Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 111, Ed. 1 Monday, November 21, 2016 Page: 6 of 18
eighteen pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
OPINION
6A
Monday, November 21, 2016
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
Obsession
with race
becoming
unreasonable
0333%
Published by Denton Publishing Co.,
a subsidiary of A.H. Belo Corporation
Founded from weekly newspapers,
the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882,
and the Denton Record, established in 1897.
Published daily as the Denton
Record-Chronicle since Aug. 3,1903.
'OPE
I
MI-IH.l COMI'AM
SaST
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bill Patterson
Publisher and CEO
Scott K. Parks
Managing Editor
Mark Finley
City Editor
Mariel Tarn-Ray
News Editor
PAST PUBLISHERS
William C. “Will” Edwards
1903-1927
Robert J. “Bob” Edwards
1927-1945
Riley Cross
1945-1970
Vivian Cross
1970-1986
Fred Patterson
1986-1999
w
ome recent headlines:
■ “The Electoral College is an in-
strument of white supremacy — and
sexism” exclaimed Slate magazine.
■ CNN: “Math is racist: How data is driv-
ing inequality.”
■ From the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma:
‘“To be white is to be racist,’ Norman student
offended by teacher’s lecture.”
Wow, things are bad here in America.
Maybe I should move
to Canada? Uh oh,
from Heat Street: “Ca-
noes reek of genocide,
theft and white privi-
lege, says Canadian
professor.”
Is there no place
safe from white su-
premacy? Let me
check the Huffington
Post. “North Korea
proves your white male
privilege is not universal.’
In other words, going by the headlines,
you’d think everything is about race. Or, as
the Harvard Crimson put it, “Everything is
about race.”
You might say this is a cheap technique.
Headlines are supposed to be provocative,
particularly in the age of clickbaiting that
passes for much of what we call journalism.
Let us look to the academy, where cool rea-
son rules.
Over at the Journal of Applied Philoso-
phy, we’re told that condemning racism is —
wait for it — racist.
“The moralization of racism that often
permeates philosophical scholarship repro-
duces colorblind logics, which provide indi-
vidualistic explanations for structural prob-
lems, thereby sustaining white dominance,”
writes Marzia Milazzo in an article titled “On
white ignorance, white shame and other pit-
falls in critical philosophy of race.”
Milazzo’s claim is hardly controversial in
the hothouse alternative universe of higher
education. What Milazzo calls “colorblind
logics” hold everybody to equal standards of
fact and reason. This wacky notion is the
wellspring from which we got the scientific
revolution, the Enlightenment, the rule of
law, doctrines of universal human rights, the
abolition of slavery, the emancipation of
women, the civil rights movement, the con-
cept of free speech and unprecedented mate-
rial prosperity.
Reason is the tool that brings us consen-
sus, appeals to our conscience and keeps us
from returning to the jungle.
It all reminds me of that great scene from
Monty Python’s Life of Brian where a revolu-
tionary asks, “What has the Roman Empire
ever done for us?” A comrade lists a bunch of
things, and the man replies, “All right, but
apart from the sanitation, the medicine, edu-
cation, wine, public order, irrigation, roads,
the fresh-water system and public health,
what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Activists today are clear-cutting vast
swaths of civil society to make room for rea-
son-free zones where feelings outrank facts
— they call them “safe spaces.” And if they
had their druthers, the entirety of the conti-
nent, if not the globe, would be one giant
beanbag chair-strewn realm of hugging and
unapologetic whining.
Seemingly every day there’s another story
of a college campus caving into the notion
that free speech and unhappy facts are racist.
The election of Donald Trump, a man I
could not have been more critical of, has
turned the safe spaces into kinds of internal
refugee camps where the weeping delicate
flowers can wilt in terror.
I did not like how Trump talked about is-
sues of race. Some of his most ardent sup-
porters have views on race that I find abhor-
rent. But they constitute a tiny minority of
his coalition. Just consider that if you sub-
tracted from Trump’s column all of the voters
who had also voted for Barack Obama, Hilla-
ry Clinton surely would have won.
If you think everything you don’t like is
racist, then of course the election of a presi-
dent you don’t like has to be racist.
Here’s some advice for liberals insisting
that Trump was elected by racists: The more
you say that, the more you help Trump.
I can understand why this is confusing.
There’s a certain breed of guilty white liberal
who actually enjoy being called racist, con-
fessing their racial sins and denouncing less
advanced white people. The hot new term
for this is “virtue signaling” — a way of com-
municating how enlightened you are.
But there are a lot more white people out
there who are not racist and therefore do not
like being called racist or being berated about
how their country is racist. They also sense
that the “everything is about race” crowd is
using race as a cudgel to silence critics and
have their way.
That sort ofthingbegs for abacklash. You
can call it racist if you want — some people
do with everything else — but it won’t play
well outside the safe spaces.
JONAH GOLDBERG is a fellow at the
American Enterprise Institute and a
senior editor of National Review. His
column is distributed by Tribune Content
Agency.
