Wednesday, April 5,2023
FAYETTE VIEWS
A4 Fayette County News
Democrats Likely to Lose
Key Senate Seat in 2024 -
Unless They Fight for It
H e (Trump) cares about us in West Virginia... I love him
to death,” -Governor Jim Justice, 2017.
After the runoff election in Georgia, Senator Ra
phael Warnock was elected. This gave Democrats their 51-
member majority in Congress. Vice-President Harris was
no longer needed to break tie votes, a key factor, which is
why keeping very red West Virginia’s Democratic Senator
Joe Manchin is so important... and difficult.
Governor Justice indicated his intention to switch
parties at an August 2017 Trump WV
rally, stating the above regarding our
then President, billionaire Donald
Trump, who is now our disgraced,
now indicted, twice-impeached
former President.
At the time, I found it to be an
odd thing to say, considering that
WV is the second poorest state in the
union. And then-President Trump
had a long record of evading the
taxes that are paid by ordinary work-
But then I looked into Justice... and I found out why he
liked Trump so much. He’s also a wealthy guy (with mining,
resort, and farming interests) who evades taxes. Everyone
in the state knows about the Greenbrier, which is by far the
ritziest resort in West Virginia. Certainly, I do. Way back
when the local hospital was owned by Humana, I was over
planning for that facility, among others. Man of the people,
Jim Justice, owns it.
Four years ago, Forbes ran a rather unflattering portrait
of Jim Justice (https: //www.forbes.com/ sites/christopher-
helman/ 2019/04/09/the-deadbeat-billionaire-the-inside-
story-of-how-west-virginia-gov-jim-justice-ducks-taxes-an
d-slow-pays-his-
bills/?sh=iae723242acc&utm_source=newsletter&utm_m
edium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiossneak-
peek&stream=top). But in the political world, that may just
as well have been four decades ago. Voters seem to con
veniently have very short memories.
Recent polling shows Justice, the 36th governor of the
coal-mining state, to be highly popular with WV voters of
all parties, more so than Manchin. In that, it is rumored
that Justice will run against Senator Joe Manchin in 2024,
and beat him 52 percent to 42 percent, according to one
poll. So, let’s review that Forbes analysis.
Per the 2018 report, at the time Justice owed $10 mil
lion to various government agencies, employees, and sup
pliers, plus he was potentially on the line for a lot more in
civil cases, fines, and reclamation fees. Trump used illegal
immigrants to build Trump Tower, his NYC flagship. Then
he stiffed them when it came time to pay. No wonder Jus
tice stated, “You know we are a lot alike” when asked about
Trump.
Further, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Commis
sion stated of Justice-owned mines, "Kentucky Fuel's his
tory regarding the payment of penalties is abysmal." Plus,
See Bernard, A6
JACK BERNARD
ing people.
Take Me Out of the
Ball Game — Pleasel
B aseball season is here. Big deal.
Even though I’ve done my best to forget, I re
member playing a season of organized baseball when
I was 11 years old. It was - for lack of a better word and be
cause it was the absolute truth - traumatizing. I played for
the Wolves in the Rhode Island Little League, although that
might have been the name of the Boy Scout patrol I was in
at the time. Like I said, there are
some things I’d rather forget - like
baseball and Boy Scouts.
Occasionally, however, there are
certain things that will leave an emo
tional scar on a person that will never
heal. Little League is most certainly
one of mine.
I was the farthest thing from a
“natural” you could ever imagine. I
couldn’t hit, throw, or catch. On top
of all that, I was the only boy on the
team that didn’t chew sunflower seeds in the dugout. The
only place I fit on a baseball diamond was in my uniform,
although to be honest, it was always a little snug.
The first time I went to bat, I struck out on three straight
pitches. The first two bounced in front of the plate, and the
third was so far over my head that I couldn’t have touched
it with a 10-foot bat.
Over the course of the season, however, I grew more se
lective at choosing my pitches. Once, I got really lucky and
hit a triple. According to my dad, had I run a little bit faster
- or maybe he said remotely fast - I could have had an in-
side-the-park home run. I told him the reason I only got to
third base was that I couldn’t run fast because my uniform
was too tight (i was a chubby, pint-sized Babe Ruth... A
chubby, pint-sized Babe Ruth who couldn’t hit, throw,
catch... or run).
