The Press-Dispatch
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B-6 Wednesday, Januar y 6, 2021 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 Lessons Georgia voters can learn from California One of the many beauties of free- dom is there is always surprise. Georgia voters might consider what is happening in California as the nation's blue-state poster child turns purple. Why? When the left seizes power, they don't know when to stop. But voters know how to say, "Whoa, enough." As British nobleman Lord Acton noted, "Power tends to corrupt." California's governor, Gavin New- som, started this difficult COVID-19 period early in the year by impos- ing in his state the most draconian shutdown measures in the nation — abridging individual movement and shutting down schools, businesses and churches. While coming down hard on Cal- ifornia's citizens, Newsom lived the life of privilege and was discovered dining maskless at a $1,200 -per-per- son dinner party at a tiny Napa Val- ley restaurant. Now he's facing recall with report- edly more than half of the 1.5 million signatures needed by next March al- ready gathered. In November's elections, Repub- licans in California regained four of the eight House seats they lost in 2018. And amid the refrain of the left accusing our nation of systemic rac- ism, two of the recaptured Republi- can seats were won by Asian Amer- icans — Young Kim and Michelle Steele. Kim and Steel became two of the first three Korean American women elected to the House. Anoth- er victory went to Mexican American Mike Garcia. And David Valadao re- captured his seat in a majority His- panic district. Republicans captured these seats by campaigning against de- fund-the-police calls from the left and warning against the threat of socialism. And each of these Repub- lican seats was won in districts that went for Joe Biden in the presiden- tial election. Three ballot initiatives pushing to the left — one raising property taxes; one that would have restored racial preferences in government hiring, contracting and education; and an- other expanding government power to control rents — all were defeated. Another ballot initiative allowing app-based transportation companies such as Uber to employ their drivers as independent contractors was ap- proved. A victory for capitalism. In the beginning of December, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to support the challenge of Pasadena Harvest Rock Church against New- som's restrictions on indoor church worship. Harvest Rock argued that first amendment religious freedom guarantees were violated by New- som's restrictions and that restric- tions on churches were more severe than those on secular entities such as hair salons, liquors stores and shop- ping malls. The court ordered action against Newsom's restrictions. Bans were lifted, and Californians flocked to worship this Christmas in churches across the state. All this against a background of hostility to economic freedom in Cal- ifornia that has been driving house- holds and businesses out of the state. According to Census Bureau data compiled by American Enterprise In- stitute economist Mark Perry, Cali- fornia ranked No. 5 in the nation in 2019 in net departures from the state of households and businesses. The highest individual tax rate in California, as Perry shows, was 13.3 percent, compared with a 3.5 percent average in states with top inflows of households and businesses. The top corporate tax rate in California was 8.84 percent, compared with 4.1 per- cent in states with top inflows. Aver- age unemployment in California was 4.1 percent, and employment growth was 1.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, in states with highest inflows. Perry compares U-Haul rental rates for states where people are leaving to states where people are ar- riving. As would be expected, states with the highest departures have the Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Hello and Happy New Year. Yes, we need a happier 2021. This past 2020 has been one of the toughest for the entire world. There is no rea- son to list all the difficult things we have been through, and many chal- lenges are still ongoing. So, in our quest for happiness, we have to un- derstand our journey of life here on earth is indeed a cycle of good and great times and also difficult times. Very difficult times for sure. These are times when our faith, optimism, and attitude are tested. I have been blessed to be surrounded by family, friends and acquaintances who make life good and worthwhile, and I hope it's the same with every- one who reads my humble writings. I know that isolation and loss of so- cial contact can be detrimental to our well-being. I know that we are human be- ings who need to be nourished with love, caring, com- passion and kind- ness. To be devoid of these nourish- ing ingredients can make us feel sad and empty, so we need to accept the time tested saying, "No man (hu- man) is an island unto himself." • • • I was going through some items to share, and I found this