The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1232982
B-8 Wednesday, April 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 These past weeks have been quite tough for the entire nation and the world. I never could imag- ine in my lifetime that I would wit- ness such changes caused by an illness that affected millions of people globally. Enough has been said and shared by the authorities, scientists, news media, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc and I do not have to repeat them. For anyone who is at home, do- ing strict self-imposed isolation or quarantine for long periods of time is a challenge that will test one's patience. Now we have a new term called social distancing which al- so poses a new awareness we have not done before. So, in trying to be creative to withstand this new set of challenges, I try to practice what I have shared with my family and friends, and I have also listened to what they have shared with me. I hear everyone's sentiments and frustra- tions and fears. I now try to find every positive and optimistic at- titude I can gather. I try to use every form of healthy habits and coping mechanisms I have read up on wher- ever I can find them. It's not been easy. • • • There's plenty of fears I can share and everyone already knows about them. So I will try to focus on things I have heard and shared with family and friends, mostly the good side of things. It seems everyone has commented on the aspect of being able to take time to reflect, and of having more time to rest and be quiet. Many have commented about being able to catch up with activi- ties like cleaning up their homes or places they live in and which they have not been able to do, because their lives have been too busy. Many have com- mented on clearing up stuff they really do not need and getting rid of non-essentials. Many have said they now had time making calls to fami- ly and friends they did not have time to con- nect in the past. Many had com- mented they finally had time to read up on matters of faith and re- ligion, history and whatever inter- ests them. I think for the first time we have been able to get off this non-stop treadmill of life that has been hurt- ing all of us. We now are able to spend more meaningful time ap- preciating the presence of our loved ones in life. My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Reflections on isolation, social distancing Minority View By Walter E. Williams Managing a disaster Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 I'm not sure whether COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, in the U.S. qualifies as a true disaster. Putting the disease in perspective, we might look at current influen- za illnesses. According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, be- tween Oct. 1, 2019, and March 14, 2020, there have been 390,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations as a result of the flu, 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 flu illnesses and 23,000 to 59,000 flu deaths. That's compared with, as of March 27, a total of 85,356 cases of COVID-19 resulting in the deaths of 1,246 people. But let's agree that COVID-19 is a disaster and ask what the appro- priate steps that are to deal with it. One of the first observations about any disaster is that the quantity de- manded of many goods greatly ex- ceeds the supply. There is a short- age. The natural market response when there is a shortage is for pric- es to rise. Rising prices produce several beneficial effects. They reduce the incentive for people to hoard while suppliers, motivated by the prospect of higher profits, are incentivized to produce more of the good in short supply. Thirty-four states and the Dis- trict of Columbia have anti-price gouging laws that prohibit "exces- sive and unjustified" increases in prices of essential consumer goods and services during a federal, state or local declared emergency. Price gouging is le- gally defined as charg- ing 10 to 25% more for something than you charged for it dur- ing the month before an emergency. Sell- ers convicted of price gouging face stiff fines and perhaps prison terms. But what about hoarding? Often hoarding creates the shortage. In uncertain times, people may pur- chase three dozen eggs instead of one dozen. They may want to maintain stockpiles of canned goods and buy up large quantities of cleaners, paper towels and toilet paper. This kind of behavior has left some with overflowing freez- ers, shelves of sanitizers and ga- rages full of toilet paper while their neighbors are left either wanting for the same items or paying what some call "excessive and unjusti- fied" prices. While it's difficult to get beyond emotions, the fact is that consum- ers are not forced to buy products for the higher (gouged) price. If they pay, it is likely because they see themselves as being better off acquiring the good than the alternative– keeping their money in their pocket. Higher prices charged have a couple of unappreciat- ed benefits. First, they get people to econo- mize on the use of the good whose price