The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1214883
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, Februar y 26, 2020 B-5 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 In life sometimes I have a vari- ety of questions and puzzles that enter my mind. Sometimes it's hard to find answers to them. Over the years, some of these come from just observing things around, sometimes they come from books that I enjoy reading, sometimes they arise from talking and so- cializing with friends and family. Let's go over some of them. Some are thought provoking, some are funny, some can be worrisome, some can even feel uncomfortable to dwell on. Mind you, there is no rhyme or reason to this mix of ideas. Here's some of them: • Why is it so exciting to hear the news that a friend or family just had a baby, although we know they will be losing lots of sleep, doing a lot of feeding and changing di- apers, having doctors visits, etc, and that it will take about 18 years or sometimes more to raise the child. Still, there's something fas- cinating and magical about babies who bring smiles, they truly indeed touch our hearts. Babies don't have to do anything special. They're just plain de- lightful. Now that we have 11 grandkids, I know what I'm talk- ing about. • Why do we like to dream a lot about va- cations, like lie on a beach, have a cool drink, listen to the waves, get some sun, just watch people as they enjoy the atmosphere of free- dom. Yet the reality of it is we have to spend many hours to save up for these brief thrills. Shouldn't it be the other way around? ( Long va- cations, shorter work time. Seems like that's not going to happen un- less one hits the Lotto.) Since spring and summer are fast approaching, our family is lining up plans for a reunion and vacation in the south, where every year we go on a pilgrimage, walking along the beaches and dipping into the ocean. • Why is it such a thrill to go to restau- rants and experience culinary delights and not worry about cook- ing and cleaning up af- terwards? Gone are the days when grandma's house was always the hub to go for home cooking after Church. True? • Why is it quite delightful to eat what seems bad for you and quite tough to enjoy healthy food. Come on, which would you rather have broccoli and carrots or delicious steak, lobster and then triple de- light pecan and or strawberry pie. My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Finding answers to puzzles Minority View By Walter E. Williams Political bias and anti-Americanism on college campuses Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 A recent Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of Amer- ican adults think colleges and uni- versities are having a positive ef- fect on our nation. The leftward po- litical bias, held by faculty mem- bers affiliated with the Democratic Party, at most institutions of high- er education explains a lot of that disappointment. Professors Mitch- ell Langbert and Sean Stevens doc- ument this bias in "Partisan Regis- tration and Contributions of Facul- ty in Flagship Colleges." Langbert and Stevens conduct- ed a new study of the political af- filiation of 12,372 professors in the two leading private and two lead- ing public colleges in 31 states. For party registration, they found a Democratic to Republican (D:R) ratio of 8.5:1, which varied by rank of institution and region. For dona- tions to political candidates (using the Federal Election Commission database), they found a D:R ratio of 95:1, with only 22 Republican do- nors, compared with 2,081 Demo- cratic donors. Several consistent findings have emerged from Langbert and Ste- vens' study. The ratio of faculty who identify as or are registered as Democratic versus Republican almost always favors the Democratic Par- ty. Democratic profes- sors outnumber their Republican counter- parts most in the hu- manities and social sciences, compared with the natural sci- ences and engineer- ing. The ratio is 42:1 in anthropology, 27:1 in sociology and 27:1 in English. In the social sciences, Democratic registered faculty outnumber their Republi- can counterparts the least in eco- nomics 3:1. The partisan political slant is most extreme at the most highly rated institutions. The leftist bias at our colleges and universities has many harm- ful effects. Let's look at a few. At University of California, Davis, last month, a mathematics professor faced considerable backlash over her opposition to the requirement for faculty "diversity statements." University of California, San Di- ego, requires job applicants to ad- mit to the "barriers" preventing women and minorities from full participation in campus life. At American Universi- ty, a history professor recently wrote a book in which he advocates repealing the Second Amendment. A Rut- gers University pro- fessor said, "Watch- ing the Iowa Caucus is a sickening display of the