The Press-Dispatch
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OPINION Rivera, but recently he said something very practical and potentially life-saving, when he urged black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hood- ies. There is no point in dressing like a hood- It is not often that I agree with Geraldo lum when you are not a hoodlum, even though that has become a fashion for some minority youths, including the teenager who was shot and killed in a confrontation in Florida. I don't know the whole story of that tragedy, any more than those who are making loud noises in the media do, but that is something that we have trials for. People have a right to dress any way they want to, but exercising that right is something that requires common sense, fiscal sanity Restoring the first and most impor- tant virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dan- gers to be feared," Thom- as Jefferson once wrote. "To preserve our indepen- dence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpet- ual debt." Fast forward to 2012, "I place economy among By Ed Feulner and the notion of "perpet- ual debt" is no longer a con- dition to be avoided. It's a reality we must confront— a crisis we must solve. This is especially true because, as Jefferson warned, our very liberty is at stake if we fail to do so. Remember the clash on sound like common sense, but many lawmakers seem content to make meaning- less trims, not serious cuts. They act as if we can allow Social Security and Medi- care spending to continue growing—and growing— on autopilot. They seri- ously think we can slash defense spending, yet con- tinue fielding a world-class military. And they focus on the Capitol Hill last year over raising the debt ceiling? It may have seemed like a huge battle at the time, but it was merely a holding action—a rear-guard ma- neuver to buy a little time. Because which direction has federal spending gone since then? Up, of course, soaring toward new record levels and endangering our economic future. We can't put off the day of reckon- ing forever. Fortunately, some mem- "revenue side" of the led- ger. The problem, they in- sist, is that not enough tax money is coming in. The fact that public debt, at current spending rates, is set to be as big as the U.S. economy itself by 2023 (just 11 years from now) is ignored. No, you and I aren't paying enough, that's the problem—or so we're told. As if past tax hikes haven't proved, time and again, that gov- ernment will quickly con- sume any additional funds, and then some. Indeed, we should be re- Wednesday, April 4, 2012 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell Geraldo's point and common sense is something that par- ents should have, even if their children don't al- ways have it. Many years ago, when I was a student at Harvard, there was a warning to all the stu- dents to avoid a nearby tough Irish neighbor- hood, where Harvard students had been at- tacked. It so happened that there was a black neighborhood on the other side of the Irish neighborhood that I had to pass through when I went to get my hair cut. I never went through that Irish neigh- borhood dressed in the style of most Har- vard students back then. I walked through Continued on page 3 Take me out to the ballgame The no-spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly said. Outside? Are you kidding me? In- side, the two 8-year-old boys have an Xbox, iPads and personal computers at the ready. Outside? So I dragged them down to the ball "Where're the helmets?" "And what about a heart-guard?" the were startled. "Hey, let's go outside and play some baseball," I The urchins on the mound. I was at the plate. He threw; I swung the bat. The ball rock- eted into left field. My first hit ever. I'll never forget it. "OK, I'll hit you guys some ground- ers, and you throw the ball home. Got it?" The boys looked even more con- fused. "What happens if the ball hits me?" field. "I need a helmet," one wailed. other one said. "Mom says I have to get a heart-guard before I can play." "We're just going to practice," I re- plied. "No danger. Let's just throw the ball around and hit a few." The boys looked confused. "But we need helmets!" The year was 1957, and two Cen- the smarter one asked. "Pain," I said. "But that's why you have a glove. You catch the ball in the glove, and that protects you." I hit a slow grounder to the slower boy. He stood like a statue as the ball rolled through his legs. "What was that?" I asked. "It was too low," he replied. "It has to be higher." "You're supposed to bend down and tral Nassau little league teams were on the field. There were no helmets. No heart-guards. Just a dusty field with dirty bases and a coach who sat on a splintered bench drinking beer. I was 7 years old. Billy Weir was catch the ball," I said gently. "That's how you get guys out. You catch the ball and throw it to first." The kid looked bored. The kid was bored. There were no electronic zom- bies to kill. There were no gadgets in sight. "OK, let's do some hitting," I said, at- tempting to refocus the boys. them said. "Mom says wood bats are too dangerous." Luckily, I had the aluminum model. "It's too heavy," the kid wailed. "Choke up, move your hands up the "I only use aluminum bats," one of and they began to hit the ball. On con- tact, the bat made a loud noise, which they liked. Reminded them of the nois- es that feed their gaming addiction. "OK, now we're going to run the bas- es." "Why?" they said in unison. "Because after you hit the ball, you handle of the bat." I threw the urchins some soft tosses, C-2 run from base to base. That's how you score runs." "My mom doesn't want me to get pitcher's mound?" The kids ran to first. But they be- dirty." How about I bury you under the gan to tire after reaching second. They both stopped and just stood there look- ing at me. I looked back. "How long are we going to do this?" the smarter one said. "I need a helmet if we're gonna keep playing." bers of Congress get it, such as Rep. Paul Ryan (R– Wisc.), chairman of House Budget Committee. He re- cently came to speak at The Heritage Foundation about his proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2013. Titled The Path to Prosper- ity: A Blueprint for Ameri- can Renewal, it does some- thing too many budget plans fail to do: face real- ity, and propose some sen- sible solutions. It's not perfect, but there's much to like. Ryan's budget would roll back the spending excesses of the past, tackle entitlement programs, and make de- fense a priority. This may forming taxes. That's why it's good to see that Ry- an's budget would reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate (already the world's high- est) from 35 percent to 25 percent, and reduce the top individual income rate to the same level, while re- forming our complex and unfair tax code. These changes would reverse the flow of jobs to foreign coun- tries, improve incentives for workers and businesses to produce more, and mo- tivate investors and busi- nesses to create new jobs. Both Ryan's budget and Heritage's plan, Saving the American Dream, would take another vital step to- ward bringing the budget under control: repealing Obamacare. As I've shown in past columns, the law is Continued on page 3 Banned; It Is Easy If You Try Right outside Brookville, In- diana, last Christmas Sea- son was a billboard that said: "Imagine No Reli- gion!" I was visiting with my brother who pastors the United Methodist Church in Brookeville, and I asked him what the sign was all about. He replied that in 2010 Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond Imagine the Resurrection is called the "New Atheists" movement which does not hide behind a subterfuge of legalese and smoke and mir- rors; but states openly that their objective is Freedom from Religion! Their billboard cam- This group is part of what the town was threatened with a lawsuit over the na- tivity scene on the court- house square. The county received a letter from the Wisconsin based, "Free- dom from Religion Organi- zation," objecting to this "re- ligious display." The county was threatened with legal action if they didn't com- ply with their inane "sepa- ration of church and state" demand. paign begins with the word: IMAGINE. The word imag- ine is synonymous with words, such as envision, dream, think of, and see in your mind's eye. Innumer- able songs, movies, and books are written about dreams becoming reali- ty. George Bernard Shaw said: "You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" Again where would our world be, or any of us, if it weren't for human imagination? Trayvon and the Good Victim A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen to let a good crisis go to waste, the na- tional press doesn't want to let a good victim go to waste. The death of Trayvon Martin is a ter- Just as Rahm Emmanuel didn't want rible thing, but the usual suspects are hijacking his death to create a morality play. Whenever this hap- pens, and it happens with some frequency in Amer- ican life, truth is corrupt- ed. men are killed every week in America—94 percent of them at the hands of oth- er young black males. On- ly one of those who were murdered on Feb. 26 has dominated national news coverage—because his killer was not black. There is an etiquette to discussing About 153 young black been more exacting in searching for the drops of racial blood? The left has ginned up the outrage machine, as if America were experi- encing an epidemic of white on black killings and this was the last straw. This is fiction. According to the Bu- reau of Justice Statistics, on- ly 3.2 percent of black victims were murdered by whites in 2005, the last year for which da- ta are available. The black on white rate was higher—8.8 per- cent—but still, the data show that murder remains very much an intraracial phenomenon. It isn't at all clear what hap- that Shepard made a pass and his client became violent in response.) The fic- tional version of the tale—that Shepa- rd was singled out, tortured and mur- dered because he was gay—lives on in books, television dramas, and one of the most frequently performed plays in the repertoire, "The Laramie Proj- ect." It was also the partial inspiration for the federal hate crimes act, signed into law by President Obama in 2009. The truth is more complicated. As ethnicity that goes straight out the window if the press decides to create a racial villain. Normally, if a person is of mixed ancestry, as George Zim- merman is, he gets the benefit of the doubt on being a minority. A person with mixed ancestry, such