I wasn’t the slowest player on the team, however. Not
by a long shot. That distinction went to a boy named - and
I am not making this up - Johnny Speed. He once hit a ball
into the left field corner and was thrown out at first base.
On a relay, no less: from left field to shortstop to first -
which, in Little League, takes about as long as it takes to
sing the Star-Spangled Banner.
When our team took the field for the first time, I played
in center field. That is, up until the third game, when I failed
to move a muscle as a ball went flying directly over my head.
I told the team in the dugout after the inning was over that
I lost the ball in the sun, which was my way of saying that
when the ball was hit, I was actually looking at the conces
sion stand behind the first base dugout, wondering if there
would be any funnel cakes left when the game was over.
See Ludwig, A6
SCOTT LUDWIG
This Week is a Time
to Reflect on What is Next
A s someone whose annual calen
dar is heavily anchored in the ac
tivities of the Georgia General
Assembly, the annual declaration of
Sine Die for adjournment is a bit of re
lief. In fact, it’s quite freeing. It’s time
to consider what is next.
The immediate focus for the capitol
and capital community turns to The
Masters in Augusta. It’s easy to deride
this priority for the legislators to finish
business prior
to golfers taking
practice swings
with the state’s
best azaleas as a
backdrop, but
the Masters
Tournament is a
serious business
venture for the
state. The elite
of the inter
national business community convene
here for a week, and our top leaders in
government and commerce put on a
full court press to lure more economic
activity in the aftermath. Think of it as
Davos with a southern drawl.
For most of the rest of us, we have
Passover, Easter, and/or spring break
marking our calendars. Some are look
ing ahead a few weeks further, as grad
uations begin in earnest in about a
month. There’s a lot of “what’s next?”
to go around.
Part of the allure of the “what’s
next?” mindset is leaving the present
and moving more items into our past.
This can be in the form of marking ac
complishments on our permanent
record or turning the page on current
struggles in the hopes of better things
tomorrow.
With the longer and warmer days
accompanied by green shoots and col
orful blooms, it’s a good time to shift
mindsets to positions of optimism. Ev
idence of new life and growth is all
around us. It’s up to us to decide to
consciously join it. Optimism, at its
root, is a choice.
Optimism doesn’t mean a detach
ment from realism. Reality is just the
field on which optimism and pessi
mism play against each other. Each of
us gets to decide which wins.
For those of us on the Christian
calendar, the backdrop of Easter high
lights the stark difference in the
“What’s next?” mindset. The week be
tween Palm Sunday and Easter is the
darkest of our year. It is so dark that
the imagery of Good Friday even cul
minates with an eclipse.
Easter is about putting the past be
hind us. Our sins are paid for. Our past
is irrelevant.
The question of “what’s next?” is a
little more complicated. The Easter
story is not a fairy tale. There is no
Bible verse that says “and they lived
happily ever after” when Jesus as
cended into heaven. Quite the con
trary.
The “what’s next?” part of the
Easter story is not about this world but
is instead a question of eternity.
Throughout the Old and New Testa
ment, we are prepared that this world
will always have evil at work around
us. We will be tried and tested.
Christians, as a group, will be
persecuted. Almost all of Jesus’ own
apostles died as martyrs.
Too many of us today believe the
line that we live “in a Christian na
tion,” and have become convinced that
we have as such inoculated ourselves
from oppression. There’s also a politi
cal aspect and warning in the Easter
story here. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem
as the people’s choice to be their new
ruler. Days later, the same masses
voted for his execution.
Politics is fickle. The only time
Jesus was on the ballot, Barabbas won
See Haper, A6
CHARLIE HARPER
Easter: Doctrinal Evolution
vs. Historical Investigation
D uring Pilate’s governorship (circa
26-37 C.E.) of Judea, there was rel
ative peace between the Romans
and the Jews, though Pilate did, on oc
casion, exacerbate Roman/Jewish rela
tions with his callousness and ruthless
brutality.
There were two incidences that trig
gered Pilate’s temper toward his Jewish
subjects, and
both involved
Jesus.
It was the
time of Passover,
the holiest of
holy celebrations
in the Jewish Je
rusalem and in
the Diaspora. Pi
late was aware of
the possibility
for restive be
havior during the Passover and was well
equipped to deal with any slight distur
bance of Roman peace.
