The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 27, 2017 B-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 Christmas is behind us, and the post-Christmas blues are about to arrive. Everyone will not come down with this affliction, but it comes with the season of giving. The ali- ment is not life threatening, but it does put a damper on post-Christ- mas cheer. Christmas in our era centers on waiting for that special gift that will be cherished for all time. Wait- ing for that 'special gift" generates a level of excitement that produces an emotional high similar to a fix. Christmas arrives and whether or not the gift is received, the post- Christmas blues descend. Anyone who has strived for a championship, a promotion, or a goal is susceptible to a feeling of melancholia after he/she has achieved. Why? Life cannot be lived "for the moment" and captured like a picture to be frozen in time. Living always entails the "now what" to every event and experi- ence. To live in ecstasy or the thrill of the moment is the underlying foundation for addictions. That is why no level of achievement is an end to life's conquest or journey. The apostle James in his epistle gives us a cold water bath when he writes, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomor- row we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a prof- it'; whereas, you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'" I ponder this because as Christ- mas nears, my children ask "Dad, what do you want for Christmas? " In my younger days, anything the children or grandchildren gave me was a thrill because these are my prodigies, and they are loved, and they love me. But as I have grown older, I have arrived at a time in life where pos- session and great wealth are not a goal in life worth pursuing. I found my goal years ago, and his name is Jesus. So what do I tell them? I seek after things spiritual that cannot be purchased such as peace, health, and a longing to converse with those who have gone on. My Christmas yearning cannot be fulfilled by gifts, though they are ap- preciated. Melancholia or "bah humbug! " Not so. I discovered what many centu- ries ago realized—that Christmas is of children. It is we adults who bring joy to the children. How can we bring joy to one another with gifts and trinkets that we do not need and didn't ask for? Helping the underprivileged, widows, orphans, the sick, and lonely is what we should do. Ma- ny claim that is the goal, but usual- ly we throw a few dollars in the Sal- vation Army bucket and tell our- selves we did a "good deed." We say, "We will redeem our- selves next year." Thank God for the future. Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring Fascism and Communism Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Next year, have a merrier Christmas! Three seas, one aim: preserving liberty Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Nearly 30 years ago, the people of Eastern Europe were freed from the yoke of communism. Their lib- eration is a reminder that the Cold War didn't just end — it was won. And it was won because the ideas espoused by leaders such as Ron- ald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II were far stronger than any army the Sovi- et Union could ever field. But eternal vigilance, as the saying goes, is the price of liber- ty. Freedom won can, through ne- glect, become freedom lost. Which is why, since the lifting of the Iron Curtain, America has maintained a long-standing inter- est in Eastern Europe. President Trump has taken a personal in- terest in the region, and even at- tended the "Three Seas Initiative" conference in Warsaw, Poland last summer. The Three Seas Initiative con- sists of 12 central and Eastern Eu- ropean countries located between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas (hence the name): Austria, Bul- garia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithua- nia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The aim is to strengthen trade, infrastructure, energy and political cooperation among its member- states. It's a large area. The countries in the Three Seas Initia- tive account for 28 percent of EU terri- tory, and 22 percent of its population but only 10 percent of its gross domestic prod- uct. With the right priorities pur- sued by the 3 Seas countries, along with U.S. help and support, there's a lot of potential and opportunities for faster economic growth in this region. As President Trump noted dur- ing his visit: "The Three Seas Ini- tiative will transform and rebuild the entire region and ensure that your infrastructure, like your commitment to freedom and rule of law, binds you to all of Europe and, indeed, to the West." The territory located between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas been strategically important for centuries. The founder of modern geopolitics, Sir Halford Mackind- er, wrote in 1919 that Eastern Eu- rope is crucial for Eu- rope's economic well- being and security. There have been past attempts at align- ing to this region against a common threat. In the 1920s, in the aftermath of World War I, Polish leader Jozef Pisuds- ki called for an "Inter- marium" or a federation of states located between the Baltic and Black Seas as a balance of power against Russia and Germany. This idea was loosely based off the Pol- ish Lithuanian Commonwealth during the end of the 16th centu- ry to the end of the 18th. Now, nobody is calling