The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1267169
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 8, 2020 B-5 This past weekend has been a great one. Rose and I had the privilege of stay- ing at my daughter's place, so she and her hubby could celebrate their anniver- sary without having to worry about their four young kids. They went out of town while Rose and I sat with their kids for two days. We were quite brave to take the challenge since the kids' ages are 8, 6, 4 and 1. I learned several things about this ex- perience. I discovered that at our age, it ain't like it used to be, meaning the ener- gy of the kids is no match for ours. I think I should have brought several cans of energy drink and energy bars to be able to take good care of those kids. I'm not complaining at all, just sharing a thought about accepting similar challeng- es in the future. Rose and I raised four kids and on sev- eral occasions took care of our other grandkids. Occasionally, one of our kids brought their dog for us to dogsit. So we felt like we were pros at this. However, we had better think twice if we're offered another chance to sit. Since social distancing kept us from visiting and enjoying the company of our family, we did not hesitate to accept the honor of enjoying the offer to be with the kids. Be- sides, we had a plan to go to a hotel with a swimming pool and playground to meet my daughter and her hubby on the last day of sitting. Before that, we planned to have din- ner in a restaurant where they serve old German cuisine. Those offers were hard to turn down! I was tired of reading books, watching T V and gardening around our premises. Things I have learned about brief weekend vaca- tions: • Even if I promised to bring "just the bare mini- mum," my small luggage for some reason filled up quick- ly. When we checked into the hotel, it looked like all eight of us were bringing enough for a month's stay. • There are never enough items to pack to make sure we won't starve or be without. You all know what I'm talking about. I'm sure everybody knows and does the same thing. • Young children have endless ener- gy, and you need to make sure you never get distracted even for a brief moment. They do stuff which are not thought through, and take pride in saying things like, "Hey Grandpa/Grandma, watch me." And out of our strained vocal cords, we automatically recite a litany of, "It's not safe to do that." "Please be careful". "Please listen closely." "Don't do that again." Their home, is like a farm. They have chickens, a fishpond, a corn and vegeta- ble garden, and a path to drive around the place using a golf cart. Having grown up in a city with little to no experience about farm life, I discov- ered riding in a golf cart over the rolling hills and muddy downhill patches is not my idea of fun. I told my son-in-law to put a sign in the golf cart that says, "Do not ride this cart if you are over 70." I must admit it was fun for a few minutes, but as we went round and round the trails, I promised I won't do that "fun ride" anymore. I studied child psycholo- gy too, and one of the things I learned and admire about kids raised in the Western hemisphere is that they tend to be independent. They fre- quently say things like, "I can do it by myself." and "I know how to do it." They innovate and create ways to open packages using their bare hands, teeth, or whatever they can invent to access the contents of cookie boxes, toy packages, candy wrappers and strong plastic wrap- pers which I, myself, even have a tough time opening. One of the greatest rewards we get is when they give us hugs and hear the words, " Love you Grandpa/Grandma." It was hard to say goodbye, but it was also a relief to know we're off the hook, and that we will head to our home for some peace and quiet until the next round. Wisdom of the week: In these chal- lenging times we face, we should stay op- timistic, hopeful, and treasure every mo- ment with family and friends. As I went to a couple of out-of-town places last month, the new norm makes me feel it's been tough for everyone. But I also admire the resiliency of human beings. With God's unfailing help, we hope to see things re- turn to "normal." My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. A great weekend Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Steward T. Atkins charged with count I intimidation-same as 7270, but where def. draws or uses a deadly weapon (06/28/2020), a level 5 felony and count II carrying a handgun without a license. Christain D. Heath charged with count I possession of a narcotic drug, a level 6 felony; count II possession of a narcotic drug, a level 6 felony; count III unlawful possession of syringe, a level 6 felony and count IV possession of paraphernalia. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike County Circuit Court Mark A. Hanselman charged with op- erating a vehicle while intoxicated. Parker Scott Chandler charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and possession of marijuana. Joseph W. Robling charged with pub- lic intoxication and disorderly conduct. Nathaniel Chattin charged with driv- ing while suspended, prior conviction. Keegan Simmons charged with leav- ing the scene of an accident. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC sues Amber Lawrence on complaint. Citibank, N.A. sues Brian Mounts on complaint. Vehicle title request for Klayton Kix- miller. Vehicle title request for James Larry Kramer. Edward Diskey sues State of Indiana. Nicole L. Roy sues Chad A Roy for dis- solution of marriage. Janna Boger sues Brannon Boger for dissolution of marriage. SMALL CLAIMS Pike County Circuit Court Friends Corp. sues Monarch Beverage Co. on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Darrell W. Francis charged with speed- ing, exceeding maximum 55. Austin G. Jones charged with operat- ing with expired plates. Eric Burkhart charged with speeding. Letter to the Editor Solar farm: Where is the win for Pike County? to complacency. We live in our own little bubble and do not realize what is happen- ing around us. That is why Dr. King can say "Sunday Morning is the most segre- gated hour in America." God prepared the church through Christ to leave the comfort of complacency and launch out into the deep- to take the grace of God into to whole world. Christians [regardless of ethnicity] belong to the Kingdom of Heaven and men and women of grace have stood before power and challenged their use of pow- er against the things of God. The Church is the beacon of hope for America and the world even though we are divided, Christ is not divid- ed; we hate, but God is love; we murder, but God offers eternal life; we Slander, but God heals; we imprison with words and deeds, but God liberates Hatred and sin are doomed because God's LOVE WINS, even if we may not see it today, or even to- morrow. God is alive in the fur- nace of pain and suffering because Jesus breaks the walls; Jesus gives liberty that none can take away; be- cause His Church continues to proclaim the message of hope and grace. Mahatmas Gandhi, M.L King, and Bishop Desmond Tutu came from different walks of life to struggle against prejudice and rac- ism during the 20th centu- ry. They recognized that re- sponding in kind to violence and lawlessness is exact- ly what evil men intent up- on doing evil anticipate you will do. Violence shifts attention away from the real issue. It allows those who support vi- olence to continue to claim the "high moral ground." Hatred goes beyond skin color. Christians meeting Sundays around the world practicing many faith tradi- tions – but are not of all ONE BODY and ONE ACCORD. Methodist practice an "OPEN" Communion table – but we are a minority. That is not to pat ourselves upon our backs. It's a simple fact. If you were to attend ma- ny of our churches and came forward to take the elements of grace [communion], it would be scandalous – and you probably be refused the elements! Is not this apartheid and segregation? I can sit in the back of church [bus] and hear the Word –but I am not allowed to partake of the elements of Grace! If a drunkard came for- ward and said "be merciful to me Lord, a sinner," and wanted the elements, would our church allow it? The answer is simple. As we consider our own discipleship, let each of us also consider our own prej- udices and how we think and feel about Blacks, Asians, Chinese, Russians, Arabs, Jews, Democrats, Repub- licans, Nancy Pelosi, Don- ald Trump. Joe Biden, and YOUR NEIGHBOR! Think about it while you consider your calling. GRACE Continued from page 4 To the Citizens of Pike County: URGENT! On Tuesday, July 14, the Pike County Council will vote on a pro- posed 90 percent tax abatement for a 1,200 acre solar farm in Dutchtown, a pastoral farm and residential area. Pre- vious meetings and approvals regarding this utility-scale industrial-sized solar "farm" were held in closed door execu- tive sessions. We are not in opposition to solar panels. However, we ARE OPPOSED to sacrific- ing neighborhoods, home values, and the livelihood of small farmers for mega solar industrial sites. Most rural communities have plans and policies for RESPONSI- BLE and appropriately sized solar sites, including limiting the farms to less than 50 acres; clearly stating WHERE solar farms can be built (in commercial inten- sive or industrial areas); requiring envi- ronmental impact studies, decommis- sioning plans, weed control, etc. According to an article in The Press Dispatch, the proposed farm will provide 4 to 7 jobs. Currently we are not aware of a requirement that those 4 to 7 jobs will go to Pike County residents. The Coun- ty Council is proposing a 90 percent tax abatement for 10 years. Where is the win for Pike County? Is it with the homeowners in Dutch- town who will wake up every morning to see an industrial solar farm surrounding them, and see their hard-earned proper- ty values go down the drain? Is it with the small farmers who will not be able to lease farm ground at reason- able prices as more