S
%
t-;
X
Editorials published in the Denton Record-Chronicle
are determined by the editorial board.
Questions and suggestions should be directed to the:
Denton Record-Chronicle
314 E. Hickory St., Denton, TX 76201
Phone: 940-387-3811
Fax: 940-566-6888
E-mail: drc@dentonrc.com
THe ROLL-BACK
Election sweep carries
no action guarantee
ahbelo.com NYSE symbol: AHC
Jonah
Goldberg
Other voices
epublicans will soon control every-
thing in Washington, from the White
House to the U.S. House to the Sen-
ate to, sooner rather than later, the U.S. Su-
preme Court. Heady
stuff.
ask those incoming Republican majorities in
the House and the Senate to get busy and
save the states the trouble. They’re all Re-
publicans, after all.
On the other hand, why would Congress
want to change the Constitution, as Abbott
does, to increase the power of the states and
decrease the power of the feds?
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker
Joe Straus, two Texas Republicans who fre-
quently (and mostly politely) find them-
selves at political odds, know all about the
GOP’s fault lines.
Patrick’s first post-election news release
suggests he will have 30 pieces of legislation
on his priority list. That’s not nearly as many
as he filed when he was a mere senator, but
back then he didn’t get to put most of his leg-
islation on the high-priority list. He certainly
wasn’t in the position, as he is today, to con-
trol the Senate’s agenda, to speed up legisla-
tion he likes and to stall legislation he dis-
likes.
R
State quake research
failure stunning
However
knew there would be a
however — long-run-
ning conservative con-
trol here in Texas has
not satisfied everyone
who flies the GOP flag.
Texas
you
A
ot only has the Texas Railroad Commission consis-
tently denied man-made earthquakes in the face
of compelling science, it also worked overtime to
protect the oil and gas industry from accountability for its
role in an earthquake swarm that rattled Azle and Reno
in late 2013 and early 2014.
This revelation, disclosed recently in & Dallas Morning
News investigation, should light a fire under the state
Legislature in the upcoming session. Lawmakers should
demand the commission — the state’s chief oil and gas
regulator, with a long history of cozy ties with the in-
dustry — be restructured to put public safety ahead of
industry profits.
Morning News reporters Steve Thompson and Anna
Kuchment have chronicled the coziness with a behind-
the-scenes reconstruction of the Railroad Commission’s
probe of the Azle earthquakes.
They found commission members leaned over back-
ward to discount compelling evidence tying injection well
activity to property-damaging earthquakes in North Tex-
as, apparently to insulate oil and gas interests from litiga-
tion and accountability.
Protecting the industry at all costs is wrongheaded and
irresponsible. The Environmental Protection Agency has
criticized the Railroad Commission for failing to acknowl-
edge the seismic threats from high-pressure wastewater
disposal wells.
Researchers at Southern Methodist University and the
University of Texas also have pointed out this connection
in pioneering research. Even the state of Oklahoma this
year moved quickly to shut down 37 of the state’s 3,200
active disposal wells as a precaution.
Yet, in Texas, the Railroad Commission’s response has
been to shutter a few wells, reduce water pressure at oth-
ers and call for more research while insisting that links
between wastewater disposal wells and earthquakes are
inconclusive.
Seismic tremors sharply increased in frequency and
number as injection wells in operation increased in North
Texas. Our region now ranks with some parts of Califor-
nia and Oklahoma for most damaging earthquakes, and
researchers estimate that about 87 percent of these seis-
mic tremors are likely man-made, due to injection well
activity.
Wastewater pumped into wells doubled between 2007
and 2014, and the state’s average number of earthquakes
rose from two per year to 12 during that time.
The News report also points a damning finger at com-
mission member Ryan Sitton, who has collected more
than $700,000 in campaign contributions since taking
office in 2015, mostly from executives of oil and gas com-
panies.
In one instance, Sitton accepted $20,000 from a CEO
of a company while commissioners considered whether to
hold that company responsible for the North Texas
quakes. Commission member Christi Craddick also ac-
cepted campaign contributions from the industry during
this review period.
The Legislature should step in this session and erect
a firewall to prevent commissioners from taking cam-
paign contributions from companies under review.
Plus, lawmakers should restructure the commission to
be solely a cop on the beat and not an industry promot-
v:
N
r
,
Ross
Ramsey
Republicans have
found that, in spite of
their numbers, they
can’t always get what they want.
Do what the Republicans do: Blame oth-
er Republicans. Yes, Democrats in Texas
have more power than their federal counter-
parts. Plenty of legislative debates don’t turn
on partisan lines.
Fights between business interests and
debates over school finance or using public
money for private schools, for example, of-
ten find some Republicans and some Demo-
crats on each side. Many other debates, like
2015’s fight over whether political nonprofits
should reveal their sources of money, pitted
Republicans against Republicans.
The party’s candidates haven’t lost a
statewide election in Texas in 20 years. Re-
publicans overtook Democrats in the Texas
Senate in 1997 and in the House in 2003.