has risen. That is higher prices reduce demand and encourage conservation. That helps with the disaster. With higher prices, profit-seek- ing suppliers know that they can make more money by bringing ad- ditional quantities of the goods to the market. This increases the sup- ply of goods, which helps to drive prices back down. Anti-price goug- ing laws disrupt these two very im- portant functions of the market- place and enhance and prolong a disaster. In other words, in a disas- ter, we want people to economize their use of goods and services and we want suppliers of these goods and services to produce more. Rising prices encourage these actions. Anti-price gouging laws stymy those incentives and create Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Palm Sunday regardless "Is God in Cyberspace? " This is the same question as "Is God in the scriptures? " Of course! The scriptures become a living revela- tion of God when faith is added. The words come alive through the working of the Holy Spirit through faith–so the same goes with cy- berspace. God is with those who seek him regardless of the medi- um used. Though we missed the pag- eantry, the flowers, and waving the palms, Palm Sunday was ob- served in many different ways due to the Covid-19 crisis, but the pag- eantry remains vivid in the heart of the disciple. The "Triumphant Entry" by Je- sus was unannounced. His en- try was at a strategic time of His choosing. Among those who wit- nessed his entry were the curious, the faithful, the indifferent, and those who opposed Him. Each per- son who witnessed his entry had a reaction. Scholars suggest that at the time of Jesus, the population of Jerusa- lem could swell to as high as 3 mil- lion [normally 50 -100 thousand]. I suggest there are three impor- tant points to Jesus entering Jeru- salem on that Palm Sunday centu- ries ago: "You Are There," "You Are There," and finally, "You Are There." The first "You Are There" is you are with Jesus through the narra- tive of that Palm Sunday. Jesus has told his disciples of his coming death, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, The second "You Are There" originates with the crowd. You are one of four types of people who witnessed Jesus riding into Jerusalem. There were the indifferent. Just another day in Jerusalem-What a traffic jam! "I hope this procession is over soon! " There were the curious. "Jesus is here! " "You know, he is the one many call a prophet! A prophet? I have to see this! " But the curious have little compulsion to investi- gate why Jesus is called a prophet. Then there were the disciples and believers. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he was surrounded by disciples and they believed in Him as the Messiah. The last were those who op- posed his ministry. "He is not one of us; who does he think he is? " "He hails from Galilee and Naza- reth- no prophet ever came from there! " "Look at Him, riding a don- key. He is supposed to be a king? " The Third "You Are There" plac- es you at the Passover. It was one of the three main feasts of Israel, and Jesus was the "Lamb of God," and He himself said, He must keep the Passover in Jerusalem. You were there at what is called "The Last Supper." There is actually a fourth "You Are There." God had those out- side of the promise of Israel there as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. God gave Abraham a promise, centu- ries earlier, "Seeing that Abra- ham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the na- tions of the earth shall be blessed in him." The prophet Isaiah had the non- Hebrews in mind when he wrote 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gen- tiles, That You should be My salva- tion to the ends of the earth.' God had made provisions for all people and nations to worship at the temple. Gentiles who worshipped Is- rael's God but had not become a proselyte were called "God-fear- ers." Gentile God-fearers could not come into the temple but could worship within the Court of the Gentiles. However, the religious rulers of the Temple had allowed the mer- chandising of sacrifices and mon- ey changing to be done within the Court of the Gentiles. By permit- ting that court to become a market- place, a religious scandal had been created—a stumbling block— had The embrace of coronavirus conspiracy theories by Iran's Is- lamist regime in recent days has exposed the cynicism and desper- ation of a beleaguered dictatorship focused on retaining power while sacrificing the health of its own people. The Iranian regime has accused the United States of being behind the coronavirus outbreak, to shift blame for the questionable prior- ities and the utter incompetency of its own belated and ineffective response to the COVID-19 pan- demic. By blaming the "usual sus- pects"—the regime's traditional enemies—Iran's rulers hope to minimize the domestic political backlash over their disastrous re- sponse to the pandemic, which has generated close to 32,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 2,300 deaths in Iran. Since Iran's 1979 revolution, the regime has used