The Press-Dispatch

July 1, 2020

The Press-Dispatch

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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 1, 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 Race for the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Continued on page 10 Court LGBTQ decision is a chaos formula Grace a revolution of independence As the Fourth of July descends upon us it is worth remembering that it was within the New England states where the American Revolu- tion fermented and the flag "Don't Tread On Me" originated. The flag has made a resurgence in recent years as the ultimate symbolic expression of individual rights. The flag is defiant and bold. The timber rattlesnake represented an early icon of the budding republic and served as a severe warning. Benjamin Franklin praised the snake as "an emblem" of Ameri- ca's vigilance, "magnanimity, and true courage." The American colonies after they won their independence from Britain hoped their new republi- can form of government would be better, and by many measures, it has been, nevertheless, as of late its very existence has been chal- lenged. . Where do we stand as we wrestle with liberty and freedom? We need a revolution of GR ACE. The mask of Indiana's paper of re- cord has in the left corner of their mast the scripture "Where the Spir- it of the Lord is, there is liberty." Sadly, I have not detected much advocacy for liberty from its pag- es recently. The Gadson Flag said "Don't Tread On Me." The Church needs to take notice. The church is in conflict with not only external forces, but also inter- nal threats. Higher Biblical Criticism and The Social Gospel have not been kind to the church. They have uprooted, and shipwrecked many people. The Church will prevail, but we need a revolution, a Third Great Awakening to herald the truths of the gospel and reorient people's lives. Jesus began a revolution that con- tinues today. It was never intended to be bloody or to siege the reins of government, or to demand social change through threats of violence. Jesus spoke of a kingdom that parallels the kingdom of men, and will overcome them. In front of the most powerful government of the ancient world, "Jesus said as he faced death, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:36 Jesus is still speaking to you and me. The Kingdom of God as we see it practiced [the church and its outreach] is the closest thing to an anti-state that the world will ev- er know. The Church exists not to serve itself, but to serve others. It does not conquer through violence or coercion, but multiplies by the force of love's invitation. Jesus began a revolution not in others' blood, but in his own, and for our sake. He sent out His disciples not with guns or swords; indeed, not even with a purse, bag or sandals. He equipped them with words that had power—"Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand! " These men and women were not sent as violent mercenaries to convert others through force, but through words of grace and acts of mercy. Even to those who would not re- ceive them, they declared that the Kingdom had come near, leaving in peace, returning their peace to them. Notice that Jesus embraced the path of relationships over power. We are in the midst of a potential revolution in our nation both politi- cal and cultural and the vehicle cho- sen is confrontation and violence. These agitators want to change the institutions of America through force of will—I wonder how that will work out? Historically, not well. THEREFORE, the Church needs to hang a huge banner out front of every building that declares, "Grace Is God's Love." The Social Justice Warriors pro- claim justice is what love looks like in public, I will add grace is what love looks like in person. Grace is our answer to the power of injustice whether it is The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that homosexual and transgender indi- viduals are covered by the anti-discrim- ination provision, Title VII, of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his opinion: "An employer who fires an individual for being homosexu- al or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have ques- tioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguis- able role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids." When I read the reasoning of Gor- such, I feel less surprised by the chaos in our cities, and our great difficulties and challenges in enforcing the law. How indeed can we expect sanity in enforcing our laws when such confu- sion exists in our nation's highest court about what our law is, and even what our country is about? The key words in our nation's Decla- ration of Independence are "all men are created equal." Created equal. The horrible history of racial op- pression and discrimination in Amer- ica flew in the face of that great found- ing premise. People were rejected be- cause of how they were created, not be- cause of how they behaved. This was exactly the sentiment Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed in his famous dream, that his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." King dreamed that his children would be judged by their choices, not the condition, outside of their control and choice, in which God put them on this Earth. Abraham Lincoln got to the heart of the matter when he mocked Stephen Douglas' claim that states should vote on whether