The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/927609
A-6 Wednesday, Januar y 17, 2018 The Press-Dispatch 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 history of the world, the Internet as a means to distribute knowledge and information to the average person has no equals. One could argue that the invention of the printing press had a similar ef- fect upon history. That may be true, but the Inter- net exploded and its offspring so- cial media and smart phones have unlocked a Pandora's Box that can- not be closed. There are few remote places in our world that lack mass commu- nication to the extent that no one entity or government controls it. Even in nations [China and North Korea] which attempt to censure the Internet, the nominal savvy te- chie can get around the blocks. The Internet is still revolution- izing the way in which we get our news, weather, sports, entertain- ment, and how we socially inter- act with each other. All facets of education fail to re- alize that the brick and mortar school of books and enlightened ones teach are over. [Mitch Dan- iels of Purdue recognizes this.] At our fingertips lay the col- lective wisdom and knowledge of man unfiltered and unfet- tered by government and business. Do you need a book out of print? In all like- lihood, someone or somewhere on the In- ternet, it is available for reading and/or downloading. Google Books and Wiki are ad- aptations of Project Gutenberg which began in 1971 to digitize the cultural works of humanity to encourage the creation and distri- bution of ebooks. Before Google abandoned their project, they dig- itized 25 million books; one data- base at the University of Michigan has more than 15 million volumes. But there is one catch to this sto- ry. Books regardless how they are preserved, do not read themselves. There is the Achilles heel. No method of learning by osmo- sis has been discovered as of yet to facilitate the broadening of man- kind's perspective of the cosmos. Much touting has been made of Artifi- cial Intelligence and how it could be mat- ed with humanity to produce a humanoid. Maybe possible; but when the excitement diminishes, AI re- mains a sophisticated algorithms of mathematical equa- tions that some human designed and programmed. If you could even begin to tap all the knowledge available at our fingertips, what would we discov- er about ourselves? The simple answer would be that a continuum traits that would cancel out each other. For exam- ple, we desire things that we can- not have and will allow evil to con- sume us. We can reach heights of unimaginable altruism, yet plunge Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring Dirty college secrets Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond How little things have changed Global warming can't be blamed for the cold snap, bomb cyclone is nothing new Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Remember when global warm- ing meant the planet was supposed to, well, warm up? Temperatures would rise, and all manner of eco- logical calamity would ensue? Me too. So it was surprising to find myself shivering, like other Americans, through several days of arctic chill and extreme cold, on- ly to hear Al Gore blame it on glob- al warming. He didn't use the w-word, though. "It's bitter cold in parts of the U.S., but climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann explains that's ex- actly what we should expect from the climate crisis," Mr. Gore tweet- ed on Jan. 4. See, it's a "climate crisis" now. But it's hard to blame him for try- ing some rebranding. A fter all, pre- diction after prediction has come to naught. But no matter: Like oth- er Doomsday prophets, Mr. Gore just acts like the last missed dead- line didn't happen and comes up with a new one. Which is why it's important to remind ourselves of what Mr. Gore has said in the past. Con- sider, for example, how he said global warming would cause the north polar ice cap to be completely free of ice within five years. When did he say that? Nine years ago. News flash: the Arctic still has ice. Indeed, accord- ing to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, "ice growth during November 2017 averaged 30,900 square miles per day." Oops. So how about the evidence for the latest cold snap? Mr. Gore's source, Michael Mann, says the ultra-chilly temps we've been en- during are "precisely the sort of extreme winter weather we expect because of climate change." As the planet warms, he says, we'll see more cold snaps and "bomb cyclones." Seems counter- intuitive, but Mr. Mann suggests this is because warming is "causing the jet stream to meander in a particular pattern" that leads to these cold spells. I use the word "sug- gests," however, be- cause this is simply a theory — one that other scientists are not sold on. (Mr. Gore and the rest of the climate-crisis crowd often act like their ideas are universally accept- ed — that the scientific communi- ty is in complete agreement with them. But there is more room for doubt and disagreement than they care to admit.) The week in verse Sense of