The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, September 13, 2017 D-7 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 President Trump did not dash the hopes of the dreamers when he announced an end to the DA- CA program. He put Congress on notice to tackle the issue and find a solution. That is the prerogative of the legislative branch. On the other hand, there are ma- ny who see this action as a betray- al and hope is loss. We have a dilemma; is the glass half empty or half full? DACA is not a lost cause. Columnist Gary North in a re- cent post identified a number of lost causes that remain with us in spite of the fact that the world com- munity has moved on. An exam- ple: Communism as an economic system has failed and has been dis- carded by all except North Korea. Communism as a governmental system is also a lost cause. It, too, has failed, but there are a diehards who cannot realize and accept the fact that socialism and commu- nism are cut from the same cloth. Several economists writing in the 1920s emphatically took the position that Communism would not succeed. It didn't. It took 75 years for the Soviet Union to col- lapse; Fidel is gone, and Raul is soon to depart Cuba; China will go likewise. So will North Korea. Socialism as an economic struc- ture is also disintegrating. Greece is collapsing under its social give- away debt, along with several Eu- ropean nations who are teetering toward economic breakdown. So there is hope that the stranglehold of economic socialism has run its course. The only solution for these nations that will work is a free market which dates to antiquity [no- tice I did not say capi- talism]. Autocratic government is a lost cause. In recent years several col- or revolutions have taken place [such as Tunisia, Egypt, Geor- gia, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe] where governments that oppressed their citizens have been overthrown. Donald Trump's election as pres- ident is a signal that a large seg- ment of the population of America is close to a color revolution due to the unresponsiveness of Wash- ington. The world has hope that the eco- nomic and governmental oppres- sion some peoples have endured for the last 100 plus years is in its death throws. There is hope that tomorrow will be the beginning of a change. Why; because people who live un- der duress live their lives project- ing into the future. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will come for some- one. Paul stated this very principle in his Letter to the Romans, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." The phrase "in due time" generates hope. Hope requires patience. Paul in his Letter to the church at Galatia uses a similar message when he wrote, "But when the full- ness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a wom- an, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." The Christian discipline is about hope eternal. Yes, bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people—one does not cancel out the other or limit God in how He interacts with humanity. North pointed out in his column, "Everything meaningful that's ever happened in the world, any change, any improvement comes about because of optimism. The Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Liberals in a tizzy Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Hope and optimism Fighting for free speech Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner As a new academic year gets un- derway on many campuses, it's a good time to ask: What's the pur- pose of school? Is it education, or indoctrination? More and more, sadly, it's the lat- ter. We like to think of our univer- sities in picturesque terms — bas- tions of open learning and scholar- ly debate where one pursues truth, no matter where the search may lead. But while this Norman Rock- well vision may have been an ex- aggeration in years past, today it's sheer fantasy on many campuses. Those who dare to air a view that flouts the politically correct line on hot-button topics such as race, marriage and immigration are virtually taking their lives in- to their hands. They aren't met with spirited disagreement. No, they're shouted down. They're threatened. They're attacked, both verbally and physically, by shriek- ing mobs. Debate is out. Denigration is in. It's not just the violent protests that have erupted at, say, the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley over Ann Coulter and Ben Sha- piro that should con- cern us. It's the grow- ing list of speakers who are uninvited. It's the professors who censor themselves to avoid the wrath of the PC thugs. "Students are be- ing silenced as well," writes Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican. "What sometimes starts with 'trigger warnings' and 'safe spac- es' evolves into Oregon University establishing a 'bias response team' where students are encouraged to report anything that makes them uncomfortable, in order that the university may start an investiga- tion and attempt to 'eliminate' the controversial topic." With good reason does Mr. Jor- dan label this "Orwellian." The