Louis R. Avallone

Category: Columns

  • What’s Past is Prologue

    What’s Past is Prologue

    Can we talk for a minute? It’s about this governor’s race. Now, please understand, I’m the first one in line to expect a higher standard from myself, as well as from those whom we cast our ballots to lead our cities, represent us in Baton Rouge, and make our nation’s laws in Washington. But having high standards, and electing less-than-perfect public servants are not mutually exclusive, either.

    It’s entertaining for some to judge, and even ridicule, David Vitter for being…well…a sinner, or having otherwise made a mistake, or a regret that he wishes he could have gone back and had a second chance to do all over again. But that hardly makes him any different than any of us. He did not blame others, or his circumstances, as so many others in our culture are prone to do today. He didn’t allege there was some conspiracy against him. He said, “I am completely responsible. And I am so very, very sorry.” He also said he had “asked for and received forgiveness” from God and his wife in confession.

    Now, for Catholics (and Vitter is Catholic), confession is more than telling your sins to God on your way to work, or in the shower, and Him forgiving you. Confession for Catholics is a sacrament before a priest, instituted by Jesus Christ in his love and mercy, which permits all of us to reconcile with the church, and repent. Vitter did just that – and he did so many, many years ago, in fact.

    But do we all need to be defined by where we came from, or should it be about where we’re going? Unless you allow it to, why does your future need to look like your past? Abraham Lincoln had failed in business and had a nervous breakdown before being elected President. Lucille Ball was dismissed from drama school with a note saying she was “wasting her time.” The Beatles were first told by a recording studio that their sound was awful and that “guitar music was on the way out.” Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Thomas Edison was told by a teacher that he was “too stupid to learn anything”

    The point is that if our past equaled the future, what chance – what hope – would any of us have to better ourselves, redeem our lives, or enrich those around us? Those who have reservations about voting for Vitter, not because of his politics, but because of his past, may need to be reminded that no man or woman is without a defect, or burden, or is wise enough to sidestep the effects of mistakes and bad decisions that we’ve all made in the past. A more accurate indicator of someone’s future, however, is the present moment, and what they are doing right now.

    Still, there is a reader out there who says, “Well, if Vitter did that 15 years ago, he’s probably going to do that again, and embarrass us because the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” While that is relatively true, it turns out that such conventional wisdom about the “past being prologue” is a gross oversimplification, according to psychologists who study this subject.

    For example, if you smoke a pack of cigarettes everyday for a year, your past is a pretty good indicator of your cigarette smoking tendencies for the near future. Same for exercise habits or drinking alcohol. That makes sense to me.

    However, over longer periods of time, it turns out that these kinds of high frequency, habitual behaviors can actually be changed forever. For example, someone stops smoking at age 55, even though they have smoked everyday since they were a teenager. Or a heavy drinker chooses his family, over the bottle, spends the rest of his or her life sober.

    People can change. You know that. And if not voting for David Vitter has virtually nothing to do with his politics, and everything to do with his imperfection, despite him remaining “clean and sober” and solidly representing our conservative values over the past 15 years, then here’s your stone, some Windex, and some paper towels – for that glass house you’ve built.

    No, I’m not making you the issue, or the bad guy. It’s just sometimes we seem to be more and more critical of others and want to correct their imperfections, yet we are slow to mend our own (no, I’m not going to point out yours, or mine, right now). We judge others, too often without mercy, and yet pardon ourselves, too often without question. This is one of the reasons that reality television shows are so popular: It often makes us feel better about ourselves, as we watch and think to ourselves, “At least that’s not me.”

    And maybe that’s what’s going on here. Maybe many of us are looking at David Vitter and saying, “At least that’s not me, and I’m going with the other guy, instead.”

    Well, I just hope on judgment day, God doesn’t say the same thing to me.

     

     

  • This Won’t Sound Good

    This Won’t Sound Good

    This won’t sound good. It will seem uncompassionate and unfeeling. Perhaps even mean. But here it goes:

    I really don’t care to hear about Lamar Odom anymore, or the headlines that seemingly wonder aloud how this could have happened. Yes, I know he has played on two (2) NBA championship teams. And that he apparently is quite soft-spoken, and very polite. And that he is beloved by all that knew him in the NBA.

    In case you haven’t heard, here’s what Lamar Odom did: He paid $75,000 to be with two (2) women for several days, at a brothel in Nevada, where he ingested a combination of herbal supplements and cocaine, eventually ending up unconscious, being transported to a hospital where he remained in a coma for three (3) days. His road to recovery will be painful and long, and we should all pray for his speedy recovery.

    But I also know there are many men and women in our armed forces who are seeking a speedy recovery too, like Lamar. Unlike Lamar, though, they have been wounded defending our country, and many have offered their very lives – and yet for many of them, there’s scarcely a story, or headline, or mention in the local newspaper of their contribution to something far, far greater than themselves.

    So no, I’m not interested in more Lamar Odom headlines and stories. Or how he and Khloe Kardashian have jointly gone to court to dismiss their divorce case, because they want to stay husband and wife. Or how Khloe is the only one allowed to be by his side in the hospital. Or of how she skipped her sister Kim’s birthday party, so she could stay by her husband’s side instead.

