The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1200597
A-6 Wednesday, Januar y 15, 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 About a week ago, I was watch- ing some documentaries and came across one with a title "City in the Sky." That caught my attention. Sometime when I was in my teens, I was already thinking ahead as to what career I might pursue since I was about to grad- uate from the four year high school program. I had three choices play- ing in my mind. The first one was to enroll in the college of agricul- ture since the country where I grew up was quite rich in fertile lands available year round, and be- sides I love food and crops and the thought of raising animals. The second dream I had was to enter aviation and be a pilot since I was fascinated with travel. I had several pictures of planes in my bedroom that I still have vivid memories of. And the third choice was to enroll in medi- cal school since I had a long exposure to the health care field when I helped my father in his work as a dentist. I was his assistant for a number of years dur- ing my teen years. This last choice ag- onized me because I was quite afraid of the very long and challenging journey to be undertaken if I enrolled in med school. It would take me a com- bined total of nine years of under- graduate and postgraduate stud- ies, not counting about a minimum of three years of residency train- ing after graduation. I clearly re- call there was a dead- line set up by the col- lege of Science to en- roll, if interested, and then the doors would close in two days. It was a difficult time for a young teen like me to jump into action as I narrowed my choices. It was a gut-wrenching set of emotions as I went to the regis- tration department of the Univer- sity and filled out the application form. Did you ever have that feel- ing like you are in a twilight zone and you are about to jump from My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Life's choices Minority View By Walter E. Williams The new racism Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 A voter may dislike a black, homo- sexual or female candidate, but it's not likely that he would openly admit it. However, diversity-crazed leftist/ progressive Democrats have open- ly condemned the physical charac- teristics of some of their 2020 pres- idential candidates. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are leading the polls despite the fact that they have been condemned as old white men. While Pete Buttigieg is homosexual, some- thing that pleases diversity crazies, he is also a white man, young and re- ligious. With Kamala Harris' depar- ture from the race, the Democratic field has lost one of its persons of color. Another, Senator Cory Book- er, stands at 2 % in the polls; his days are numbered. That means the only Democratic candidates polling high are those condemned as old white people — two men and one woman, Elizabeth Warren. LaTosha Brown, the co-found- er of Black Voters Matter, said she was initially eager for Joe Biden to enter the race but now has sec- ond thoughts. Brown said: "I'm over white men running the coun- try. I don't know if him (sic) getting in changes the field. He has name recognition, but his strength is also his weakness." Former presidential candidate Howard Dean lamented, "If we have two old white guys at the top of this ticket, we will lose." The newest entry into the presidential sweepstakes, Michael Bloomberg, had to apologize for what some see as his diversity insensitiveness namely that of calling fellow pres- idential candidate Cory Booker "well-spoken" in a T V interview. The New Jer- sey senator said he was "taken aback" by what he saw as Bloomberg's racist "trope." Michael Moore gave us his racist warn- ing: "Two-thirds of all white guys voted for Trump. That means anytime you see three white guys walking at you, down the street toward you, two of them voted for Trump. You need to move over to the other sidewalk because these are not good people that are walking toward you. You should be afraid of them." This is the new racism, much of it learned and taught at our na- tion's colleges. George Orwell said, "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them." The stu- pid ideas about inclusion and diver- sity originate with academics on col- lege campuses. If their ideas didn't infect the rest of society, they might be a source of entertainment. But these cancerous ideas have infect- ed society. Statements such as "I'm over white men running the coun- try," or "If we have two old white guys at the top of this ticket, we will lose" are examples of that cancer. Last year, Philip Carl Salzman wrote "The War Against White Peo- ple" in Minding the Campus. He de- clared: "Anti-white hate is now main- stream American culture. Not just by racial extremists such as Black Lives Matter, for whom statements such as "all lives matter" or "blue lives matter" are rac- ist. Our highest leaders sing the same song." When Barack Obama was campaign- ing for the presidency in 2008, he said of work- ing-class white