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Opinion
Reece Terry, publisher
Mark Boehler, editor
4 • Thursday, March 8, 2012
Corinth, Miss.
Other Views Is two percent enough to dismiss voter ID law? The U.S. Justice Department’s opposition to a voter ID law in South Carolina does not bode well for Mississippi getting approval for its version either. The Justice Department is using its authority under the Voting Rights Act to block voter ID in states with a history of discrimination against minority voters. The statistics that the feds cite now to show discriminatory impact, though, are much less convincing than they would have been during the age of literacy tests and poll taxes. For instance, in South Carolina, according to the Justice Department’s research, 10 percent of non-white registered voters do not currently have a driver’s license or other photo ID from that state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. That compares to 8 percent for white registered voters. Is 2 percentage points really enough difference to claim voter ID is unconstitutionally discriminatory? That’s a stretch. — Enterprise-Journal, McComb
Pilot program may help some school dropouts A plan to enroll high school dropouts in college will work for some, and it’s worth trying as a pilot program. But it isn’t going to be a cure for what’s causing most kids to quit school in Mississippi. The reasons for dropouts are varied, but the most common one is the inability to read proficiently. And that comes back to early childhood education — effective pre-kindergarten, not just babysitters — where state leaders looking to improve education aren’t putting enough emphasis. Hinds Community College and the Rankin County School District will partner next school year in a plan allowing recent dropouts and those in danger of dropping out a chance to earn their high school diplomas at the community college while at the same time working on college undergraduate courses. A bill pending in the Legislature would expand the concept to a pilot program in five school districts before expanding to all school districts in 2013-14. It’s a component of Gov. Phil Bryant’s “Mississippi Works” agenda. Give Bryant and the Republicans who now control the Legislature credit for innovation in trying to improve educational achievement in Mississippi. This includes strengthening the state’s charter school law, which is in the works. The dual-enrollment plan with high schools and community colleges will help a minority of dropouts who leave school for non-academic reasons. But if they can’t read well — and many dropouts can’t — we question how they can pass college work, unless they are given remedial courses, which shouldn’t be the role of colleges. Better to make sure kids can read before they reach the third grade. That is easier said than done, given the number of children coming from underprivileged homes where the parents themselves don’t read well. — The Greenwood Commonwealth
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Worth Quoting A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. — J. P. Morgan
Prayer for today Dear God, help us to be sensitive to others’ needs — both physical and spiritual. Amen.
A verse to share Be careful . . . that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. — 1 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV)
Reece Terry publisher rterry@dailycorinthian.com
Headlines confirm remaking of America mirror the diversity Anyone who beof the state. Whites, lieves America’s Asians, Hispanculture wars are beics, males, females, hind her should have blacks, gays, straights started out Friday and bisexuals are to reading The Washbe represented on ington Times. Patrick the bench in the proThe headlines on the three top stories Buchanan portion that they are found in the popuon page one read: Columnist lation. Yet another “California judges triumph of diversity asked to say if they over excellence. are gay.” Were an Olympic team “‘Tebow Bill’ for homeschoolers dies in Virginia or symphony orchestra to be chosen on the basis of Senate panel.” “Opt-out on birth control this kind of diversity, they would be a joke. defeated in Senate.” The “Tebow Bill,” named The California judges story dealt with the lately for Denver Broncos quarpassed Judicial Appoint- terback Tim Tebow, who ments Demographic Inclu- played high school football sion Act, which mandates while being home-schooled, a survey of all of the state’s was crafted to allow home1,600 judges — to find out schooled Virginia kids to how many are homosexual. try out for the tennis, footPurpose of the law: “Pro- ball, baseball and basketball mote and increase the rep- teams at their local high resentation of lesbian, gay, schools. The Virginia House bisexual and transgender approved the measure. But a Senate panel sank people in the ... judicial the Tebow Bill on an 8-7 branch.” The questionnaire sent vote, denying 38,000 Virto the judges asked each to ginia home-schoolers their identify themselves by race, last chance to play high ethnicity, gender and sexual school sports. Every Democrat on the panel voted as orientation. Forty percent of the judg- the Virginia Education Ases balked, refusing to reveal sociation dictated. But it is the top story in their sexual orientation. Welcome to 21st century the Times, about the 51-48 America. Under the old defeat of the Blunt AmendAmerican ideal, the lawyers ment, that best reveals the who proved the most quali- shifting correlation of forces fied by wisdom and experi- in the religious and cultural ence were to be elevated to wars sundering the country. The amendment of Sen. the bench. The new ideal is that Cali- Roy Blunt would have asfornia’s judiciary should sured Catholic institutions
and Catholic employers of their freedom to opt out of providing health insurance coverage for contraception, abortifacients and sterilizations for employees, if they have religious objections. The position of the Catholic Church on this issue is neither new nor is it unknown. It was reaffirmed in 1968 in the famous encyclical “Humanae Vitae” of Pope Paul VI. Artificial birth control is unnatural and immoral. Any government that orders Catholic institutions and employers to provide contraceptives, “morning after” pills or sterilizations for employees has crossed the line between church and state to trample upon the First Amendment religious freedom it was established to protect. Sandra Fluke, a 30-yearold student at Georgetown Law School, has emerged as the heroine of the Democratic establishment, being phoned by President Obama after her excoriation by Rush Limbaugh. And what is Fluke’s demand? That Georgetown University pay for and provide birth control for herself and all coeds and law school students. Fluke attends one of the most prestigious law schools in America. She is among a cognitive elite whose future is secure. Why should she not pay for her own birth control, even if she has to borrow money?
