The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1246281
A-10 Wednesday, May 13, 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 I keep getting a flood of notifi- cations from my friends who reg- ularly send me blogs of everything from health matters to things growing in their gardens, to food they have cooked, to pictures from yesteryear, jokes, music videos, etc. to anything and everything that covers a spectra of subjects. What a phenomena to experi- ence. So, we all have to be creative to make use of our time wisely and productively. It is quite interest- ing to see what is going on in our country and the rest of the world. It seems like the common theme is how everybody has hunkered down. And now there is a restless mood that is exploding here and there which is affecting everyone. I feel sad that our first grand- son's graduation from high school is not taking the usual path of ex- citement and pomp. What a bum- mer. I always feel elated when I attend graduations because these events are milestones in the lives of all who triumph over challeng- es in their lives. I feel sad when I hear peo- ple complain of being bored, or scared, or worried, or anxious about these current events, and I feel what they also feel. It seems like no one has been exempt from these emotions. • • • On the other hand, there are al- so uplifting sets of emotions we can experience if we make an ef- fort to notice them. For example, the heroism of our frontline people to help keep our health care sys- tem going. When I say healthcare workers, that includes the whole workforce that takes care of those who are ill, unwell, and need med- ical care. It is so gratifying to see their courage. Then there is the continued flow of our food supply to keep us nour- ished. We are grateful for everyone who par- ticipates in keeping the supply chain in- tact. We continue to be provided with wa- ter, electricity, elec- tronic technology and other essential servic- es to keep us comfort- able, informed and en- tertained. We are thankful for those who provide acts of kindness and help to those who are having struggles in whatever form imaginable. Ma- ny times we hear of heroism in the face of difficulties, whether it is a natural or man-made crisis. We hear many who just do random acts of kindness in various forms. We have noticed a seeming in- crease in the practice of virtues My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Using our time wisely Minority View By Walter E. Williams The nation's report card Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 The Department of Education just released results of the qua- drennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography giv- en in 2018 to thousands of Ameri- can eighth-graders: "Grade 8 Stu- dents' NAEP Scores Decline in Ge- ography and U.S. History; Results in Civics Unchanged Since 2014." The tests were administered from January to March 2018 to a nationally representative sam- ple of 42,700 eighth-graders from about 780 schools. The news is not very good. Only 24 percent of stu- dents performed at or above the "proficient" level in civics. Worse yet, only 15 percent scored profi- cient or above in American histo- ry and 25 percent were proficient in geography. At least 25 percent of America's eighth-graders are what NAEP defines as "below basic" in U.S. history, civics and geography. That means they have no under- standing of historical and civic is- sues and cannot point out basic lo- cations on a map. Education Secretary Betsy De- Vos referred to the recent nation- al report card as "stark and inex- cusable." She blamed "antiquat- ed" education methods for low test scores among the nation's eighth- graders. That's nonsense. I'd bet the rent money that eighth-grade students of earlier pe- riods, say during the 1920s, '30s and '40s who were burdened with "antiquated" ed- ucation methods such as having to learn al- gebra and geometry, identifying parts of speech and memoriz- ing poems like "Old Ironsides" could run circles around today's eighth- graders, high school graduates and perhaps some college gradu- ates. I think we need to bring back these authentically antiquated ed- ucation methods. Part of the solution to our edu- cation problem is given by Dr. Jef- frey Sikkenga, professor of polit- ical science and executive direc- tor of the Ashbrook Center at Ash- land University. He said: "Students need to go back to America's past and ask it questions, starting with our Founding. They need to study great documents like the Declara- tion of Independence, the Consti- tution, Abraham Lincoln's 'Gettys- burg Address,' and Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech. Not just read about them in bor- ing textbooks, but read the docu- ments themselves, for themselves. Have great conversa- tions with those great minds — discover for themselves the sto- ry of America in the words of those who lived it." The school climate, seldom discussed, plays a very important role in education. Dur- ing the 2017-18 school year, there were an estimated 962,300 violent