Louis R. Avallone

Author: liz

  • After the Party

    After the Party

    The qualifying period for the general election in Louisiana ended last week, and the slate of candidates that will appear on the October 24 ballot next month has been set. However, there’s an ocean of difference between the candidates who “qualified” for the election this fall by simply signing-up, and those who are the best candidates for the position because they can solve the problems facing our community – instead of just complaining about them, or stating the obvious with more speeches and empty promises.

    And over the next 30 days or so, there will be lots of news reports, billboards, yard signs, radio and television commercials, and door-to-door canvassing of neighborhoods to inform the voters, so that “we the people” can elect the best candidate for each office, and not merely a qualified one.

    But that means that “we the people” must show up. Did you know that only about a third of Louisiana’s voters voted in the last gubernatorial election in 2011? It’s estimated that only 1 million of Louisiana’s 2.8 million registered voters went to the polls. This was the fewest number of voters to cast ballots in a governor’s race since 1975.

    There’s probably a lot of folks out there right now who would just as soon stay at home on election day. In fact, that’s what happened in the 2012 presidential election. For Republicans, it is estimated that 3-4 million conservative voters stayed home. They just didn’t show up on election day.

    And the Democrats, too, have less engaged, fewer motivated members than at any time in their history. As President Obama’s former campaign manager described the Democrat Party, “We have a turnout issue.”

    And perhaps this is why 42% of Americans, on average, are estimated to identify themselves as political independents or “no party”. This is the highest percentage of political independents in more than 75 years of public opinion polling.

    You see, here’s what’s going on, and I hope you are sitting down: Our political party system is dying, and sadly, it is perhaps the last, best defense we have in guarding our freedom.

    Here’s why: The special interests and the media have already virtually replaced the people’s interests, for all intents and purposes, because we’ve allowed them to take the place of our political parties. We’ve abandoned the power of the people for so long, the special interests and the media feel entitled to it now.

    But large-scale democracies need an institution, like political parties, to educate the electorate and organize public opinion.  Edmund Burke deemed it impossible for legislative bodies to make policy without forming coalitions. In fact, he believed that parties are wholly necessary to the performance of this public duty.

    This is because strong parties represent the people – not the special interests – regardless of whether you are Republican or Democrat. And when the parties compete with each other for membership, the parties must appeal to all voters regardless of wealth or status, color or creed, etc. and this encourages (or inspires) each citizen to participate in decision-making, and makes them feel like their vote matters, which is something today so many feel the exact opposite.

    PACs and special interest groups, on the other hand, have the effect of widening the disparity in political equality. The importance of money in politics gives wealthy groups disproportionate influence and this means that politicians tend to appeal to the pressure groups and their narrow interests, rather than a majority of the voters, which is why the middle class feels forgotten (the silent majority), and why so many feel that their political party has left them behind.

    Strong political parties can check the abuse of power by elites and keep the government more accountable. The law is ineffective at holding officials responsible, and we’ve already seen this, with executive order after executive order in Washington.

    At least the Democrats and Republicans must go before the voters each election to face criticism and take responsibility for their actions. What is the analogous mechanism to force the media and special interest groups to take responsibility for their actions, or the abuse of the people’s trust?

    As long as we allow the media and the special interest groups to take the place of the political party system in our country, more and more voters will register as “no party”, democratic representation of the majority will decline, our government will continue doing what it’s doing and we’ll continue to get what we’ve been getting.

    And to the 25% of Louisiana voters registering as “no party”, I say this: Whether you feel that your party’s leadership in Congress, or in Baton Rouge, has abandoned you, you have not abandoned what you believe, in your heart of hearts. And if you value democracy, it’s time to renew our political party system, and take back the power of the people. It can start with you – whether you feel “qualified” or not.

     

  • Trying Times

    Trying Times

    “THESE are the times that try men’s souls,” begins an essay by Thomas Paine, written back in 1776, as he sought to express in plain words a compelling vision for a new nation which believes that each of us are endowed by our Creator with “certain unalienable Rights”. He wrote this essay during a most challenging time for the Continental Army, which had suffered countless and mounting captures, and casualties, in the depths of winter, and under the merciless attack of the British war machine.

