The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1277609
B-10 Wednesday, August 12, 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 Race for the Cure By Star Parker Points to Ponder By Rev. Ford Bond The collapse of the traditional US family The Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress has just pro- duced an important new study titled "The Demise of the Happy Two-Par- ent Home." The report exhaustively presents data showing the shocking collapse of marriage and traditional family in America and then explores possi- ble explanations for why it has hap- pened. In 1962, 71 percent of women ag- es 15 -44 were married. By 2019, this was down to 42 percent. In 1962, 5 percent of women ag- es 30 -34 had never been married. By 2019, this was up to 35 percent. In the 1960s, less than 1 percent of couples living together were not married. Today, it is over 12 percent. And the percentage of births to un- married women has risen from 5 per- cent in 1960 to 40 percent in 2018. In 1970, 85 percent of children lived with two parents. By 2019, this was down to 70 percent. The relevant questions are: Why should the collapse of marriage in the United States concern us? And why is this happening? Regarding the first question, it de- pends on your values. To the large but dwindling number of Ameri- cans who care about traditional bib- lical morality, the collapse of mar- riage and family, the openness to other lifestyles prohibited by bibli- cal morality, is of concern. It is not a healthy sign about what is happen- ing in our culture. For those whose concerns are more secular, the collapse of mar- riage is of concern because the prac- tical results are not good. A large body of research exists showing the social benefits of tradi- tional marriage and family, and the social costs of their collapse. There is the oft-quoted observa- tion of Brookings Institution schol- ar Ron Haskins that American adults who follow three rules — finish high school; get a full-time job; and wait until at least age 21 to get married and have children — have a 2 percent chance of being poor and a 75 per- cent chance of being a middle-class wage earner. In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning University of Chica- go economist James Heckman ob- served: "The main barriers to devel- oping effective policies for income and social mobility is fear of hon- est engagement in the changes in the American family and the conse- quences it has wrought. ... The fam- ily is the source of life and growth. Families build values, encourage (or discourage) their children in school and out. Families — far more than schools — create or inhibit life op- portunities." Why has traditional marriage and family so dramatically collapsed? The report examines several pos- sible factors, a major one being the dramatic growth in the welfare state supporting female heads of house- hold. According to the report, "The val- ue of the safety net for single-mother families is 133 percent higher today than in 1940, and 56 percent higher than in 1960." Nevertheless, changes in behav- ior reflect changes in values. Why do values change? Gallup has been asking since 1952, "How important would you say reli- gion is in your own life — very im- portant, fairly important or not very important." In 1952, 75 percent said "very im- portant." In 1970, this was down to about 60 percent, and by 1978, this was down to 52 percent." It was in this environment of a dra- matic drop in Americans' sense of the personal importance of religion that, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade deci- sion legalized abortion. A wave of court decisions banned religion from the public square. In 1962, prayer in public school was banished. In 2002 Gallup polling, 45 percent said have a baby outside of marriage was morally acceptable. By 2015, this was up to 61 percent, and by 2019, it was up to 64 percent. What seems clear is that the col- lapse of marriage and family that has Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 The not so strange life of Jekyll and Hyde In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson authored a book titled, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" that mimics the previous scriptural pas- sage. The plot is timeless; the whole gist of the story concerns the way in which an individual is made up of emotions and desires that are oppo- site to one another: some good and some evil. It's all about a man that has great inward battles. One part of him de- sires to be perfect [Dr. Jekyll]; He hates the idea that temptation [Mr. Hyde]. At times circumstances over- come his sense of "goodness" and he seemed "forced" to do things he did not want to do. Dr. Jekyll finally resolves to use any means necessary to separate his evil side from his good side. He de- cides that if he splits his two natures, then he can enjoy life as Dr. Jekyll by day and allow Mr. Hyde to roam free- ly at night. That was his plan; it just didn't work out the way he hoped. Paul makes it known to all who reads chapter seven of his Epistle to the Romans, that there is an inner battle between the good and evil na- ture in all of us. I suspect most Chris- tians can point to an incident where the "Mr. Hyde" was exposed for all to see. We are our own worst enemy and it is due to the carnal and godly natures