solar farms swoop in- to our community? Or perhaps it is with the landowners, who will be left with land that has been disregraded to fit the solar company's needs and will no longer be viable farm land due to the contamination? The win is with the private equity com- pany who is taking advantage of the lack of zoning and oversight within our coun- ty, as well as the CURRENT supportive legislation offering federal and state tax credits. What will happen when the sup- portive legislation expires? Citizens of Pike County, do your own research about industrial-sized solar me- ga farms. Demand that our County Coun- cil bring the discussions and facts into the light of day, where all residents of Pike County can fully understand the long-term ramifications of solar farms. And this part is URGENT! Call your County Council members to ask ques- tions, express opinions, and above all, do your own research (that has not been commissioned by the solar power indus- try). Questions to ask: • Will Pike County residents see sig- nificantly reduced power bills? • What will happen to the sites as they are decommissioned or closed? • Are the 4 to 7 jobs for Pike County residents? • How much tax revenue will the farms generate? • Where, and how much, is the WIN for Pike County? • Could the next solar mega-farm be 100 feet from your door without public notice or input? Shawn Wilson Heritage Viewpoint By Kay C. James Nation's values under attack Our country is under attack from rad- ical leftists. Mobs rampage through our streets, monuments are being destroyed, and the very law and order that ensures our communities' peace and security is being undermined. In far too many instances, those bent on destruction have hijacked protests, creating violence and division and ulti- mately attacking the very foundation of our nation. For them, it's not about re- solving race issues; it's about using ra- cial discontent to forward their anarchist agenda. One such group is Antifa. While it is widely recognized as a far-left fringe group, another organization—just as rad- ical—has managed to drape itself in more mainstream clothes, gaining significant support with the public, politicians and the business community. While Ameri- cans of every color agree with the senti- ment that black lives matter, Black Lives Matter (BLM) the organization actually advocates an agenda that is completely out of step with American values. Get exclusive insider information from Heritage experts delivered straight to your inbox each week. Subscribe to The Agenda >> One look at the BLM organization's website shows that the idea of protecting black lives and seeking justice is mere- ly a vehicle to advance a different, radi- cal set of ideas. The organization is more dedicated to gaining political power and remaking America according to Marx- ist ideology. Two of the group's three co-founders are even "trained Marxists," according to one of them. And it shows. The group's platform in- cludes planks unrelated to improving black lives, like trying to get the U.S. to di- vest from Israel, which it calls an "apartheid state" while accusing Jews of committing genocide against Palestinians. The organization also has called for dismantling the family, saying, "We disrupt the Western-pre- scribed nuclear family structure." The breakdown of the black family and the rise of single-parent households is one of the root causes of poverty, crime, drug abuse and poor educational achievement in many black communities. Why would anyone who's supposedly working for black progress want to tear down the very thing that helps to achieve it? Just as disturbing is the fact that some of America's biggest corporations are giv- ing hundreds of thousands and even mil- lions of dollars to this organization and others whose misleading names conceal a more expansive and dangerous agenda. Groups like Antifa and the BLM orga- nization want to impose an ideology on America that would only bring greater poverty, a loss of freedom, destruction to churches and civil society, and violent law enforcement tactics to enforce com- pliance—exactly what we've seen in plac- es like Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. In fact, we've already seen a vision of what their America would look like. We've seen videos of leftist protesters physically and verbally attacking police officers. We've seen an entire neigh- borhood turned into a violent "autonomous zone" with spine- less politicians telling the police to stand down and let anarchists rule over innocent residents. We've seen violent mobs de- facing and toppling statues of historical figures such as sol- diers and abolitionists. Some are even calling for the remov- al of images of Jesus in which he is per- ceived as "too white." We must stop the violence and destruc- tion and bring those committing criminal acts to justice while protecting the rights of good people to protest peacefully. We must support our police officers who risk their lives every day to protect us no matter our