    We also seem to be living in merciless times today that “try men’s souls,” don’t we? Last month, for example, our state mourned the loss of three law enforcement officers who were all killed in the line of duty. Our nation has learned that the dismemberment of millions of unborn babies, and the sale of those pieces and parts is not only legal, but is publicly financed, as well. In Lafayette, we witnessed a man open fire in a movie theater, and kill 2 innocent people. In Tennessee, 4 marines were ambushed and murdered at a recruiting office simply because they were soldiers. In Virginia last month, we saw a disgruntled employee murder two of his co-workers, on live television, in wanton disregard for the value of human life.

    We’ve lost control over who is coming into our country, as the drug cartels and human traffickers flourish, and the number of illegal immigrants have grown to over 12 million, costing our country $113 billion per year. We’ve even established “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants, where federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are prevented from enforcing federal immigration laws – often releasing violent criminals back into our communities.

    Our national debt has doubled since 2008 and there are more Americans receiving food stamps now, and more Americans unemployed, than at any time in our nation’s history.

    Terrorists are taking control of cities in Iraq and leaders in Iran chant “Death to America”, even as we capitulate in our opposition to Iran achieving nuclear capability.

    North Korea is building a nuclear arsenal, Russia has flexed its military muscle by invading the Republic of Georgia and Ukraine. China is modernizing its weapons with fighter jets, developing hypersonic missiles and building ballistic missile submarines.

    Yes, these are indeed “times that try men’s souls”. We have nearly 20 men and women campaigning right now to become President of the United States, promising to resolve many of these issues for us. Meanwhile, voters are wringing their hands, and wondering if it’s too late to turn our country around.

    But we’ve tried this before, haven’t we? In 2008, Americans believed in “hope and change”, and ended up with neither. At the time, Americans were yearning for someone to lead them, and many projected onto (then) Senator Obama all of their private hopes of what a President should be. When he was elected, he said we’d be able to “provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless”. He said it would be the moment when we “secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth”, and “when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.”

    None of this happened, of course. But rather than blame any person, or party, or the economy, or even bad luck, I say that there is no one to blame but ourselves, because until we change as a people, we can’t expect our country to change because we elect a handful of elected officials every 4 years with nothing more than good intentions on their resume.

    The famous Zig Ziglar once said, “Building a better you is the first step to building a better America.” And he was right.

    For example, when was the last time that you read a book? It’s often said that the difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read. Where will we be in 5 years if 50% of U.S. adults today cannot read an 8th grade level book, and 1 out 3 Americans never even pick-up a book after they graduate highschool – or college.

    Instead of reading, we spend nearly 2 hours everyday on social media, and almost 6 hours per day in some form of leisure activity, such as watching television. It should be no surprise that nearly 75% of Americans can’t say why we fought the Cold War, or why 50% of us cannot name all 3 branches of government.

    And although we were founded as a Christian nation, a recent Gallup poll revealed that a majority of Americans consider “being faithful to my religion” as one of the two least important things that matter in their lives.

    To restore our nation to greatness, there is no time to waste, and further distance from God has only made things worse. There is no one from the government riding in on a “white horse” to save us. That’s been tried, many times. This time, you and I are it.

    In the words of Les Brown, “You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” And unless we change as a people first (our habits, routines, etc.), then neither will our country. The question is, are you willing to change, grab life by the collar, gut this out, grow yourself, and turn our country around – or are you merely willing to complain about it?

     

  • Knowing Better

    Knowing Better

    Being informed today about current events is both easier, and more difficult, than perhaps at any time in our nation’s history. While our access to information from various sources is growing more expansive, we have increasingly less time available to give thoughtful consideration to any of it – not to mention discern fact from fiction.

    Many of us are working longer hours to make ends meet and reading the news is less of a priority when children have their homework to finish, baths to take, and the checkbook still has to be balanced.

    So last Sunday, when I read Prentiss Smith’s column on this editorial page, where he attempted to simplify the thought process for black voters this fall by reminding them that voting for Republicans is analogous to voting for racists, I got angry.

    I got angry because it’s a lie, and because history is filled with examples of lies that have oppressed the human spirit, in an attempt to seize those rights that were granted unto us only by God – and not by government. But as Hitler’s propaganda minister understood, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” And this is the case when it comes to Democrats.

    Prentiss knows better that Republicans enacted the civil rights laws in the 1950’s and 1960’s, over the objection of Democrats. He knows that even though Democrats are considered more caring and sympathetic to the plight of the poor, it has been the Democrat-led welfare programs over the past 50 years, which have virtually destroyed the black family, and the black community.