gratitude Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 7 Trump's comment Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Sen. Dick Durban of Illinois has accused the president of a profane comment about Haiti, El Salvador and various A frican nations, in the course of negotiations about immigration legislation. Demo- crats, who profess their admira- tion for Harry Truman because of his "plain speaking," are aghast at President Trump's alleged potty mouth. A non-scatalogical synonym for the word Durbin said President Trump used is "hellhole." At least three Republicans in the room, including two U.S. Senators and a Cabinet member, reported that they remember no such com- ment. The president denied that he said it. But what if he did? Would it be racist? Not necessarily. There is no Salvadorean race, just as there's no Canadian or American race. It's just a nationality. Haiti and the A frican nations that send us the most immigrants are overwhelm- ingly Black, but that doesn't make them hellholes. What makes Haiti a hellhole is corruption verging on pillage, frag- ile and neglected infrastructure, underfunded public education and social services, violent crime and voodoo spiritual oppression. What makes several A frican na- tions hellholes is civil war, female genital mutilation, ma- rauding Islamic jihad- ists, child marriage, appalling sanitary con- ditions, underfund- ed hospitals, illiteracy and child soldiers. I have some Salva- dorean in-laws, and am kind of sentimental about a couple of them. I don't hate Salvador- eans. But I can understand why the president would rather have immi- grants from Norway than from El Salvador, which ABC News de- scribed as "the murder capital of the world." Policemen have to wear masks in El Salvador so the gangs can't identify them and retaliate against their families. There were 435 ho- micides this past September—al- most 15 per day—despite a year of "extraordinary measures" by the government after the collapse of a four-year truce. When the government brokers a truce between the gangs, killings drop until the next crackdown. But violence against women contin- ues steadily in this society of ma- chismo and impunity. In 2016, the country's Institute of Legal Med- icine reported that 524 women were murdered, one in every 5,000 Salva- dorean women. Now, that's a hellhole. Immigration ad- vocates have argued that hellish conditions in the migrants' home- lands should move us to encourage, not hin- der emigration from them. There are cer- tainly many examples of good peo- ple who flourished in America af- ter escaping hellish situations at home. But Americans have paid a heavy price for welcoming Salva- dorean teenagers and young adults here, including females. The MS - 13 gang, with 8,000 to 10,000 mem- bers in the U.S. and Canada, is ex- traordinarily violent. According to the U.S. Treasury Department during the Obama administration, MS -13 is "involved in drug traffick- ing, kidnapping, human smug- gling, sex trafficking, murder, as- sassinations, racketeering, black- mailing, extortion and immigra- tion offenses." Pandering local politicians and My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. Grateful. As I was reading the last issue of this paper, I felt a sense of gratitude. There were pictures and a write up on volun- teers who were practicing emer- gency procedures for rescuing people in case of accidents that may happen in frozen ponds, lakes or rivers. It is gratifying to know there are people: volun- teers and professionals, who give so much of their time and energy and resources to obtain skills to safely carry out rescue missions. They certainly are to be com- mended, and if you happen to en- counter them in our community, thank them. Then let's not forget people who work to provide us with non-stop electricity, clean water, and util- ities that make our life comfort- able. They work 24-hour shifts re- gardless of weather, they give up the comforts of sleep and social life and personal life to make sure these resources are available. Let's not forget people who work tirelessly to repair broken water lines, clear our roads,they work in very difficult situations and bad weather. Then let's not forget the availability of grocer- ies and fuel during the day and late into the night manned by peo- ple who work tirelessly to make them available. A word of thank you and sincere compliment goes a long way to remind them of our gratitude. We also know that health care facilities and personnel such as physicians, NPs, EMS, nurses, CMAs, maintenance, support crew, etc require 24-hour staffing and those who serve in the health care field need to be given their recognition and thanks. To keep our community safe and peaceful, our law enforcement and support staff operate 24/7 all year round. We are grateful. • • • Daily activities in the field of government and private sector all provide the infrastructure needed to keep our lives comfortable and orderly. To enumerate all the play- ers in this great operation is not possible for that will take a very long time. As I was