The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1207797
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, Februar y 5, 2020 B-9 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 My search for a topic started when I had a slight panic and frus- tration. Let me explain. I was in a meet- ing and at the end of the session, the moderator started to assign the days we were supposed to meet next time. Naturally as I have done in the past, I grabbed my I phone which usually is encased in a pouch attached to my belt. My gracious goodness, the phone was not there. I am absolutely cer- tain all of you who could not locate your cell phone for whatever rea- son goes through a state of some panic and frustration. So I began to think, maybe the phone slipped out of the case, or maybe it fell off as I got off my car, maybe it's just around the vicini- ty where I was sitting, or maybe I misplaced it. Maybe I was having a senior moment. Lots of maybes went through my mind. So somehow my recall system kicked in and I remembered I re- charged it at home and left without it. That was still a senior mo- ment I blamed it on. That rarely hap- pens. Rarely. Me and my buddy iphone rarely get sep- arated. It's my second brain. And just like ev- erybody else, I'm quite sure we're on the same boat. I could have asked somebody to call my phone and see if it would ring but I was too embarrassed to do that. So, my thoughts were: I'd like to go home as quickly as I could so I could check the area where I left it. Good news. It was exactly where it was supposed to be, ful- ly charged and ready for action. Me and my iphone reunited like two long lost friends. I'm sure you know the feeling. Hey, you're chuckling. • • • The second part of my topic is about hav- ing giving up my land line. Hey, when you have a cell phone and wifi, you hardly need a landline anymore. I was tinkering with a new toy I purchased recently, a copying machine that could do multiple functions. I had to re- tire my old copying machine after about 10 years of faithful service. Used to, I would fax or mail cop- ies of documents in large amounts. I still do lots of mailing though. I have been receiving many docu- ments that needed to be sent to an accountant since tax time is com- ing up in April. I started to explore what my My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Phone dependency Minority View By Walter E. Williams Democracy and tyranny Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 During President Donald J. Trump's impeachment trial, we'll hear a lot of talk about our rules for governing. One frequent claim is that our nation is a democracy. If we've become a democracy, it would represent a deep betrayal of our founders, who saw democ- racy as another form of tyranny. In fact, the word democracy ap- pears nowhere in our nation's two most fundamental documents, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The found- ers laid the ground rules for a re- public as written in the Constitu- tion's Article IV, Section 4, which guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Gov- ernment." John Adams captured the es- sence of the difference between a democracy and republic when he said, "You have rights anteced- ent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legisla- tor of the Universe." Contrast the framers' vision of a republic with that of a democracy. In a democ- racy, the majority rules either di- rectly or through its elected repre- sentatives. As in a monarchy, the law is whatever the government determines it to be. Laws do not represent reason. They represent power. The restraint is upon the individual instead of the govern- ment. Unlike that en- visioned under a re- publican form of gov- ernment, rights are seen as privileges and permissions that are granted by gov- ernment and can be rescinded by govern- ment. Here are a few quotations that demonstrate the contempt that our founders held for a democra- cy. James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 10, wrote that in a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." At the 1787 Constitutional Con- vention, Edmund Randolph said that "in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of de- mocracy." Alexander Hamilton agreed, saying: "We are now form- ing a republican government. (Lib- erty) is found not in "the extremes of democracy but in moderate gov- ernments. ... If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy." John Adams re- minded us: "Remem- ber, democracy nev- er lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democra- cy yet that did not com- mit suicide." John Marshall, the highly respected fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court observed, "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos." Thomas Paine said, "A Democ- racy is the vilest form of Govern- ment there is." The framers gave us a Consti- tution replete with undemocratic mechanisms. One constitutional provision that has come in for re- cent criticism is the Electoral Col- lege. In their wisdom, the fram- ers gave us the Electoral College as a means of deciding presidential elections. That means heavily pop- ulated states