as Cameron Diaz or Bill Richardson, would never be called "half white." But Zimmerman became, in the phrase adopted by The New York Times, a "white Hispanic." Among the disgusting features of this national drama is the furious search for Zimmerman's exact racial/ ethnic pedigree. He's a full Hispan- ic, claims one website. He's half white but considers himself a Hispanic, says his father. Do they hear themselves? Could apartheid South Africa have (apparently corroborated by an eyewit- ness) is not supported by the videotape that shows him unharmed at the po- lice station. The facts remain far from clear. The dead youth, who is now univer- pened on Feb. 26. It certainly appears that Zimmerman used excessive violence. Zimmer- man's story of being in a fight sally imagined as his 13- or 14-year-old self because of the old picture that has circulated, may or may not have been up to something more than buying Skittles that night (not that that would justify the shooting). We don't know. But we do know the way narratives are created and manipulated to make political points. The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a tragedy by any reckoning, was perverted into a "hate crime" by a media keen to create a gay victimization story and by a defense at- torney looking for an argument about why his client "snapped." (He claimed the ABC show "20/20" reported, the two men who killed Shepard were com- ing off a weeklong methamphetamine binge. One was raised by an unmar- ried teenaged alcoholic. The other was the product of divorce and then lost his mother at a young age. Both were heavy drug and alcohol abusers. There is evidence that Shepard himself may have accepted a ride with them because he was into drugs as well. Af- ter leaving Shepard bludgeoned and tied to a fence, the killers intended to rob his apartment but got into anoth- er brawl with two other criminals that night, one of whom suffered a frac- tured skull. It was all ugly—but not quite in the way the we've been told. So it was with the Duke lacrosse case. Before anyone really knew what the facts were, the left, including a large segment of the Duke faculty to their eternal shame, peddled a version about spoiled, racist, white college kids abusing and raping a black danc- er. We now know how that turned out. Where preferred victim narratives are concerned, truth is the first casu- alty of American journalism. captures the word imagine better than John Lennon's song, "Imagine" released in 1971. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" at num- ber 3 in its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time!" Jimmy Carter remarked, "in many coun- tries around the world—my wife and I have vis- ited about 125 countries—you hear John Len- non's song 'Imag- ine' used almost equally with na- tional anthems." Many motivation- al seminars and even some large religious venues use the word, Imagine, as a cen- tral theme. Lennon once commented Perhaps no other song that "Imagine" was an "anti- religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capi- talistic song. In short, it was an anti-everything song. On the surface, Lennon's I hope someday you'll join us, And the world will live as one. Sounds utopian doesn't it; almost Christ sounding? Unfortunately, this song is built on a faulty foundation. The opening line frames the writer's state of mind or "imag- ine:" Imagine there's no heav- en, It's easy if you try. No hell below us, Above us only sky. To deny the existence of heav- en is to deny the existence of the Divine God and a denial of oneself: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and fe- male created He them (Gen- esis 1:27). Did you catch the word "Imagine" seems innocuous and commendable: Imagine all the people, Living for to- day . . . Imagine there's no countries . . . Nothing to kill or die for . . . Imagine all the people, Living life in peace . . . Imagine no possessions . . . No need for greed or hun- ger . . . A brotherhood of man . . . Imagine all the peo- ple Sharing all the world . . . You may say I'm a dream- er, But I'm not the only one, MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS ANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER The Press- Dispatch Wednesday, April 4, 2012 Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for trans- mission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box 68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—news@pressdispatch.net (604-340) Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 Pike and Surrounding Cos. ......$ 10.00 $15.00 $25.00 $45.00 Elsewhere in Indiana ................ 14.00 Outside Indiana ............................18.00 19.00 28.00 27.00 43.00 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 3 mos. 6 mos. 1 year 2 years 49.00 75.00 Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses "Image"? In His Imagina- tion, God saw a Man and a Woman and brought those out of his imagination and created them in his im- age! God endowed his cre- ation with an imagination. We know the story; it didn't take long for man's imagina- tion to get the best of him because he forgot he was an image of God—and not God! What were the conse- quences of an imagination gone wild: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was Continued on page 3