Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 3-14-19

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, March 14, 2019 Editorial & Opinions
Serving “The World’s Fruit Basket” since 1891
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975),
“The Man Upstairs” (1914)
America: exceptional, not nationalistic
Does anyone reading this really believe that the government and its hundreds of thou- sands of bureaucrats really do a better job of managing anything than those in the private sector? How can they, when government cre- ates nothing? When decisions are made, they do not put at risk their own money. The funds with which they play so fast and loose have all been co-opted from hard-working taxpayers. Their primary construct is to keep the people of the country safe and they refuse to even recognize the crisis on our southern border because of petty internal political infighting.
Fred Hall
By Daniel Spanjer
Guest columnist
Some of the liberal criticism of President Donald Trump since his election stems from an intellectual tradition that gained tremendous in- fluence in the West during the 1960s, especially in American universities. According to what historians have labeled the New Left, a more radical strain of the American left, America is just another example of a toxic na- tionalist state, not unlike certain im- perial or even fascist states.
In 2000, the historian Eric Kaufmann warned that in choos- ing to be “particularist” rather than “cosmopolitan,” as he labeled the dis- tinction, America travels the deadly path that 20th century nationalist states paved. Liberals are once again warning of a sort of toxic nationalism under Donald Trump.
Kaufmann’s, and the New Left’s, assessment of America is misguided for multiple reasons. First, it creates an overly simplified metric for as- sessing modern societies. In service to a cosmopolitan working class, in- ternational communism caused some of history’s greatest bloodshed. Cos- mopolitanism alone cannot be the so- lution to what ails the world.
But there is another dangerous implication of this frenzied drive to- wards cosmopolitanism. It ignores the fact that America, as it was founded, is a unique alternative to the modern and bloody contest between nationalism and globalism. Alexis de Tocqueville recognized that America has a unique character because it “participates in the making of its laws by the choice of its legislators. ... It may almost be said to govern itself, so feeble and restricted is the share left to the administration, so little do
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the authorities forget their popular origin and the power from which they emanate.” In 1906, H. G. Wells saw the same exceptional quality: “The American, it seems to me, has yet to achieve what is, after all, the product of education and thought, the concep- tion of a whole to which all individual acts and happenings are subordinate and contributory.”
For socialists, the use of state power is the natural expression of the moral law. According to President Woodrow Wilson, “The thesis of the state socialist is, that no line can be drawn between private and public af- fairs which the state may not cross at will; that omnipotence of legislation is the first postulate of all just political theory.” Since the central authority is the moral law, the central author- ity must remain unaccountable to individuals, or to what Jean-Jacques Rousseau calls “particular wills.”
Americans, having both cosmo- politan and particularist ambitions, rejected the notion of a centralized moral economy when they built in- stead a society based on a decentral- ized moral economy. In this system the individual curates moral law. He is the chief agent in defining what is morally right and in obeying it. Central authorities cannot be moral because no matter the good they in- tend, they only strip the individual of moral agency. At their best, govern- ments can facilitate the individual’s responsibility to do what is right. The reason that this has worked in Ameri- ca is that its people have traditionally believed in the existence of the Natu- ral Law. The Natural Law is a com- mon-sense standard to which every individual can help hold government accountable. It was this revolutionary
moral system that formed the su- perstructure of America’s social or- ganization, political institutions, and economic markets.
In 1905, social reformer Da- vid Graham Phillips concluded in Reign of Gilt that “our national ideal is not a powerful state, ... but man- hood and womanhood, a citizenship ever wiser and stronger and more civilized with ever more and more individual units that cannot be con- trolled in the mass—the democratic man and democratic woman—alert, enlightened, self-reliant, free.” This same sentiment can be easily traced through American leaders from Wil- liam Bradford to President Ronald Reagan.
