The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/839845
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, June 21, 2017 C-11 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 Chickens are coming home to roost at government pension plans underfunded by $1 trillion to $ 3.4 trillion, depending on whose cal- culations you believe. Properly funded pension funds are the ex- ception rather than the rule. Un- derfunding isn't the only problem. There are also corruption, opaque financial reporting and reckless in- vestment. Taxpayers are on the hook to bail out government pension ship- wrecks. Tax money and borrowed money intended for capital proj- ects is being diverted to pension gaps. Budget cuts, layoffs and unpaid furloughs in Rahm Emanuel's Chi- cago failed to shake enough mon- ey loose for a pension contribu- tion coming due last year. Public school principals were therefore instructed to freeze school-relat- ed spending in order to pay the pension fund. The highest pension gap, which taxpayers will be obligated to make up, is in Nevada, where public employees are unusual- ly potent in state pol- itics. It's not unusual for them to be elected to the state's part-time legislature without re- signing their govern- ment jobs. There, it's an astonishing 40 per- cent pension gap. Pension largesse is especially appealing to politicians who wish to pander to public employee unions. They find themselves immediate- ly connected to the generosity, but its consequences are invisible until much later. So long as they enact no new taxation to fund it, they are not held accountable for its finan- cial consequences. Some future generation of workers and public officials is left to pay the piper. This impunity is accommodat- ed by a bewildering system of fi- nancial reporting. The need for improved financial transparency at the pension funds couldn't be more urgent. Economist Josh- ua Rauh has estimat- ed the cumulative na- tional pension gap – the amount by which the promises are un- derfunded – at $ 3.4 trillion. That number is disputed by fund administrators, who argue for a smaller shortfall by assum- ing much higher investment re- turns. Unfortunately, this means the pensions are not only under- funded but are invested in riskier financial products. Even "money in the bank" may not be available by the time retirement rolls around. Detroit looted its municipal pen- sion fund with corrupt bonuses. Stockton and San Bernardino de- clared enormous retroactive rais- es that favored older workers at the expense of younger workers. This The billboard reads The Perfect Man. Farial Khatri of the Islamic So- ciety of North America [Plainfield, Indiana] said, "I was a little disap- pointed when I saw that: We do support free speech, but we do re- alize this is also rooted in bigotry." FOX 59 in Indianapolis report- ed, "Other groups say they want to do more than just speak out against the display [billboard]. The Muslim Alliance of Indiana says it's planning to raise money to put up its own billboard nearby to spread a message of peace and kindness." As the old cliché asked, "Where's the Beef? " It is a billboard on the west side of Indianapolis on I-465 south near the Washington [US 40] Street ex- it. It makes no mention of any per- son or religion. But a local inter- faith-group has denounced it as an approach to Islam, and an insult to Mohammed. It reads: The Perfect Man; Mar- ried a 6 year old; Slave owner and dealer; Rapist; Beheaded 600 Jews in one day; 13 wives, 11 at one time; Tortured and killed un- believers. EDUCATE TRUTHO- PHOBES. The cunning of the authors of this sign lies in the fact that Mo- hammed and Islam are not men- tioned. Is it implied? Ask the typi- cal person who knows nothing of Mohammed, and he/ she would be clueless. An article by Rob- ert Spencer in The Counter Jihad Report takes issue with the billboard and refutes the assertions point by point. The problem with refuting an accu- sation is that the apol- ogist must explain why they object to an assertion. In this case, says Spencer, the billboard lacks the content that ex- plains the issue. We who are living in the con- temporary era understand where this is going: Hate Speech, deri- sive speech, and prejudice! Truth is no longer a defense. Truth has little meaning in our world because we have turned it on its head or made it irrelevant. Want proof? Transgendered males to females are entering the female sports world and are set- ting new women's records. How are many biological women tak- ing it? Not very well. There is a reason amateur and professional sports have men and women teams; men hold all the world records for [enter favorite event here]. But to point to this truism is akin to homophobia and hate speech. So women athletes will have to accept the demand of the social justice warriors that men and women are interchangeable. Realizing that truth is not a defense, I will still point out that most countries that embrace Islam per- secute all other reli- gions. According to WORLD WATCH LIST, of the 10 countries where persecutions of Christianity is severest, nine are Muslim majority nations [the num- ber 1 is North Korea]. But Truth is not a defense. Still, Islam as a political/religion must implore its young followers to stop their jihadist