disinformation, propaganda, and conspiracy theo- ries as tools to sustain its Islamist ideology and maintain its grip on power. Iran's state-run media control the narrative at home through censor- ship and dissemi- nation of selective content, while inter- national messaging is carefully calibrat- ed to promote the re- gime's ideology. The crux of the argument is that Iran has been fighting the "Zionist Jews" and the "Great Satan" of the United States in an ideological battle of good ver- sus evil. The coronavirus crisis is just another front in the regime's ide- ological war. But it has become an increasingly important front as Iran's rulers attempt to repair the regime's image and bolster its damaged legitimacy at a time of widespread domestic distrust, surging opposition, and declining popular support. A fter weeks of silence and mounting pressure to address the crisis publicly, Iran's supreme leader, Aya- tollah Ali Khamenei, addressed the nation in a televised speech March 22. Instead of reflect- ing on the crisis and discussing steps to combat the new coro- navirus, Khamenei ac- cused the U.S. of creat- ing the virus as a biological weap- on, "produced specifically for Iran, using knowledge about Iranian ge- netics that was acquired in various ways." Khamenei also rejected a U.S. offer of aid in fighting the pandem- ic, saying that any medicine pro- vided by the U.S. might spread the virus further. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has assumed a lead- ing role in propagating conspira- cy theories about the pandemic. Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Several months ago, before any- one imagined the current crisis, I read a book called "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. Frankl was a Jewish Viennese psychiatrist who was captured by the Nazis during World War II and managed to survive four concen- tration camps including the infa- mous Auschwitz and Dachau. He went through the ordeal ob- serving human behavior, and the result was his formulation of a sys- tem of therapy he called logother- apy. Frankl found that those who were most successful, surviv- ing under the most challenging circumstances, were those who retained a sense of meaning in their lives. That is, the real chal- lenge that every person faces is not what's happening outside of themselves but what's happening inside. In Frankl's own words: "Every- thing can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human free- doms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." He continued: "Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive as- pect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degener- ating into mere arbitrariness un- less it is lived in terms of respon- sibleness." With all our talk about freedom, somehow its essence has gotten lost: human beings taking respon- sibility for their own life and the world around them. Human beings are causes, not results. They are free agents, not victims. I can't think of a more important message as we face these great challenges today as a nation and as individuals. The whole idea of America was, and hopefully still is, freedom, which means America must be about individuals taking respon- sibility. The country now faces two huge areas of uncertainty and lack of clarity. One is regarding the nature of the health threat we are deal- ing with. I am still reading differ- ent opinions from knowledgeable sources about how lethal this virus is and the best way to stop it with- out totally shutting down and de- stroying our economy. Second, we're suffering great absence of clarity in government regarding who is responsible for what. Times of uncertainty are times, in the spirit of Viktor Frankl, for individuals to step up and take re- sponsibility. But, unfortunately, we're getting the opposite. It's obscene that House Speak- er Nancy Pelosi, who held up the emergency stimulus bill to insert left-wing nonsense, accused Pres- ident Donald Trump of fiddling while "people are dying." Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whit- mer complained to the press, "We're not getting what we need from the federal government." But this isn't new. Back in Febru- ary, Whitmer delivered the Dem- ocrats' response to President Trump's State of the Union ad- dress and went on for her full 10 minutes about the federal govern- ment not doing enough. She touted her efforts to expand health coverage under the A fford- able Care Act, meaning more bu- reaucratization of our hospitals and health care delivery, and cre- ation of government health care in- capable of flexibility to changing market realities, let alone dealing with a crisis. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking deserved heat for his de- layed action in response to the cri- sis in his city. Weeks ago, he was on television talking about how this crisis could only be addressed by the federal government. This is all the result of genera- tions degrading the clear consti- Heritage Viewpoint By James Phillips Iran's Coronavirus propaganda Free people take responsibility and solve problems