Despite its decentralized moral economy, America has both com- mitted and excused terrible moral failures. In fact, one might argue that this type of moral economy on- ly exacerbated the evils of slavery, segregation, and the abuses of in- dustrial capitalism because no cen- tralized authority possessed enough power to enact reforms. However, the catastrophes of centralized moral economies dwarf these failings. Both nationalist and internationalist social- ism might (perhaps) have helped na- tions turn the corner on the Great Depression, but they also created governments that killed hundreds of millions, largely because they were accountable neither to the Natural Law nor to their citizens.
Daniel Spanjer is currently the chair of the arts and sciences depart- ment and professor of history at Lan- caster Bible College in Pennsylvania.
Jon Earnest’s column will return next week.
There was, once upon a time, a period when our military was the exception to government incompetency but it has become in- fected with political correctness which brings into question combat readiness. Our military is becoming one huge social experiment which is contrary to my once being told that their job was to break things and win wars.
Now, they’re virtually required to get permission from a law- yer before they can even shoot anyone. Heaven only knows how much we love our soldiers but their missions are often clouded by the corruption and malfeasance of their leadership. Funds appro- priated by Congress for military preparedness are instead being used to pay for transgender services for young people as a method to get the government to pay for transgender operations.
Now that we’ve taken a cursory look at how inefficient and wasteful our politicians are in Sacramento and Washington, per- haps we need to take a realistic look at the “bill of goods” being offered by the Socialist Democratic party when they want to put themselves in charge of everything! This new “woke” generation of Socialist Democrats wants to be in charge of everything Ameri- cans are allowed to do. Their pandering with fantastic new “en- titlements” brings with it a precipitous reduction in our freedoms.
One of the best questions which we could ask of ourselves is, how did we ever get to the point in America where socialism is now increasingly seen as an acceptable alternative to capitalism? For the most straight forward answer to that question one has only to look at the education of the last three generations of young Ameri- cans who passed through our schools and university systems.
We can begin with one undeniable premise: SOCIALISM HAS NEVER WORKED ANYWHERE IT HAS BEEN TRIED! Margaret Thatcher had it exactly right when she said that socialism was fine until you run out of other people’s money!
Everything we hear being espoused by the Democratic Par- ty today is so counter intuitive to the American system and the American way of thinking, which made this country as great as it is, leaving one to worry. We feel that the gravity of the situation being advanced by such misguided thinking has to be placed di- rectly at the door of our current system of education which seems to have eschewed traditional teaching for their more “enlightened” methods.
Many of those new standards, which are espoused in the new California Healthy Youth Act now include a regimen of LGBTQ- inclusive history standards. Beginning in 2017, California fourth- graders are being taught that Sally Ride was the first female les- bian astronaut, Charley Parkhurst was a transgender stagecoach driver in the 1880’s and George Takei is a famous gay activist fighting for marriage equality. There appears to be no time to teach real history. The legacies involved in building this great country are not being passed down to new generations.
As shameful as the way our schools are failing to teach his- tory, the story of the failure with reading and math. National As- sessment of Education Progress reports that two-thirds of eighth graders were reported as ranked below proficient in both math and reading. The numbers which we reviewed indicate it gets even worse during the high school years. By the time they graduate, on- ly about four in 10 high school seniors are proficient in reading and math. With that pitiful base limiting any possibility for success, we then send them off to college where a staff of propagandist professors snow them with a curriculum of political correctness.
Predictably, the diploma mill spits them out neither possessing the talent nor skills to really make a living at much of anything. They have, however, been thoroughly marinated in correct politi- cal thought and are filled with misguided ideas of America, seen through academic lenses. They are then driven to enter the world of politics and are chomping at the bit to put all those wonderful ideas their professor provided into action. That’s especially dan- gerous because they know nothing of history and are unable to evaluate that which they are proposing.
That seems pretty much to me how we arrived at this ugly spot in history where the future of this Democratic society hangs in the balance thanks to a wrong-headed approach by a government full of bureaucrats who wanted to be in charge of our educational system and the people our politicians put in charge of the asylum.