    He’s aware that before these welfare programs began in 1965, only 22% of black children were born into single parent families, but that after these Democrat-led programs began, the illegitimacy rate in the black community tripled to almost 70%. He knows too this sent millions of black families into poverty, since the poverty rate for single-mother families is nearly five times more than the rate for married-couple families, not to mention that boys born to these single-mothers (especially who didn’t finish high school) are twice as likely to end up in prison, as well.

    He knows the statistics back then show that the unemployment rate among young black men was not only lower than it is today, before these welfare programs were enacted, but that it was nearly the same as the unemployment rate for whites.

    And he knows that today the race hustlers in the Democrat Party are still manipulating the black community, even as the unemployment rate for blacks continues to balloon under this administration – an unemployment rate that is twice as high as whites, and almost as much as the unemployment rate of Asians and Hispanics combined.

    And he knows that Washington is marginalizing the black community more each day by allowing more illegal immigrants to flood the market, reducing wages and employment opportunities in the black community (not to mention taking their votes for granted) because there are simply not enough low-skilled jobs to go around for both blacks and illegal immigrants.

    Despite these facts, the lie persists that Republicans are racist and therefore (according to Prentiss) need to find a way to broaden their appeal to blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc.

    I disagree. This pandering has gone on for too long now, and our nation has to only political correctness and trillions of dollars of debt to show for it. It has divided us as a country, and is one of the reasons that Americans are frustrated with our political party system in the first place, and are registering to vote as “no party” instead. Republicans sounding like Democrats will have the same destructive effect on the black community that Democrats have had all these years.

    So, no, the Republican Party does not need to talk to minorities as minorities – we ought to be talking to one another as Americans, demanding results, instead of more rhetoric, and planning for the long-run, instead of merely how to win elections.

  • Don’t Give Weeds a Fighting Chance

    Don’t Give Weeds a Fighting Chance

    ­It’s often said that life is a fight for territory, and that once we stop fighting for what we want, what we don’t want will automatically take over. We need only to turn on the television, or pick-up a newspaper, or read comments on social media to realize exactly what we, as a country, have stopped fighting for – and what has automatically taken over.

    Too many have stopped fighting for moral values by their silence, while others openly mock traditions and customs, such as building a stable family unit that is committed to the precepts of the Bible, or protecting and defending life, especially the most vulnerable.

    Many more of us say today, “to each his own”, or “that’s none of my business,” or “it’s not my place to judge”. And as a result, more and more of us are teaching our children that morality is a matter of opinion, convenience, or consensus. Our children then grow up in a culture where right or wrong is not so much an absolute, as much as it is a decision about what makes us feel good, or is convenient for us – even if it is destructive to ourselves and to others.

    Our seeming indifference to immorality is akin to watering the weeds in a garden, instead of removing them altogether – the weeds only get taller and stronger, while the fruitful plants become smaller and weaker.

    And the “weeds” seem to be flourishing. Last month, a gunman opened fire in a Lafayette theater, murdering 2 people, and maiming countless others in the process. Barely 2 weeks before that, a 25-year old man killed four U.S. marines at a military recruiting center in Chattanooga. In June, a 21-year old man killed nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina during a prayer meeting.

    And these are just the well-reported, senseless mass-shootings by those who have no regard for the sanctity of human life. But these mass-shootings are taking over our culture, it seems. In fact, it is reported that there have been 206 mass shootings so far in 2015 – nearly 1 mass shooting everyday this year where four or more persons were shot.

    Not surprisingly, our murder rates are climbing, as well. In Milwaukee, twice as many people were killed in the first half of 2015 as in the same period last year. In St. Louis, murders are up by 60%; in New Orleans, by 30%; in Washington, DC, by 18%; in New York by 11%.

    More and more of us feel unsafe in our own homes, or going to the grocery store, or taking our children to the theater or a sporting event – or even sending them into our schools.

    To make us feel safe, there are calls to install more metal detectors in public places, and more cameras in our shopping malls, and more security guards during worship services on Sunday mornings.

    Maybe you are one who says that gun control is the solution to the carnage in our country because if bad people didn’t have guns, they couldn’t murder people as easily. Even if that were accurate, making new laws won’t effectively do anything to reduce the number of guns currently in our country, and FBI crime statistics show more people are murdered by clubs and hammers, than rifles and shotguns, anyways.

    And then there are those that say we should simply pray to God to save us. That’s always a good idea. But worshipping in our churches on Sundays is not enough, if we are unwilling to change our ways, or abandon the “to each his own”, or “that’s none of my business,” or “it’s not my place to judge” mentality that is so entrenched in our culture now.

