The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/844824
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, July 5, 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 In the waning days of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, giddy for- eign journalists asked a Soviet offi- cial whether his country was head- ed for Western-style democracy. He replied that the Soviets didn't want to exchange the dictatorship of the proletariat for a dictatorship of the lawyers. At the time, I thought it was an insolent retort from a grumpy Communist who resented the question. Since then, I've come to see its wisdom. My country, founded by freedom-loving men and women, sometimes resem- bles a dictatorship of, by and for the lawyers. I'm not a lawyer-hater. I believe in the rule of law, just not in the rule of lawyers. Thank God we have conscientious lawyers to represent us and advise us. I'm not against voting some of them into office as legislators. They've made wretched presidents in my lifetime, but my top choice in the recent presidential primaries was a well-known lawyer. My main problem with lawyers comes after they are appointed to be feder- al judges. I don't envy them. It's obviously a difficult job. We need to insulate them from reprisals and improper pressure, but we don't want to create mon- archs. That's kind of a touchy subject for real Americans. Start with the idea of lifetime tenure. Who else but federal judg- es have lifetime tenure without gerrymandering? Just royalty and nobility, which the Constitution supposedly outlaws in America. Maybe I'm expecting too much of judges who are, after all, just hu- man. But when we give them such extraordinary and dangerous pow- ers over us, I guess we hope for an incorruptible priesthood of steely in- tegrity and buddha-like indifference to material or political ambition. Alas, we got off on the wrong foot in 1803 with Marbury v. Mad- ison, a bit of Supreme Court jiu-jitsu that es- tablished "it is em- phatically the prov- ince and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." Ever since then, federal judges have reserved the right to overturn legislation that they deem incon- sistent with the Constitution. This might have been a happy turn of events had the judges confined themselves to the letter of the Con- stitution, or to the original intent of its framers. But federal judges have treated the Constitution as a sort of wild card. The late Justice William Douglas spoke of its "penumbra and emanations," creating a ju- risprudence that is hard to distin- guish from hallucination. "You snakes! You brood of vi- pers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? " What was the precursor to this verbal outrage of Jesus found in Matthew's gospel? Jesus is con- demning the teachers of the Law of Moses who were corrupting its meaning and violating its spirit for their own gain, to suit their own needs and interpretation. In addi- tion, this passage contains what scholars refer to as the Seven Woes [not to be confused with those in Revelation] that condemn the reli- gious rulers of Judea. Perverting history for dubious motives is done consistently by court historians and the media who through omission and/or fab- rication bend the historical record to suit a political agenda [read the book The Real Lincoln as an exam- ple]. The snowflakes, Social Justice Warrior [SJW] and multicultural- ists among us have declared a third Civil War upon the South and give no quarter to those who object to the removal of all things Confed- erate. Social Justice Warriors are akin to the previous scripture quoted. Their sin? If I am allowed a mea- sure of artistic license, I can answer the question. These misguided and immature SJW embrace a superior morality that compels them to pro- claim, "If we had lived in the days of the Sectional Crisis, we would not have tak- en part with the evil South and slavery." Nonsense! Peo- ple are byproducts of their cultural era and to claim otherwise is disingenuous. Historically, a siz- able minority of Union- ists were copperheads even though they disliked slavery. Furthermore, most Northerners who objected to slavery were not abolitionists; they just wanted the slaves and the problem to go away [at least keep the former slaves in the South], and 90 percent of south- ern farms were yeoman [did not have slaves]. Expunged from the pages of history is that those living below the Mason-Dixon Line viewed the country as a voluntary union of states [read Thomas Jefferson's States Rights and the Constitu- tion]; whereas, many in the north viewed the union as one nation. So these facts do not mesh with the politically and multicultural SJW—but so what! History is what "we" define it to be, so all Confeder- ate history goes down the memory hole and gets rewritten. We are witnessing a new crusade in America which condemns the na- tional memory of men, of women, of past eras, and heap upon them [and any defenders] eternal guilt. Is it not odd that be- fore the recent push of the SJW, the nation and its history had been reconciled to the events of the Civil War, including its