problem has grown so bad that last fall, John Elli- son, dean of students at the University of Chicago, felt it nec- essary to write a let- ter to incoming fresh- men — a letter putting them on notice that the school was buck- ing the trend. "Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so- called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove contro- versial and we do not condone the creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own," Mr. Ellison wrote. Imagine — a major university reaffirming a commitment to ac- ademic freedom. But that's the Many blacks and their white lib- eral allies demand the removal of statues of Confederate generals and the Confederate battle flag, and they are working up steam to destroy the images of Gens. Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Da- vis from Stone Mountain in Geor- gia. Allow me to speculate as to the whys of this statue removal craze, which we might call statucide. To understand it, we need a re- view of the promises black and white liberals have been making for decades. In 1940, the black poverty rate was 87 percent. By 1960, it had fallen to 47 percent. During that interval, blacks were politically impotent. There were no anti-poverty programs or af- firmative action programs. None- theless, this poverty reduction ex- ceeded that in any other 20 -year interval. But the black leadership argued that more was necessary. They said that broad advancement could not be made unless blacks gained political power. Fifty years ago, there were few- er than 1,000 black elected offi- cials nationwide. According to the Joint Center for Political and Eco- nomic Studies, by 2011 there were roughly 10,500 black elected offi- cials, not to mention a black pres- ident. But what were the fruits of greater political power? The great- est black poverty, poorest educa- tion, highest crime rates and great- est family instability are in cities such as Detroit, St. Louis, Oak- land, Memphis, Birmingham, At- lanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Phil- adelphia and Buffalo. The most common characteristic of these predominantly black cities is that for decades, all of them have been run by Democratic and presum- ably liberal politicians. Plus, in most cases, blacks have been may- ors, chiefs of police, school super- intendents and principals and have dominated city councils. During the 1960s, black and white liberals called for more mon- ey to be spent on anti-poverty pro- grams. Since the Lyndon Johnson administration's War on Pover- ty programs, U.S. taxpayers have forked over $22 trillion for anti- poverty programs. Adjusted for in- flation, that's three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution. Despite that spending, the socio-economic con- dition for many blacks has wors- ened. In 1940, 86 percent of black children were born inside mar- riage, and the black illegitimacy rate was about 15 percent. Today, only 35 percent of black children are born inside marriage, and the illegitimacy rate hovers around 75 percent. The visions of black civil rights leaders and their white liberal al- lies didn't quite pan out. Greater political power and massive an- ti-poverty spending produced lit- tle. The failure of political pow- er and the failure of massive wel- fare spending to produce nirvana led to the expectation that if on- ly there were a black president, everything would become better for blacks. I cannot think of a sin- gle black socio-economic statis- tic that improved during the two terms of the Barack Obama admin- istration. Some have become trag- ically worse, such as the black ho- micide victimization rate. For ex- ample, on average in Chicago, one person is shot every two hours, 15 minutes, and a person is murdered every 12 1/2 hours. So more political power hasn't worked. Massive poverty spend- ing hasn't worked. Electing a black president hasn't worked. What should black leaders and their white liberal allies now turn their attention to in order to im- prove the socio-economic condi- tion for blacks? It appears to be nearly unanimous that attention should be turned to the removal of Confederate statues. It's not on- ly Confederate statue removal but Confederate names of schools and streets. Even the Council on Amer- ican-Islamic Relations agrees. It just passed a resolution calling for the removal of all Confederate memorials, flags, street names and symbols from public spaces and property. By the way, does the statue of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman qualify for removal? He once explained his reluctance to Baby's day out I got your attention. By the above I meant what I have learned about addiction—from research I have read up on, literatures and papers on this subject, and some encoun- ters I have had for those who fell in- to this unfortunate illness. When asked why they have fall- en into this darkness, they have disclosed several astonishing things. Some have said they take uppers or stimulants to lift them up from depression, to make them function for prolonged periods of time, to become more productive so they