worthwhile. It's titled, The Need to Belong. It says, "We were created to belong, belong to someone, belong to life, belong to family, belong to friends, belong to the Divine, belong to mankind, and I belong to You." A dear classmate of mine sent this very uplifting mes- sage for everyone. It goes this way: "I wish you happi- ness. You have been through a lot this past year and you deserve to end it smiling. May happiness be with you. I wish you peace of mind. In a busy over-thinking world, may you find time to relax and rest your mind. May peace be with you. I wish you Love, for love is the greatest healer. My Point of View By H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. New promises Heritage Viewpoint By Katharine Cornell Gorka History shows our passion runs deep Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Give Me a Break By John Stossel 2020's good news Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore Free Mitch Rutledge The world is in a spiritual crisis i am afraid that we have passed the Rubicon and the future is not prom- ising. The COVID crises has un- masked the ugly side of government and the masses. Historically, all governments across time have collected and amassed power to the detriment of its citizenry. No time in the history of the world have nations demanded their populations to shelter in place because of an illness. We hear relent- lessly that a pandemic is among us and we must protect everybody— which is not possible. Businesses ex- cept Wal-Mart, Costco, and Amazon must close. Small business owners must sacrifice for the common good. Families must allow the govern- ment to protect their love ones in skilled care facilities and if they die they die alone—no family to hold their hands, no clergy to minister to their souls. Hospitals and nursing homes are killing COVID-19 peo- ple by the truckload and we are told –"sorry; and be sure to social dis- tance when you have the memorial service when it is safe." Government now dictates from the halls of Albany, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, and Sacramento what are the acceptable risks. Stay at home and live; but I say "just living" is not life! However, our governors assured us that they will protect the govern- ment class. All political hacks and employees will receive full pay and benefits. Governors and Health of- ficials will remain fully paid as they lead the assault on our lives and lib- erties as they combat COVID. How do you define evil? Government and media constant- ly bombard us with COVID statistics but leave one little statistic out—sur- vivability. Over ninety-nine percent of the people infected with COVID will recover with no ill effects. The Indiana Department of Health Dash- board cites "to date" Indiana has re- corded 511,485 COVID positives and 7,911 deaths. That is a 0.015 percent death rate. As of last week there were 313 hospitalizations per 100,000 peo- ple – that is 0.0031 percent or 21,000 hospitalized from a population of 7 million. Let that sink in! COVID is a virus and as all viruses it preys upon the weak and sick. My daughters work in health care and they are on the front- line of nursing old people—and they and their entire family have contract- ed COVID, as have I, and recovered. I did what I was asked to do. I wore my mask, I socially distanced, stayed away from my family at Thanksgiv- ing and Christmas, and I still con- tracted it. Did you know health workers can continue to work if they are COVID positive as long as they work in a COVID unit? Go read the Health De- partment Guidelines. What are the risks? I am incised because the relentless misinformation from government and the media has the nation in hys- terics. I know of people who have not left their homes since March! People are afraid to go outside, walk their dog, interact with family, and attend church. They disinfect their grocer- ies, they talk to family through glass doors or from the garage. Pastors are pressured by their congregants to close church anytime a staff mem- ber has a sniffle; better to be safe than sorry. Don't even mention so- cial shaming. Covid has stripped away any façade that government is a friend of religion and civil liberties. COVID has exposed the power of the Tech giants, news media, and Entertain- ment industry and how they manip- ulate data and the news as they bom- bard us with relentless ads. Government and its various qua- si-entities are at war with God and the church. Churches now have to turn to the courts to open their doors. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. Churches have turned to social media but any pastor worth his/her salt knows YouTube and Livestreaming is not church! Liquor stores and marijuana shops can remain open but churches and barbershops have to close. Big busi- ness has raked in trillions while the small shop owner and restaurateur is on the verge of bankruptcy. Sadly, hospitals and nursing homes can exclude whom they want Christmas 2020 was a Christmas like no other in our nation's history. Thousands of churches across the country were shuttered, others had to hold services outdoors or restrict capacity indoors. Families were not allowed to gather for the holiday. Many Americans are rightly up- set that the freedom to worship—the foundational American freedom— has been curtailed. For some it felt as if we gave up without a fight, and that what is now gone will be lost for- ever. But the past tells a different sto- ry. While we have never experienced what we are going through now, the past tells us that the passion for free- dom runs deep in this nation, and it will not be easily squelched. First and foremost, of course, is the very founding of the nation by the many who came for religious free- dom. Not only did they face persecu- tion at home and a difficult ocean voy- age, but once here, they still faced many challenges. The pas- sengers of the May- flower Compact nev- er expected to be blown hundreds of miles off course, to land in a place where their existing patent had no standing. But with the Mayflower Compact, they crafted a powerful agreement that established self-rule, their right to wor- ship as they wished, and the rule of law. In that simple act, they laid the foundation for a nation that would become a beacon of freedom. A lesser known but per- haps more important mo- ment occurred in 1657. A new sect of believers had emerged in England in the 1650s: the Religious Society of Friends, derisively referred to as Quakers, for their belief that people Was 2020 the worst year ever? The media keep saying that. We did have the pandemic, a bitter election, unemployment, riots and a soaring national debt. But wait, look at the good news, says historian Johan Norberg. His new book, "Open: The Story of Hu- man Progress," points out how life keeps getting better, even if people just don't realize it. 2020 was "the best year in human history to face a pandemic," he says. Had the pandemic happened in 2005, "You wouldn't have the tech- nology to create mRNA vaccines." "In 1990," he continues, "we wouldn't have a worldwide web. If we had had this pandemic in 1976, we wouldn't have been able to read the genome of the virus. And ... in 1950, we wouldn't have had a single ventilator." These last 20 years, adds Nor- berg, have been especially good. "Mankind has at- tained more wealth than ever." I push back: "There's more to life than wealth! And lot of this mon- ey went to the top 1% . Ordinary peo- ple think they're doing worse." "If you look at specifics like global poverty, child mortality, chronic undernourish- ment and illiteracy," Norberg re- plies, "they all declined faster than ever." Those things: global pover- ty, child mortality, undernourish- ment,and illiteracy are pretty good measures of quality of life. "Literacy might be the most im- portant skill," says Norberg. "It's the skill that makes it pos- sible to acquire other skills. We've never seen literacy at these high levels ever before. (Even) in the most problem- atic countries around the world, it's better than it was in the richest countries 50 - to-60 years ago. That's most important for those who have the least." Of course, there were bad trends in 2020. Murder rose in the United States. Social media algo- rithms divided us further. "Suicide is up," I tell Norberg. "I can definitely see the prob- lems," he replies, "but once upon a time, if you ended up in the wrong school or neighborhood, you had no- Nearly everyone has seen the clas- sic movie "The Shawshank Redemp- tion." Well, it turns out there is a re- al life "Red" Redding, the character played by Morgan Freeman. He is in prison in Alabama. He has been there for nearly 40 years. He was guilty of his crime: a murder he com- mitted as a teenager in a drug oper- ation. But so many people who have interacted with Rutledge in prison see the similarities in character with Red. He grew up in a broken home with a father he never knew. His mother was a child of 13 years old and was hardly around for adult supervi- sion. He was illiterate. As a teen, he roamed the streets with drug deal- ers and prostitutes. With no real fam- ily. Without religion. Without school- ing. Without love of any kind. It was the kind of trapped and hopeless sit- uation that makes you think, "There but for the grace of God go I." He admitted his heinous crime, and he was convicted and sentenced to death. His tragic story was widely publicized in 1983 by a Time mag- azine profile of individuals in prison on death row. It was not a sympathet- ic portrayal. The author ended her story by dismissing Rutledge as ir- redeemable. She recommended that he "sit and stew in his 8 -foot by 5 -foot pen in Alabama. For- get him." But his story drew the at- tention of my friend and fel- low economist Burton Fol- som — a bestselling free mar- ket author — and a few other kindhearted people who saw a chance of redemption. Burt and his wife went to visit Rut- ledge on many occasions They and others converted him to Christ, and his life has been turned around. His death sentence was com- muted to life in prison. He has be- 2020