incidents and 476,100 nonviolent incidents U.S. public schools na- tionwide. Seventy-one percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident, and 65 per- cent reported having at least one nonviolent incident. Schools with 1,000 or more students had at least one sworn law enforcement officer. About 90 percent of those law en- forcement officers carry firearms. I bet that decades ago, one would be hard put to find either armed or unarmed police officers patrolling the building. For exam- ple, between 1950 and 1954, I at- tended Benjamin Franklin High School in Philadelphia. The only Race for the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Overcoming strongholds of the mind The Covid-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the media and our senses for the last three months. As I interact with people, I am sensing they are being overcome with fear that does not correlate with facts. We have entered into The Twi- light Zone or Alice In Wonderland where many have left reasoning behind and promoting fear. We heard conflicting conclu- sions from the same data. Cov- id-19 is 1] serious and the nation must continue the lockdown for 12- 18 months; or 2] this virus is a type of flu with pneumonia that afflicts a small number of people who con- tract it-so get on with life. Being fearful is the result of a thought germinating in the mind and becoming the executor of all actions. This should not be. Consider what Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth; "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedi- ence of Christ." Paul tells the Church we are fighting a war – the similar theme he writes to the Church at Ephesus where he states, "We are not wres- tling against flesh and blood…" Paul is telling the Church we cannot fight the "strongholds" of thoughts and cravings with weap- ons of war, with laws, with mon- ey, or humanistic ways. We are to use the power of the Spirit of God. A stronghold can be one of two things: 1] it can be a worldview, such as materialism, hedonism, secularism, relativism, commu- nism, atheism. All of these push out the knowledge of God; 2] it is a unrealistic attitude/belief such as worry, envy, lust, fear, guilt, re- sentment, and insecurity that re- side first in your mind. The only way to fight and de- feat a stronghold of the mind is through the Spirit of God through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, at the heart of spiritual warfare is the battle for your heart and mind. Within the Bible, the Christian can find passages and stories that can strengthen, and renew their minds. This will result in submit- ting the mind and bringing their thoughts into captivity. I suggest there are three simple principles that will help you win and live a victorious life for Christ and being an effective witness. First, "Don't Believe Everything You Think." Many accept as true what they think must be true be- cause it comes from within us. Beware! Just because you think something does not make it true. We [the mind and senses] are bombarded daily from the me- dia and entertainment with ideas and urge one to fulfill the lust of the flesh. In contrast, the scrip- ture paints a picture that humans cannot be trusted to tell the truth. That is why you need to question your own thoughts not to believe every thought. The second principle is, "Guard Your Mind from Garbage." I have been using this cliché for 40 years. You cannot consume garbage and remain healthy. Dumpster diving is not conducive to good health. Now think of the mind. If you put mental garbage into your mind [such as murder, lust, jeal- ousy, and sensuality] you will be- come garbage in life. This is akin to living in a sewer and expect not to smell like a sewer and be im- mune to the diseases that are in the sewage. The last principle is to "Never Stop Learning God's Word." As I journeyed through school and education, one cliché that was constantly repeated was "become a lifelong learner."As Christians, we need to Love the wisdom and knowledge of God because it is eternal and unchanging. God expects not only faithful- ness but also fruitfulness. To be a disciple means to be a learner. All leaders must first be disciples. Some lawmakers realized that sending an extra $ 600 per week to everyone who receives unemploy- ment benefits would cause prob- lems. That's why they tried to cap benefits at 100 % of each workers' wages. They didn't get the cap. But they were right. Heritage Foundation econo- mist Drew Gonshorowski and I have now modeled the impact of the "bonus" payment provisions and concluded that it will be even more damaging than those pre- scient lawmakers imagined. Over the last four weeks, about 26 million people have filed for unemployment insurance, bring- ing the unemployment rate close to 20 % . We estimate that, at the peak of unemployment in May, the extra $ 600 per week could be responsible for 13.9 million of the total unemployment claims. With more workers on the sidelines and for longer periods of time, this will reduce the nation's output by up to $1.49 trillion