    Our prayerful words seem meaningless if we allow our culture to silence the expression of our moral values, and if we all choose, instead, to live our lives on our terms – and not on God’s.

    You see, protecting one another from evil is an “inside” job. It starts inside our homes, where children are being raised by adults – instead of YouTube. This is because it is the family that passes down wisdom on how to live one’s life best.

    And through the family, from generation to generation, by word of mouth and religious teachings, we all learn what works, and what doesn’t, harvested from trial-and-error, and not from what’s merely easier to do or popular in our culture.

    Calling for more police officers, or new laws, or adding metal detectors is important, but it ignores the reality that we can never protect one another from the growing number of people whose understanding of right or wrong is not so much an absolute as much as it is a decision about what makes them feel good.

    You see, we’ll eventually run out of police officers and metal detectors in our country – there simply are not enough of them to go around, in all the places they will be needed in the future, based on the present trends. The question really is, will our country eventually run out of righteous people like you first, in all of the places you will be needed, instead?

     

  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind

    Out of Sight, Out of Mind

    There are not many readers who would encourage smoking, drinking alcohol, or taking drugs while pregnant. In fact, many people become angry – and sad – when they see reports on television, or read stories in the newspapers about women who abused alcohol, or ingested methamphetamines, for example, during their pregnancies, and their babies suffered, as a result.

    Recently, there was a story of a 22-year old mom from Tulsa who gave birth to a premature baby while she was high on drugs, and then placed the infant on a pile of trash and did nothing while the baby turned blue. Or the heart-wrenching stories from hospitals, where often a baby’s first experience of the world is the slow withdrawal from drugs, as they suffer vomiting, diarrhea, low-grade fevers, and seizures, because their mom abused heroin, for example, during her pregnancy (heroin use by women alone, incidentally, is up 100% since 2009).

    Even the unapologetically, pro-choice magazine, Cosmopolitan, recently tweeted out that it was “REALLY disturbing” to see how unborn babies react when their mothers smoke and that “nicotine is terrible for unborn children”.

    On one hand, then, there are those whose hearts hurt for the babies in the neonatal intensive care units, or the addicted babies whose pain can be viewed through the monitor during an ultrasound scan.

    And on the other hand, many of these same people remain silent on – or even promote – the matter of abortion or the selling of fetal body parts for science, which are harvested from those abortions.

    The trouble for those whose hearts cry out for the newborn child suffering in NICU with tremors and sweating, and not for the unborn child killed in a way that would best preserve its body parts for sale, is that – for too long – out of sight has been also out of mind.

    But as technology continues to make more visible the life of the unborn (and no longer out of sight) remaining silent is becoming more difficult to reconcile with one’s conscience. After all, for many, abortion is a private decision only between a woman and her doctor, as part of a Constitutional right to privacy. If that’s true, then none of us have any standing to object to how many drugs or how much alcohol a pregnant woman ingests, which may be slowly killing her unborn child, since none of us have any standing, in the first place, to object to her killing the unborn child altogether, all at once.

    It’s insincere and inconsistent to express disapproval at a pregnant woman who is abusing drugs or alcohol, while at the same time we are condoning the killing of their unborn child. And until we reconcile this contradiction, the problem will only get worse.

    In fact, Louisiana already performs worse than nearly every other state in the nation for infant mortality rates, preterm births, low birth weights, etc.

    And that is saying a lot, because nationally the number of addicted babies admitted to neonatal intensive care units has nearly quadrupled – with a new addicted baby being born every 25 minutes.

    There are some people that say the dangers of alcohol or cocaine to the unborn child, for example, are exaggerated, and that calls for concern are merely the invention of pro-life supporters who are wanting to find ways to criminalize abortion, and interfere with the relationship between a woman and her doctor.

    The problem with that is the federal government’s own studies, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which indicate that the suffering to both the mother and unborn child are real. They concluded that smoking during pregnancy can cause tissue damage in the unborn baby, particularly in the lung and brain, and babies whose mothers smoked are about three times more likely to die from SIDS.

    They found that mothers who drink alcohol can cause the baby to develop issues in learning and remembering, understanding, and following directions, controlling emotions, communicating, and socializing. And their statistics show that taking drugs during pregnancy also increases the likelihood of birth defects and stillborn births.

    But all of this is only important if you end giving birth to the child in the first place. Otherwise, if the unborn child is killed and its body parts are sorted for sale, it’s just another day at the abortion clinic.

