As Democratic candidates prepare for their first debate, the race is being framed once again around electability, a self-perpetuating concept that鈥檚 both reflective of 鈥 and has a direct impact on 鈥 their standing in polls.聽
Welcome. In today鈥檚 edition, some stories you won鈥檛 want to miss: The 鈥渆lectability鈥 debate behind the Democratic debates; the question of allegation fatigue on sexual assault; tourists and safety in the Dominican Republic; progress on child mortality; and a reporter鈥檚 encounter with a famous, and receding, glacier.
First, a noteworthy happening in the Monitor鈥檚 backyard today.聽
The border crisis just got personal for some office workers who live very far from Texas.聽Many employees of the online retailer Wayfair walked off the job to protest in Boston鈥檚 Copley Square, saying the company shouldn鈥檛 be for use in border detention facilities.聽
It may sound counterintuitive: Aren鈥檛 mattresses better than concrete floors? But news of Wayfair鈥檚 sale landed just as humanitarian concern for those detained 鈥 notably children 鈥 have flared anew nationwide. Candice Woodson, a Boston worker who came out to show solidarity with the Wayfair walkout, to Monitor reporter Thomas Shults: 鈥淚f you are neutral in situations of injustice, you鈥檝e chosen the side of the oppressor.鈥
鈥淚 don鈥檛 support companies profiting off the incarceration of children, so I came out here,鈥 told our reporter Danny Jin.
The company has stood by what it says is : selling legal goods to legal customers (in this case a nonprofit that contracted with the U.S. government to house detained children). It鈥檚 a complex situation. Beds aren鈥檛 barbed wire, for one thing. But today鈥檚 drama is an example of a growing debate about the role corporations should play on questions of societal or political values. We鈥檙e planning a deeper dive on that later this week.聽聽
Meanwhile, we鈥檒l also keep watching the other aspects of border and immigration policy, such as and the instability in Central America, that lie at the root of recent migration.