    And no, I’m not that interested in how he just wanted to be a basketball legend, and lost the ability to tell the difference between those who cared more about his fame and fortune, and the genuine people who cared more about him – and wanted him to succeed. I really am not interested either in how the brothel’s owner is threatening to sue Khloe for her husband’s bill for his “partying” with the women at the brothel.

    But you see, when I say I don’t care about any of those things, what I really mean is that I don’t care about those things as much as I wonder why there are not headlines and news stories on this subject that say, “Going to a Brothel and Snorting Cocaine Is A Really Dumb Idea.” Or “Follow Your Conscience, Make Better Choices, and Live With Fewer Regrets”. Or, “Faith and Family Can Help Us Choose What’s Good, and Not Just What Feels Good”.

    But that’s not what our culture is reporting. In addition, you have Lamar’s father blaming the Kardashians for ruining his son’s life. The media is blaming the harsh spotlights of Hollywood. And ESPN is blaming pop culture tabloids and reality television shows, to explain what drove Lamar to this point.

    It seems there’s always someone else to blame these days, and it’s become a generational sentiment today. Just going back to the 1992 presidential campaign, for example, if you questioned Bill Clinton’s marital infidelity, womanizing, draft dodging, drug use, or honesty, you were told, “What difference does it matter, it’s the economy, stupid!” Or if you supported impeaching Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky matter, you were told this issue was due to a “massive, right-wing conspiracy,” and not anything that Bill Clinton did, of course.

    Sadly, from the sanctity of life, to the institution of marriage, to the freedom of religion, we are constantly reminded by too many in our culture that “character doesn’t matter” and that “right” and “wrong” is only a matter of convenience or perspective, instead of principle.

    But you know what? It does matter, because there are basic values about “right” and “wrong” that we must all share: Tell the truth, honor your commitments, remain faithful in God.

    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. And we come by this quite naturally, in fact. Remember the Garden of Eden?

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

    Adam: “Eve gave it to me.”

    But when we resort to blame, and refuse to take life on, or fail to 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.

    This is why I don’t care to hear any more about Lamar Odom. The sooner he – and our culture – can let go of our excuses, and we 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. And given Lamar’s “rags to riches” journey from Queens, New York, I suspect he would wholeheartedly agree – even if the headlines don’t say so.

  • Doing Hard Time

    Doing Hard Time

    It’s ironic. Just last month the ACLU sent a letter to the superintendent of Bossier Parish Schools demanding that “religious proselytization” at Airline High School stop immediately, especially with the principal’s unrepentant use of the phrase, “May God Bless You All.”

    Then there’s the Oklahoma Supreme Court who ruled during the summer that displaying the Ten Commandments outside the state capitol building violated a provision in the Oklahoma state constitution and therefore, the display had to be moved. In Alabama, a sheriff’s department was pressured into removing “Christian” decals from their patrol cars which read, “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” after being threatened with a lawsuit, and realizing the time and money it would take to defend themselves.

    Atheists continue to seek removal of “In God We Trust” from our nation’s currency, and an increasing number of groups are asking our school districts to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance recited by students. There’s even a Facebook page to banish the singing of “God Bless America” from the seventh-inning stretch of major league baseball games.

    Yes, it’s ironic. You see, it seems the only place in America where religious freedom is not being diminished, nor otherwise being dismantled, is in the very place where residents do not have full Constitutional rights to begin with – our prisons.

    While prison inmates lose many of their civil rights, the freedom of religion is not one of them. In fact, inmates are overwhelmingly spiritual, comparatively speaking – only 1 in every 1,000 prisoners will identify themselves as atheist, compared to 1 in every 100 Americans within the general population.

    And the importance of religion in prisons is recognized so much so that almost all of the nation’s 1,100 state and federal prisons employ at least one chaplain or religious services coordinator – nearly 1,700 professional chaplains in all. Could you imagine if every school in our country had a chaplain or religious services coordinator?

    Of course, the role of religion in prisons is not breaking news, really. The Gospel of Matthew says, “I was in prison, and you visited me.” And Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans, explains, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Essentially, whenever we have this sense of connectedness or belonging with other people, our physical and emotional health necessarily improves and when we get better on the inside – everything just tends to get better on the outside, as well.

    And the formula works, indeed. The rate of infractions while in prison, and the recidivism rate following their release from prison, is lower for inmates who have taken part of a prison fellowship program, compared to those who did not. In fact, recidivism rates are as low as 13% for inmates who participated in faith-based programs, compared to 50% who did not and unfortunately return to prison within three years from being released.

    In addition to one’s spiritual development, the cost of administering faith-based services for each inmate – about $250 per year – is a fantastic return on the dollar, especially when our prisons are greatly overpopulated and where the average taxpayer cost of care for each inmate is $31,286 per year.

    It’s a cruel reality for many people of faith in the general population that the freedom of religion may be most voraciously protected, and nurtured for growth, by our prison system, while our general population culture convenes daily to sanitize our schools, stadiums, courthouses, statehouses, and public squares from reference to any religious beliefs whatsoever.