    For the pro-choice crowd, however, that’s seems more desirable, since for them it is more painful to see a child suffering on life-support, than after an abortion and on the inventory sheet.

     

  • Happiness to Blame

    Happiness to Blame

    So, what is it for you? What will make you happy? When you get that raise? When you finally finish the project you are working on? Maybe it’s when you get that promotion or retire? Or when you finally get moved into the new house? Maybe it will be when you lose the weight, or stop smoking, or stop drinking, or get married. Or maybe you’re waiting for the economy to improve, or for your candidate to be elected into office?

    The trap here is that the goal post of happiness is always moving. Once you get what you wanted in the first place, most of us tend to reset the “If I had this thing, I’d be happy” thinking – and then your happiness will be once again be a distant point, off in the future.

    This is important to figure out because there’s a lot of anger in our country today. What is it for you? Maybe you’re angry at white people because of slavery. Or at rich people because they just get richer and need to share more of their wealth. Or maybe it’s the bad teachers, who aren’t providing our children with a quality education? Maybe you’re angry with those who don’t get it, and continue to fly the Confederate battle flag, or you’re angry with those who disagree with the Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples can marry nationwide. Perhaps you hate America so much that you burn our flag, in hopes that it may one day be replaced by the banner of Islam.

    Whatever it is that has us angry, more than likely, even when the source of that anger diminishes, most folks will still be unhappy and looking for someone, or something new, to blame. Maybe next you will blame your wife, or your pastor, your kids, or your co-worker. Maybe it will be the next President, or a past President. After all, when things go wrong in life, it’s natural for us to blame, because then we don’t have to accept responsibility for what we did, or didn’t do.

    We come by this quite naturally, though. Remember in the Garden of Eden?

    God: “Adam, did you eat the fruit?”

    Adam: “Eve gave it to me.”

    God: “OK. Eve, did you eat the fruit?”

    The problem is that none of us can improve any situation unless we accept responsibility for ourselves, and otherwise reject the philosophy that someone else, or something else, is to blame for our circumstances in life – whether it happened last week, or from when you were a child, or even 150 years ago.

    You see, there is greatness within all of us, but when we resort to blame, and refuse to take life on, and accept responsibility for our circumstances, we hand over the power – the control of our very destiny – to others, as if other “people” or the government will fix everything for us, like a genie in a bottle.

    Here’s the bottom line, though: Happiness is an inside job. Only you can make you happy, and furthermore, it’s no one’s job to make you happy. Not other people. Not the federal government, or the Supreme Court. Not your kids. Not the rich. Not your spouse. Your life is intended to be lived fully…because there is greatness already within you.

    The sooner we let go of our excuses, and more of us take responsibility for our own pursuit of happiness, the sooner we will have the power to change our lives, and our nation, for the better. It’s much easier to come up with excuses, of why we are where we are in our lives. It’s easy to complain about our situation or our circumstances, or to give up on our dreams, and become angry or depressed, or live in the past. Anyone can do that.

    But, if it is true, as Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be,” then the question today is, “What will it be for you?” How happy will you make your mind up to be?

  • The Fixer

    The Fixer

    We all know the “fixer”. That’s the person in almost everyone’s life who tries to make sure that everyone is happy – or that no one is disappointed. It’s the person in your life that intervenes whenever something is wrong, and tries to make peace wherever there is conflict. In fact, maybe you’re a “fixer”, yourself.

    We tend to vote for “fixers”, too. Our government is filled with them. These are the candidates that promise everything to everyone. The ones that promise to reduce our national debt, even as it has doubled since 2008. The ones that promise to decrease income inequality and poverty, even though there are more Americans receiving food stamps now, and more Americans unemployed, than at any time in our nation’s history.

    Most times, “fixers” are not bad people – just misinformed. They’re people pleasers. And people pleasers have been around a long time. In fact, Rome’s greatest orator, Marcus Cicero, received this campaign advice from his brother in 64 B.C: “Candidates should say whatever the crowd of the day wants to hear.” That advice is equivalent to our modern-day, quintessential political correctness.

    But the political correctness has gotten out of hand. You see, we can’t even ask someone from another country, “Where are you from?” these days for fear of them feeling you are calling them a “foreigner”. Or saying that “America is a melting pot” because that could be considered racist in that you are denying a person their own racial/ethnic experiences. Or expressing that you believe “the most qualified person should get the job”, because that might be taken that minorities are given extra, unfair advantages because of their race. Or saying that “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough,” could be offensive to some because they might think you are saying the poor are lazy and/or incompetent, and just need to work harder.