memori- als and symbols? But now Confed- erate flags, monuments, and name- places have become the 'new her- esy.' No Confederate memorial was erected to honor slavery or to re- mind those who come later that the cause of slavery was valiant. Where are we going from here? The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have cataloged a list of around 1,500 Confederate Memo- rabilia which the SJW can lay siege to what they consider are 'symbols of slavery.' The Confederate "Battle" Flag was the first casualty. The flag was/is not a symbol of hatred; it has become an object of hatred. The Confederate flag doesn't be- long to those who view it as an ob- Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 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. Were Confederate Generals traitors? Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Bending history for political gain Dictatorship of the lawyers? Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson 'Drain the swamp' delays costing billions Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner "Drain the swamp! " It was the battle cry of Donald Trump's pres- idential campaign. Many Republican members of Congress echoed that call as well, riding it to victory — and control of both legislative chambers. The American people rallied around the cry because it rein- forced their impression of what Washington had become: a swamp infested with special-in- terest groups and power-hungry bureaucrats. They rallied, too, because it held the promise of getting our country back on track — by reforming the tax code, repealing Obamacare, cutting spending, and eliminating the needless red tape that stifles entrepreneurship and innovation. But more than five months in- to the new Congress and the new administration, precious little draining has occurred. The de- lay in action is not only frustrat- ing, it's expensive: With the prom- ised reforms, the U.S. could have created as much as $5 billion per day in economic output. If noth- ing changes, the swamp will end up costing more than 2 million prospective jobs over the next de- cade. Elites argue that piles of regulations and special rules keep everyone safe. But most Americans understand that these policies serve mainly to enrich special in- terests and keep upstart entre- preneurs from gaining a foothold. All the regulation keeps new businesses from offering innova- tive goods and services at lower prices. All too often, these regulatory schemes not only fail to protect consumers — they create huge problems, like financial crises and housing busts. And then the elites point to the problems as proof of the need for even further govern- mental intervention. The bailouts lead to new pro- grams and federal agencies and, of course, even more rules. But most Ameri- cans don't want more government. Rather, they want relief from big government so that they can make their own decisions and improve their own communities. There is plenty of evidence that people thrive more under lim- ited government than under a vast- ly more intrusive government. Had the U.S. economy simply stayed on the same trend during the Obama years that it had fol- lowed over the previous 25 years, gross domestic product (GDP) per person would be nearly 10 percent higher than it is now. Instead, after years of ever-ex- panding government control and regulation, the economy dropped off a cliff in 2008. Just getting back on the previ- My "Rewriting American His- tory" column of a fortnight ago, about the dismantling of Con- federate monuments, generated considerable mail. Some argued there should not be statues hon- oring traitors such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jef- ferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victors of wars get to write the history, and the history they write often does not reflect the facts. Let's look at some of the facts and ask: Did the South have a right to secede from the Union? If it did, we can't label Confederate generals as traitors. Article 1 of the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the war be- tween the Colonies and Great Brit- ain, held "New Hampshire, Mas- sachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connect- icut, New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Car- olina and Georgia, to be free sov- ereign and Independent States." Representatives of these states came together in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a constitution and form a union. During the ratification debates, Virginia's delegates said, "The powers granted under the Consti- tution being derived from the peo- ple of the United States may be re- sumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression." The ratifi- cation documents of New York and Rhode Island expressed simi- lar sentiments. At the Constitutional Conven- tion, a proposal was made to al- low the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison, the "Father of the Con- stitution," rejected it. The minutes from the debate paraphrased his opinion: "A union of the states con- taining such an ingredient (would) provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punish- ment and would probably be con- sidered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous com- pacts by which it might be bound." America's first secessionist movement started in New Eng- land after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Many were infuriated by what they saw as an unconsti- tutional act by President Thom- as Jefferson. The movement was led by Timothy Pickering of Mas- sachusetts, George Washington's secretary of war and secretary of state. He later became a congress- man and senator. "The principles of our Revolution point to the reme- dy – a separation," Pickering wrote to George Cabot in 1803, for "the people of the East cannot reconcile their habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West." His Senate colleague James Hill- house of Connecticut agreed, say- ing, "The Eastern states must and will dissolve the union and form a separate government." This call for secession was shared by oth- er prominent Americans, such as John Quincy Adams, Elbridge Ger- ry, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy III and Joseph Story. The call failed to garner support at the 1814-15 Hart- ford Convention. The U.S. Constitution would have never been ratified – and a union never created – if the people of those 13 "free sovereign and In- dependent States" did not believe that they had the right to secede. Even on the eve of the War of 1861, unionist politicians saw secession as a right that states had. Rep. Ja- cob M. Kunkel of Maryland said, "Any attempt to preserve the union between the states of this Confed- eracy by force would be impracti- cal and destructive of republican liberty." The Northern Democrat- ic and Republican parties favored allowing the South to secede in peace. Northern newspapers editorial- ized in favor of the South's right to secede. New-York Tribune (Feb. 5, 1860): "If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Mil- lions of Southrons from the Fed- eral Union in 1861." The Detroit The ancient game, Part I Yes, I'm talking about bridge. Growing up, I played many a game of bridge with my grandma, and she tried her best to teach me the ins and outs of this genteel game of cards. I never quite caught on, but I remember those Sunday af- ternoons spent around the din- ing room table fondly. My grand- ma is past the age of enjoying card games now, and it's nigh impossi- ble to find four people in one place who know how to play bridge, let alone have the time. So I'm going to change that today by teaching you, dear reader, how to play. First of all, you'll need three other willing victims, at least one deck of 52 standard playing cards (no jokers!), and some means of written record. This could be your smartphone, a pen and ste- no pad, or a smooth stone tablet and the fresh blood of an unblem- ished bullock. Whatever is handy will suit. A table that can seat four and four chairs, I suppose, would also help, but are not strictly nec- essary. Finally, the most impor- tant things you'll need are a bowl of bridge mix candy and four tum- blers of pleasing beverages. Don't forget to extend your pinky when sipping. Once all the ingredients are as- sembled, choose someone to keep score and shuffle the deck. If you have a spare deck, you can save a little time by shuffling both at the start and then alternating decks between each round. This prac- tice also adds to the sense of for- mality and etiquette that is an inte- gral part of the bridge experience, and more importantly, it's grand- ma-approved. Once the cards are shuffled, the shuffler passes the deck to his or her left? Maybe right. Just not straight across. Whoever ends up receiving the shuffled deck deals out all 52 cards evenly among the players. There will be some time allotted here for sorting out the 13 cards you'll have in hand and counting your hand's score—more on that in part two. Oh, and this is important—the player directly across the table from you is your teammate. Hope you read that before sitting across from some- one you despise—it's too late to change seats now! Once everyone has their hands well in hand, bidding begins with These summer days continue to be hot, and it seems like we have had some adequate rain. Trees and grass and flowers seem to be do- ing well. Crops are starting to grow well in the fields that I see during my travels. Whenever I start complaining about heat and humidity, I start thinking those days when I have to put on layers of clothes, wear a hat, wear gloves, and put on non- skid shoes. It is indeed hard to find a happy medium. On the other hand, summers bring good memories of travels, vacations, cookouts, swimming, cool drinks, sunburn and mosqui- to bites. So , it seems that overall we have a good balance of the hot and the cold-summer and winter. Now I also understand why a lot of my friends who have lived here in the Midwest all their lives vote for spring and fall as the best of the four seasons. Well, we can't have everything. • • • One of the things I truly enjoy is celebrating the Fourth of July. I am constantly reminded of the free- Summertime memories