The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1368373
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 5, 2021 C-5 The homeless man said that although he knew how to live off the street, the Rodriguez family didn't, but very soon would have to. Rodriguez recalled that the man said to them: "I know that you people that are from the middle class are going to be in the same situation as me at some point in the future, and you're not going to be able to eat from the trash can." Despite its failures, many Venezuelans still embrace socialism, Guilarte said, be- cause they are taught to believe from the time they are children that it is wonder- ful. Guilarte said that he used to call him- self a socialist in part because of the in- doctrination that occurs in Venezuelan schools. "They tell you that Chavez was the big- gest guy in the world, that he led the rev- olution, he was like Jesus on earth," Gui- larte said. This indoctrination works, he said, and some members of his family thought that the Chavez regime was going to be better than the previous governments, which often were corrupt and made many mis- takes. However, Guilarte said, his eyes were opened when some college friends began to protest the government and he real- ized he was "on the wrong side." "I still wanted to help people, but the only way to do that is to not only defend liberty but to fight for liberty," Guilarte said. Shaking people out of believing in so- cialism sometimes requires them to hit "rock bottom," he said. Lee Edwards, distinguished fellow in conservative thought at The Heritage Foundation, said some misconceptions about socialism often are used by propo- nents to make excuses for its failing. One such misconception, he said, is that "so- cialism has never failed because it's nev- er been tried." This isn't true, Edwards said, because socialism has been tried in many places and failed. He pointed to three countries in particular—Israel, India, and the Unit- ed Kingdom—that attempted to imple- ment socialist policies after World War II. Israel experienced catastrophic in- flation, half of India's population was stuck in poverty, and the U.K. became the "sick man of Europe," the Heritage scholar said. Edwards, Rodriguez, and Guilarte made a distinction between socialism as seen in Venezuela and the economies of Nordic countries—such as Denmark— that are strongly pro-market. Guilarte said: I don't see the governments of Den- mark and Sweden taking the means of production …from the business owners. I don't see them attacking the freedom of the press, attacking freedom of move- ment, attacking freedom of speech. I don't see their people being so oppressed that they have to go to the streets and ex- pect to literally be killed by their own gov- ernment officers, by the police, by the military. Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. SOCIALISM Continued from page 4 eryone who participated in the meeting. I had not seen nor heard from many of my classmates since 50 years ago. It was quite an experience. Some I could recog- nize, some I could not. Most have retired, some are still in active practice. Each gave a little background of who they are, where they are located, what they are currently doing, and most said they want to meet in person again some- where. The talk was in San Francisco but most are not too optimistic because of the dif- ficulty of travel and restrictions due to the pandemic. Because this zoom meeting seems to have fulfilled their longing to reconnect, they wanted to do this again in about six months. Our electronic technology has indeed changed the world so much. It is amazing how we now catch up and con- nect with friends, family, classmates, sig- nificant others, etc. without the challeng- es of physical travel. ••• Lessons I learned from this meeting: My reaction is the affirmation that life indeed is brief. It goes fast, we all will grow old, our physical features change. Everyone will have some health issues to deal with, and there is value in maintain- ing friendships and making good choic- es. Without faith in believing in a Creator, we surely will experience a dark mean- ingless world. Then, we must not lose sight of the re- ality of eternity, and the choices we have to make regarding our final destination. There is still a lot of goodness in humani- ty and we should follow this admonition: " Love God above all things, and love your neighbor as you love yourself." Amen? Amen. ••• Humor of the week: I have been watch- ing some of Saint Mother Teresa of Cul- cutta's speeches on Youtube, including the ones she had made during her Nobel Peace Prize award, her address to the US Congress, the United Nations, the vari- ous universities and educational institu- tions, etc. One thing she shared was a time when she was caring for a suffering woman in India. The woman was in a lot of pain and distress, and in order to console the wom- an, she said," Remember that your suffer- ings are like a kiss of Jesus." The woman then looked at her intense- ly and said, " Please Mother Teresa, can you please tell Jesus to stop kissing me? It's just too much." Have a blessed week. Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Edward Lee Bowling charged with count I dealing in methamphetamine, a level 2 felony, count II possession of meth- amphetamine, a level 3 felony, and count III maintaining a common nuisance - con- trolled substances, a level 6 felony. Jamen L. Russell charged with count I possession of methamphetamine, a level 5 felony, count II possession of metham- phetamine, a level 6 felony, count III un- lawful possession of a syringe, a level 6 felony, and count IV maintaining a com- mon nuisance - controlled substances, a level 6 felony. Colt R. Walker charged with count I possession of methamphetamine, a level 5 felony, count II visiting a common nui- sance and count III possession of mari- juana. Richard E. Bowling charged with count I possession of methamphetamine, a level 5 felony, count II visiting a com- mon nuisance and count III possession of marijuana. Dale T. Robinson charged with pos- session of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony. Bruce M. Phillips charged with count I resisting law enforcement, a level 6 felo- ny, and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANORS Pike County Circuit Court Eric Slunder charged with operating a vehicle with an ACE of at least .08 but less than .15. Warren Kay Craig charged with pos- session of a controlled substance. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court LVNV Funding, LLC sues Benjamin Crawford on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Justin Atkins on complaint. Gateway Financial Solutions sues Ty- ler Richardson on complaint. Evyn L. Fraley sues Tiffany Fraley for dissolution of marriage. SMALL CLAIMS Pike County Circuit Court Pike County School Corporation sues Kim Goepner on complaint. Pike County School Corporation sues Falicia D. Hayes on complaint. Pike County School Corporation sues Brandi Gladish on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Mari- on S. Burger on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Jason M. Hall on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Hunt- er D. Kunz on complaint. Hoosier Accounts Service sues Shawn M. Kunz on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Amanda J. Hurlock charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Willie J. Green charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Lance Edward Messina charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Richard W. Jenkins charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Boris O. Roman charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Thomas A. Ashley charged with count I speeding, exceeding 70 mph, and count II no operator's license in possession. William E. Rodriguez Pina charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Galiano G. Quinonez charged with speeding. Noah J. McFarland charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Travis L. Darnell charged with over gross weight. Joseph E. Zelli charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Tristian A. Lawson charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Daniel C. Blake charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Eric J. Scott charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Emily A. Carrico charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Michael S. Jones charged with viola- tion of entrance/exit to/from interstate hwy/freeway, no U-turns on freeway/in- terstate highway. Wayne D. Hibbeler charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Eleni C. Haralabidis charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Heather L. Braunecker charged with speeding. Jordan M. Hunt charged with speed- ing. Sydney R. Kendall charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Lee E. Tuggle charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Andrew J. Stagg charged with driving while suspended. John Payne charged with speeding, ex- ceeding 30 mph. Seth D. Pruett charged with learner's permit violation. Katherine M. Wynn charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Yesenia Cruz charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Elizabeth R. Harner charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. David R. Dunn charged with operating with expired plates. Christina R. Anderson charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. John P. Jones charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. government and property rights and mar- kets came into the world," Boaz points out. The result was a sudden increase in prosperity. Americans now are told that "the poor get poorer," but it's not true. Americans are 30 times richer than we were 200 years ago. When America be- gan, rich people were poorer than poor people are today. "In Colonial America," says Boaz, "(if ) you were traveling and you wanted a place to sleep, you'd go to an inn where everyone shared a bed." Benjamin Franklin and John Adams shared a bed on one of their diplomatic missions. They fought whether or not the window should be open. John Jay, America's first chief justice of the Supreme Court, complained about "sleeping with strangers and picking up bedbugs and lice," says Boaz. "It's not like that anymore because of the increase in wealth." Today, at motels all over America, mid- dle-class and poor people have their own beds. When markets are free and private property is protected, innovation hap- pens in ways that allow ordinary people to live better. Over time, that innovation multiplies. It's why, today, most of us live better than kings once did. Louis XIV had hundreds of servants who prepared him dinner. Today, my su- permarket offers me a