The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1251675
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 27, 2020 B-9 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 For some strange reason, I start- ed to get Viber messages from two of my classmates who were in med school with me in 1966. That's half a century ago plus 4. I suspect they are, like I am, retired, are on social distancing, and had plenty of time to spare. One is still in the Philip- pines, another in New York, and the other one had gone to the fi- nal journey, his resting place back home. That year, 1966 many moons ago, we got together and formed a group called the Folktrollers. We focused on singing folk songs that were famous at that time. Songs like The First Time, Oh Shenando- ah, San Francisco Bay Blues, I Am a Roving Gambler, etc. So because Youtube is available now, we would send each other the copies of the original songs, listen to them and reminisce about the good old days. Three of them in the group were very good guitar players. At that time I could plug in a vocal that was odd, but strangely blended very well with theirs. I don't know where it came from, but it added a unique harmony to the other three vocals. So we would listen to groups like The Kings- ton Trio, The Brothers Four, Joan Baez, etc,. It was quite a chal- lenge doing rehears- als and taping on T V shows while hitting the medical books. Music became a lit- tle diversion from the rigors of med school. I pleaded for the group to try something like songs by the Four Aces, the Cascades and the Lettermen, but I was overruled be- cause they wanted to stay on the melody of the folk songs. • • • Let me share some highs and lows of our brief musical jour- ney. When we were invited to do the tapings for T V programs, it was like going to NBC studio. We would start taping about 6 p.m. and wrap up things around 2 a.m., be- cause the directors just took their time. I guess they had multiple programs taking place and mul- tiple tapings. So you would meet some hot-shot directors and oth- er talented musicians and singers. During breaks, I would sit in a quiet corner and go over my medical books. What a crazy life, I thought. But the thrill of being seen on T V over a wide audience pushed us to stay on course and not give up. I clear- ly remember after one of our pro- grams was shown on air, we were walking on the school corridor the following day and suddenly sever- al students stopped us and blurt- ed, "Hey, we saw you on T V last night." They just kept saying this comment and I felt unsure what to say. Oh my, it was a strange but delightful ego trip to experience. Now here's the downside. We had a lot of exams to tackle and that feeling of fear bordering on terror of not knowing if we could pass tough tests was always loom- My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Musical journey Minority View By Walter E. Williams Rotten education isn't preordained Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 Black politicians, civil rights leaders and their white liberal ad- vocates have little or no interest in doing anything effective to deal with what's no less than an educa- tion crisis among black students. In city after city with large black populations, such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., less than 10 percent of students test proficient in reading and math. For exam- ple, in 2016, in 13 Baltimore high schools, not a single student test- ed proficient in math. In six other high schools, only 1 percent tested proficient in math. Citywide, only 15 percent of Baltimore students passed the state's English test. De- spite these academic deficiencies, about 70 percent of the students graduate and are conferred a high school diploma. Ballou High School is in Wash- ington, D.C. Five percent of its stu- dents test proficient in reading and 1 percent test proficient in math. In 2017, all 189 students in Ballou High School's senior class applied to college. All 189 members of the graduating class of 2017 were ac- cepted to universities. In Novem- ber 2017, an investigation showed that half of Ballou's 2017 graduates had more than three months of un- excused absences. One in five of the graduating class was absent more than present, therefore missing more than 90 days of school. Examples of aca- demic underachieve- ment can be seen at predominantly black public schools across the nation, but that's only part of the sto- ry. The strangest part of this is that poor academic per- formance is accepted and tolerat- ed by black politicians, civil rights organizations and white liberals. Poor performance is often blamed on finances; however, the poorest performing schools have the high- est per pupil spending. New York, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore rank among the nation's highest in per pupil educational spending. The underachievement story is compounded by the gross dishon- esty of colleges that admit many of these students. I cannot imag- ine that students who are not pro- ficient in reading and math can do real college work. In a futile attempt to make up for 12 years of rotten education, colleges put these students in remedial cours- es. They also design courses with little or no true academic