This is not an abandoned woman on welfare. Why should other students or the university be forced to foot the bill for Fluke’s exercise of her freedom to pursue her personal lifestyle? Georgetown University and its law school presumably remain Jesuit institutions. For Fluke to demand contraceptives or birth control pills for herself and her fellow students is to demand that Georgetown enable and subsidize behavior the the Jesuit community teaches to be immoral. Undeniably this episode, where the Democratic Party, traditional political home of America’s Catholics, is now demanding that Catholic institutions and employers be forced to subsidize what their church teaches to be immoral conduct, tells us much about the sea change that has taken place and is taking place across America. The America of Barack Obama that is emerging appears to be a country where civil disobedience may yet become a duty of traditional Christians and Catholics. The historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. once called anti-Catholicism “the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people.” In Obama’s Washington, it is becoming so again. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”
There is no substitute for victory for GOP Court, ObamaCare If anyone does a will be on the books year-end wrap-up until 2017, and probof the worst ideas ably forevermore. No of 2012, losing the matter how unpopupresidential election lar now, it will evendeserves to be high tually become part on the list. Rich of the permanent arA note of gloomy Lowery chitecture of the welwishfulness has enfare state, as unmovtered Republican National thinking of late. MayReview able as almost every other entitlement. It be a loss in November won’t be long before (if Mitt Romney wins the nomination) won’t be so Republicans are couching bad because a cleansing fire their criticisms of the prowill rid the party of mod- gram in terms of “saving” it. If Republicans hold the erates once and for all. Or, from the opposite point of House and at least a subview (if Rick Santorum or stantial minority in the SenNewt Gingrich were some- ate, the president’s ability to how to get nominated), a pass major new programs devastating defeat will teach will be limited. But the dethe party’s purists a lesson. bate over the Health and In any event, a Republican Human Services contracepCongress could foil Presi- tion mandate demonstrates dent Barack Obama’s nox- the power and discretion ious initiatives in a second attendant to controlling the executive branch. The adterm. All of this is hopefulness ministration came up with masquerading as hard- the rule mandating coverheadedness. No shift in the age with no exemption for balance of power within religious institutions all on the Republican Party, no its own. What could concongressional check on the gressional Republicans do president, no silver lining to stop it? Nothing. This is a theme. What can possibly outweigh the setback the GOP will suffer could congressional Reif President Obama wins a publicans do to stop the auto bailouts? Nothing. The second term. Assuming it’s not struck Libya War? Nothing. The down by the Supreme Federal Reserve’s quantita-
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tive easing? Nothing. They objected to the administration’s dithering on the Keystone Pipeline, so they included a requirement that President Obama make a decision in an unrelated piece of must-pass legislation. He escaped this trap — by rejecting the pipeline. This is the tale of congressional frustration when Republicans have been united. There’s no guarantee that they will remain so if their numbers diminish and if their standing with the public remains low. A cataract of tax increases set for 2013 will give the president invaluable leverage in budget negotiations. As ever, he will have outsized influence in setting the agenda. With one speech, he can take income inequality from an animating issue in Zuccotti Park to an animating issue in the national debate. He will presumably replace the liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who will be 80 in 2013, with another liberal who will serve for another 30 years. If Justice Anthony Kennedy or Justice Antonin Scalia steps aside (both born in 1936), he gets the opportunity to shift the balance of the court for de-
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cades. There is no presidential election that is not said to be the most important in our lifetime. It was even said in 1996, when Bill Clinton won a decisive but not particularly consequential victory over Bob Dole. But Clinton had been chastened by the Republican sweep in 1994, and in a period of peace and prosperity, the country could afford to debate the meaning of “is.” Now, we are truly at an inflection point, between the Barack Obama and Paul Ryan approaches to government, between consolidation of the past three years of historic government expansion and rollback. The downbeat musings on the right are driven by the dreary primary season and the belief that the party’s nominee will be weak. But so is the president, who leads likely nominee Mitt Romney only narrowly. For Republicans, the general election is still winnable, and there is no substitute for victory. Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review. He can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com.
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