    And even though the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that Americans have a right to hold religious beliefs and not be forced by the government to act in ways that violate those beliefs, we nonetheless are being restricted to fewer and fewer venues to act in ways that support our beliefs – from reading the Bible in schools to even saying “God Bless You,” whenever someone sneezes.

    If religion can help create more peaceful prisons and significantly reduce recidivism by connecting inmates spiritually, and making them far less likely to hurt others or to do wrong, then it seems that every cultural effort to disconnect the rest of us spiritually would have the opposite effect – making us all more likely to hurt others or do wrong.

    There are lots of folks out there who will read this column and begin pointing out the fallacies of embracing religion in the same spirit as our prisons do. They will also cite Constitutional and other legal arguments, one after another, on why it cannot be done the same.

    Legally, they may be right. But all I know is this, in the words Frederick Douglas: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” and I can’t figure out for the life of me, why a minority of Americans are so hell bent on doing it the hard way, and making us all do hard time, in the process.

  • The Shepherd Tends His Flock

    The Shepherd Tends His Flock

    Pope Francis is only the fourth Pope to visit the United States. As he visits Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, the crowds who come to see him stretch for as long as the eye can see. Many say that millions will crowd out one another to merely catch a glimpse of the Pope because our country, as well as across the world, are starving for spirituality. In fact, Mother Theresa once said that the poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty – one of spirituality, adding that “there’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”[br]

    After all, Jesus had said the same, saying, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty….” And it is perhaps this point that explains why so many millions, even those who are not of the Catholic faith, will get up at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, or travel thousands of miles, if only to be in the presence of the Pope.[br]

    And as Catholics, we believe that whenever the Pope teaches a doctrine on faith or morals, and asserts his official authority as leader of the Church, he is to be held infallible, or otherwise incapable of error. But when the Pope makes statements about what many feel are political matters, and not of faith or morality, many say that the Pope is still infallible, and should not be questioned, especially by Catholics.[br]

    Recently, the Pope advocated for the U.S. to open its borders to refugees from around the world, saying, “When the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past.” Is this a truth? Or is that his opinion?[br]

    Surely he knows that 80% of our population growth is already from immigrants that are in our country, and we spend $113 billion on the effects from illegal immigration, and that we’ve even set-up sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants by immunizing them from the laws of our very own country.[br]

    And surely he knows that our country is nearly $20 trillion in debt, and that unchecked illegal immigration has continued to overcrowd our schools and made learning more difficult for our children, since we know that smaller schools tend to have higher attendance and graduation rates, less violence, higher grades, and test scores.[br]

    I’m sure he knows that continuing to allow illegal immigration to grow chaotically, without a plan, means that our nation’s ability to care for the sick, regardless of their citizenship, will continue to decline, as hundreds of hospitals are now closing or reducing treatment services because the uninsured number of illegal immigrants continues to grow. The average wait time in a California emergency room, for example, is now 4 hours (and growing).[br]

    When he blames the Syrian refugee crisis on the “the god of money” or on a “bad, unjust” socio-economic system, but doesn’t comment on the Islamic State that has now taken over half of Syria, a third of Iraq and is expanding out into Gaza, Libya and Afghanistan – is this a truth, or is that his opinion?[br]

    He has criticized global leaders for their failure to combat climate change. But is it his opinion that the earth is warming, or it is a truth? Surely he knows that in 2014 there was record ice in Antarctica, record snowfall, record cold, and that the oceans are rising much less than predicted (95% less). Surely he know that nature produces much more CO2 than man, and that 99% of scientists don’t believe in man-made global warming.[br]

    Despite this all, how can we question the Pope if he is infallible? This illustrates the common confusion between infallibility and imperfection. After all, there are many Popes that even disagree with one another. Infallibility does not make a Pope’s private, theological opinions become “truth”. He learns the “truth” as we all do – through careful study. His infallibility, according to the Catholic Church, applies to “solemn, official teachings on faith and morals.”[br]

    Whether you believe or not that the Pope is infallible on matters such as immigration or global warming, we simply cannot have it all. Life is a series of trade-offs. You can’t have all of the joys of having children, and then have lots of time for yourself, or your career. You can’t eat poorly, and then have good health. You can’t speak up and remain silent.[br]

    So when the Pope offers his comments, surely he also expects us to consider there are trade-offs to achieve the great works we are called by God to accomplish, such as extending mercy to those who are suffering and coming to our country, while making sure we have a sustainable system in place to transition them from pain to prosperity.[br]

    After all, we are not called to merely accept our circumstances, but to change the things we can change. As Pastor Joel Osteen wrote, “You were not created to just get by with an average, unrewarding, or unfulfilling life. God created you to leave your mark on this generation.”[br]

    And we can do that. The path we take to do so may be different than Pope Francis imagines today in his speeches, but I’m sure he won’t mind how we do it – not because it may reveal his infallibility – but because it reveals the teachings of Christ truly are.

  • 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?