    And it’s getting more ridiculous by the day. In New York City, Mayor de Blasio just signed a law that will prohibit employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal record prior to any job offer. Of course, it is already illegal to not hire someone based solely on their criminal convictions (unless they pose a clear threat to persons or property), but under the new law in New York City, businesses can’t even ask any questions to assess that threat until AFTER they offer the applicant the job. Really?

    Apparently, our court system wants in on the “fixing” of things too because last month the U.S. Supreme Court “fixed” Obamacare (for a second time) by allowing federal subsidies in all 50 states, even in states that did not set-up health insurance exchanges – and even as Obamacare is failing. The Congressional Budget Office now expects that 10 million workers will lose their employer-based coverage by 2021 and that there will be 31 million uninsured under Obamacare, up from its 23 million forecast made in 2011. Unbelievable.

    Another recent example of our government “fixing” something are the new proposed rules from the Department of Labor (introduced last month), affecting “exempt” workers and overtime pay. According to the Department of Labor’s website, the new rules are intended to “transfer income from employers to employees in the form of higher earnings”. This “fix” could not come at a worse time for businesses in our country, since businesses are shutting down at a higher rate today than they are being opened up, which is the first time this has happened in over 35 years, shuttering future job growth now, as well.

    We could go on and on, but the bottom line is that our government cannot “fix” all things for us. Government cannot make us content, make us feel respected or accepted, confer achievement, build our self-esteem, or eliminate life’s inevitable ups and down.

    Despite how much politicians may care about others, they cannot keep anyone from experiencing tough times, mainly because our happiness (or unhappiness) depends on our own actions, and not the hopes or wishes of any government, regardless of how many laws they pass to step in and “fix” this or that – or to make sure everyone is happy.

    “Fixing” our problems by being politically correct, or being all things to all people, has not worked, and perhaps if we stopped trying to “fix” everyone’s problems, we could solve our most important ones for good.

  • Before It’s Too Late

    It is impossible to forget, that just four days before last Christmas, two (2) New York City police officers were ambushed, and murdered, in their parked patrol car in Brooklyn. The murderer attributed his motive to revenge, and his cowardly act came only days after Al Sharpton led protesters through the streets of New York City chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!”

    This ridiculous rhetoric is nonetheless resonating with a growing number of people in our country, despite the fact that these men and women voluntarily place their own lives in harm’s way to serve our communities, and protect our children, even though they may never get to see their own children again, in doing so. They wake up every morning knowing they will be subjected to cursing and screaming tantrums, including threats to their own safety, and outright challenges to their authority.

    They go to work knowing that a police officer is killed every 58 hours in our country, leaving behind countless sons and daughters, and wives and husbands, who must now live their own lives without their loved ones, so that we might live better and safer lives, instead.[br][br]
    From Ferguson to Baltimore, police officers are increasingly being accused of racism and the use of excessive force. But are there bad police officers? Surely there are, just as there are bad plumbers, doctors, lawyers, dry cleaners, and teachers who all could do their jobs better. There’s no doubt.

    Out of 800,000 police officers across the country, certainly there is some percentage of them who are racist, as well. There’s no doubt. Some who are too aggressive. Some who make very poor judgments. Again, there’s no doubt.

    But an encounter with a police officer is not an opportunity to prove these points, or to become part of a YouTube video that documents your disrespect of authority.

    As Franklin Graham put it, “If a police officer tells you to stop, you stop. If a police officer tells you to put your hands in the air, you put your hands in the air. If a police officer tells you to lay down face first with your hands behind your back, you lay down face first with your hands behind your back.”

    The trouble is there’s a growing number of people who don’t get it, and are cooping up the cops, and driving them out of our communities, except in times of emergencies, when we ask them to place themselves between us and harm’s way. And unfortunately, it’s in our poorest neighborhoods –– that need police presence the most. Or to provide a father figure for those who have none, and to give hope to those who might have given up that there’s still good in our world.

    Because it’s becoming easier and easier to sue police officers for even the most menial of interactions or infractions, community policing, or proactive policing, is declining. This was the practice of arresting offenders for less serious crimes, sending them to jail for a few days or weeks, which then interrupts the arrestees’ more serious criminal activities.

    Proactive policing is credited in New York City with the largest crime drop on record, overwhelmingly in minority neighborhoods – and that is over the past 20 years.