During Passover, Pilate would travel
to Jerusalem, and along with him came
a cohort (300 to 600) of soldiers just in
case any disturbance arose. The temple
in Jerusalem was the social, political,
and religious center of the Jewish world.
The temple was quite large (20 football
fields) and guarded internally by Roman
guards stationed in the Antonia fortress
within the temple itself.
Once in Jerusalem, the soldiers had
a bird’s eye view of all the activity within
the synagogue walls. This tactical setup
by Pilate causes one to wonder how, as
related in the NewTestament, Jesus was
able to enter a synagogue packed with
Jewish pilgrims, turn over their tables,
and swear at and beat vendors without
any reprisal from the Roman guards.
However, during Passover there would
have been literally 10s of thousands of
pilgrims in the temple so that perhaps a
minor skirmish could have gone unno
ticed by the Roman guards.
The Barabbas episode, from a Chris
tian perspective, is an attempt to portray
Pilate as a weak, kindly, and compas
sionate man, unable to resist the Jewish
demand for the crucifixion of Jesus. The
gospel authors in the New Testament
seem to exonerate Pilate and the Ro
mans in the death of Jesus, while casting
the worst light possible on the Jews.
Pilate is said to have found no fault
with Jesus and was opposed to his con
demnation but was coerced by Jewish
pressure to yield to their cry for a cru
cifixion. Given Pilate’s reputation for
ruling with an iron hand, the New Tes
tament’s description of his sudden sym
pathy for an alleged seditionist (who
claimed to be a king) seems a Biblical
stretch. Pilate could not have cared less
about some intra-Jewish squabble un
less it threatened Roman authority; like
wise, he would have had no reservations
about executing a trouble making Jew.
With this in mind, Christians seized
upon a segue to lay complete blame for
the death of Jesus upon the Jews and
not upon the Romans.
The New Testament tells us that the
final argument by the Jews for the cru
cifixion of Jesus was to intimate to Pilate
that his (Pilate’s) refusing their demands
to crucify Jesus, who claimed to be a
king, would show that Pilate was no
“friend of Caesar” (Emperor Tiberius)
John 19:12.
Pilate, notwithstanding any personal
considerations, and his fear of the em
peror, relented. That a Roman governor
of an already rebellion-prone province
would submit to the demands of a local
crowd and release Barabbas, a known
insurrectionist and murderer, while or
dering the crucifixion of a harmless
preacher, is rather incredible.
Had Pilate really believed Jesus to
be an insurrectionist, not only would he
have crucified Jesus, but he would also
have rounded up as many Jesus fol
lowers as possible and crucified them as
well. Not one disciple of Jesus or Apostle
was killed in the crucifixion aftermath.
They all fled.
Philo the philosopher (circa, 25 B.C.
to 50 A.D.), described Pilate as naturally
inflexible, possessing a blend of self-will
and relentlessness. Pilate’s tenure as
prefect was infamous for briberies, in
sults, robberies, and the outrages of
wanton injuries, executions without
trials and constantly repeated careless
and supremely grievous cruelty. Hardly
a man who would cow-tow to a gang of
Jews looking to settle a religious dispute.
What was one less Jew to Pilate?
The story of the freeing of Barabbas,
as told by Christians and disputed by
Jews over millennia, whatever the his
torical facts might have been, succeeded
in placing the blame for Jesus’ death on
all Jews, in all places, for all time.
*Apologia
Caiaphas, the chief priest of Judea
and overseer of the temple, harbored no
personal grudge against Jesus; his ac
tions were purely self-serving. Caiaphas
and Pilate had a quid pro quo relation
ship, i.e., so long as Caiaphas squelched
any anti-Roman disturbance, he (Cai
aphas) could continue in his (lucrative)
position. If not, Pilate would move
against Caiaphas personally, and by ex
tension, order a brutal reprisal against
all Jews in the province.
**Coda
This is not, in any way, an attempt to
discount, dispute, or disregard the Bib
lical Easter story of the death of Jesus. It
is merely the thoughts entertained by
some that Biblical interpretation often
differs in many ways, especially when
the historical record conflicts with scrip
tural description of the same event.
Christians accept the Bible version; the
Jews do not. You may, and should, let
your belief control which side you are
on, but listen to others’ views.
JAMES
STUDDARD
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