voters, "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipa- thy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti- trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." During the 2016 presidential campaign, candidate Hillary Clinton claimed that half of Donald Trump's supporters were "a basket of deplorables" who were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xeno- phobic, Islamophobic — you name it." Do you think Clinton was talking about Trump's black, Asian and His- panic supporters? No, she was talk- ing about millions of Trump's white supporters. Then there's Sarah Jeong, a mem- ber of The New York Times edito- rial board and graduate of the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School. She expressed publicly many anti-white opinions. Among them are: "The world could get by just fine with zero white peo- ple." "Dumbass f— -ing white peo- ple marking up the internet with Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Trump's timely move against evil Overcoming evil – beyond doing good We are to be people of peace in an evil and sinful world. How should we react to the church shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ and the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Solei- mani? First, let us understand evil; it is defined as a profound immoral, wicked, and sinful act. I must confess there is no im- mediate solution to evil among nations and governments. Gov- ernments call people to war or to do violence to others. That is the history of the world and will not change anytime soon, The Apostle Paul reveals to the Church at Ephesus that evil is re- al and is beyond our comprehen- sion. He wrote, "We aren't fight- ing against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens." This creates tension among the faithful, for there are voices among us who hold views that call to sub- vert the idea of submitting to rul- ers. The scriptures shoot down the call to resist government, Paul writes to the Church at Rome: "Let every soul be subject to the gov- erning authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appoint- ed by God." In the same vein, the Apostle Pe- ter writes, "Therefore submit your- selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake…" This creates cognitive dissi- dence because Christians are urged to submit to governments and laws that may be evil. Nations have laws and moral principles that are aimed at con- fronting evil acts. The evil perpe- trated at the Church of Christ in Texas required a response. For good or bad, the state of Texas has laws that deal with a person attempting to kill others who are in a peaceful setting. However, in each of our daily lives, the scripture gives guidance in confronting evil on a personal level, Paul writes to the Church of Rome, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is hon- orable in the sight of all. If possi- ble, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' To the contrary, 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Doing good in the face of evil summarizes the "Sermon on the Mount." Resisting evil and doing good provides us with a founda- tion to answer the questions: 1) How do we live out the vision of the "Church Triumphant," and 2) How do we resist the evil and sin that flourishes around us? A problem arises because each of us has a sinful nature; we are hard-wired with an impulse to re- taliate and to repay evil with evil. The evil within those around us, within our culture, and within our- selves all work together to over- come us. Paul acknowledges this very human trait where he writes to the Church at Rome, "So I dis- cover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me." Evil wants to destroy our ability to be Christ-like, and our ability to carry out the commission to make disciples and live a sanctified and righteous life. In the midst of all of this evil seeking to overcome the faithful, Paul gives us three tools to fight with—three ways to preserver vic- tory in the face of evil. First, we must recognize that God will make everything right in the end [the Restoration of all things]. Therefore, the faith- ful are to live peaceably with all. This means we must choose not to avenge ourselves. Accept by faith that God will make the "crooked straight." He will avenge. Respond to evil with good. Second, we must refuse to em- In his address to the nation Wednesday, President Trump's re-upped—clearly and in no un- certain terms—his commitment to challenging Iran's continuing efforts to run amok in the Mid- dle East. While Trump critics in the U.S. like to claim his policies are mercurial, inept and irresponsi- ble, the Iranian regime no doubt knew exactly what he was going to say. A fter all, they gave him all the information needed to shape his speech. First, Iran gave Trump Wednes- day morning's inept face-saving fireworks display, showering more than a dozen missiles on bases in Iraq where U.S. military forces are stationed. The "retal- iatory" attack was a transparent attempt by the Iranian regime to save face with the folks back home. Technically, Iranian leaders can tell their increasingly disaffected citizens that they've now done something to avenge the death of Qassem Suleimani, Iran's chief