Opinion
4A
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Other Views
The value of
organized religion
to a representative
republic
ewer Americans are attending traditional
church services. Fewer are attending Catholic
schools, too.
According to Gallup, the number of Amer-
icans who belong to a church, synagogue or
mosque continued to decline last year, dropping
below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-de-
cade trend.
And
thanks
to the
TOM
COVID-19
PURCELL
pandemic,
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
ABC
News
says enrollment in Catholic schools has seen
the largest single-year decline in at least five
decades.
I’m not sure what this rapid secularization of
America means for our future.
But I do admit I wish more of today’s children
could experience the memorable upbringing I
enjoyed growing up in a Catholic family.
Growing up Catholic in the 1970s meant
going to a Catholic school.
Unlike too many schools today, in which some
teachers fear their students, it was a time when
we students of St. Germaine Catholic School
feared the sisters.
The sisters ran their classrooms in a struc-
tured, orderly manner, and they took guff from
no kid.
The floors were so clean, you could eat off of
them. The blackboards had a brighter sheen than
a Cadillac fender.
And our desks, which were subject to frequent
and unannounced inspections, were expected to
be organized at all times.
Our precious egos, fragile feelings and
self-esteem were not part of the Church’s
teaching plan.
Either we got with the sisters’ program or we
got into big trouble.
There was no daydreaming, talking, joking
or doodling. It was expected that each student
would put forth his or her best effort.
Anything short of excellence was grounds for
severe punishment, which included everything
from a call home to mom to a whack on the hand
from Sister Mary Brass Knuckle’s ruler.
Every day the sisters taught us to embrace the
virtues — prudence, temperance and courage —
and to fend off the seven deadly sins: pride, envy,
gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth (activities I
like to save for the weekend!).
When they weren’t pounding moral values
into us, they worked us hard in math, science,
reading and writing — the basic skills necessary
for thriving as an adult.
I know this harsh approach to educating chil-
dren is considered outdated and quasi-barbaric
today.
But, I dare say, I think the lessons the sis-
ters and my religion taught me are beneficial to a
representative republic like ours — a sentiment
shared by one of our country’s wisest founders,
Benjamin Franklin.
I’m rereading his autobiography and delight
in his commonsense approach to government.
Franklin said that true religion and good morals
are the only solid foundations of public liberty
and happiness.
As he put it, “Only a virtuous people are
capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt
and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Franklin didn’t often participate in church ser-
vices himself, but he saw the benefits to society
of citizens doing their best to practice and live
virtuous lives and to demand virtue in their gov-
ernment leaders.
I’m not saying that you have to embrace a tra-
ditional religion to be virtuous or to understand
the meaning and purpose of life.
But half a century later I can still see the
value and order that religion has imparted on our
republic throughout our history.
And I still have a lot of laughs when my old
St. Germaine pals and I swap stories about our
close encounters with Sister Mary Brass Knuck-
le’s dreaded ruler.
———
Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a
1970s Childhood,” is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
humor columnist and is nationally syndicated.
F
Our View
Legislature should not trim prison terms
t might surprise
you to learn that
some members of
the Oregon Legislature
believe convicted rapists,
murderers and people
who exploit children for
pornography in certain
cases spend too much
time in prison.
Among the issues law-
makers need to address
— the effects of the pan-
demic, most obviously
— mollycoddling felons
can certainly be reserved
for a future legislative
session.
Yet the Legislature is
considering Senate Bill
401. It would replace
Oregon’s system of man-
datory minimum prison
sentences for certain vio-
lent or especially hei-
nous crimes — a system
in place since voters
approved Measure 11
in 1994 — with one
that would give judges
I
a child for pornographic
purposes brings a sen-
tence of five years and 10
months. The harm these
criminals cause to their
victims, of course, has no
release date.
Although correlation
doesn’t always equate to
causation, it is beyond
dispute that violent crime
rates in Oregon have
East Oregonian, File
dropped by more than
Corrections officers in September 2012 deliver toilet paper to inmates in the
segregation unit at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, Pendleton. 50%, to the lowest level
The 2021 Oregon Legislature is considering Senate Bill 401, which would re- since the 1960s, since
place Oregon’s system of mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain voters approved Mea-
violent or especially heinous crimes.
sure 11.
It’s conceivable, of
sexual abuse, first-degree
the authority to impose
course,
that a signifi-
kidnapping and first-de-
prison terms for such
cant
number
of Orego-
crimes.
gree assault, along with
nians have changed their
Oregon district attor-
rape and murder.
mind about mandatory
Lest you think Ore-
neys, most of whom
minimum sentences over
oppose the bill, say its
gon’s mandatory min-
the past 27 years. If leg-
passage would result
imum sentences are
islators believe that’s so,
in people spending less
excessive, consider that
then they should give
time in prison — up to
a person convicted of
voters a chance to replace
40% less — after being
first-degree rape will
the current system rather
convicted of crimes
serve eight years and
than making the decision
including first-degree
four months. Exploiting
for them.
Letters
We are responsible for
our democracy, economy
Nowadays, I hear employers
talking about being unable to hire
workers for the jobs they have. I am
told that some people are not taking
responsibility for their bills and rent,
because the government’s stimulus
package is providing extended unem-
ployment and because renters believe
their landlords are not able to evict
them. I would rather not believe this
is true.
When the pandemic hit the United
States, people lost their jobs, making
it difficult to pay rent and buy gro-
ceries. The economy of the country
was in danger of tanking and some-
thing had to be done. The admin-
istration with the approval of the
majority of voters decided to provide
a stimulus for the economy by put-
ting almost $2 trillion in the hands
of lower-income families, state and
local government agencies and small
businesses.
The idea is to stimulate the
economy by giving dollars to those in
the most need to be spent on neces-
sities, and those dollars will “trick-
le-up” to benefit the economy of the
country. This is the opposite of past
efforts to boost the economy by pro-
viding huge tax breaks to corpora-
tions with the expectation that the tax
breaks will “trickle-down” to benefit
everyone.
Whether the “trickle-up” or “trick-
le-down” method is used to stimulate
the economy, neither plan can suc-
ceed without the cooperation of those
who receive the boost. If the corpo-
rations use their tax cuts to benefit
only their shareholders and their top
management, the lower wage earners
and the unemployed are no better
off. Similarly, if the stimulus to ben-
efit low-wage workers and the unem-
ployed is not used to get jobs or to
improve an opportunity to get better
jobs, pay bills and rent, there will be
no benefit to the economy.
The United States of America is
a free country only as long as all of
its citizens accept their responsibil-
ities to make its systems work. This
includes responsibility for our capi-
talistic economy, our systems of edu-
cation and health care, and voting for
and keeping in touch with those who
operate our government. Abraham
Lincoln said the U.S. is “government
of the people, by the people, and for
the people.”
President John F. Kennedy said,
“Ask not what your country can do
for you; ask what you can do for your
country.” Freedom is not free. Let’s
do our part.
Evelyn Swart
Joseph