The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1217670
B-6 Wednesday, March 4, 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 Well, since this is the season of lent, I've been doing some read- ing about this subject. According to the Webster dictionary, it's the period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter, observed vigorously in Christian churches by fasting and penitence. In the old English language, lent is a shortened form of the word lencten meaning "spring season," the Dutch language lente, the Ger- man term lenz, in the latin lan- guage quadregesima (fortieth). Now I do not have a degree in lan- guages and do not want to appear I am sharing information that I have a master's degree in. I just happen to glance at different literatures on this matter and thought I could al- ways learn and share somethings I did not know. To my surprise, I did learn a few new things I did not know before. Now I know a few more things I was unaware of. I hope you'll feel the same way when you read this column. That I think is the beauty of widening one's store of knowledge. It's one of the best ways to ward off oldtimer's disease. • • • I suspect many know it is a season for preparation for Easter and during the Lent- en season, we try to do prayers, penance, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving and self-deni- al. I also suspect many of us and that includes myself feel it is not fun time at this time. You know, our tendency by rea- son of our human nature is to cling to the easy way, to focus on care free times, to avoid doing hard stuff, to indulge in pleasures, etc. Fortunately, this Lenten season makes us realize there is a time to pause and reflect on more seri- ous things in life. Yes, we do have cycles of joyful events to balance life. Did we not just have joyful events like Thanks- giving and Christmas? This week I came across a church bulle- tin that had a long list of things to do. It was titled Practical Lenten Practices. It was quite a lengthy list and I'm not about to expound on that. How- ever in going through the bulletin, I felt some things appear attractive to my way of thinking. Here's some items I think are worthwhile shar- ing. • • • For the section titled Prayer- it recommends reading the Scrip- ture daily for about 10 minutes. We have 24 hours each day gift- My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. The season of Lent Minority View By Walter E. Williams Stop, question and frisk Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Before former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg threw his hat into the 2020 presidential race, he defended the New York Police Department's use of "stop, question and frisk" policing. At a United States Naval Academy's 2019 Leadership Conference, Bloomberg said, "We focused on keeping kids from going through the correctional system ... kids who walked around looking like they might have a gun, remove the gun from their pockets and stop it." He claimed that as a result of his policy, New York's murder rate fell from 650 a year to 300 the year he left office. In the cases of Terry v. Ohio, Sibron v. New York, and Peters v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1968, granted limited ap- proval to officers to stop, question and frisk, even though they lacked probable cause for an arrest, if the officer believed the subject to be dangerous. The Court's decision made suspicion of danger to an officer grounds for a "reasonable search." The stop, question and frisk policy has taken on racial over- tones because most of the peo- ple stopped are black men. Let's look at the numbers. Last year, NYPD data showed that 93 per- cent of suspects arrested for mur- der were black or Hispanic. Nine- ty-six percent of those nabbed in shootings were also minorities. Eighty- eight percent of New York City's homicide victims were black or Hispanic as were 96 percent of shoot - ing victims. While these percentages have been roughly the same for decades, New York police have brought the absolute number of crimes, including homicides, way down from its 1990 peak at 2,245 to 289 homicides in 2018. Since blacks and Hispanics are the ma- jor victims of homicide, as a re- sult of the NYPD's proactive re- sponse to crime, possibly tens of thousands of blacks are living to- day who would otherwise be dead. For a law-abiding black person to be stopped, questioned and frisked — in a word or two, be racially pro- filed — is truly insulting. Howev- er, to analyze the policy, let's look at the origins of racial profiling or any other kind of profiling. First of all, policemen are neither mind readers nor are they equipped with X-ray vision. That means good po- licing requires learning how to use an easily observed physical char- acteristic as a guess or proxy for some other difficult- to-observe character- istic. Thus, the reason people profile is that information is costly and they seek meth- ods to economize on information costs. One way to do that is through profiling. The reality is that race and other behav- ioral characteristics are correlat- ed, including criminal behavior. That fact does not dispel the in- sult, embarrassment, anger and hurt a law-abiding black person might feel when being stopped by police, being watched in stores, be- ing passed by taxi drivers, stand- ing at traffic lights and hearing car door locks activated or being re- fused delivery by merchants who fear for their safety in his neigh- borhood. Former New York Mayor Mi- chael Bloomberg is a politician in pursuit of his own agenda. Presi- dent Donald Trump is also a poli- tician in pursuit of his own agenda. Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Will African Americans abandon Biden for Bernie? Why bother with Lent? It is not mentioned in the Bible and it seems to be another "works righteousness" activity that will not make us saved. You are right- sort of. The time of Lent for centuries has been identified by the Church as a time to contemplate Christ, and how are you discipling your- self in the faith? The observance of Lent is al- most as old as the Christian church. The church began to ob- serve Lent in the 4th century AD. These neophytes were to spend 40 days and 40 nights preparing for their baptism. If at the end they still wanted to follow Jesus, then on Easter Eve they would be bap- tized as the sun was rising in the east, signaling the new day, the new era, inaugurated because of the Resurrection. The temptation to skip fasting and affliction is part of the human condition. The scripture reminds us Jesus faced temptation just as we, yet He did not sin. Temptation to do wrong and sin against ourselves, others, and God is all around us! No one needs to look far to find temptation-it will find you! Admiral Robert Byrd tells the story that after completing his ex- pedition to the South Pole, a man came up to him as he traveled on a train and asked, "What did you miss the most down at the South Pole? " Byrd answered that they missed a lot of things. Some of them they didn't mind missing, and others they did; some they were very glad to get away from. He said he was discussing that very thing in the middle of the six months long Po- lar night with one of the Irishmen in the camp, Jack O'Brien. Byrd asked, "Jack, what are you missing most from civilization? " Jack answered without any hesita- tion, "Temptation." Temptation is a very real part of life: temptation to stray from the values we hold dear, temptation to take short cuts, to avoid struggle, to find the easy way through. The Apostle John summarizes temptation in a few words "For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world." In the modern observance of Lent, the faithful give up some- thing meaningful like coffee or soda, eating certain foods, going to some regular activity etc. This year I suggest you do something different. Last week I suggested daily to fast from a carnal behavior, and the next day relish and feat on a Godly behavior. If that seems to strenuous may I suggest to you [I borrowed and modified this list] give up some- thing carnal and put in its place something spiritual. GIVE UP grumbling! Try to live by the scripture "In everything give thanks. Moaning, groaning, and complaining are not Christian disciplines. GIVE UP 10 to 15 minutes of sleep; use those few moments as a time of intercessory prayer. GIVE UP looking at other peo- ple's worst points. We all have faults. It is a lot easier to have peo- ple overlook our shortcomings when we overlook theirs first. GIVE UP harsh speech. Let your speech be generous and un- derstanding. It costs so little to say something kind and uplifting. Check that sharp tongue! GIVE UP your hatred of anyone and anything! Learn the discipline of love: "Love covers a multitude of sins." GIVE UP your worries and anx- ieties! Trust God with them. Anx- iety is spending emotional ener- gy on something you can do noth- ing about-like tomorrow! Live to- day and let God's grace be enough. GIVE UP T V one evening a week! Occupy your mind with Ho- ly literature or attend Bible Study. GIVE UP buying anything but essentials for yourself! Give what you would have spent on the luxu- ries and help someone in need. We are called to be stewards of God's riches, not consumers. I am sure the local church has missions that go unfunded. The U.S. Energy Informa- tion Administration just an- nounced some spectacular news that should be banner headlines across the country: The price of natural gas has fallen to its low- est February level in 20 years. The data shows that natural gas pric- es fell to $1.77 per million Brit- ish thermal units. In inflation- adjusted terms, the price of gas has plunged by some 80 percent since its high of $13.60 12 years ago. The price is down 90 percent since 2005, when prices hit near- ly $20. (Quick: Can you think of anything else that now costs one- tenth of what it did 15 years ago?) The Energy Information Ad- ministration also reports that U.S. natural gas production has hit an all-time high this year. The shale oil and gas revolu- tion keeps rolling on—but no one is talking about it. This boom in production has affected the econ- omy of every state, from Ohio and Pennsylvania to Texas, Oklaho- ma, Colorado and the Dakotas. By the way, oil prices have also fallen considerably, bringing gas prices at the pump to nearly $2 a gallon in some states. Prices are so low now that