features prominently in Bei- jing's current five-year economic plan and the "Made in China 2025" industrial strategy. But … communism does tend to undermine technological innova- tion. As noted by the MIT Technol- ogy Review, "How can research- ers achieve breakthroughs when there is no free speech, limited freedom of inquiry, not even ac- cess to Google Scholar? " Also problematic for the regime is the U.S. prohibition on sales of sensitive technology to Chinese firms, including Huawei. Heavi- ly dependent on American tech- nology, Huawei could face short- ages of essential 5G components for its products. The prospect of additional restrictions in Europe and North America could narrow the revenue stream needed for 5G innovation. To date, just 14 percent of 5G spectrum has been allocat- Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Elizabeth Warren anoints herself God