color, religion, sex or na- tionality—while also making needed re- forms to weed out bad cops and end un- acceptable policing procedures. Calls to defund the police are calls for chaos, and calls to disarm them are luna- cy. We've seen what happens in Seattle, Minneapolis and other cities when crim- inals are allowed free rein. Finally, we must combat the Marxist agenda. This agenda has wrought de- struction on nations for generations. It expands government control and takes every opportunity to limit freedom—and it must not take root in the United States. The most desperate communities in SCHOLAR Continued from page 4 POLICE Continued from page 4 been sued for excessive use of force and settled for $25,000. Public employee unions shield public servants from the public they are supposed to serve. Police unions enable and protect the very behavior we want to stop. Maybe disproportionate union contributions to Dem- ocrats conveniently pro- duce a blind eye. Sure, it's time for answers and actions. But there can be neither without honesty. And, unfortunately, Demo- crats' lust for power far ex- ceeds their interest in pur- suing honest solutions to our problems. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renew- al and Education. cently "Charter Schools and Their Enemies." A full list of his publications can be found on his website. Sowell's writings do not end with scholarly publica- tions and books. He has au- thored 72 essays in peri- odicals and books, wrote 32 book reviews and was a regular columnist for Cre- ators Syndicate for 25 years, Forbes magazine for eight years, Scripps Howard News Service from 1984 to 1990, and the Los Angeles Her- ald-Examiner from 1978 to 1980. Sowell has had occa- sional columns in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washing- ton Post, Los Angeles Times, Washington Star, Newsweek, The Times (London), News- day and The Stanford Daily. My colleague not only writes when you and I are asleep or enjoying ourselves, but he might write with two hands. Sowell cares about people. He believes that compassion- ate policy requires dispas- sionate analysis. He takes se- riously the admonition given to physicians, "primum non nocere" (first, do no harm). In many respects, Sowell is an Austrian economist like the great Nobel laureate Frie- drich Hayek, who often talk- ed about elites and their "pre- tense of knowledge." These are people who believe that they have the ability and knowledge to organize soci- ety in a way better than peo- ple left to their own devices — what Hayek called the fa- tal conceit. Their vision re- quires the use of the coer- cive powers of government. In my book, Thomas Sow- ell is one of the greatest economist-philosophers of our age, and I am proud to say that he is one of my best friends. Sowell demonstrates something that is uniquely American; namely, just be- cause you know where a per- son ended up in life, you can- not be sure about where he started. Unlike many other societies, an American need not start at the top to get to the top. That is something all Americans should be proud of and jealously guard — the socioeconomic mobility that comes from a relatively free society. Walter E. Williams is a pro- fessor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Wil- liams and read features by oth- er Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Cre- ators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. who talk kids into co-sign- ing loans "to build up your credit." Now this virus frightens us with Boomer mortali- ty. Wait, what? We were al- ways the center of attention. The advertisers homed in on big-spending, self-obsessed Baby Boomers to flatter and exhort us day and night. A lot of us never grew up. We be- lieve the copywriters who tell us we're forever young. And so this epidemic seems like a betrayal. We weren't ever supposed to die. Surely there is some un- just stigma that we can dis- pel to restore our rightful im- mortality. We have piled all the sacrifices on the altar to deter this accursed plague. Not on a physical altar, and not unto a fiery death, but we have sacrificed our young- sters nevertheless. Cancel culture has moved beyond commencement speakers and Oscar hosts to prohibit America itself: grad- uations, summer jobs, youth sports, Sunday School, hair- cuts, knee surgery, Easter Communion, Mother's Day, campouts, public fireworks, swim lessons, even sunshine and fresh air at the beach. No sacrifice by young Ameri- cans is too great to purchase some extra time for Boom- ers. And shame on anybody so selfish that they want to go on with their lives, to live, just like we did at their age. Don't they know there are Boomers at stake, Boomers with underlying health is- sues? Nothing and nobody could be more important than us. Am I in a hurry to die? Uh, no. But with or without the virus, a lot of Boomers are going to die. It's our sea- son. Let's not take America down with us. Let's be brave, so America can be free. FREE AGAIN Continued from page 4 Continued on page PB