reading sec- tions of our paper about appoint- A frequent point I have made in past columns has been about the ed- ucational travesty happening on ma- ny college campuses. Some people have labeled my observations and concerns as trivial, unimportant and cherry-picking. While the spring se- mester awaits us, let's ask ourselves whether we'd like to see repeats of last year's antics. An excellent source for college news is Campus Reform, a conserva- tive website operated by the Leader- ship Institute (https://www.campus- reform.org). Its reporters are college students. Here is a tiny sample of last year's bizarre stories. Donna Riley, a professor at Pur- due University's School of Engineer- ing Education, published an article in the most recent issue of the peer-re- viewed Journal of Engineering Edu- cation, positing that academic rigor is a "dirty deed" that upholds "white male heterosexual privilege." Riley added that "scientific knowledge it- self is gendered, raced, and coloniz- ing." Would you hire an engineer- ing education graduate who has little mastery of the rigor of engineering? What does Riley's vision, if actually practiced by her colleagues, do to the worth of degrees in engineering ed- ucation from Purdue held by female and black students? Sympathizing with Riley's vision is Rochelle Gutierrez, a math education professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In her recent book, she says the ability to solve al- gebra and geometry problems per- petuates "unearned privilege" among whites. Educators must be aware of the "politics that mathematics brings" in society. She thinks that "on many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness." A fter all, she adds, "who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in math- ematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is general- ly viewed as White." What's worse is that the university's interim provost, John Wilkin, sanctioned her vision, telling Fox News that Gutierrez is an established and admired scholar who has been published in many peer-re- viewed publications. I hope that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- paign's black students don't have the same admiration and stay away from her classes. Last February, a California State University, Fullerton professor as- saulted a CSUF Republicans mem- ber during a demonstration against President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration. The students identified the assailant as Eric Canin, an anthropology professor. Fortunate- ly, the school had the good sense to later suspend Canin after confirming the allegations through an internal in- vestigation. Last month, the presidents of 13 San Antonio colleges declared in an op-ed written by Ric Baser, president of the Higher Education Council of San Antonio, and signed by San An- tonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and 12 other members of the HECSA that "hate speech" and "inappropriate mes- sages" should not be treated as free speech on college campuses. Their vi- sion should be seen as tyranny. The true test of one's commitment to free speech doesn't come when he permits people to be free to make statements that he does not find offensive. The true test of one's commitment to free speech comes when he permits peo- ple to make statements he does deem offensive. Last year, University of Georgia pro- fessor Rick Watson adopted a policy allowing students to select their own grade if they "feel unduly stressed" by their actual grade in the class. Benja- min Ayers, dean of the school's Terry College of Business, released a state- ment condemning Watson's pick-your- own-grade policy, calling it "inappro- priate." He added: "Rest assured that this ill-advised proposal will not be implemented in any Terry classroom. The University of Georgia upholds strict guidelines and academic poli- cies to promote a culture of academic rigor, integrity, and honesty." Ayers' response gives us hope that not all is lost in terms of academic honesty. Other campus good news is a report on the resignation of George Ciccari- ello-Maher, a white Drexel University professor who tweeted last winter, "All I Want For Christmas is White Geno- cide." He said that he resigned from his tenured position because threats against him and his family had be- come "unsustainable." If conservative students made such threats, they, too, could benefit from learning the prin- ciples of free speech. A lot happened this week, so let's review with a gaggle of haiku. ~~~ Made it to work! Just twenty minutes late... ninety- five people called in?! ~~~ Flannery is great, but so are babysitters. A whole day to date! ~~~ Did you know? Mass is never cancelled. As far as I know, anyway. ~~~ Spent my last Christmas money on a game I'll never play. Mogami River. ~~~ New audiobook! Nine-and-a-half hours long! ...Over already? ~~~ A burst pipe is a great excuse to finally clean the laundry room. ~~~ Flannery will not get out of her toy car. Not even to change diapers... ~~~ Funny things happen when you're too sleepy to write a proper column. ~~~