architect of terror- ism. But what they did was pretty much next to nothing. To reduce the pos- sibility of U.S. blow back, the Iranians actually notified Iraq before the missile shower—a message they surely know would be conveyed to the Americans and other co- alition forces in the target areas. As intended, the missiles did little damage. Then the regime quickly announced the payback was over. The message could not have been any clearer if the Ira- nians had said: Ladies and gen- tlemen, this is all a show. Trump's response was mea- sured, responsible, and propor- tional—just as was the drone strike that killed Suleimani. No, Trump said, the U.S. isn't going to fire back at Tehran like in some cinematic Wild West shoot- out. Instead, the U.S. will continue to take actions designed to get Iran to "be better"—ac- tions that will further isolate and punish the regime for its destabi- lizing behavior. Trump's endgame al- so remains the same: limit the Iranian re- gime's ability to wreak mayhem, while offering it the op- tion of going back to the negoti- ating table to do a real deal—one that addresses the mullahs' most troubling behaviors. Odds are the Iranians knew this is exactly the speech they were going to get. Their face-saving strike that saved no face can be cold comfort at best. James Carafano is a leading ex- pert in national security and for- eign policy challenges from the Her- itage Foundation. Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 The muted reaction of leading Democratic politicians to the elim- ination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani reinforces my sense of what divides our country and dif- ferentiates the two parties. One part of America still be- lieves that there is good and evil, and one part doesn't. The American left, whose polit- ical home is the Democratic Par- ty, lives in a world where good and evil don't exist. Everything is about politics including redemp- tion itself. Only someone who does not be- lieve there is good and evil experi- ences no joy when evil is defeated. The destruction of Soleimani, whose life's work was carrying out the will of a despicable re- gime, is cause for celebration. As commander of the Quds Force, his hands dripped with the blood of hundreds of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of others throughout the Middle East, par- ticularly in Syria. According to authoritative re- ports, the Iranian ideological im- perialism extends to managing terrorist forces in Lebanon, Iraq, A fghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. And much of their activity focus- es on threatening the existence of Israel. This network of terror has spread to our own hemisphere in South America. In 1994, a bomb was detonated at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argenti- na, killing 85 and injuring 300. In 2006, Argentinian special prosecu- tor Alberto Nisman indicted eight former Iranian officials accused of being responsible for the oper- ation, and the following year, Inter- pol issued "red notices" for the ar- rest of six of them. The Wall Street Journal has re- ported Iranian activities in Vene- zuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Brazil, Peru and Chile. According to Jo- seph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free So- ciety in Washington, D.C., "Latin America is arguably Iran's top for- eign policy priority outside of the Middle East." The evil Iranian regime is a clear and threatening global dan- ger, and Soleimani was its most powerful general. How can there not be unreserved joy at his elim- ination? But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others of their party are not joyful. As was the case when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was eliminated, in- stead of celebrating, they are at- tacking President Donald Trump. No one wants war. And no one believes that the United States should expend its resources be- ing the world's policeman. But refusal to recognize the threat of aggressive evil is irre- sponsible and dangerous. In March 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan addressed the Na- tional Association of Evangelicals and delivered the famous address in which he called the Soviet Union "an evil empire." Reagan unleashed his passion, noting the standing threat from the Soviet communists, arguing for aggressive confrontation. "There is sin and evil in the world," said the president, "and we are enjoined by scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might." "(I)f history teaches anything," he continued, "it teaches: Simple- minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our free- dom." Reagan stood tough, and not many years later, the unthinkable happened. The Soviet Union col- lapsed. Some of the foolishness we are hearing from the left cynically suggests that this operation was a diversionary tactic by President Trump to take attention from the impeachment proceedings. Let's recall what he said three years ago in his inaugural address: "We will reinforce old alliances Heritage Viewpoint By James Carafano Trump tells Iran the endgame remains the same while offering a chance to renegotiate