over-represen- tation of whiteness." University of California, Berkeley, professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich chimed in to say: "Think about this: Iowa is 90.7 percent white. Iowa is now the on- ly state with a lifetime voting ban for people with a felony conviction. Black people make up 4 percent of Iowa's population but 26 percent of the prison population. How is this representative of our electorate? " A Williams College professor said he would advocate for social jus- tice to be included in math text- books. Students at Wayne State University no longer have to take a single math course to graduate; Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Young Democrats lose interest in freedom Feast and fasting The prophet Isaiah wrote, "Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? This passage is often used dur- ing Lent to call the discipline of Christ to a time of self-sacrifice and affliction. Lent has been observed by the church in some way since the 4th century AD. The faithful are en- couraged to enter into the season with soberness and humility. The disciple is urged to contemplate the Lord's Passion, and acknowl- edge the grace of God through Christ's atoning work. The faithful often refrains from a favorite food item as a means to afflict the body in an attempt to un- derstand the afflicting placed up- on Christ as he endured the cross. Why bother? Some point to the fact that it is not possible, nor are we to reenact the Passion of Christ. He suffered for our sins and we are invited to sit in "heavenly places" as the Glory of the Father shines upon His church. But Jesus an- swered a question from the Phari- sees when asked why is it His dis- ciples do not fast as they did? Jesus replied, "Can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bride- groom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast." You are invited to enter in- to Lent as a pilgrim did. The pa- triarch Abraham is seen as one who looked and longed "for a city whose builder was God." One way in which you can journey through lent is to consider the many faults that plague humanity. Since Lent is a time of fasting, you are encouraged to contem- plate the paired items that fol- low. One is a carnal and the other is spiritual. You are asked to con- template each item that tends to be a "work of the flesh" and fast from it. The other item is its oppo- site that should move you toward life in the Spirit. There are 20 pairs of attitudes and actions. Take a pair consider what is being asked. The first day examine how the carnal act nega- tively affects your life as a pilgrim- age, and fast from it. The second day, embrace the spiritual opposite and consider how you can incor- porate it within your life. Though Lent is considered 40 days, the actual length is 46 days. Be mind- ful, Sunday's are considered Holy Days so the six Sundays in Lent are not counted. Wednesday, February 26 –Fast from Doubt Thursday, February 27–Feast on Faith! Friday, February 28 –Fast from Fear Saturday, February 29 –Feast on Courage! Monday, March 2–Fast from Overindulgence Tuesday, March 3–Feast on Moderation Wednesday, March 4–Fast from Insecurity Thursday, March 5 –Feast on Confidence! Friday, March 6 –Fast from Dis- tractions Saturday, March 7–Feast on As- surance Monday, March 9 –Fast from Self Tuesday, March 10 –Feast on Connection! Wednesday, March 11–Fast from Hypocrisy Thursday, march 12–Feast on Authenticity Friday, March 13–Fast from Overreacting Saturday, March 14–Feast on Humility Monday, March 16 –Fast from Competition Tuesday, March 17–Feast on Co- operation Wednesday, March 18 –Fast from Apathy Thursday, March 19 –Feast on Participation Friday, March 20 –Fast from There's an old saying about baseball and life that no one ev- er had a 1.000 batting average. It turns out that's not exactly true. At least when it comes to the Trump economy, anti-Trumpers defied the near-impossible statistical odds and somehow have batted 1.000 on their predictions. They man- aged to get it wrong every time. A chorus line of President Don- ald Trump's critics, including the best and brightest minds of the liberal intelligentsia, predicted an economic and stock market free fall if Trumponomics were imple- mented. They weren't just wrong; in many cases, they were fantas- tically wrong. So wrong that Paul Krugman, the leader of the Ar- mageddon brigades four years ago, recently had to cry uncle. He begrudgingly admitted the Trump economy is doing "pret- ty well," which is like saying that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had a "pretty good year." Then, he insisted that Trump is a moron. Having worked as an econom- ic adviser to the 2016 Trump cam- paign, I had to go to battle almost every day with the whiz kids who predict- ed economic apoca- lypse if Trump won. "Under Trump, I would expect a pro- tracted recession to begin within 18 months," moaned former