can't run roughshod over small, less-populated states. Were we to choose the president and vice president under a popular Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Clarence Thomas in his own words Keep the faith Religious columns usually at- tempt to be uplifting, almost to the point of too much sugar. The dai- ly grind of life offers Christianity a unique opportunity to strengthen the faithful and give an encourag- ing word to the oppressed. The epistles of Paul are an inter- esting example of encouragement, but with a twist. Paul begins his letter[s] with a salutation to the re- cipient, and praise to the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Most letters then take a turn to instruction and discipleship, often writing to bring clarity to an error. At the end, he inserts a benedic- tion of encouragement and again praise to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is typically the method or structure of most sermons. People need encouraged. The daily stress- es of life also deserve more atten- tion in the Spirit than marching for a social justice cause. People attend Church to hear the Word of God; if anything oth- er than Christ's power over sin and death is the focus, it will have lit- tle spiritual impact upon the pa- rishioner. All of life's cares and trials are wrapped within the Gospel of Christ. To focus upon the toils of life robs one of hearing of the sav- ing power of Christ, and the em- powerment of the Spirit to over- come our carnal desire. In a recent memorial service that I conducted, the family shared one of their father's favorite quips: Life goes on." He was a combat vet- eran of World War Two and was re- called during the Korean War; he told his family, "I was one of the lucky ones." That gave me pause. I could not help as I looked at his picture sto- ryboard and memorial video that life went on after the wars. His 90 plus years were full of family and joy of life, but as a combat veter- an, he experienced "life goes on." The news broke as a thunder- clap Sunday afternoon when Ko- be Bryant and eight others were killed in a helicopter crash. Noth- ing could be done. That is the reality of life. When the tragedy of a life taken too soon hits us in the gut, life goes on. The ancient cliché, "Time waits for no man" is reaffirmed as we the liv- ing try to make sense of the trag- edy of life. Regardless, if the death is an in- fant who has his/her entire life yet to live or an infirmed elderly man whom we say has lived a long and good life, the outcome is the same. On an average day, 150,000 peo- ple leave this life; that is 104 a min- ute. This number is incomprehen- sible because it is global. But the same pain that is among the fami- ly and friends of Bryant is found in all the families of the earth. "I just turned around, and he was gone" typifies life regardless of age and whether it was expect- ed or not. Kobe Bryant epitomized suc- cess. A family, youth, and a life still waiting beckoned, and he was one of the few individuals who could live as he wanted. Death snatched that away. We were dazed. The apostle James wrote, "You do not know what will happen to- morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a lit- tle time and then vanishes away" This passage has been used mil- lions of times at memorial servic- es. Not only to illustrate the brevi- ty of life, but its uncertainty. This is not a eulogy for the dead, but encouragement for life. Living takes courage and living a victo- rious life in Christ requires faith which generates courage. David in a psalm wrote, "For You will not abandon me in the grave: likewise Job wrote in his time of torment, "Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh." The passing of a loved one is painful; we mourn for things left undone and unsaid, and grieve for ourselves. When a celebrity or young person passes unexpected- ly, it reverberates into our souls. We realize death plays no favor- ites. Lent will be upon us in a few weeks, and the faithful will be con- templating the Passion of Christ. In 1974 President Richard Nix- on declared, "At the end of this de- cade, in the year 1980, the Unit- ed States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need." So when President Donald Trump recently said, "We are in- dependent, and we do not need Middle East oil," did he finally ac- complish what his eight predeces- sors vowed to do? Not exactly. We're much less de- pendent on Middle East oil than we used to be, yes, but not entirely so—and in fact, we can't be. For starters, oil is a globally traded commodity. Whether the U.S. is a net importer or exporter of oil, we cannot completely insu- late Americans from price volatil- ity any more than U.S. self-suffi- ciency in orange or coffee produc- tion will prevent supply problems in other parts of the world from af- fecting domestic prices. The price of crude oil makes up slightly more than half of the price for a gallon of gasoline. A number of factors around the world affect the supply of and demand for oil, which in turn affects the price Americans pay at the pump. The Middle East, led by Saudi Arabia, still plays a huge role. A third of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz daily. Major supply disruptions can still inflict a lot of economic pain on American consum- ers and the economy. Because of the global connected- ness of oil markets, the U.S. still imported about 9.94 million bar- rels of petroleum in 2018 from 90 different countries. That's not a bad thing. Americans ben- efit through lower prices and in- creased economic activity from a more efficient global oil market. Moreover, a barrel of oil ex- tracted in Texas isn't the same as a barrel extracted in Saudi Arabia. Crude can range from very light to very heavy depending on its densi- ty, and sweet to sour depending on its sulfur content. Through open markets and a continual flow of im- ports and exports, matching refin- ing capabilities that are more suit- ed for different types of crude ben- efits us all. Although the U.S. will never be com- pletely detached from the global oil markets, America's increased supplies and invento- ries is providing a wel- come cushion to with- stand the adverse economic impacts of geopolitical events. Because of the drive of American entrepreneurs, do- mestic oil production has more than doubled since January 2010 to more than 12.5 million barrels per day. The United States is now the world's largest oil producer, which is great news if you like affordable energy, more jobs and higher lev- els of prosperity. Moreover, getting more domes- tic oil and refined petroleum prod- ucts into the market is serving as a price shock absorber. The situation with Iran is the lat- est in a number of events over the past two years that could have sent Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 It has been said that the very moment a man finds himself, he finds God. This captures the story of Su- preme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, a man of deep faith whose youthful struggles with racism caused that faith to be shaken but who later returned to it, more deeply and more reso- lutely because of his great char- acter and refusal to settle for any- thing but truth. The new film "Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words" will be released in the- aters nationwide Jan. 31, exqui- sitely timed with Black History Month. But this is also a time of great tensions and divisions in our nation, with race continuing to be one of the main issues di- viding us. Thomas published his memoir, "My Grandfather's Son," in 2007, which tells the story of his jour- ney from beginning life dirt-poor in Pinpoint, Georgia, to his con- firmation as U.S. Supreme Court associate justice in 1991. Now filmmaker Michael Pack delivers Thomas' remarkable sto- ry to us in his own words, bring- ing to the screen exclusive inter- views with Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas, in which they speak their minds. Judge Thomas strikes a strong personal note with me because I know well what he means when he talks about being attacked for being black by not acting and say- ing what is expected from a black person. I was in the early days of my own work in policy activism when Democrats brought Anita Hill in- to Thomas' confirmation hear- ing. I helped organize a large group of black pastors to come to Washington from around the country and demonstrate support for him. When Branch Rickey, presi- dent and general manager of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers, recruit- ed Jackie Robinson to be the first black in Major League Baseball, Rickey warned Robinson that he would be challenged to focus on the game and not react to the rac- ist jeers that would come not just from the stands but from his own white teammates. "They'll taunt you and goad you," Rickey warned. "They'll do anything to make you react. They'll try to provoke a race riot in the ballpark." Justice Thomas had to stand the same test. Except this time, it was not whites trying to drive a black man off the field. It was liberals, black liberals and white liberals, trying to drive a black conservative off the field. Thomas describes what he had to endure: "( Y )ou're not re- ally black because you're not do- ing what we expect black people to do." And with regard to what the left was trying to achieve with Anita Hill, he said: "People should just tell the truth: 'This is the wrong black guy. He has to be destroyed.'" This circles back to Thom- as' similarities with Jackie Rob- inson. Both men drew their strength from their deep faith to stand with integrity in the face of merciless attacks. Thomas talks about the resto- ration of his Catholicism after his youthful rebellion and black radi- calism: "I asked God, 'If you take anger out of my heart, I'll never hate again.'" Anger and hate are just other forms of slavery. Other people are controlling you. Thomas became a free man once his faith was restored. Thomas is now the most senior associate justice on the Supreme Court and has become one of America's great conservative el- der statesmen. His opinions over these years have already created a legacy of finely and rigorously reasoned jurisprudence, faithful to the core principles on which Heritage Viewpoint By Nicolas Loris Does the US still need Middle East oil?