The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1235673
B-8 Wednesday, April 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 Hello, folks. Let's not be too serious this time. When you go through these things, you know the virus has af- fected you: • When you wake up from sleep and you're not sure if it's morning or afternoon. Or what day it is. Or sometimes what time it is. • When you travel, you go from your bedroom, to the restroom, to the kitchen, to the living room, to the T V/computer room, or to wherever you need to be, but only inside your house. And round and round you go. • When you open your refrig- erator many times during the day, you're really bored. When you usu- ally eat three times a day and then it bumped up to six to eight times a day, you're really super bored. • When you start counting how many weeks to a gallon instead of how many miles to a gallon your vehicle has consumed, you realize the benefits of the lockdown. • When you go through Face- book, Messenger, e- mails, live chat, You- tube, text messaging, etc. during the day countless times, you need to get busy with other things. • When you now start praying bet- ter and reading more scriptures, especial- ly when you have not opened the Book for some time or a long time, now you're anxious and perhaps scared. It's about time. • When you listen to the news on T V or the radio and you get very upset, you need to limit your view- ing and listening time to a mini- mum. • When going to the grocery store or somewhere you can shop and it has become a tedious pro- cess, you're not alone. Well, just look at the bright side. You're sav- ing some money. But that's not good for the businesses. • When banks won't allow you to enter their premises even to do important transac- tions because you are wearing a mask, you won't be able to take action for discrimina- tion or profiling. • When Church services are prohibited because of social dis- tancing directives, you probably feel not as much guilt because you have not attended one for a long time, anyway. Things we are grateful for: De- ferred tax payment, temporary forgiveness of rent or mortgage, loans, the promised extra check for those who are on a certain year- My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. The lighter side of COVID-19 Minority View By Walter E. Williams Manipulation through racial hoaxes Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 We black people are so conve- nient and useful to America's left- ists. Whenever there's a bit of si- lencing to be done, just accuse a detractor or critic of racism. A re- cent, particularly stupid, exam- ple is CNN's Brandon Tensley's complaint that the "Coronavirus task force is another example of Trump administration's lack of di- versity." Tensley said the virus ex- perts are "largely the same sorts of white men (and a couple wom- en on the sidelines) who've dom- inated the Trump administration from the very beginning." I'd like for Tensley to tell us just what ra- cial or sex diversity contribute to finding a cure or treatment for the coronavirus. Jesse Watters was criticized as a racist for claiming that the corona- virus outbreak was caused by Chi- nese people "eating raw bats and snakes." He added that "They are a very hungry people. The Chinese communist government cannot feed the people, and they are des- perate. This food is uncooked, it is unsafe and that is why scientists believe that's where it originated from." Watter's statement can be settled by a bit of empiricism. Just find out whether Chinese people eat bats and snakes and whether that has anything to do with the spread of the coronavirus. It may be perplex- ing to some, but I be- lieve that our nation has made great prog- ress in matters of race, so much so that imag- inary racism and ra- cial hoaxes must be found. Left-wingers on college campuses and elsewhere have a dif- ficult time finding the racism that they say permeates ev- erything. So they're brazenly in- venting it. Jussie Smollett charged that two masked Trump supporters, wearing MAGA hats, using racial and homophobic insults attacked him. The anti-Trump media gob- bled up Smollett's story hook, line and sinker, but it turned out to be a hoax. A large percentage of hate-crime hoaxes occur on college campus- es. Andy Ngo writes about this in his City Journal article "Invent- ing Victimhood: Universities too often serve as 'hate-crime hoax' mills." St. Olaf College in Minne- sota was roiled in mass "anti-rac- ism" protests that caused classes to be canceled. It turned out that a black student activist was found to be responsible for a racist threat she left on her own car. Five black students at the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparato- ry School found racial slurs written on their doors. An investiga- tion later found that one of the students tar- geted was responsible for the vandalism. Andy Ngo writes that there are dozens of other examples. They all point to a sickness in American so- ciety, with our institutions of high- er education too often doubling as "hate-hoax mills," encouraged by a bloated grievance