presidents Bill Clinton's and Barack Obama's chief economist Larry Summers. Well, where is it? The former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Eric Zitzewitz, warned on the eve of the election, "If Trump wins, we should expect a big markdown in expected future earnings for a wide range of stocks—and a likely crash in the broader market." The market is up roughly 60 percent. The New York Times summa- rized a 2016 study by economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Analyt- ics by warning, "If Donald Trump were elected president and put in his stated policies, the United States would experience a lengthy recession, enormous job losses, much high- er interest rates and diminished long-term growth prospects." The economy under Trump has precisely the opposite result on every measure. Even more wrong was Steve Rattner, MSNBC's economics gu- ru (still!) and former Obama au- tomobile czar, who told investors, "If the unlikely event happens and Trump wins, you will see a mar- ket crash of historic proportions, I think … The markets are terri- fied of him." And in case there was any voter confusion about the menace that Trump represented, a Washington Post editorial in October 2016 de- clared, "A President Trump Could Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 I happened to listen the other day to then-Senator John F. Kenne- dy's opening remarks in his debate with then-Vice President Richard Nixon during the 1960 presiden- tial election cycle. Kennedy, the Democratic Party candidate, recalled that Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860 presidential election cycle, said the great ques- tion facing the nation was whether it could exist "half-slave and half- free." In the 1960 election, said Ken- nedy, the issue was "whether the world will exist half-slave or half- free." "Whether it will move in the di- rection of freedom, in the direction of the road that we are taking... will depend in great measure up- on what we do here in the United States," he said. How things change. The Dem- ocrats' candidate in 1960 head- lined freedom as the issue defin- ing his campaign. Now, 60 years later, Democrats are moving down the road to nominating a socialist, pushing freedom as an American ideal out of the picture. It is astounding that many Dem- ocrats are ready to cast aside the core value that has defined our nation, for which so many have fought and died. One major part of the story is our youth. Support for the two parties is di- vided by age. In 2016, a majority of those un- der age 44 voted for Hillary Clin- ton. Fifty-five percent of those ag- es 18 to 29 voted for her, compared with 37 percent for Donald Trump. Trump received the majority of those 45 years and above. It is our youth that is enamored with socialism and the socialist candidate. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 40 percent of Democrats ag- es 18 to 29 expressed preference for Sen. Bernie Sanders to be their party's candidate, compared with 25 percent of those 30 to 49, 13 per- cent of those 50 to 64 and 10 per- cent of those 65 and over. In a Gallup poll, 51 percent of those ages 18 to 39 expressed a positive view of capitalism and 49 percent a positive view of social- ism. Among those 40 to 54, 61 per- cent were positive about capitalism compared with 39 percent for so- cialism. And those 55 and over, 68 percent were positive about capi- talism compared with 32 percent for socialism. What's driving these young Democrats to the far left? Niall Ferguson of Stanford Uni- versity's Hoover Institution and consultant Eyck Freymann sug- gest, in an article in The Atlantic, "The Coming Generation War," that the capitalist America that worked for earlier generations is not working for these youth. "They face stagnant real wages" and carry a large burden of student debt, they say. It's a generation "to whom little has been given, and of whom much is expected," they continue. I think it is just the opposite. It is a generation to whom much has been given and from whom little is expected. When Kennedy ran for presi- dent in 1960, America's youth still faced a military draft. In 1960, 72 percent of Americans over 18 were married, compared with 50 per- cent today. According to Pew, 78 percent of those ages 18 to 29 say it is ac- ceptable for an unmarried couple to live together, even if they don't intend to get married. Over the decade 2009 through 2019, there was a drop of 16 per- cent among those ages 23 to 39 who identify as Christian and an increase of 13 percent of those self- identifying as religiously unaffili- ated. And that age group doesn't vote. Since 1980, the percentage of eli- gible voters in their 20s who voted in presidential elections has aver- aged between 40 percent and 50 percent, compared with 65 percent to 75 percent of those over 45, Fer- Heritage Viewpoint By Stephen Moore Trump's critics on the economy: So wrong, so often