But it doesn’t mean his darlings will sur-
vive.
Patrick and Straus are having a quiet
proxy fight in the run-up to the legislative
session, with Patrick telling lobbyists and
trade groups that they shouldn’t oppose pet
initiatives and Straus telling those same
groups that they shouldn’t expect the House
to be their backstop against Senate bills they
don’t like.
The lobbyists could cite precedent, but
they know better than to get in the middle of
a fight between the House and Senate. All
sorts of legislation sailed out of the Senate
and died in the House in 2015. House bills
croak in the Senate, too — even when Re-
publicans control it all.
Even the Republican governor plays. He
laid out a list of priorities after taking office
in early 2015 that included ethics reform. It’s
hard to get legislators to regulate them-
selves, and it might be impossible to get
them to do a good job of it.
The Republican Senate passed a bill. The
Republican House passed one.
They killed some good ideas along the
way but managed to reconcile some of their
differences and sent those Republican ethics
reforms to the Republican governor who re-
quested them.
Abbott read it, thought it over, and vetoed
Their majorities were skinny at first, but Re-
publican lawmakers outnumber their Dem-
ocratic opponents by almost two to one in
both houses.
That’s not a majority — it’s an avalanche.
The people in charge have turned much of
their partisan anger toward Washington, at
a time when a Democratic administration
has been a reliable foe and Congress is less
popular than a pack of journalists.
After the recent elections, they appear to
have reached a moment of harmony, with
Republicans in charge as far as the eye can
see.
“No excuses” is going to be a natural re-
action, built around the idea that a Repub-
lican majority should get everything that Re-
publicans want. Those officials have to pro-
duce acceptable results for a group of sup-
porters who agreed on the candidates but
who don’t necessarily agree on all of the is-
sues.
it.
Party isn’t everything.
ROSS RAMSEY is executive editor and
co founder of The Texas Tribune. The Texas
Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media
organization that informs Texans — and
engages with them — about public policy,
politics, government and statewide issues.
It gets complicated.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who
has been hoping to get the 50 state legisla-
tures to consider amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, might now be in a position to
Letters to the editor
Complete control
I would like to point out to the Trump
supporters that he will now have complete
control of every branch of government.
He will have no opposition in Congress in
delivering his promise to make every dream
you have for your family come true.
Let’s see what happens.
SUBMISSIONS
Letters for publication must include the writer’s
name, address and telephone number. Au-
thorship must be verified before publication.
The Record-Chronicle reserves the right to edit
letters for length. Letters should be typed or
legibly handwritten and be 250 or fewer words.
We prefer email submissions.
Send to: drc@dentonrc.com.
Otherwise, fax to 940-566-6888, or mail to:
Letters to the editor
P.0. Box 369
Denton, TX 76202
Gretchen Niendorff,
Denton
Kerry question
The Denton Record-Chronicle carried a
story on Nov. 12 under the headline, “Kerry
talks climate change in Antarctica.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is
quoted as saying, “... citizens who care about
limiting emissions might have to march in
the streets to push for more aggressive ac-
tion.”
er.
Otherwise, these conflicts of interest will continue to
the detriment of public safety and well-being.
— The Dallas Morning News
Is the U.S. secretary of state inciting ri-
ots?
This day in history: November 21
Larry Jambor,
Denton
Today is Monday, Nov. 21,
the 326th day of 2016. There
are 40 days left in the year.
On Nov. 21,1922, Rebecca
L. Felton, a Georgia Democrat,
was sworn in as the first woman
to serve in the U.S. Senate; her
term, the result of an interim ap-
pointment, ended the next day
as Walter F. George, the winner
of a special election, took office.
In 1789, North Carolina be-
came the 12th state to ratify the
U.S. Constitution.
In 1864, a letter was signed
by President Abraham Lincoln
expressing condolences to Lydia
Bixby, a widow in Boston whose
five sons supposedly died while
fighting in the Civil War. (As it
turned out, only two of Mrs. Bix-
by’s sons had been killed.)
In1934, the Cole Porter mu-
sical Anything Goes, starring
Ethel Merman as Reno Swee-
ney, opened on Broadway.
In 1942, the Alaska High-
way, also known as the Alcan
Highway, was formally opened
at Soldier’s Summit in the Yukon
Territory.
Denton Record-Chronicle mission statement
We believe a free society, with all its privileges and opportunities, is partially successful because of
a free press that is supported by the community at large.
Our mission every day is to give you unbiased, wide-ranging news of Denton and the larger Denton
County community. We appreciate your subscription or your purchase of this newspaper. By doing
so, you are supporting an independent look at your community, its leaders, its business people, and
its residents.
Without that, we believe that our communities would suffer from a lack of analysis, a lack of in-
formation, and a lack of oversight of taxpayer money. We want to give you something to think
about every day. We hope those ideas lead you to become involved in your community, both with
your commentary and your actions.
— The Associated Press
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 111, Ed. 1 Monday, November 21, 2016, newspaper, November 21, 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1127477/m1/6/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .