The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1489075
The Press-Dispatch D-5 Wednesday, December 28, 2022 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 Some thoughts about our country as Christmas and the new year ap- proach. In his Farewell Ad- dress to the nation in 1796, America's de- parting first president, George Washington, observed: "It is substan- tially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring to popular gov- ernment." And what is the basis upon which we define morality? Washington answers, "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." Per our first president, for a de- mocracy to function properly, it must be guided by moral principles. And the guidelines and rules by which we define what is moral are framed by principles of the Bible. This is not exactly what we have going on today. Rather than our democracy follow- ing prior moral principles, our moral principles now are defined by our de- mocracy. What we deem to be mor- al - - good and evil, right and wrong - - now arrives to us not from heaven but from Hollywood. Consider how, over the last 20 years, our idea of what is morally acceptable has changed. Twenty-two years ago, in 2001, per Gallup polling, the following percent- ages of Americans viewed these ac- tivities as "morally acceptable": gay/ lesbian relations: 40 %; birth to un- wed mother: 45%; polygamy: 7%; sui- cide: 13%; pornography: 30 % . In the latest survey in 2022, follow- ing are the percentages calling these same activities "morally acceptable": gay/lesbian relations: 71%; birth to unwed mother: 70 %; polygamy: 23%; suicide: 22 %; pornography: 41% . What exactly happened over 22 years that, on average, the percent- age saying each morally sensitive area is morally acceptable has more than doubled? One thing that has happened is that the percentage of Americans that think the Bible is relevant to their life has dramatically dropped. Per Gallup, the percentage saying that religion is "very important" in their life has dropped from 70 % in 1965 to 49 % in 2021. The percentage saying they at- tended church in the last seven days has dropped from 49 % in 1960 to 29 % in 2021. Certainly contributing to this is a long series of court decisions in which interpretations of the First Amend- ment have been more about purging religion from our public spaces than about protecting religious liberty. The 1962 decision banning prayer in pub- lic schools was just the opening salvo produc- ing our reality today in which traditional values and morality are gone from the instruction our children re- ceive in public schools. Those values have been replaced by the secular humanism of the far left. It is very popular to think about public policy in terms of the social agenda and the economic agenda, as if these are two separate worlds. But they're not. As religion declines, gov- ernment grows. Perhaps George Washington's point that a moral and virtuous cul- ture enables popular government can be best understood in that a free society cannot function when indi- viduals cannot govern themselves through personal responsibility. Tens of trillions have been spent on anti-poverty programs with prac- tically zero impact. Substantial re- search shows that what really com- bats recurring poverty is the so- called "success sequence." Those who finish high school, do not have children before marriage and work overwhelmingly move out of poverty. Government and politics have be- come our new religion, despite their dismal track record of success in im- proving the human condition. The Penn Wharton Budget model, an economic research group at the University of Pennsylvania Whar- ton School of Business, projects now that by 2050, our national debt will be 225% of our GDP. A national culture increasingly rooted in falsehoods is spending it- self into oblivion and bankruptcy. How about we Americans who still pray direct our prayers that in the upcoming year we see a revival of truth in our nation? Let's pray that all our citizens see that the only path to freedom is each embracing eter- nal truths that enable all of us to suc- cessfully govern our own lives. Star Parker is president of the Cen- ter for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." Heritage Viewpoint By Simon Hankinson Race for the Cure By Star Parker The six biggest lies from Mayorkas and DHS about Team Biden's Post-Title 42 plans How do we get our nation back on track? A "tissue of lies" is defined by The Free Dictionary as "a number of false statements made to deliberately hide the truth." Under this definition should be a copy of the Department of Homeland Security's Update on Southwest Bor- der Security and Preparedness Ahead of Court-Ordered Lifting of Title 42. In it, the Biden-Harris adminis- tration absolves itself of any respon- sibility for the unmitigated disaster on the U.S. southern border, instead blaming global conditions and Con- gress. But the truth is President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Har- ris, and Secretary of Homeland Se- curity Alejandro Mayorkas own both the current chaos as well as what happens after Dec. 21, when they can no longer use Title 42 to expel foreign illegal immigrants. Here are the biggest lies of the "Update": 1. It's Congress' fault. Biden is asking lawmakers for an emergency $ 3.5 billion for DHS to deal with the border. Senate Home- land Security Appropriations Com- mittee Chair Chris Murphy, D- Conn., disingenuously claims that "There's still a whole bunch of Re- publicans that are rooting for cha- os on the border… " and that he just wants to "make sure we have enough money to let the border guards do their job." In fact, Border Patrol agents are not doing their job because Mayor- kas has them acting as clerks to pro- cess and parole thousands of illegal immigrants a week. If anyone wants chaos, it's the Biden administration, which is using it to extort money and radical concessions from Congress. The memo says that "absent Con- gressional action to enact compre- hensive immigration reform" (in which they include amnesty) and "create a fair, fast, and functioning asylum system," there will be over- crowding in facilities and mass re- lease of illegal aliens "from DHS cus- tody into communities without NGO [nongovernmental organization] or other sponsor support." That's a shakedown. The addition- al billions Biden wants would go to Mayorkas' migration machine to pro- cess and parole millions of alien ar- rivals, not to keeping them out of the country or stopping the flow of kill- er drugs. 