The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/912793
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 6, 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 Relief from fear is a natural emo- tion and increases the chances of our survivability. It heightens the senses and stimulates the body for action. I suspect all people across time have had fears of life that cannot be escaped, with untimely death being at the top of the list. Before the Industrial Revolution, the Western world was tied to the season and agriculture with most families tied to the soil and sub- sistence agriculture. A crop fail- ure would be catastrophic [the Irish potato famine of 1845 -1852 is an example]. Health issues would not be far from the top of the list of things to worry about. Infection was common in a world filled with disease, and no antitoxins with loss of limb(s) or life common. At the center of human exis- tence and the family was the fu- ture of the children. A mother or father dying or becoming crip- pled would often mean a life of lowly menial servitude. However, a lot has changed in 200 years. Few of us think of famine, catastroph- ic illness, or untimely death, but what about our children? Ameri- ca celebrated Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, and few of the cele- brants could give a good account of how and why the first Thanks- giving came about. Maybe some could recite the trying first year, the many deaths, and the befriending of the natives. But why were the Pilgrims even there in a hostile area [what would be- come the Massachu- setts Bay Colony]? What propels a group of people to leave the comforts of home and travel to a land that they have only heard about, with the re- solve never to return? That is the passion of an immigrant. The Pil- grims wanted to establish a life for themselves and their children free of the spoils of a carnal life and the corruption they felt remained with- in the Church of England. The Pil- grims knew the future lies in the children. The same holds true for us to- day; what type of world and future are we leaving for our children? We can identify and argue over the ills that we perceive are around us and demand that the most press- ing threats be eliminated, such as war, poverty, sexism, global warming, and homophobia. Few will dare to ask the question, "What type of spiritual founda- tion will our children build upon? " Mus- lims, Jews and Hin- dus are not abashed in their desire to pass onto their children their religious prac- tices, but the West- ern Christian World has decided to give our children freedom to choose their own be- lief system, while the secular and carnal world is paraded in front of them. Little attempt is made by the political and entertainment world to steer anyone towards a spiritu- al life. So what have we to show for at least 2 generations of freedom of conscious? Our children and grandchildren are rewriting his- tory and tearing down memo- rials scrubbing away the con- flicts of generations, reassigning guilt, and declaring their ances- tors losers. College students are no longer taught to have inquiring Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring Black self-sabotage Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Relief from fear Lee Edwards' 'Just Right' presents conservative case against communism Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner If you consider yourself a con- servative, have you ever thought about why? How would you answer someone who asked you to explain the reason? Maybe you've never thought about it before. It might be be- cause your parents were conser- vative, and you absorbed your po- litical outlook from them. Or per- haps you read and thought your way into the movement, the way Ronald Reagan did years before he became president. Or perhaps there was a moment that shook you and made you look at the world differently. That's what happened to Lee Edwards. The author of more than two- dozen books, Lee is a good friend of mine, hailed by many as the un- official historian of the conserva- tive movement. At a recent event marking the release of his latest book, "Just Right," I asked him why he's a conservative. Was it because of his father, himself a famous writ- er? "No," Lee prompt- ly replied. "I'm a con- servative because of communism." It may be hard for many young people today, years after the Cold War has faded from memory and headlines, to understand what it was like to watch communism ad- vancing after World War II. Years of bloody combat had been spent defeating Hitler's Germany and Imperial Japan — and yet free- dom was once again under attack. Lee pointed to a catalyst mo- ment. It was October 1956. He was in Paris and fresh out of the Army: "All of a sudden, we began hear- ing these bulletins from Budapest, and it was the Hungar- ian Revolution. And here were young men and women of my age standing up to the So- viets. Standing up to Soviet tanks and So- viet guns. "And I was so ex- cited about this — caught up in the cour- age and the brav- ery and the desire for freedom of these young Hungarians. And then, two weeks later, the Soviet tanks came back — firing, shoot- ing, killing maybe 20,000 young Hungarians, and then a couple hundred thousand more Hungar- ians fleeing into exile, because the Soviets were not going to let go of The educational achievement of white youngsters is nothing to write home about, but that achieved by blacks is nothing less than disgraceful. Let's look at a re- cent example of an educational out- come all too common. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore's 39 high schools, not a single student scored profi- cient on the state's mathematics exam. In six other high schools, only 1 percent tested proficient in math. In raw numbers, 3,804 Bal- timore students took the state's math test, and 14 tested proficient (http://tinyurl.com/y7f56kg2). Citywide, only 15 percent of Balti- more students passed the state's English test. Last spring, graduation exer- cises were held at one Baltimore high school, 90 percent of whose students received the lowest pos- sible math score. Just one student came even close to being profi- cient. Parents and family mem- bers applauded the conferring of diplomas. Some of the students won achievement awards and col- lege scholarships (http://tinyurl. com/ydb3v2ya). Baltimore is by no means unique. It's a small part of the ongoing education disas- ter for black students across the nation. Baltimore schools are not underfunded. Of the nation's 100 largest school systems, Baltimore schools rank third in spending per pupil (http://tinyurl.com/ybzglb- yp). Baltimore's black students re- ceive diplomas that attest that they can function at a 12th-grade level when in fact they may not be able to do so at a seventh- or eighth- grade level. These students and their families have little reason to suspect that their diplomas are fraudulent. Thus, if they cannot land a good job, cannot pass a civ- il service exam, get poor grades in college and flunk out of college, they will attribute their plight to racism. A fter all, they have a high school diploma, just as a white per- son has a high school diploma. In their minds, the only explanation for being treated differently is rac- ism. Let's look at math. If one grad- uates from high school without a minimum proficiency in algebra and geometry, he is likely to find whole fields and professions her- metically sealed off to him for life. In many fields and professions, a minimum level of math proficien- cy is taken for granted. Let's look at just one endeavor - - being a fighter jet pilot. There are relatively few black fighter jet pilots. There are stringent physi- cal, character and mental require- ments that many blacks can meet. But fighter pilots must also have a strong knowledge of air navi- gation, aircraft operating proce- dures, flight theory, fluid mechan- ics and meteorology. The college majors that help prepare under- graduates for a career as a fighter pilot include mathematics, physi- cal science and engineering. What's the NA ACP response to educational fraud? At a 2016 meeting, the NA ACP's board of directors ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on char- ter schools. Among the NA ACP's reasons for this were that it want- ed charter schools to refrain from "expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate" and "cease to perpetuate de facto seg- regation of the highest performing children from those whose aspira- tions may be high but whose tal- ents are not yet as obvious." Bal- timore Collegiate School for Boys is a charter school. In 2016, 9 per- cent of its students scored profi- cient on the state's math test. This year, over 14 percent did so. It's in the interest of black people for more of our youngsters to attend better schools. However, it's in the interest of the education establish- ment—and its handmaidens at the NA ACP to keep black youngsters in failing public schools. Few people bother to ask wheth- er there's a connection between what goes on at predominantly black high schools and observed outcomes. Violence at many pre- dominantly black schools is so rou- tine that security guards are hired to patrol the hallways. The vio- lence includes assaults on teach- ers. Some have been knocked out, had their jaws broken and required The big little helper Christmas decorations Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 With a new baby due to arrive in late spring 2018, our old baby is going to have to step up and help her mom and dad run the house. Fortunately, Flannery is already enjoying herself learning how to help with the chores. Well... maybe "help" isn't exactly the right word. It started with her toys. She's always loved sorting things, and with a little coaxing, she's started playing a game where she throws all her toys out on the floor, then puts them back into the toy box one by one. Of course, this is a ze- ro-sum game, since she's cleaning up the mess she made seconds be- fore, but it's a baby step. Get it? Ba- by step? Anyway, putting one foot in front of the other, she moved from the toy pickup game to the dishes pickup game. A fter watching me run the dishwasher a few dozen times, she showed up for dish day with a bunch of her baby spoons she'd stolen and hidden around the house earlier that day. Then, once the dishwasher was fully loaded, she "helped" unload by grabbing