content. Colleges have their own agendas. They want the money that comes from admitting these students. Al- so, they want to make their diversity and multiculturalism ad- ministrators happy. Poor black educa- tion is not preordained. Dr. Thomas Sowell has examined schools in New York City and student performance on the NY State English Language Arts Test in 2016 -17. Thirty per- cent of Brooklyn's William Floyd elementary school third graders scored well below proficient in English and language arts, but at Success Academy charter school in the same building, only one did. At William Floyd, 36 percent were below proficient, with 24 percent being proficient and none testing above proficient. By contrast, at Success Academy, only 17 percent of third graders were below profi- cient, with 70 percent being profi- cient and 11 percent being above proficient. Among Success Acad- emy's fourth graders, 51 percent Race for the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Stay fresh Pentecost Sunday is near and the Church will celebrate its com- missioning by God through the Holy Spirit nearly two millenni- um ago. Pentecost [Shavuot], is the He- brew festival of the spring harvest, which occurs 50 days after Pass- over. The harvest season for grain began at Passover and lasted sev- en weeks. Spring harvest began with the reaping of the barley and ended with the ingathering of the wheat, with the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost was the first day on which individuals could bring the FIRST FRUITS to the Temple as an offering. The devout would bring offerings from the several fruits and grains of the land and present them as an offering. The offering of the Firstfruits ties into the resurrection of Jesus as he is identified as the firstfruits- the one who conquered death. Pentecost has two definable meanings. The first is it signaled the beginning of the Church Age and second, the Spiritual empow- erment of the believer. The significance of Pentecost is unmistakable. The giving or outpouring of the Holy Spirit was prophesized by Joel and he de- clared that God was going to do something He has never done be- fore. What occurred in the Upper Room was the fulfilment of that prophecy. The promise of Pentecost still resides within the message of Je- sus Christ. The Pentecostal move- ment of the 20th Century did not begin in Topeka, Kansas or A zusa Street in Los Angeles. No, it began on a Sunday morning 50 days after the Passover. Since Pentecostal the will of God for His Church to "Go into the world…" has been more important than the traditions we have built; Ever since Pentecost it is without question God's intention has been for His Church to grow. Those winds of the Holy Spirit are still blowing and empowering the Church and you can see God working on an individual and na- tional level. Who would have dreamed Rus- sia would return so strongly to the Orthodox Faith after 70 years of Communism with the government encouraging it! Through time, the faithful have been used to start revivals and movements that have changed re- gions and untold number of peo- ple. The faithful continue to expe- rience Pentecostal moments and multitudes of missionaries can testify of the power of the Spirit. Anyone wishing to experience a Pentecost can be swept up to new heights of worship, work, and wit- ness if he/she steps out through faith. Some say, "I don't believe that." My response is "Don't worry; you will not be disappointed when nothing spiritual occurs in your life." The winds of change have swept into the world as of late due to the COVID-19 virus. Humanity has been swept up by the winds of change and none of us knows where we are going. But it doesn't matter because the faithful know who controls the winds. This crisis has neutered the church's physical presence as far as corporate worship-but the mis- sion continues and we have found many avenues of ministry as the Holy Spirit is moving the Church into areas where it needed to go but we were too timid and reluc- tant. One sure effect of COVID-19 is the Church recognizes that in this time of global uncertainty it must expand its vision and must throw off all attitudes of self-satisfaction and contentment. We must live Christ because God is life When we look back to Pente- cost, we find the faithful were wait- ing and ready. They were waiting for the Holy Spirit, and they were ready to be Spirit-led. The Holy Spirit brought the winds of change and the Church was born. Those same winds of the Holy Spirit are blowing today and re- gardless the twists and turns of life among COVID-19. The ques- tion remains, "Will we become a hindrance, or will we be a channel Dealing with the death of a loved one is already difficult enough. Ev- ery year, tens of millions of Amer- icans experience the emotional burden of losing a parent, spouse, sibling, or close friend. The last thing that grieving fam- ilies should have to worry about is returning a check that the IRS mis- takenly sent to the deceased. Unfortunately, that tragic situ- ation is occurring throughout the country as a result of "economic stimulus" payments included in federal COVID-19 relief legisla- tion. Congress can prevent the need- less drama and save millions of taxpayer dollars with a small change