2. It was broken when we found it. In the DHS "Update," the Biden administration claims that it inher- ited a "broken and dismantled im- migration system." This is a patent falsehood. Under President Donald Trump, illegal immigrant crossings were down significantly. In 2019, Trump's worst year, there were only a third as many border encounters as there were in fiscal year 2022. 3. "DHS has been executing a comprehensive strategy… to secure our borders and build a safe, orderly, and hu- mane immigration pro- cess." Wrong. Though you'd hardly know it from most of the national media, the flow of illegal immigrants, drugs, known criminals, and terrorist suspects is at historic levels. In fiscal year 2021, there were more than 1.7 million illegal alien en- counters. In fiscal year 2022 it was 2.4 million, and so far in fiscal year 2023 there have been more than 500,000. This does not include encounters at the legal ports of entry, or more than a million "gotaways" who slipped into the U.S. uninspected. The rush of humanity at the bor- der has diverted DHS from its duty to interdict illegal aliens and smug- gled contraband. Even The New York Times and The Washington Post are reporting on how fentanyl deaths are affecting communities all over the country. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, all that fentanyl is coming through Mexico. Furthermore, Biden's immigra- tion process is not "safe," because at least 557 migrants died crossing the border illegally in 2021, and more than 800 died in fiscal year 2022. It is not "orderly," as one can see in dai- ly media footage of thousands of for- eigners crossing the border illegally on foot. It is not "humane" for Amer- ican citizens near the border, whose farms and towns are filled with a ro- tating flow of indigents, nor for the illegal migrants, who subject them- selves to robbery, rape, and murder to breach our borders. 4. It's not our fault. The DHS "Update" claims "the in- crease in migration… is consistent with larger global trends." Sure, "economic and political instability" in places like Venezuela and Nica- ragua makes people want to leave, but the reason they actually do so is the welcome mat extended by the Biden administration through letting everyone in and abusing the parole power to let them stay. In 2022, migration to the U.S. is caused by poor governance, econom- ic mismanagement, and burgeoning populations of the unemployed. How- ever, instead of acknowledging that reality, the Biden DHS treats mil- lions of economic migrants like they were the few thousand fleeing com- munism in 1952. Biden's regime assumes that ev- ery person seeking admission to the U.S. is a probable asylum-seeker, de- spite the fact that 90 % do not have a "well-founded fear of persecution," as the Immigration and Nationality Act puts it. 5. There's nothing we can do about it. Wrong. The administration has existing powers un- der U.S. immigration law as well as proven programs like the Mi- grant Protection Pro- tocols with Mexico and Asylum Coopera- tive Agreements with Central American countries that could have kept most po- tential asylum claim- ants outside the U.S. while they were given due process. Instead, DHS moves them as quickly as possible into the hands of friendly activist NGOs and into the country. It took Border Patrol agents off the border to rubber-stamp parole papers. It built a Southwest Border Coordination Center and more than 10 tent camps to increase U.S. Cus- toms and Border Protection's capac- ity to house migrants, then it "dou- bled… capacity to transport non-cit- izens" with "hundreds of flights and bus routes per week" to get them inside the U.S. and "on to the next stage of their immigration process with due haste," per the "Update." DHS has given more than $225 million to NGOs in Federal Emer- gency Management Agency grants to house illegal aliens, buy them plane and bus tickets wherever they want to go, and provide other assis- tance. Those aliens released are al- most never removed. DHS is ask- ing for billions more to do the same thing. 6. The "Update" claims that DHS intends "clear consequenc- es" for those who enter illegally, and those "unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the Unit- ed States" will be "promptly re- moved." This is the biggest lie of them all. DHS claims that in fiscal year 2022 "more than 1.4 million nonciti- zens were removed under Title 8 or expelled under Title 42, more than any previous year," but there were more than 2.7 million encounters at the border, a historical record. Even allowing that some were re - peat encounters, DHS itself admits that well over a million illegal aliens were released into the U.S. in fiscal year 2022. In fiscal year 2022, a mere 69,019 aliens were deported. Biden's migration policy is to al- low millions of people to enter the U.S. and claim asylum, despite a low probability that they will quali- fy, and then refuse to deport those who fail in the process. This gives millions of people de facto perma- nent U.S. residency, a usurpation of congressional power and an injus- tice to both legal immigrants wait- ing in line and American taxpayers at home who pick up the costs. Con- gress shouldn't fund it. Want to share your news with others? The Press- Dispatch can help deliver it to Pike and the surrounding counties. NEWS! 812-354-8500 Life Milestones made free CALL: 812-354-8500 Put a free photo with write up on Weddings, Anniversaries & Engagements.