the drillers aren't making any mon- ey and are starting to shut down wells. They are victims of their own success. Today's bargain- basement prices are partly due to moder- ate temperatures on the East Coast this winter, but this has been a long-term trend of cheaper and cheaper en- ergy. America is now the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, and we are exporting more throughout the world than at any previous time in our history. It's hard to believe that a decade ago, we were import- ing natural gas. Thanks to frack- ing and horizontal drilling tech- nologies that keep getting more and more efficient, we now have hundreds of years of supply of this fuel. This spectacular tumble in natu- ral gas prices has been a multibil- lion-dollar godsend to consumers, homeowners, manufacturers and other businesses. Just last week, a major Texas utility announced it would be sending homeowners cash-back checks be- cause electricity and home heating costs are falling so rapidly. Expect more to do the same in the coming months. Meanwhile, the United States contin- ues to reduce its car- bon emissions into the atmosphere at a fast- er pace than virtually any other country in the world. This is be- cause natural gas is not just cheap. It is one of the cleanest ways to produce scalable and dependable electric power for a nation of 329 million people. We don't need brownouts in America as we saw in California, and natural gas is an excellent way to make sure the lights don't go out. It would be hard to find any- thing NOT to like about this great American success story. We've achieved energy indepen- dence; reliable and inexhaustible supply; low prices; reduced pow- Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Democrats appear to be walk- ing the same walk that Republi- cans walked in 2016. They want something new and completely different. Former Vice President Joe Biden must be in shock that he is taking a far back seat to a 78 -year old social- ist who recently had a heart attack. He may not even be able to rely on black voters, whom he assumed would be there for him. According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders are running neck and neck with black voters in the upcoming South Carolina primary, where 60 percent of Democrat vot- ers are A frican American. Influential Congressional Black Caucus member and House ma- jority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina was circumspect on "Meet the Press" when Chuck Todd pressed him regarding an en- dorsement of Biden. We get a hint on what voters are feeling by looking at Gallup poll- ing on whether voters are satisfied or dissatisfied with the direction of the country. Gallup has been asking this question since 1979. The average over the entire period, from Febru- ary 1979 to January 2020, has been 37 percent expressing satisfaction with the direction of the nation. Good news for President Don- ald Trump is that the figure recent- ly jumped to 41 percent, the first time since July 2005 that it is over 40 percent. The average for former Presi- dent Ronald Reagan's second term, 1985 through 1988, was 54 percent. The average for former President Barack Obama's two terms was 24 percent. It shows why Biden has been such a flop. Although Obama had high personal ratings with the American public, the public's sense of the state of the nation under his stewardship provides a far differ- ent picture. Taking voters, certainly black voters, for granted just isn't going to work anymore. Americans sense that there has been something very wrong in the country, and they want very clear answers from candidates on what they think is wrong and how they plan to fix it. We're just not going to get by anymore as half-free and half-so- cialist. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, we're going to become all one or all the other. I discuss this in depth in my new book, "Neces- sary Noise." In 2016, Republicans went out of the mainstream and picked Donald Trump to clean up the Washington swamp. Democrats went for the es- tablishment candidate and lost. Now Democrats want to move left from the murky middle as Re- publicans move right. Polling of black voters shows they feel that the country is unfair and that more government is need- ed to fix this. According to Gallup, 70 percent of blacks feel the country is divided into "haves" and "have-nots," and 57 percent of blacks self-identify as "have-not." In polling by the Pew Research Center, 66 percent of blacks say economic inequality is a major problem in the country today. And 74 percent of blacks, compared with 48 percent of whites, say "gov- ernment should do more to solve problems." Regarding government-run health care, Bernie Sanders' flag- ship, 66 percent of black Demo- crats, per Gallup, express prefer- ence for a government-run system. Bernie Sanders is serving it all up, clear as day for all to see. Turn your whole life over to the government. So in November, Americans may have a clear and stark choice. Blacks will have a chance to de- cide whether being free or living under government dictate is the best way to deal with the opportu- Heritage Viewpoint By Stephen Moore Natural gas is crushing wind, solar power