Yes, perhaps it seems simplistic, but we think the best way is to return control of our broken educational system to the people with most at stake — the parents who have children in those schools. Every time government gets involved with programs like Common Core and The California Healthy Youth Act, one can bet things will go wrong. Government is systemically incapable of running anything, much less the education of our children.
If control is not soon returned to the parents, we can expect another generation of wrong-headed politicians with unworkable schemes.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Opportunities in life are what make America great
By Glenn Mollette
Guest columnist
People around the world dream of coming to America and having a bet- ter life. Since our found- ing as a nation, millions have come here and found a better life than they left behind. We can be proud of this in our country. Wel- coming those who desire to come here and work hard is good for them but espe- cially good for us. We now have about thirty-seven million legal immigrants in the United States.
Dr. Erin Berber is an Endocrinologist at Cleve- land Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. He was raised and educated in Turkey. He graduated from Istanbul Medical School but came to America for additional medical training. He has been with Cleveland Clinic since 2005. I wasn’t sure
‘Legalized execution’
The new law bill, “Born Alive Pro- tection Act” to protect babies from abortion after birth, was defeated in New York legislation. Heartless liberal lawmakers cheered a brutal abortion law that was defeated. Forty-four of 47 Democratic senators voted down the bill.
Democrat socialist liberals say itt’s okay to execute a baby on the fourth trimester. They say it’s just a friend- less, wombless, defenseless thing.
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of opportunity for them but also they have helped make our nation greater.
America has been a land of opportunity for people from around the world. Therefore, we must keep ourselves free and this requires a strong mili- tary, secure border, good law enforcement and the freedom for all Americans to be able to protect our- selves. The government should provide good roads and bridges and ensure that all Americans have access to good affordable health care. After this we all need an environment where we can pursue a life of peace- ful existence and our daily dreams with a reasonable tax rate.
My grandpa Hinkle operated a small rural Appalachian grocery for
most of his life. He and grandma Hinkle worked in the store together un- til he was 83 and she was about 80. He worked up until two weeks before his death. Life was six days a week of long hours but with grit and no one else to care for them they made a liv- ing and raised ten children in an impoverished East Kentucky culture. My dad worked underground mines for over 30 years while he and mom farmed and raised five children. They worked hard but we had a good life.
America must continue to be a place where people with desire and determina- tion have a chance to make something of themselves. This makes America great.
Contact Glenn Mollette at GMollette@aol.com. Learn more at glennmol- lette.com.
that I liked him very much when he recommended that my entire thyroid should be removed. The biopsy indi- cated a strong suspicion of cancer on one side and he didn’t like how the other side looked. He was right as I had four malignant nod- ules pathology would later confirm. Looking back, I like him a lot better know- ing now I was in the hands of a very capable, trained surgeon who took care of me. I didn’t care that he was from Turkey. He knew what he was doing.
There are a lot of doc- tors in America from India, Turkey and other countries. Many of them have come to America, completed medi- cal school or done their post medical school training. Many have stayed, become incredible citizens and made our country even bet- ter. We have been a nation
Letters from readers
It’s not even a person, as these liberal senators all agreed. They said, women have rights to an abortion, even to the end of the fourth trimester.
This is legalized execution at its worst. Maybe liberals-socialists are not aware of past history; there is evidence God’s wrath fell on man- kind when people took it upon them- selves to disobey God’s command- ment. A child with ears, hands, legs, eyes, and mouth-even the semblance of a brain is left to die on the table, or wasted.
Where will this end? Are we so cruel that we have thrown away the very basic feelings and forgotten how to weep? Has mankind developed hearts of stone with no caring for hu- man botched babies, ready to be ex- ecuted? Are we following the likes of King Herod and the Angel of death? Is this what we can expect from the horrors of Satan and Socialism?
Wake up America... the end of time, might be closer than we think!
Manuel Madrid Reedley