    As a result of this proactive policing, the prison population in New York has declined, while prison populations rise across the country. In fact, a recent study indicates that you can decrease incarceration, without increasing crime, by having more law enforcement, not less.

    And yet liberals, like the mayor of Baltimore, believe the opposite. Remember, during the recent riots, she instructed the police to back off, and give space to “those who wished to destroy”. Incredible.

    Again and again, the results of less law enforcement is deadly to the very communities who need it most. Gun violence is now up more than 60% in Baltimore, with 32 shootings just over Memorial Day weekend. And it’s spreading. In Milwaukee, homicides are up 180% this year, over the same period last year. Same in St. Louis, where shootings are up 39%, robberies 43%, and homicides 25%.

    In Atlanta, murders are up 32%, and in Chicago, shootings are up 24% and homicides are up 17%. The list can go on and on. It’s epidemic, and the media reports of police misconduct claims are sending our police departments into virtual hibernation.

    A lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department put it this way: “I get a lot of calls where the officers are basically telling me they’re going to roll up their windows, they’re going to answer the box — the radio calls — and they’re just going to go from call to call…and do their job. But other than that, they’re just going to shut down. They’re not going to do any proactive police work.”

    And that’s not good for anyone. So, here is the bottom line: Without police, law and order, we have nothing. Police officers don’t deserve to be argued with, threatened, or called names. They deserve our respect, and if our nation is to flourish again, these good men and women must be invited back in our communities before it’s too late. As it is often said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

  • Call Me Mannerly, First

    Call Me Mannerly, First

    Do you know that there are 50 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute? Or that there are 6,000 messages sent on Twitter every second? And that there are more than a billion people who are regularly sharing stories, links, photos and videos on Facebook? It reminds me of the Toby Keith song from 2001, “I Want To Talk About Me”:

    I want to talk about me
    Want to talk about I
    Want to talk about number one
    Oh my me my
    What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
    I want to talk about me

    Our nation, and indeed the world, has increasingly placed a greater emphasis on the fact that each of us should do what makes us feel good, or comfortable, regardless of how good, or comfortable, doing such makes others feel – and to make sure everyone knows we’re doing it. Some say that the self-esteem movement from the 1980s is to blame, as many parents and teachers emphasized the confidence of children as priority, rather than making the children face the consequences of their choices, or otherwise “feel” bad.

    At Jesuit High School in New Orleans, for example, there recently were ten valedictorians recognized at graduation. At some high schools there are more than 100 valedictorians. Now, many schools are abandoning the recognition of valedictorian altogether, because of how it makes the other students “feel”.

    Many schools also won’t even post the honor roll any longer because how it makes those students “feel” who do not qualify. In fact, schools now have created the “Effort Honor Roll.” This is for the kids who want to “feel” good about not qualifying to be on the honor roll, in the first place. And at Field Day, yes, everyone gets a ribbon, just for participating.

    To borrow a line from the movie, The Incredibles, “Everyone’s special,” says one character, only to have another reply, “Which is another way of saying no one is.”

    You see, we’ve watered-down our standards so much that it’s quite easy for no one to feel special, or to be recognized for any extraordinary achievement or applauded for their good choices, since we don’t want to make any one “feel” bad for making bad ones.

    Maybe this lack of feeling special is why narcissism is on the rise, where more and more people find the need to inflate their view of themselves, leading to relative indifference of the needs of others. In fact, compared to 30 years ago, 70 percent of students today score higher on narcissism, and lower on empathy. This means more people than ever are willing to share more and more lurid details of their lives with you and me.

    But is that a good thing, for any of us?

    Look at Bruce Jenner, for example. He says he has always been a woman, and that by making this transition, “We’re going to change the world.” Regardless of your opinion of his particular situation, do we need to know the most intimate details of complete strangers? What greater good does it serve, other than the way it makes the person sharing the details “feel”?

    Is it a good thing that my 8 year-old son knows that a father can become a woman, because of a new television series being advertised on the Disney Channel? No, it’s not.

    Forget about the subject matter, though. Today it’s gender selection. Next week it could be polygamy. Next year it will be who knows what. That’s not the point. Morality aside, at the end of the day, we should only share intimate details about ourselves to complete strangers if it would be mannerly to do so.

    “Manners,” says Emily Post, “are sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners.” Without that awareness, you don’t.

    Manners are more than choosing the right fork at dinner, or placing your napkin in your lap. It’s more than if you notice someone has a zipper down or an earring that is missing, and you take them aside in private and tell them. Or if someone tells a story wrong, you just let it go without correcting them. Or if you want to tell a child about how a man can become a woman, and decide that’s really a discussion for the child’s parents to have.