in conflict – The Jekyll and Hyde on the inside. How does the Jekyll, the good appear? It appears in the kindness shown to other people, in our con- cern for the sick, and in the love of God. This nature wants to be pleasing unto God; but you are forewarned, don't cross the Mr. Hyde by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or step on his/her feelings. If you do, Mr. Hyde is liable to come out with a vengeance. All of us have been the recipient of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment– and maybe on occasion acted as Mr. Hyde and gasped when realizing the implication and cried out "WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? " Jesus would reply. "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." Jekyll and Hyde are both alive in each of us to some extent. If you don't believe it, just let an unexpect- ed problem arise, or hit your thumb with a hammer, or stub your toe on something in the dark Unfortunately, these natures at times are visible in the church. I have seen the most spiritually mind- ed and mature Christians turn and strike like a rattlesnake. I have seen humble and quiet people organize a mutiny over a perceived slight. This has serious ramifications for each of us as Christians. If we cannot overcome our sin na- ture then there is no power of the Cross—that is what Paul means when he exclaims "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this sentence of death? " At the end of the book, Dr. Jekyll chained himself to his alter ego in the laboratory where he performed his research. The objective was to fight it out once and for all, to utterly destroy Mr. Hyde, but it just didn't work. The scripture tells us of the Apos- tle Paul, who felt that same urgency to rid himself of the sin nature. He had fought a good fight and did ev- erything to keep the faith in walk- ing before the Lord. The battle was still raging but he knew the antidote: "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to oth- ers, I myself should be a castaway." The difference between the Apos- tle Paul and Dr. Jekyll is he [Dr. Jekyll] tried to separate his good side from his evil side with self-determi- nation and will power but failed. Paul knew that he could not overcome this powerful sin nature on his own so he cried out to God, "O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me? " Paul knew that the answer wasn't within his power. He needed someone, or Continued on page 11 It has almost been half a year since we started social distancing man- dates, the quarantines and isolation directives, and the new norms of life. As a result of this, we have seen ma- ny changes in our lifestyle I could not even imagine I would experience in my lifetime. It is beyond my capaci- ty to put into words what it feels like for me and for everyone to go to this journey. I have yet to meet anybody who has not expressed frustration and dismay about how tough it has been. And worst of all, no one knows when the end of this new lifestyle will be. Examples of the challenges I see are the need to wear masks, the need to keep 6 feet from one another when we gather in an enclosed space, the need to wash hands regularly, the need to sanitize places used for gath- erings, the need to limit the number of people who can attend social and religious functions, and the endless list goes on and on. Well, in every difficult time of our lives, there are still many things we can focus on which hopefully will ease the burdens we carry. We hope we can cling to our faith, to our be- liefs that better times will come, and that we all can survive and come out better as human be- ings living on this planet. The alternative which is to give up, or feel helpless and hopeless, or as the saying goes, throw in the towel. That is not an option. We are more hopeful and optimistic than that. So let's keep strong, carry the spirit of positive focus and always be thankful for many of the blessings we have. • • • Funny indeed. I have to admit I just can't help but be curious and get en- tertained by comments and postings on Facebook from my classmates of a half century ago. I get a kick out of seeing a variety of things they post which amuse me. For example, I see so many pic- tures of food and recipes they proud- ly share. I see many hobbies they have undertaken. I see pictures of their families showing their children and grandchildren. I now get hit by the reality that all of us have shown the effects of the 7th decade of life. Things such as white hair or no hair, a little bit more bel- ly, more wrinkles, a little bit of this and that which I take no pleasure in describing. It is harder to recognize some of them, and I have to refresh my memory how they looked when we were in our twen- ties. I'm sure they feel the same way with what I had posted about my own family. I haven't post- ed the food and recipes at all. I or- der practically most food I delight in gorging. We have friends who have undertaken new ventures in catering the hard-to-produce delicacies. And believe me, it is easier and cheaper to go that route. I tried real hard to skip postings that are political in color because it is just too upsetting to engage in toxic conversations. Life is too short to en- gage in topics which I think we will not be able to convince others. • • • Well, to fill in the times after I