for these countries to unite as Pisudski did. But the sort of multilateral region- al cooperation seen today with the Three Seas Initiative can bring huge benefits to the region — and that's good news for freedom. Make no mistake, President Trump's visit to the Three Seas Before the question, how about a few statistics? The 20th century was mankind's most brutal century. Roughly 16 million people lost their lives during World War I; about 60 million died during World War II. Wars during the 20th century cost an estimated 71 million to 116 million lives (http://tinyurl.com/ya62mrqa). The number of war dead pales in comparison with the number of peo- ple who lost their lives at the hands of their own governments. The late professor Rudolph J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii documented this tragedy in his book "Death by Gov- ernment: Genocide and Mass Mur- der Since 1900." Some of the statis- tics found in the book have been up- dated at http://tinyurl.com/y96tqhrl. The People's Republic of China tops the list, with 76 million lives lost at the hands of the government from 1949 to 1987. The Soviet Union fol- lows, with 62 million lives lost from 1917 to 1987. Adolf Hitler's Nazi Ger- man government killed 21 million people between 1933 and 1945. Then there are lesser murdering regimes, such as Nationalist China, Japan, Tur- key, Vietnam and Mexico. According to Rummel's research, the 20th cen- tury saw 262 million people's lives lost at the hands of their own govern- ments (http://tinyurl.com/lu8z8ab). Hitler's atrocities are widely rec- ognized, publicized and condemned. World War II's conquering nations' condemnation included denazifica- tion and bringing Holocaust perpe- trators to trial and punishing them through lengthy sentences and exe- cution. Similar measures were taken to punish Japan's murderers. But what about the greatest mur- derers in mankind's history – the So- viet Union's Josef Stalin and China's Mao Zedong? Some leftists saw these communists as heroes. W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in the National Guard- ian in 1953, said, "Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th centu- ry approach his stature. ... The high- est proof of his greatness (was that) he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate." Walter Duranty called Stalin "the greatest living statesman" and "a quiet, un- obtrusive man." There was even left- ist admiration for Hitler and fellow fascist Benito Mussolini. When Hit- ler came to power in January 1933, George Bernard Shaw described him as "a very remarkable man, a very able man." President Franklin Roosevelt called the fascist Musso - lini "admirable," and he was "deeply impressed by what he (had) accom- plished." In 1972, John Kenneth Galbraith visited Communist China and praised Mao and the Chinese economic sys- tem. Michel Oksenberg, President Jimmy Carter's China expert, com- plained, "America (is) doomed to de- cay until radical, even revolutionary, change fundamentally alters the in- stitutions and values." He urged us to "borrow ideas and solutions" from China. Harvard University profes- sor John K. Fairbank believed that America could learn much from the Cultural Revolution, saying, "Amer- icans may find in China's collective life today an ingredient of personal moral concern for one's neighbor that has a lesson for us all." By the way, an estimated 2 million people died during China's Cultural Revolution. More recent praise for murdering ty- rants came from Anita Dunn, Presi- dent Barack Obama's acting commu- nications director in 2009, who said, "Two of my favorite political philoso- phers (are) Mao Zedong and Moth- er Teresa." Recall the campus demonstrations of the 1960s, in which campus radi- cals, often accompanied by their pro- fessors, marched around singing the praises of Mao and waving Mao's Lit- tle Red Book. That may explain some of the campus mess today. Some of those campus radicals are now ten- ured professors and administrators at today's universities and colleges and K-12 schoolteachers and principals in- doctrinating our youth. Now the question: Why are left- ists soft on communism? The reason leftists give communists, the world's most horrible murderers, a pass is that they sympathize with the chief goal of communism: restricting per- sonal liberty. In the U.S., the call is for government control over our lives through regulations and taxation. Un- fortunately, it matters little whether the Democrats or Republicans have the political power. The march toward greater government control is unabat- ed. It just happens at a quicker pace with Democrats in charge. Retail therapy Endings and new beginnings Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 This column originally printed in November 2016, and its author is on a one-week sabbatical, as he is cur- rently seeing visions of sugar plum fairies in his fever dreams. Please enjoy the column (again) and have a Merry Christmas! Ah, the Christmas shopping season. Just in my short twenty- something years of life, it's evolved so much. I remember a time, when I was very small, that our fami- ly's shopping was done in Evans- ville—first the mall, then Toys-R- Us, maybe Rural King, and a stop at some restaurant. There was gray slush strewn across each lot, piled high and caked togeth- er in places where it'd been shov- eled or plowed; a drizzle of snow or freezing rain or both would pepper our shopping bags; and I, having