can work for days without feeling fatigued, for thrill, for feel- ing strong and on the go. Then af- ter days on the go, they crash. Some take downers or sedatives to counter their anxiety and drown their overwhelming fear and pan- ic spells. Some take opiates to control acute or chronic pain, but the prob- lem with these medications is when the body takes these chemicals, the body fights hard to neutralize or detoxify them because they are foreign to our chemistries. So then more and more pills have to be tak- en to achieve their desired effects such as relief of anxiety or relief of pain. And the vicious cycles clutch into an unfortunate human being who is unable to fight the desire for My experience with addiction, round two Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Flannery had her first ever amusement park trip this week- end! It was the annual compa- ny picnic at Holiday World, and we came loaded for bear. Dur- ing lunch, we mapped out a route through the park that would hit ev- ery ride she was capable of riding, plus the Dippin' Dots stand. We started out with my favorite ride, the Lewis and Clark expedi- tion cars, which is great because it's 1. not a roller coaster and 2. mostly shaded. Also, it has noth- ing to do with Lewis and Clark be- yond the name, which I find hilar- ious. Flannery took the wheel of our Model T and only slammed us into the railings a little bit. Of course, about halfway through, we lost steam and got sleepy. But we still got through most of our route, plus two large bowls of Dippin' Dots. I think at the end of the day, Flannery's fa- vorite part wasn't even a ride, but the fountain she dragged her mom through at Holidog Town. Jill's shoes made a squishy sound with every step for the rest of the day, and we had to change Flannery in- to the emergency outfit everyone told me it was a waste to pack. Ha! On our way out, we got Flannery a baby-sized purple bucket hat as a souvenir, which I am currently wearing and plan to "borrow" in- definitely. And between the three of us, my ears and the tip of Flan- nery's nose are the only sunburns! (I insisted we leave a thick layer of sunscreen on her nose so she'd look like a little lifeguard, but that got shot down too. Father always knows best!) Anyway, I've decided to let these photos do most of the talk- ing for me, but here's the stuff of the week... Book: Madeleine l'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Coffee: I flushed out my coffee machine with white vinegar this week, and it worked like a charm. Thanks, Mom! However, I don't suggest drinking coffee laced with Continued on page 8 Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Judge Roy Moore is resonating The rising political star of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama is another surprise in a political season defined by the unexpected and the uncon- ventional. On Aug. 15, Moore finished ahead of Senator Luther Strange in a pri- mary election to pick the Republi- can candidate who will run in No- vember's general election to fill the seat of former Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions vacated the seat to become the nation's attorney general. Strange, who was Alabama's at- torney general, was appointed by then-Governor Robert Bentley to temporarily fill Sessions' seat. Despite Strange being endorsed by President Trump, and perceived as the Republican Party favorite, he was upset by Moore, forcing the up- coming runoff September 26. Judge Moore, known as the "Ten Commandments Judge" seems to have what resonates politically these days in Alabama and nation- ally. Alabama is a deeply Republican, conservative and religious state. According to a Pew Research sur- vey, Alabama ties with Mississippi as the most religious state in the na- tion. According to the Pew survey, 77 percent of Al- abamans say religion is "very important" in their lives, 51 percent say they attend reli- gious services at least weekly, 73 percent say they pray daily, and 82 percent say they believe in God "with absolute certainty." So this is fertile turf for Moore, who wears his Christian princi- ples on his sleeve and compromis- es them for no one. Shortly after being elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001, he installed a mas- sive Ten Commandments monu- ment in the rotunda of the state ju- dicial building, explaining, "To re- store morality we must first rec- ognize the source from which all morality springs." Are you cheering with me? Two years later he was then ousted as chief justice for refus- ing to remove it. Moore was re-elect- ed chief justice in 2012. Then, in 2016, he was suspended after issu- ing an administrative order to state probate judges to not issue marriage licens- es to same-sex couples. In case Moore sounds uppity to you, let's recall the famous words of George Washington in his farewell address in 1796: "Of all the dispositions and hab- its which lead to political prosperi- ty, religion and morality are indis- pensable supports. ... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be retained without re- ligion. Whatever might be conced-