behavior. All I can say to our Muslim citi- zens is, "Welcome to the club. How does it feel? Christianity has been maligned since its inception, and in the last 100 years, it has been vilified from within and without. I am not objectionable to placing Jesus on a billboard. How might it read? The Perfect Man: Paternity questionable; No visible means of support; itinerate preacher/teach- Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Rewriting history Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Truth is no defense Unsustainable generosity Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson EPA policies still stoked by Obama holdover Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner "Pay no attention to that man be- hind that curtain! " The Wizard of Oz had a good reason for trying to distract Dorothy when his true identity was revealed in the 1939 classic film. The last thing he want- ed was for her to figure how things really operated. Oz isn't the only place where people are ignorant of who oper- ates quietly in the shadows. The federal government is rife with peo- ple who do their jobs away from the spotlight, wielding a measure of in- fluence that can even outweigh that of their bosses. Take the Environmental Protec- tion Agency (EPA). You may be aware that its current administra- tor is a man appointed by President Trump — Scott Pruitt. But there's a good chance you've never heard of Francesca Grifo, the agency's "sci- entific integrity official." And frankly, that's fine by Ms. Grifo. The less you know about her and many other unelected bureau- crats, the easier their jobs are. Es- pecially because Ms. Grifo's cur- rent job appears to be trying to sub- vert Mr. Pruitt's. Ms. Grifo was hired in 2013. Her position as scientific integri- ty official grew out of President Obama's stated goal to "restore science to its rightful place," as he put it in his 2009 Inaugural ad- dress. Like so many oth- er titles and goals, it all sounds pretty harmless. But as Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel recently pointed out, a political motive was at work. This was, she writes, Mr. Obama's "way of warning Republicans that there'd be no more debate on cli- mate change or other liberal envi- ronmental priorities." Ms. Grifo came to the agen- cy from the far-left Union of Con- cerned Scientists, so you can imag- ine why she was selected. You can also imagine what her job boils down to now that Donald Trump is president: thwarting his agenda as much as possible. Toward that end is a meeting she'll be host- ing soon with numer- ous groups to discuss ways to pursue "scien- tific integrity." The ini- tial guest list read like a who's who of the lib- eral environmental movement: Earthjus- tice, Public Citizen, the Environmental De- fense Fund, the Natural Resourc- es Defense Council, the Center for Progressive Reform, Public Employees for Environmental Re- sponsibility, and yes, the Union of Concerned Scientists. "This is a government employ- ee using taxpayer funds to gather political activists on government grounds to plot — let's not kid ourselves — ways to sabotage the Trump administration," Ms. Stras- sel writes. (Since then, some con- servative groups have been invited George Orwell said, "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." In the former USSR, censorship, re- writing of history and eliminating undesirable people became part of Soviets' effort to ensure that the correct ideological and political spin was put on their history. De- viation from official propaganda was punished by confinement in labor camps and execution. Today there are efforts to re- write history in the U.S., albeit the punishment is not so draconi- an as that in the Soviet Union. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu had a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee monument removed last month. Former Memphis Mayor A C Wharton wanted the statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bed- ford Forrest, as well as the graves of Forrest and his wife, removed from the city park. In Richmond, Virginia, there have been calls for the removal of the Monument Av- enue statues of Confederate Pres- ident Jefferson Davis and Gens. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jack- son and J.E.B. Stuart. It's not on- ly Confederate statues that have come under attack. Just by having the name of a Confederate, such as J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia, brings up calls for a name change. These history rewriters have enjoyed nearly total success in getting the Confeder- ate flag removed from state capitol grounds and other public places. Slavery is an undeniable fact of our history. The costly war fought to end it is also a part of the na- tion's history. Neither will go away through cultural cleansing. Remov- ing statues of Confederates and re- naming buildings are just a small part of the true agenda of America's leftists. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and there's a monument that bears his name - - the Thom- as Jefferson Memorial in Washing- ton, D.C. George Washington also owned slaves, and there's a monu- ment to him, as well - - the Wash- ington Monument in Washington. Will the people who call for remov- al of statues in New Orleans and Richmond also call for the remov- al of the Washington, D.C., monu- ments honoring slaveholders Jef- ferson and Washington? Will the people demanding a change in the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School also demand that the name of the nation's capital be changed? These leftists might demand that the name of my place of work - - George Mason University - - be changed. Even though Mason was the author of the Virginia Decla- ration of Rights, which became a part of our Constitution's Bill of Rights, he owned slaves. Not too far from my university is James Madison University. Will its name be changed? Even though Madi- son is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution," he did own slaves. Rewriting American history is going to be challenging. Just imagine the task of purifying the nation's currency. Slave owner George Washington's picture grac- es the $1 bill. Slave owner Thomas Jefferson's picture is on the $2 bill. Slave-owning Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's picture is on our $50 bill. Benjamin Franklin's picture is on the $100 bill. The challenges of rewriting American history are endless, go- ing beyond relatively trivial chal- lenges such as finding new pic- tures for our currency. At least half of the 56 signers of the Decla- ration of Independence were slave owners. Also consider that rough- ly half of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia were slave owners. Do those facts invalidate the U.S. Constitution, and would the histo- ry rewriters want us to convene a new convention to purge and puri- fy our Constitution? The job of tyrants and busy- bodies is never done. When they accomplish one goal, they move their agenda to something else. If we Americans give them an inch, they'll take a yard. So I say, don't give them an inch in the first place. The hate-America types use every tool at their disposal to achieve their agenda of discrediting and demeaning our history. Our his- tory of slavery is simply a conve- nient tool to further their cause. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason Uni- A walking nightmare It's the final countdown for us and our too-lazy-to-walk toddler. Flannery is climbing on top of furniture taller than she is, and dragging us behind her by the pointer fingers as she runs laps around the house, but as soon as the training wheels come off, she goes limp and drops into a crawl. If we don't figure out how to get this kid to walk within a month, the doctor's threatened physical therapy, so it's time to take the kid gloves off. The bad thing is, I don't really have any ideas. I always just as- sumed Flannery would start walk- ing on her own because she want- ed to copy us or show off or some- thing, but instead she's simply ac- celerated her crawl to speeds we have to jog to keep up with. Her legs are super strong ( just try get- ting kicked by her sometime), and she has physical dexterity and bal- ance to spare (she demonstrates it every time we turn around and find her on top of the bookshelf ) —but she can't, or more probably, won't walk on her own. So we're hitting the drawing board. We've already tried trick- ing her into walking, but she's too smart for that. Someone sug- gested letting her hold onto mark- ers instead of our fingers to walk, then letting go of the markers, but whenever we try it, she gives us a smug look and does a pratfall. And then of course, there's al- ways the Tywin Lannister ap- proach: I could walk with her and let go repeatedly for hours ev- ery day, crying and tantrums be darned, until she gets the picture, but I don't wanna. So there's got to be another way. This kid is going to walk on her own, and she'd better be quick about it, because I'm not paying for physical training for a kid who's more dexterous than me. We just have to figure out how to effective- ly coach someone who can't speak and has no material desires other than Goldfish crackers. Maybe we go Pavlov on her and offer crack- ers for every step. Who knows? If we throw enough pasta at the walk- ing wall, something's got to stick. And soon. If you've got any hot parenting tips, I'd love to hear from you as al- ways at aheuring@sgstartimes.com. The coffee of the week is iced cappuccino, because it's hot out; Music of the week is "Beat La- ments the World" by Nujabes (may he rest in peace); Book of the week is "The Six Sigma Green Belt's Certification Handbook," because that's what I've been reading all week to get ready for my new job; And I hope you all have a great week! This past Sunday was quite mem- orable. It is a celebration of Father- hood, which comes in many forms. Traditionally we refer to God the Father, biological fathers, stepfa- thers, adoptive fathers, father fig- ures, fathers of churches and con- gregations, founding fathers, and other forms which we identify as father. So it is good to be aware and be reminded of this mysterious de- sign of fatherhood. Having just come back from a vacation, I had a chance to attend a church service in Pompano Beach, Fla. The name of the church is St. Angel Gabri- el Church. What was different and touching about the service was the priest, who celebrated his 50th year of pastoring. His name is Fr. Tony Mulderry, an Irish immigrant who Father's Day