greasy plates out of the rack and running off with them. If I could get someone who knew the differ- ence between "dirty" and "clean" who had half her spirit, I'd nev- er have to touch the dishwasher again. Of course, Flannery doesn't just watch me do chores. She's al- so started helping Jill do laundry. For example, right after Jill fin- ished sorting out all the socks and putting them in their own basket, Flannery gave sorting the clothes a shot of her own by grabbing handfuls of socks and dumping them into her pack-n-play. It kind of looks like a laundry basket, re- ally, if you think about the basic structure of things, so I'm calling it another baby step. And finally, tonight she start- ed cleaning up after herself in yet another way. One of her favorite mealtime rituals is chugging her sippy cup and then slamming it on the ground in triumph. This, of course, sprays milk or apple juice or whatever she happens to be drinking all over the floor. But tonight was different! Tonight, af- ter covering the floor in milk, she grabbed the partially-used tissue out of Jill's hand and dabbed up the milk with it. Progress, right? So, from an operational stand- point, Flannery is totally qualified to do chores around the house. Now if we could just get her to clean up the mess without mak- ing the mess first, we could really get somewhere! Continued on page 8 Continued on page 8 The year we turned the football games off Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson We had a great Thanksgiving this year despite Leftists' sugges- tion that the holiday is fraudulent. Is Thanksgiving obsolete? The Seattle public school system decid- ed about a decade ago to rename it "Day of Mourning" to commem- orate "500 years of betrayal" of the Native Americans by invading European oppressors - you know, guys who look like me. On the oth- er hand, a lot of the self-identified Native Americans I've met also look like me, give or take a pony tail and a pinkie ring. Gratitude is certainly not in vogue. In a society where griev- ances are the currency of politi- cal and cultural power, gratitude tends to be a feeble and fleeting im- pulse. It doesn't feel natural, and the thought police discourage and punish it. To be grateful in this country, you've got to really make up your mind to be grateful. It may take courage. Colin Kaepernick and Lebron James haven't sounded very grate- ful for anything in quite some time. When James's domestic staff re- ported spray-painted N-word graf- fiti on the gate to his $20 million, 9440 -square-foot second home in Los Angeles, neither he nor his family were there. His groundskee- pers removed the graf- fiti and painted over it before police arrived at his estate. You know, the police that Lebron accuses of waging a deadly street war on unarmed Black men. "Being Black in America is tough," James said after the vandalism. Well, may- be. But I wish I could have it as tough as Lebron James, if only for a week. Kaepernick is literally the post- er child for ingratitude. Full dis- closure: I graduated from UNLV, which is the cross-state rival of the University of Nevada at Reno (UNR), Kaepernick's alma ma- ter. Among the things I've been grateful for recently is that Mil- waukee born-and-bred Colin Kae- pernick never signed with UNLV. But maybe UNLV could have dis- abused him of his Social Justice Warrior bedtime fables. UNR, un- fortunately, is within the San Fran- cisco/Northern California cultural sphere of influence. UNLV is more oriented toward the apolitical surf- ing towns and self-reliant high-des- ert areas of southern California and adjoin- ing Western states. Four states— Maine, Virginia, Tex- as and Florida—claim to be the site of the first Thanksgiving in America. Harvest celebrations are al- most universal across all human cultures, and there were certainly such oc- casions on this continent before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. Yet we trace our Thanksgiv- ing tradition back to a three-day feast there in 1621, hosted by 53 Pilgrims and attended by 90 Indi- an neighbors. I understand that it's not exact- ly right to call the tribal people In- dians, but it's not exactly right to call them Native Americans, ei- ther. They weren't native, for one thing. They migrated from Asia over the Bering Land Bridge, and waged war on the migrants who preceded them, or who followed them. Various tribes drove others My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. This past week as I have always done all these years, I set up some Christmas decorations in our yard. One section contained the lighted Nativity Scene, and in an- other area I put up the Grandpa Santa and Grandma Santa wood- work figurines, courtesy of my dear friend Joy Underhill. I noticed that it has gotten more challenging to set them up, but with the help of a good friend Mi- chael Johnson, we accomplished the project with more ease. So I thought since the Christmas sea- son goes fast with every passing year, I felt the need to start setting them up early and enjoy them for about a month. One day when I brought my grandkids to our place for sitting, they ran to these decorations and started touching them and ad- miring them. They immediate-