watched the news too of- ten, would always be waiting for the shopping riot to break out as we nudged through crowds and circled the lots for parking. It was not a pleasant experience in a vac- uum, but I didn't know any better than to enjoy it, and it always end- ed in hot cocoa and a Christmas movie at home. Then the global economy changed, and so did our habits. We all started making detailed lists of our wants. I was no longer small and cute and innocent—I read the ads for Toys-R-Us in the paper, I knew what was out there, and I considered myself discern- ing and savvy. There were few sur- prises anymore; surprises were things we hadn't asked for, and were met with a frown, followed by a polite reassurance: "You haven't completely let me down." Our shopping trips were shorter, planned out well in advance of the rush and with exact knowledge of which stores to hit and what to buy at each one. Finally, the rise of online shop- ping meant there was now no ex- cuse for anyone not to get exact- ly what they wanted. It also meant there was no excuse for me not to get something for everyone, since I could shop for all tastes from my easy chair. I feigned poverty to shirk my gift-giving responsibil- ities, and wondered "what hap- pened to the Christmas magic I remember from when I was a kid? " Then I grew up. Getting what I want for Christ- mas won't make me happy. There's nothing magical about a wishlist that's fully checked off. This is, of course, pretty basic stuff. It just took me a couple of decades to fig- ure it out, I guess. Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Justice has a counterfeit: False witness Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson In 1984, Uncle Sam sent me to a specialized military school in Or- ange County, California. We had our evenings and weekends off, and it was an exciting time to be there because the Summer Olym- pics were underway in nearby Los Angeles. I didn't meet any athletes, but the restaurants and malls were packed with thousands of specta- tors and giddy celebrity-hunting tourists. Young soldiers are almost as fit as Olympians, or so we told our- selves, and so we began to prank the visitors by posing as foreign competitors. I have to admit that I misrepresented myself as a French high johm-pair olympique. It's hard to be convincing when your buddies are snorting and un- dermining your ruse within ear- shot of your audience, but it was some of the best fun I ever had ly- ing. In other words, I'm probably not the best guy to deliver a sermon on Exodus 20 :16 (the Ninth Com- mandment): "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- bor." But hey, I didn't disparage the French high jumpers. I didn't accuse them of collaborating with the Germans, or watering down the champagne. Bearing false witness is a much more serious matter, nothing to chuckle about. Just a few miles up the coast, in the south- west corner of Los An- geles County, there was another, darker kind of excitement in 1984. District Attorney Ira Reiner had signed off on 115 astonishing child abuse charges against the op- erators of a day care center, includ- ing three generations of founder Virginia McMartin's family. The accusations eventually expanded to 321 counts, with 48 alleged vic- tims. They were accused not only of sodomizing the children, but of having sex with animals, drinking blood and eating feces. According to the government, they took the children into tunnels beneath the day care center for depraved satan- ic activity, then cleaned them up and brought them back to the sur- face before parents arrived to re- claim them. The founder's grandson Ray Buckey was denied bail, and would spend five years in a jail cell with- out being convicted of wrongdo- ing of any kind. Pros- ecutors immunized a lowlife criminal cell- mate against previ- ous perjury charges and called him to tes- tify that Buckey had confessed in jail to the abuses. Buckey's mother Peggy was at liberty during six years of le- gal proceedings only because she posted $1 million in bail. So she probably had to scrape up $100,000 (nonrefundable) for her bail bonds- man. Her mother, the 77-year- old founder, spent six of her final years hearing her family's reputa- tion blackened. None of the defen- dants were convicted of anything in the six-year, $15 million prose- cution. Thank God for trial by jury. The original accuser was a di- agnosed paranoid schizophren- ic who died of chronic alcoholism before the marathon preliminary hearings concluded. She accused not only the day care staff but her ex-husband of sodomizing her son. She was not the only nut case My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. As the year two thousand sev- enteen (2,017) ends, it is always good to review what had hap- pened this past year. But first of all, we all recognize that the num- ber 2017 refers to 2,017 years A.D. ( Anno Domini or year of the Lord) . Naturally, B.C. means Be- fore Christ. The reference point of history is heavily impacted by the birth of Christ, before His birth and after His birth. Interestingly enough, the entire world has used this reference point even though many countries and many peo- ple do not necessarily subscribe to the Christian faith. We do know that even atheistic countries use our Christian calendar for com- merce and world order. I think I am getting side- tracked, but that's alright. Now, get this. There was a push to get this B.C. and A.D. out of history.