industry in the form of diversity administrators. These are diversity-crazed admin- istrators, along with professors of race and gender studies, who na- tionwide spend billions of dollars on diversity and a multiculturalist agenda. Racial discord and other kinds of strife are their meal tick- ets to greater influence and bigger budgets. There's another set of benefi- ciaries to racial hoaxes and racial strife. These alleged incidents Pursuit of the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond No church no problem We have heard the phrase "We Live In Extraordinary Times" to the point of fatigue. However, the fact remains; the church has nev- er been challenged to minister as it has during the COVID-19 Pan- demic. Several have taken to pen and chided the church for closing down under pressure from the State. I reject that claim because the State has not ask us to worship it as a god, or burn incense to its power. The government has asked the church to be good citizens and col- laborate with it to reduce the im- pact of the coronavirus. Indiana Conference United Methodist Church Bishop Trimble has asked the churches to close as a means to safeguard our parishio- ners. He has reminded the clergy of Wesley's Three General Rules: DO NO HARM DO GOOD AT TEND TO THE ORDANC- ES OF GOD. Our response to the pestilence among us centers upon each of the rules Wesley offered. If the church is to Do No Harm, then at the pres- ent time we cannot worship as a corporate body, but we still can worship at home among family. To come together and worship to- gether may mean we spread the vi- rus among ourselves and unnec- essary deaths could visit our be- loved saints. To Do Good means to encour- age fellowshipping and ministry from a distance. The time will soon come when we can gather again as a church and worship, share, and rejoice. The Goodness of God is still evident in our world and lives To Attend To The Ordnances Of God means to pray for the King [our leaders], and live as peace- able as possible. Our governor and president has asked us to: • Keep social distance [no clos- er than 6 feet] •Refrain from gathering more than 10 people. • Close all restaurants, sport- ing venues, churches, and all oth- er events/placed where large num- bers of people gather. As we ponder Easter Sunday and its importance, I cannot help but consider "are we mourning the lack of a service for the sake of be- ing in "Church" on Easter Sunday, or wanting to be with the people of God in worship? " In other words, we want to go to Church to check the "I was there Lord" box, or to be with the peo- ple of God. The Church misses "the Church" and the fellowship; how- ever, the situation dictates that the Church remain at home and cele- brate the Lord with family. This means we are called to wor- ship as a body away from our cen- tral focus of ministry [the church building]. The Church is not the building- it is people, and the people of God have worshipped in diverse ways through extreme times. The word "Church" means, "to be called out." A building is not and cannot be called out. I remind you that God allowed His Temple to be destroyed twice by sinful men. God does not reside in brick, stone and mortar. Jesus spoke of the Temple as the body, for He said, "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up! " That is what we praise and worship. We worship a risen savior. Paul reminded the Church at Corinth that they [we] "are the body of Christ and members in particular." Though we are sepa- rated by the events of the last sev- eral weeks, we remain the body. The body can minister without a building. The building is a central location where we can gather to worship and equip ourselves for ministry, but the building is not our ministry. Paul told the church that "you are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. To be read by others means to be outside of the walls of the Church and be interacting in the public arena. To be cloistered right now is in- convenient and anxiety provok- ing, but this is only temporary. There is nothing worse than the government bailing out private in- dustries. I've spent a career oppos- ing corporate welfare giveaways. When an industry gets in financial trouble because of its poor busi- ness practices, the owners, share- holders and executives should bear the cost—not the taxpayers. The coronavirus crisis is a bit different because the government has ordered many industries to, in effect, shut down for many months. In the case of the major airlines, such as United and Del- ta, the government has precluded many passengers from boarding planes and even shut down many flights. That's why the government took steps in the recent $2 trillion aid package to keep these compa- nies out of bankruptcy. It's provid- ing grants (a bad idea) and loans to be repaid (a better way to provide temporary assistance) to the tune of up to $50 billion. American Air- lines, for example, is eligible for up to $12 billion in aid. None of this is ideal, but, for bet- ter or worse, the federal govern- ment has decided that airlines are an essential indus- try for America's economic recovery. Now the question is whether it should take some owner- ship stake in the air- lines in the form of "warrants." A war- rant allows the gov- ernment to have the right to take stock in the company in the future. