The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 31, 2017 D-1 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 New Orleans is in an uproar about the removal of four Confed- erate monuments, including stat- ues of Jefferson Davis and Rob- ert E. Lee, from city-owned sites. Confederate sympathizers have denounced the removals as an at- tempt to expunge Southern histo- ry from the public square. The New Orleans controversy about the statues bears some re- semblance to the Confederate flag issue at the South Carolina state capitol, where the Republican gov- ernor ordered that flag stricken two years ago. Confederate flag defenders say that the "stars and bars" don't represent slavery, but Southern heritage. The significance of a flag or heroic statuary is in the eyes of the beholder, I suppose. And it may very well be that some white Southern soccer moms see the Confederate flag or General Lee's equestrian statue as symbols of the heyday of cotton prosperity and the light-hearted social whirl portrayed in the nostalgic novel Gone with the Wind. But it's asking too much of A frican-Amer- ican descendants of slaves to share that fantasy. Southern slav- ery was not merely an unfair labor arrange- ment. It was the right to annihilate families on a whim, to rip moth- er from child in perpe- tuity, to rape and im- pregnate teenagers with impuni- ty. It was the right to prohibit mar- riage, and to castrate and mutilate. And the Confederacy fought the Civil War for, among other more defensible causes, the preserva- tion of that vile institution. I've visited the Jefferson Davis State Historical Site in Kentucky twice. Davis was an impressive man, an innovator and a hero of the Mexican War. But he was also an oppressor, a large-scale slavehold- er and eventually a traitor to the re- public of his birth. I wouldn't want his statue in my town or neigh- borhood, and I don't think A frican-Amer- icans should have to tolerate it in theirs. Sixteen months after Robert E. Lee crushed John Brown's attempted insurrec- tion and put him on trial for treason, Lee was himself a traitor to the country his fa- ther helped establish. Over the course of the Civil War, Lee's armies inflicted around 240,000 casualties on his former comrades. Lee's own Virginia armies suffered about 209,000 casualties. Reverence for Lee ap- proaches cultish dimensions in certain corners of the South. His character is described as unassail- able. But A frican-Americans are en- titled to dispute that. What he Just a few days ago Memori- al Day signaled our annual tran- sition into summer. Much merri- ment accompanies the holiday, and how we celebrate it is far removed from that of our grandparents gen- eration. From the Brazil Daily Times dated 28 May, 1910 the following activities were planned for Deco- ration Day: A parade through the downtown of the city to the ceme- tery, the Brazil Concert Band will provide appropriate music for the solemn ceremony. The G.A.R. [Grand Army of the Republic] will have a ceremony, as will the Wom- en's Relief Corps. The playing of taps and rifle fire will mark the end of the tribute at the cemetery. At evening time the Concert Band will be playing in solemn concert in the downtown area. Fast forward time to 1960 and canvassing through The Brazil Daily Times on Memorial Day no pageantry of remembrance was noted, except that a small parade is planned by the VFW. Little has changed since the 1960s and few communities in America pause to remember the fallen, except maybe the local VFW and American Legion may hold had a brief ceremony some- where, but few attend- ed. War is a terrible waste of our most pre- cious resource, the youth of the nation. Those who died had their future robbed from them. There is no way to calculate what our nation was deprived of in innova- tions, art, literature, music, and science. A Day of Remembrance, a Me- morial Day comes after the guns fall silent. That is what we need to remem- ber. A scriptural passage oft used for soldiers is taken from Paul's writ- ing to the Romans: "Very rare- ly will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die." That is what war is about. To die for another man so he might live. That is what we need to remem- ber. Let us not forget the power of Christ to reshape men who have been scarred by war. It was late 1941 and America entered its bloodiest foreign war in history. Millions of men were locked in combat to the death. From war countless stories of bravery and heroic deaths flooded the newspapers. Nevertheless, the power of Christ is there even in war to heal the bro- ken. In the annals of World War Two the name Mitsuo Fuchida is quick- ly recognized. He was a naval avia- tor who led the attack upon Pearl Harbor. He would survive, where- as 15,821 would perish. Fuchida's post-war story begins with a reunion of a friend Kazuo Kanegasaki, who had been shot down at the Battle of Midway and interned in a POW camp in Amer- ica. He told of