have done my chores, I have to admit I, My Point of View By Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Half a year into the pandemic Heritage Viewpoint By David Ditch Credit outlook downgrade wake-up call HISTORY JEKYLL The major credit rating agency Fitch Ratings announced July 31 that it was downgrading the U.S. federal debt outlook from "stable" to "nega- tive." This is yet another strong sig- nal that the rapid growth of the na- tional debt is unsustainable. As lawmakers negotiate anoth- er potentially expensive COVID-19 relief package, it is urgent that they limit such spending to provisions that would directly and effectively address the pandemic and econom- ic recovery. Most of us borrow money for ma- jor expenses at some point in our life. Whether buying a car or house, paying for college tuition, starting a business, or dealing with a personal crisis, the ability to obtain a loan is crucial to modern life. Get exclusive insider information from Heritage experts delivered straight to your inbox each week. Subscribe to The Agenda >> In turn, Americans understand that having a good credit rating is vital to making a loan affordable. The same is true for governments. Although having a low level of national debt is ideal, it is dif- ficult to avoid alto- gether. Events such as recessions, wars, and natural disas- ters often require a government to is- sue debt to pay for short-term needs. The COVID-19 pandemic and the related recession is a good exam- ple. It is a major shock to the econo- my and our way of life. With tax revenues down sharply this year, Congress had to finance the emergency response through borrowing, which makes it even more important that the response is targeted, temporary, and trans- parent. When such events occur, a nation typically leans on credit markets to buy the new debt. In the same way that people have credit ratings, gov- ernment debt is rated-based on the expected level of risk for an investor. The U.S. long has been the prime example of a nation whose debt is considered a safe investment. Thanks in part to our stability, the inter- est rate our Treasury Depart- ment needs to pay on govern- ment bonds has declined, sav- ing taxpayers hundreds of bil- lions of dollars per year. However, money borrowed today still must be repaid, so low in- terest rates are not an excuse for wasteful spending. Nations with high debt, weak economies, and shaky governments face much higher interest rates com- pared to those with frugal, prosper- ous, and stable governments. For example, Mexico pays roughly eight times the interest rate (6 per- cent) on a 10 -year bond that the U.S. does (0.73 percent). Continued on page 11 Minority View By Walter E. Williams Leftist effort to revise American history There is very little new under the sun. The monument and statue de- struction that we are witnessing has been witnessed in other times and other places. A tyrant's first battle- field is to rewrite history. Most no- table were the political purges of Jo- seph Stalin. The Soviet government erased figures from Soviet history by renaming cities — such as the Impe- rial capital of St. Petersburg to Petro- grad and Leningrad and Stalingrad — and eradicating memories of czar- ist rule. Stalin's historical revisions also included changing photographs and history books, thereby distort- ing children's learning within edu- cational establishments. Most of the effort to rewrite Amer- ican history has its roots among the intellectual elite on our college cam- puses whose message has been sold to predominantly white college stu- dents who have little understanding of how they are being used. Much of their current focus is on tearing down statues and changing names that they deem offensive. They have denounced George Washing- ton, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Without much understand- ing of history, they have demanded that Princeton Universi- ty remove the name of Woodrow Wilson, who was a progres- sive, from its public policy school and residential college. Some are urging Yale University to change its name because its benefactor Elihu Yale was a slave trader. To purge our society of names associated with evil is going to be quite a task. I suggest that we set up a formal commission to deal with this formidable challenge. Maybe we can name it the Commission to Eliminate Bad Memories. There are some challenging issues. What should be done about our nation's capital, Washington and District of Columbia? A fter all, George Wash- ington owned slaves, and Columbia is the feminine form of Columbus. Speaking of Washington, its football team, the Wash- ington Redskins, has final- ly agreed to temporarily call themselves Washington Foot- ball Team until they can find a snazzier name. Renaming things is a big job. Our military has several fighting aircraft named with what today's tyrants might consider racial slights, such as the Apache, Iroquois, Kiowa, La- kota and Mescalero. Perhaps offen- sive to PETA, we also have military hardware named after animals, such as the Eagle, Falcon, Raptor, Cobra and Dolphin. Clarence Page of the Chicago Tri- bune wrote, "Now that Washing- ton's NFL team has announced its 'retirement' of the racial slur that has been its brand name since 1933, I am tempted to gloat a little." In response to Page's article, there is an email