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has supported this form of repayment to make taxpayers whole when all is said and done. His motives are good, but this is a bad idea that would set a dan- gerous policy precedent. We don't want the government to become a shareholder and perhaps even take a controlling interest in American companies. This is the opposite of privati- zation. It is government "socializa- tion" of private industry. One can imagine the laundry list of unprofitable and misguid- ed corporate policies the government "own- er" might impose on airlines such as green fuel mandates, sub- sidized flight paths, "safe spaces" in every cabin, etc. Green en- ergy policies could be imposed. How do you make airplanes that burn jet fuel "carbon neutral"? Congress could mandate that companies have racial and gen- der quotas on their boards and require union representatives or even government officials as di- rectors. The congressmen could start dictating how many flights have to leave from hometown air- ports, regardless of profitability. We see this with Congress man- dating Amtrak service through certain towns, whether they make financial sense or not. Continued on page 9 Continued on page 9 Here are a few examples of head- lines over recent weeks. "Republicans exploit coronavi- rus to restrict abortions." — Los Angeles Times "The Coronavirus Becomes an Excuse to Restrict Abortions," — The New York Times "Texas women forced to travel 20 times farther for abortion un- der coronavirus ban." — The Hill Five states — Texas, Ohio, Ala- bama, Iowa and Mississippi — that are prohibiting nonessential med- ical procedures during the novel coronavirus health crisis have in- cluded abortion among these non- essential procedures. These measures have been tak- en with one objective in mind: sav- ing lives. To suggest otherwise is cynical and obscene. The logic is straightforward. There is a dire shortage of medical equipment, facilities and person- nel. Plus, most states have man- dated social distancing to arrest the spread of infection — require- ments that would be impossible to adhere to in abortion clinics. It so happens that halting abor- tion saves the lives of unborn chil- dren. This is always true. But pro- hibiting needed supplies from be- ing tied up and enforcing distance will also save the lives of Ameri- cans under threat of the virus. Abortion providers in Texas, led by Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provid- er, filed suit against the state's de- cision to restrict abortions under these circumstances. Their claim was upheld in federal district court, and permission for abor- tions was restored. However, the state appealed the decision, and the appeals court reversed the de- cision and restored the restriction, pending a hearing on April 13. New York State Attorney Gen- eral Letitia James was interviewed on National Public Radio to dis- cuss her efforts to organize oppo- sition to efforts to include abortion as a prohibited, nonessential pro- cedure during this crisis. Per James, New York and 17 oth- er states have filed an amicus brief to support Texas abortion provid- ers' efforts to restore permissibil- ity of abortion. James says: "this ban does noth- ing, nothing to prevent the trans- mission of the coronavirus. ... Tex- as is doing nothing more than us- ing this pandemic as an excuse to trespass on the rights of women and to treat them like second-class citizens." This comes from the attorney general of New York, the state with the nation's highest abortion rate — and the nation's gravest chal- lenges during this COVID-19 cri- sis. How is it that the New York at- torney general finds time to chal- lenge how Texas is managing its fight against the coronavirus when her own state cannot manage its crisis? As of this writing, there were 123,018 coronavirus cases in New York, amounting to 37% of all cas- es in the U.S. In Texas, there are 7,045. New York has 6,324 cases per million people. Texas has 243 per million. The fatality rate in New York among confirmed cases is 3.38 % compared with a fatality rate in Texas of 1.89 % . It should be clear that the attor- ney general of New York shouldn't be criticizing how those in Tex- as or any other state are dealing with this crisis given that there is no place more out of control than New York. In the best of circumstances, cri- ses, personal or national, should be a time of growth and learning. They should bring out the best in us rather than the worst. I wish Americans would be equally shocked hearing that al- most a million unborn children are destroyed in the womb every year as they are shocked hearing an es- timated 100,000 to 240,000 will die from the coronavirus scourge. You would think times like these would inspire humility and Heritage Viewpoint By Stephen Moore Don't put Uncle Sam in boardrooms Restrict abortion during COVID-19