the humane treat- ment he received in the camp. There a young nurse Peggy Cov- ell, cared for them with "the deep- est love and respect," in spite of the Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Jill Heuring How to live in peace Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Life and the power of Christ – Part I Removing reminders of the Confederacy Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Debt will kill the economy Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner We're used to hearing politi- cians vow to cut spending. We're also used to them not following through. So it's hard to blame voters for feeling cynical. Year after year, their elected representatives kick the can down the road. They pass continuing resolutions — Wash- ington-speak for "business as usual." Then the next campaign starts, and so do the promises. Meanwhile, the sky doesn't fall. Should they even worry? In a word, yes. As the annual budget battle in Washington gets underway, it's time to remind our- selves (and the politicians) about the price of inaction. President Trump inherited a na- tional debt of nearly $20 trillion. Put another way, that's how much more the federal government has spent than it's taken in. It's easy to glaze over that num- ber, but remember that 1 trillion is 12 zeroes. For perspective, consid- er this: If you had a stack of $1,000 bills that added up to $1 million, it would be four inches high. $1 bil- lion would be 333 feet high. $1 tril- lion would be about 63 miles high. Now mul- tiply that by 20, and you have our nation- al debt. It's an enor- mous sum. Still, you may say, things keep hum- ming along. You've been hearing gloom- and-doom predictions for years, and perhaps you've come to ignore them. But you shouldn't. Running constant deficits is a mistake not because things will suddenly turn horrible overnight, but because they gradually get worse. So we keep looking the oth- er way — until we're hip-deep in crisis mode. And make no mistake, that's where we're headed if Congress and the president can't finally crack down and get spending un- der control. That means not only making serious cuts — it means re- forming Social Security and feder- al health programs, which are the real drivers of our bal- looning deficits. Indeed, warns fed- eral budget expert Romina Boccia, with- out such reforms, nearly 85 cents of ev- ery additional dollar in spending over the next 10 years will be consumed by Medi- care, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the debt. Our current spending path isn't merely unwise. It's unsustain- able. We haven't hit the wall yet, but we're advancing toward it quite rapidly. For now, we're suffering relative- ly small effects. Fewer jobs. Less economic growth. That's bad, mind you, but it's nothing com- pared to the high inflation and eco- nomic contraction we're now head- ed for if we don't change course. Ms. Boccia calls it a "silent cri- Millions of people love Apple computers and wouldn't be caught using a PC. By contrast, there are many millions of PC users who feel the same way about Apple comput- ers. Many men like double-breast- ed suits, but I wouldn't be caught dead in one. Some people swear by Cadillac cars, but my favorite is Mercedes-Benz. Despite these strongly held pref- erences, there's no conflict. We never see Apple computer lovers picketing firms that serve PC lov- ers. Mercedes-Benz lovers don't battle Cadillac lovers. In free mar- kets, people with strong differenc- es in preferences get along and of- ten are good friends. The reason is simple. If you like double-breast- ed suits and I like single-breasted suits, we get what we want. Contrast the harmony that emerges when there's market al- location with the discord when there's government allocation. For example, some parents want their children to say a morning prayer in school. Other parents are offended by that idea. Both parents have a right to their tastes, but these pa- rental differences have given rise to conflict. Why is there conflict? The an- swer is simple. Schools are run by government. Thus, there are going to be either prayers in school or no prayers in school. That means parents who want their children to say prayers in school will have to enter into conflict with parents who do not want prayers in school. The stakes are high. If one parent wins, it comes at the expense of an- other parent. The losing parents have their preferences ignored. Or they must send their children to a private school that has morn- ing prayers and pay that school's tuition plus property taxes to sup- port a public school for which they have little use. The liberty-oriented solution to the school prayer issue is simple. We should acknowledge the fact that though there is public financ- ing of primary and secondary ed- ucation, it doesn't follow that there should be public production of ed- ucation. Just as there is public fi- nancing of M1 Abrams main bat- tle tanks and