to federal record keeping that has bipartisan support; name- ly, allowing the Treasury Depart- ment to take charge of the federal death database. The issue of accidental govern- ment payments to the deceased is a long-standing problem. In some egregious cases, it involves delib- erate fraud, but most of the time it's sim- ply a bureaucratic mistake. Since the most common type of gov- ernment payment received by the re- cently deceased is Social Security ben- efits, the Social Se- curity Administra- tion created the Death Master File to ensure a timely ending of pay- ments upon death. Other federal agencies rely on that database for the same purpose, though the abil- ity to access the database varies from agency to agency. Even then, the Social Securi- ty Administration database is far from foolproof. Every year, it ac- cidentally adds thousands of peo- ple who are still living. The conse- quences of being added to the list by mistake can be severe, and the removal process can be extremely compli- cated. Thankfully, there's a newer, more robust database already in operation. The Trea- sury Department has created a nearly com- prehensive Do Not Pay database that feder- al agencies use to pre- vent improper payments to individ- uals and businesses for a variety of reasons. That database was created as a result of a 2013 law that passed both houses of Congress unani- mously, which is extremely rare for any bill with meaningful poli- cy implications. To prevent improper payments, federal agencies must cross-ref- Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10 With the House passage of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's $ 3 trillion Heroes Act, COVID-19 policy has now officially transformed into presidential politics 2020. Let's recall that prior to the crisis, the nation appeared quite pleased with the leadership that President Donald Trump was pro- viding. The economy was growing at a brisk pace, with job creation ro- bust and unemployment rates at historic lows. In February, Gallup's monthly measure of national satisfaction hit 45 percent, the highest since 2004. During former President Barack Obama's eight years, it hovered be- tween 20 percent and 30 percent. Then the coronavirus hit. The national satisfaction index dropped to 30 percent. The latest for May creeped up to 32 percent. Coronavirus politics really has telescoped the core debate that was going on in the country be- fore it. Are we a nation driven by gov- ernment or by people? The theme of President Trump's 2016 campaign was draining the Washington swamp and returning America to its citizens, and he had been governing — tax cuts, dereg- ulation — true to this theme, with great results. COVID-19 has taken things in the opposite direction. Shutdown policies and massive government action returned focus to government. Few would argue that there was any alternative. The question is: What now? Drilling down further into the Gallup satisfaction poll, we find that practically all the drop has been with Republicans. Before the crisis, satisfaction among Republicans was at 80 per- cent. Now it's 48 percent. Among Democrats, there has been hard- ly any change. From April to May, the per- centage of Republicans saying the coronavirus is the most im- portant problem facing the coun- try dropped from 47 percent to 35 percent. Among Democrats, there was practically no change: 46 percent in April and 45 percent in May. The number of Republicans say- ing the economy/jobs is the most important problem increased from 13 percent in April to 17 percent in May. Among Democrats, again there was practically no change: 6 percent in April and 7 percent in May. It seems clear that Republicans are restless to start returning the country to freedom and Demo- crats are happy to leave leader- ship with government. Pelosi's Heroes Act is respond- ing to this. We're already in uncharted ter- ritory regarding government. Prior to this crisis, trillion-dol- lar deficits were news. Back in 2018, a group of leading scholars from Stanford Universi- ty's Hoover Institute — including former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Council of Econom- ic Advisers Chair Michael Boskin and former Treasury Undersecre- tary for International A ffairs John Taylor — authored a piece in The Washington Post titled "A Debt Crisis is on the Horizon." They warned of the dangers of the defi- cit increasing from $ 800 billion to a trillion and national debt increas- ing from $15 trillion to $20 trillion. The Congressional Budget Of- fice now estimates that the fiscal 2020 deficit will be $ 3.7 trillion. This was recently updated by Brian Riedl of the Manhattan In- stitute with an estimate of $4.2 tril- lion. Riedl projects deficits for the next 10 years averaging almost $2 trillion per year. He estimates na- tional debt reaching $41 trillion by 2030, or 128 percent of our gross domestic product. Despite these mind-boggling figures, Nancy Pelosi wants to serve up to the nation another $ 3 trillion in spending, including a trillion to bail out states, extend- ing the $ 600 weekly benefit above unemployment insurance, a new Heritage Viewpoint By David Ditch How the feds could end the grave mistake of relief payments to the deceased COVID-19 to Elections 2020