they would permit slavery because this was based on the bibli- cal principle that man has the power of choice. "God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice," said Lincoln. "On the con- trary," continued Lincoln, "he did tell him there was one tree, of the fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of certain death." Man has choice, said Lincoln. But on- ly in a country where there is no stan- dard and conviction of right and wrong does it not matter what you choose. The essence of a free country is al- lowing citizens freedom to make and be responsible for their own choices. To limit that freedom because of cir- cumstance of birth — race or sex — is to make a mockery of freedom. But to claim, as Douglas did, that once given freedom, it doesn't matter what individuals choose — that there are no standards for right and wrong, good and evil — is to also make a mock- ery of freedom. Gorsuch equates our protection against discrimination because of one's circumstances of birth with discrimi- nation against the choices individuals make. This is a formula for exactly what we have today: chaos. America must be free. Individuals must be free to choose their behavior. But we undermine our religious free- dom and all our freedoms when we pro- hibit private individuals from rejecting behavior they find immoral. This moral chaos is exactly what has caused such damage in our at-risk com- munities. Rampant abortion, promiscuity and the collapse of marriage — all of which have caused so much damage in our na- tion, particularly in our at-risk commu- nities — are the result of reasoning like what we now have heard from Gorsuch. Sen. Tim Scott strikes at the heart of the matter in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. "If you have two parents in the household, you re- duce poverty in the A frican-American community by 85% . That's a stunning truth that needs more oxygen." The right choices lead to better lives. A society that cannot distinguish be- tween what God creates and what man chooses is a society not capable of be- ing free. This is what our very confused Supreme Court is delivering to us. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and author of the new book "Necessary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Cul- ture War and Why This is Good News for America." Readers can respond to Star's column by emailing star-parker@urban- cure.org. My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Observing the beauty around us Minority View By Walter E. Williams Now what? Many whites are ashamed, sad- dened and feel guilty about our histo- ry of slavery, Jim Crow and gross ra- cial discrimination. Many black peo- ple remain angry over the injustices of the past and what they see as in- justices of the present. Both blacks and whites can benefit from a better appreciation of black history. Often overlooked or ignored is the fact that, as a group, black Americans have made the greatest gains, over some of the highest hurdles, and in a shorter span of time than any oth- er racial group in history. For example, if one totaled up the earnings and spending of black Americans and considered us as a separate nation with our own gross domestic product, we would rank well within the top 20 richest nations. A black American, Gen. Colin Pow- ell, once headed the world's might- iest military. Black Americans are among the world's most famous per- sonalities, and a few black Americans are among the world's richest peo- ple such as investor Robert F. Smith, IT service provider David Steward, Oprah Winfrey, and basketball star Michael Jordan. Plus, there was a black U.S. president. The significance of these achieve- ments cannot be overstated. When the Civil War ended, neither a slave nor a slave owner would have be- lieved such progress would be pos- sible in less than a century and a half — if ever. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as important, it speaks to the greatness of a nation in which such gains were possible. Nowhere else on earth could such progress have been achieved except in the United States of America. The issue that confronts us is how these gains can be extended to about one-quarter of the black population for whom they have proven elusive. The first step is to ac- knowledge that the civil rights strug- gle is over and won. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the constitu- tional guarantees as everyone else. Now we do. While no one can deny the existence of resid- ual racial discrimination, racial dis- crimination is not the major problem confronting a large segment of the black community. A major problem is that some pub- lic and private policies reward de- pendency and irresponsibility. Chief among these policies is the welfare state that has fostered a 75% rate of out of wedlock births and decimat- ed the black family that had sur- vived Jim Crow and racism. Keep in mind that in 1940 the black illegiti- macy rate was 11% and most black children were raised in two-parent families. Most poverty, about 25% , is found in female-headed households. The poverty rate among husband- and-wife black families has been in the single digits for more than two decades. Black people can be thankful that double standards and public and private policies rewarding inferi- ority and irresponsibility were not a part of the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s. If there were, then