F/A-18 fighter jets, it in no way follows that there should be government production of those weapons. They are produced pri- vately. There's no government tank and fighter jet factory. The same principle should apply to education. If state and local au- thorities annually spend $15,000 per student, they could simply give each parent a voucher of that amount that could only be used for education. That way, the par- ent would be free to choose. If you wanted to send your children to a school that does not have morning prayers, you would be free to do so. And I could send my children to a school that does. As a result, you and I would not have to fight. We could be friends, play tennis and have a beer or two together. Free market allocation is con- flict-reducing, whereas govern- ment allocation enhances the po- tential for conflict. But I'm all too afraid that most Americans want to be able to impose their pref- erences on others. Their vision doesn't differ from one that says, "I don't want my children to say morning prayers, and I'm going to force you to live by my preferenc- es." The issue of prayers in school is just a minor example of people's taste for tyranny. Think of the conflict that would arise if the government decreed that factories will produce either double-breasted or single-breast- ed suits or that there will be ei- ther Cadillacs or Mercedes-Benz- es built or that there will be either Apple computers or PCs built. Can you imagine how otherwise-peace- able people would be forced into conflict with one another? Gov- ernment allocation is mostly a ze- ro-sum game, in which one per- son's win necessarily means an- other person's loss. The great ig- nored and overlooked feature of market allocation is that it is what game theorists call a positive-sum game. In positive-sum games, you get what you want, say an Apple computer, and I get what I want – a PC, in this case. My win does not come at your expense, and your win doesn't come at my expense. And just as importantly, we can be friends. Mom brain PUZZLED ABOUT WHAT TO READ? ..and you will have your solution. subscribe to 812-354-8500 I love being a mom. Flannery lights up my life like it's nev- er been lit up before. I wish she liked just sitting in my lap more because I could snuggle her all day. But something about becom- ing a mom has really messed with my head. I like to call it "mom brain," which I think is a term I picked up somewhere on the internet, but I don't remember for sure because I have mom brain. In case you haven't heard of it, "mom brain" is the selective mem- ory loss many moms experience, and it is real. I think it manifests in different ways, but for me, I tend to forget things not related to Flannery. Take today for example. As I was getting ready for work this morning, I remembered every- thing related to Flannery – get- ting her breakfast, changing her diaper, dropping her off with her mamaw, all of it. But I forgot to brush my teeth (luckily I had gum), I forgot to bring my camera to the office and I forgot that I had to write this column. Mom brain. Yesterday, we had people over for games. I remembered to do the dishes, tidy the house, get Flan- nery ready for her games (she had a friend coming, too), and even get the house smelling nice. I for- got to buy snacks and drinks, and had to go to the store during the party. Mom brain. I will say there are some perks to mom brain, besides being able to blame my forgetfulness on mom brain. I like to call them mom powers, the superpowers that come with being a mom. I can tell you where anything that isn't mine is. Flannery's cup? On the floor with her toys. Alden's glasses? Broken and on his night- stand. Alden's wallet? Probably in my purse, where he put it during church yesterday...which is a prob- lem because he's not with me now. Oops. Mom brain. Just don't ask me where any- thing that's mine is. If I lost it, it's really lost, because Alden's dad powers do not come with the abil- ity to find lost things. I can also sense when Flan- nery is getting into something she shouldn't be messing with. It's usually the DVD shelf or one of the bookshelves. I can tell right before the first DVD hits the floor, even if I'm on the other side of the house, that she's about to throw something down. The problem is that it doesn't give me enough time to stop her. Mom brain. Perhaps my favorite mom pow- er is my natural way with any child, not just my own. I had some of this already, just by being the oldest child in my family, but the power has fully manifested itself now. I love that I can calm Flan- nery just by holding her, but not just Flannery. I think children can sense who's a mom, because I can get pretty much any child to smile anywhere with just a kind look or a bright smile of my own. I love it. So, being a mom comes with its strengths and weaknesses. But, as they say, with great pow- er comes great responsibility. And boy, oh boy, a child is a great re- sponsibility.