between May and September. In normal times, unemployment typically provides about 50 % of previ- ous earnings. But these are not nor- mal times. It makes sense to temporarily increase benefits be- cause this is a tem- porary health cri- sis in which tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. But it doesn't make sense to cre- ate a system in which a majority of Americans can make more without a job than by remaining on the job. Instead of bridging the gap, ex- cessive unemployment payments will only increase the breadth and depth of the economic downturn. This bonus benefit threatens to negate much of what Congress has done to try to keep workers con- nected to their employers such as the Paycheck Protection Pro- gram, mandated paid sick and fam- ily leave and the Employee Reten- tion Tax Credit. Keeping work- ers employed, even if they are temporarily not working or work- ing less, is incredibly beneficial. For start- ers, it means workers can keep their health insurance. And if tens of millions of workers and millions of em- ployers aren't scram- bling to find new jobs and hire and train new employees, society will be able to reopen more quick- ly once it's safe to do so. Unfortunately, we've already heard of employees who are choosing unemployment benefits over employment, leaving busi- ness owners unable to provide the goods and services they would like to offer. Typically, workers can't just choose unemployment benefits— they have to actually be laid off. Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law the CARES Act to provide emergency measures to help us get through the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 shutdown. A crucial objective was to pro- vide funds to the many individuals who suddenly found themselves cash-strapped and unable to pay bills because, through no fault of their own, they were out of work. Two major provisions are $1,200 cash payments for individuals, and relaxing rules to allow withdrawal from or loans against IR As, 401(k) s and other defined benefit retire- ment plans without penalties or tax consequences. The cash payments received most of the attention. But the pro- visions for getting cash from re- tirement plans were a highly de- sirable addition. Ideally, it's best to be able to manage through a cri- sis with your own resources rather than government money. If there is anything foreseen, it is that the unforeseen will always be part of our lives. We all should manage our personal affairs with this in mind. Living day to day, week to week, paycheck to pay- check is not how anyone should be managing their life. You might say: "I'm working two jobs. I spend practically nothing on entertainment, and I still bare- ly make it to the end of the month." And here is where the right gov- ernment policy can help you be fre- er to manage your own life. I've been writing for years that Americans should be allowed to in- vest their payroll tax in their own personal retirement account. The payroll tax is what's used now to fi- nance Social Security. Many still think that Social Se- curity is some kind of retirement investment plan. No, it's just an- other government tax and spend program. Every year, retirees get Social Security payments. The funds come from the payroll tax that practically every working Amer- ican pays. It seemed like such a good idea when then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law in 1935. Every working American would pay a small tax, and those funds would immediately go out and provide retirement income to retirees. But back then, there were more than 40 Americans working for ev- ery retiree. Today, our world is much differ- ent. Fewer are getting married. Fewer are having children. And the miracles of modern medicine give us a much longer life. So instead of 40 working for ev- ery retiree, today there are around three. According to the annual report issued by the Trustees of the So- cial Security Administration, in 2035, just 15 years from now, So- cial Security will only have funds to cover 76 percent of the benefits promised to retirees. Either taxes must be raised, or benefits must be cut. Who wants either? Doing so would make a bad deal even worse. According to a study commissioned by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the average annual return of Social Security over the last 40 years was about 1 percent. Over the same period, the stock market returned more than 6 percent annually. According to the Federal Re- serve, only 43.6 percent of work- ing households earning $40,000 or less annually say they have any re- tirement savings. This means the only retirement provision the rest have is the payroll tax being tak- en out of their paycheck designat- ed for Social Security. Social Security Trustees are now telling those who are 52 years old or younger and expect to retire at 67 that they can expect just 76 percent of their benefits. Now that President Trump is Heritage Viewpoint By Rachel Greszler Bonus unemployment benefit is costing jobs Personal retirement accounts will help in next crisis