    Being mannerly means being aware that what you do, or share with others, affects the greater good for us all. It means recognizing that no one should “feel” good at the expense of everyone else’s liberty, whether it’s removing references to God in our schools or to raising expectations from one another – even at the risk of hurt feelings.

    There are parents, for example, who insist their children be respected by the teacher, and yet they are disrespectful to the teachers themselves. Or those who demand respect from law enforcement officers, but are often anything but respectful, in return.

    Will the number of people who believe the world revolves them continue to grow? It may. But in the meantime, folks can call you Caitlyn or Bruce, or whatever you like. As for me, I’d like to call you mannerly first.

  • Are You Fiddling Me?

    Are You Fiddling Me?

    In 1964, Lyndon Johnson was the first U.S. President to provide the commencement address to the cadets of the United States Coast Guard Academy. He rallied the cadets and explained, in the words of Winston Churchill, that “civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless mankind unites together to defend them.” And President Johnson’s administration understood those words all too well, being as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof – confronting one foreign crisis after another.

    From assisting the South Vietnamese to defeat Communist aggression, to signing a treaty with the Soviet Union to ban nuclear weapons in outer space, to signing a treaty to prohibit the transfer of nuclear weapons to other nations, and to backing down the Cubans in Guantanamo Bay, these were serious times for our nation. And the world knew it.

    Today, we too face serious times.

    Right now, we have terrorists taking control of cities in Iraq and controlling 50% of Syria. Iran is moving ever closer to nuclear capability, and North Korea is building a nuclear arsenal, while testing long-range missiles that could strike the U.S. mainland. Russia has flexed its military muscle, and invaded the Republic of Georgia and Ukraine. China is modernizing its weapons with fighter jets, developing prototypes for hypersonic missiles, and building ballistic missile submarines. Our own nation’s borders are so porous that even the U.S. Border Patrol admits that they don’t know who is coming across the border, or whether they wish us well or ill.

    Even so, and faced with these threats to peace and freedom around the world, do you know what President Obama identified as the “core” of their military service, when he addressed the cadets earlier this month? Climate change.

    Yep. Climate change.

    The world is on fire and President Obama is calling upon these cadets to “to start reducing” its carbon emissions now, although he never explained exactly how they could make a difference. On the other hand, China (which is the largest holder of U.S. debt) is now building one or two new coal-fired power stations per week, until at least 2030. It was in 2007 that China overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest carbon emitter and now produces twice as much as the U.S., and 50% of all coal combusted globally.

    He also told cadets that climate change is a key pillar of American global leadership. Really? Soon, China alone will be responsible for 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and that’s even based on the agreement we just made with them to reduce carbon emissions.

    He also explained to the cadets that when he meets with leaders around the world, “it (climate change) is often at the top of our agenda – a core element of our diplomacy.” Really? How about the murdering of Christians in Muslim war zones, or the trafficking of children by the millions in China, the manipulation of gas prices by Russia, or the ever increasing national debt of the United States, which should we default, would threaten currencies worldwide? Does any of this ever come up, in passing or over coffee?

    Speeches like President Obama’s to the cadets makes some Americans wonder where if we have our priorities in order, and despite the imperfection of the past, it makes us wish for a time when America better knew what was most important, and, more critically, understood the order in which it must all be done.

    Obama could have reminded the cadets, and their families, of the legacy of the Coast Guard, and how they have served our nation honorably. In World War II, they were among the first casualties of war on the day after Pearl Harbor. He could have inspired them by explaining how Coast Guardsmen were piloting the landing craft on D-day, when our soldiers hit the beaches at Normandy. Or how the Coast Guard rescued over 1,500 soldiers that day when their boats had been sunk by enemy fire.

    He could have inspired them with any number of stories of selflessness and love of country. But he didn’t.

    And so I am reminded of the expression, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”. It comes to mind because of the obliviousness of the President’s remarks to the most pressing threats facing our country, and because not only did Nero “fiddle” while his people suffered, he was a poor leader in a time of crisis, as well.

    Although it’s only an expression (especially since the fiddle did not exist in ancient Rome), the danger of ignoring what’s most important is still as destructive as it was in 11 A.D. when Rome burned. The question for us all, especially to those whom we elect to public office, is simply this: What are you fiddling with, while our “Rome” is burning?

    Image credit: Jon McNaughton