there would not have been the kind of intellectu- al excellence and spiritual courage that created the world's most suc- cessful civil rights movement. From the late 1800s to 1950, some black schools were models of aca- demic achievement. Black students at Washington's Dunbar High School often outscored white students as early as 1899. Schools such as Frederick Douglass (Bal- timore), Booker T. Washing- ton (Atlanta), P.S. 91 (Brook- lyn), McDonogh 35 (New Or- leans) and others operated at a similar level of excellence. Self-destructive behavior that has become acceptable, particularly that in predominantly black schools, is nothing less than a gross betrayal of a struggle, paid with blood, sweat and tears by previous generations, to make possible today's education- al opportunities that are being rou- tinely squandered. I guarantee that blacks who lived through that strug- gle and are no longer with us would not have believed such a betrayal possible. Government should do its job of protecting constitutional rights. A f- ter that, black people should be sim- ply left alone as opposed to being smothered by the paternalism in- spired by white guilt. On that note, I just cannot resist the temptation to refer readers to my "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon," which grants Americans of European ancestry am- nesty and pardon for their own griev- ances and those of their forebears against my people so that they stop feeling guilty and stop acting like fools in their relationship with Amer- icans of A frican ancestry. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason Uni- versity. This past Friday, I took part in a small way to help recruit donors for the Red Cross Blood Drive. Our lo- cal Barrett Memorial Library staff and our Sts. Peter and Paul Catho- lic Church joined resources to co- ordinate with the local Red Cross Chapter for Pike County to make this blood donation happen. So, af- ter several phone calls to the person assigned to Pike County, Eric Har- din, and our coordinator for the li- brary, Carly Tegmeyer, the opera- tion was set up at our local fire de- partment on Illinois street. At first I thought we would have only a few sign up, maybe between 6 -10 donors. The goal was at least to have 25 sign up in order for the Red Cross staff to put in all the time and resources for this to happen. To our pleasant surprise, 32 signed up in advance. The final total was 21 donated and two were turned away, due to not pre registering. That morning when the proce- dures were taking place, I remem- ber seeing two show up as walk-ins. Unfortunately they had to be de- clined and were advised to check the date for the next blood drive. I felt bad for them, but because the process from registration to the ac- tual blood draw was time consum- ing, the schedule would not allow disruption to the flow of the oper- ation. I watched closely the time and ef- fort required, from registration, to the screening, to the actual blood draw and I can understand the im- portance of registering ahead of time. I heard there are some places that allow walk-ins but they take place in bigger locations like hospitals, because of the presence of a larger pool of support staff and more beds available to do this. As I tried to welcome the donors when they showed up, I was curi- ous, so I asked how they learned about this drive for that day. To my surprise, some said they are regu- lar donors who check the Red Cross App for schedules. Some read the ad in our local paper, some heard it from friends, some from our church bulletin. Well, not surprisingly, the younger donors used the App for registration and health screening. I am truly amazed and felt such gratitude that there are so ma- ny who give this precious gift of life-giving material. Blood donated is used not only for replacing blood loss during surgeries, but also for extracting precious elements of the blood such as the platelets, red blood cells, plasma, and other re- search materials done to the blood. I am not about to explain all the knowledge which I learned in Med- ical School because space and time would not allow it. I just would like to focus on how important it is for all of us to be aware of the constant need to have our Nation maintain an adequate blood supply, for the abun- dant needs in the field of health care. To those who gave blood, and to those who make it a routine in their lives to share their life-giving com- modity, there are not enough words to thank you. It's a very gener- ous act of kindness on your part. For more in- formation about donating blood, visit www.redcrossblood.org. They practically will answer any ques- tions you have. ••• Humor of the week: A patient was called in by his doctor so he could explain the test results of his blood analysis. The patient was curi- ous if he tested positive for a certain disorder he was so worried about. So the doctor said, "Well. I have not-so-good news but I also have good news. Your test results showed you were positive for the disorder you were worried about, but here's the good news. Your cholesterol lev- el was fine." Don't you hate that kind of situation? Have a nice week. Wisdom of the week: From the standpoint of faith matters, Jesus shed his blood, lost it at Calvary, in order that we may have life. For blood is a life giving gift. Have a blessed Independence Day Celebration.

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