buffet Louis XIV couldn't imagine. Thanks to trade and property rights and markets, each of us lives as if we had more servants than kings. We also live longer. "President Calvin Coolidge's teen- age son was playing tennis on the White House tennis court," says Boaz. "He got a blister on his foot and the blister got infected, and the health care available to the son of the president of the Unit- ed States was not sufficient to keep him from dying." Few of us notice such steady progress. The media give us bad news. "They tell us about cancer clusters and coups in Myanmar," says Boaz. As a result: "We forget the big picture. It's important to re- member the big picture so that we don't lose it." The big picture also includes progress in fairness and decency. "We've moved from 'some people have privileges that others don't' to 'human rights belong to women and Black peo- ple and gay people,'" Boaz reminds us. "The direction of history has been in the direction of markets, personal free- dom, human rights, democratic gover- nance, and that's what libertarians ad- vocate." John Stossel is author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media." WHO ARE YOU? Continued from page 4 Cecil, why not instead DE- FEND your industry? It's not a heavy life. America was built on coal. We are the king of coal. We have 500 years' worth of this energy resource, in states from West Virginia to Wyo- ming. We have the cleanest coal in the world. It is STILL one of the cheapest and most reliable forms of power pro- duction. We still get about twice as much energy from coal as from wind and solar. And even if we were to move toward "renewables," as the Texas power outages this winter should have taught us, coal is essential as a back- up power source when wind turbines don't turn and solar panels freeze over. Don't for a minute believe that shutting down American coal production will save the planet from warming. Nikkei Asia reports that China has "an addiction to coal," and its use of coal is rapidly rising, not falling. The Chinese are expect- ed to build hundreds of new coal-fired power stations over the next decade. India, Vietnam, Indonesia and oth- er Asian nations with a com- bined population that is at least five times that of the U.S. are also banking on coal as a major source of cheap power for decades to come. For every coal plant the U.S. shuts down, the rest of the world builds at least 10 new ones. Gee, that will stop glob- al warming. There is something wretched about rich, col- lege-educated "humanitari- ans" pontificating about the sacrifices that must be made to stop global warming, but then they come up with plans that make other people — of- ten who make far less mon- ey than they do — suffer all the pain. If climate change meant every college pro- fessor, media personality and million-dollar donor to the Environmental Defense Fund had to lose their live- lihoods, I doubt they would be so supportive of this green economic "transformation." The victims of the new en- ergy policies in Washington are the blue-collar workers whose job losses will con- tinue to stack up. And the worst betrayal of all is that the unions are in on it. can Economy." UNIONS Continued from page 4 tinue to have strong doubts about our ... qualified immu- nity doctrine," he wrote last year. Policing should be a local issue, not a national one. But civil rights is a national is- sue, and qualified immunity should be reformed. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." REFORM Continued from page 4 REASON Continued from page 4 LIBERTY Continued from page 4 sion, grabbed gloves from the cook area. Meanwhile, she and two Pilot employees struggled to bring the unconscious, now not-breathing woman out of the locked stall. Finally, the woman was on the floor, and Whaley, connected by cell on speak- erphone with dispatch, de- scribed the woman's state as she administered CPR, and, seeing a needle in the arm, told dispatch they would need Narcan. A man walked into the bathroom, screamed ex- pletives at the unconscious woman, then grabbed the needle from her arm and left the property completely. The women who worked at Pilot identified the woman as a former employee and said the man was her boyfriend. The Pilot had no AED, but the woman's pulse was com- ing back, and when she start- ed breathing, they rolled her to her side. Local paramedics walked in with Narcan, which they administered. "Welcome back," Whaley said when the woman woke. Whaley gave her report to local officials and then con- tinued home with her son. It was the first time he'd seen her use her training, though she's taught all her children CPR. "I was tired when we pulled in, but I was not tired after. It was the adrenaline." Whaley contacted corpo- rate Pilot, and asked them to install an AED, even of- fering free training for their employees when they have their unit. She said she loves that her career has offered her something new every day, and adds the satisfaction of helping gets in a person's blood, but rarely does she get to know the outcome of helping someone because the first responders normal- ly transport their patients to hospital care. "Once in a blue moon they come by the station and you know," she said. In this case, she feels divine intervention brought her to a specific per- son at a specific time to offer a second chance. "I hope she gets the help she needs," she said.