海角大神

2022
June
23
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 23, 2022
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

From start to finish, today鈥檚 issue of 海角大神 Daily has some very meaty things to chew on: the Supreme Court鈥檚 major ruling on gun laws, how Russians see their war in Ukraine, education鈥檚 role in democracy, and abortion. For many Americans, these issues are about more than policy. They speak to the course of the nation and personal well-being.

The tendency can therefore be to cast such issues in stark, almost apocalyptic terms. That鈥檚 understandable. These are difficult, visceral issues. But a offers something more to consider. It looks at how societies talk about climate change and what effect that has on children. The article cites a 2021 , which finds that more than half those polled between ages 16 and 25 said climate change had 鈥渄oomed鈥 humanity. The article states: 鈥淪ome 鈥榗limate anxiety鈥 is the product of telling kids 鈥 falsely 鈥 that they have no future.鈥澛

The author concludes: 鈥淚 have yet to find a children鈥檚 book that frames the climate crisis 鈥 as a challenge, but one like the many that humanity has overcome, and one that our kids can overcome by learning about the world and inventing new solutions.鈥

That conclusion seems relevant to more than just children and climate change. What are the stories we are telling ourselves as adults 鈥 about abortion or gun laws? Our article on abortion today highlights someone who rejects stereotypes and urges collaboration across different viewpoints. Her perseverance and respect are some of our most powerful tools in addressing abortion 鈥 or any intractable issue. And they make for a very different kind of story.聽


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters/File
Guns are displayed after a gun buyback event organized by the New York Police Department, in the Queens borough of New York City, June 12, 2021.

The Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling Thursday underscores just how dramatically judicial interpretation of the Second Amendment has shifted in recent decades.

SOURCE:

Giffords Law Center

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
AP
A Russian soldier speaks to foreign journalists in front of the ruined Metallurgical Combine Azovstal plant, in Mariupol, Ukraine, on the territory held by Donetsk People's Republic forces, June 13, 2022. The siege of the plant was heavily covered by Russian embedded reporters.

Russia鈥檚 war correspondents are shaping their nation鈥檚 view of the Ukraine invasion. The story they are telling is not rose-colored, but is it trustworthy?

A deeper look

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Edith Bazile, an education activist and former Boston Public Schools teacher, takes a break on June 21, 2022, in the city's Dorchester neighborhood. Ms. Bazile says the gifted and talented program Advanced Work Class is inequitable. She鈥檚 pushing district leaders to invest in Excellence for All, a newer competitor meant to bring rigorous coursework to whole classrooms of students.

Are we better off as a nation investing in a system where talented students can soar, or one in which everyone is educated equally? Can鈥檛 we have both? Boston offers a case study.聽Part 3 in a series.

The founder of New Wave Feminists breaks stereotypical labels, describing herself as a 鈥減ro-life鈥 feminist. She鈥檚 also ready to cooperate with聽those who see things differently, as long as their collaboration promotes dignity.

Commentary

Bebeto Matthews/AP/File
Rapper Kendrick Lamar holds a certificate after winning the Pulitzer Prize for music for his album "DAMN." during an awards luncheon in New York on May 30, 2018. Up until that point, the award had gone only to music in the classical and jazz genres.

As Pulitzer-Prize winning rapper Kendrick Lamar takes his talents in a new direction, what does his body of work suggest about his influence on culture 鈥 and his own perseverance?


The Monitor's View

AP
An image of former President Donald Trump is displayed as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, in Washington, June 21.

In its public hearings, the House panel investigating last year鈥檚 attack on the U.S. Capitol has sought to establish that there is no credible basis for claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen. 鈥淯ntil we get a grip on telling people the truth,鈥 Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, warned his colleagues Tuesday, political violence may continue.

Many Republican officials and candidates are still encouraging their supporters to believe the lie of election fraud that motivated the mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Yet as in many countries recovering from a major conflict, the value of truth as a remedy for violence resides less in official narratives than in the contrition shown by individuals who had embraced violence as a legitimate means of political expression.

This idea of relying on remorse may now be changing the tone of justice in the United States as courts hear cases of more than 800 people, so far, charged with crimes related to the Capitol attack as well as violence during anti-police protests in 2020. Some of those trials are showing that empathy may be a more powerful tool of justice than fear of punishment in breaking a person鈥檚 attraction to violence.

Consider this exchange in a federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday. The defendant, Malik Fard Muhammad, had traveled from Indiana in 2020 to participate in mass protest rallies against police violence. When the event turned tense, he threw Molotov cocktails at officers. U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez wanted to understand why.

鈥淚 was just wondering what your thought process was that suddenly put you in the position where you thought that this was OK, this was the thing to do, where people could get hurt or killed. I鈥檓 having trouble grasping how you got there.鈥

鈥淚鈥檓 having trouble with it, too,鈥 Mr. Muhammad said. 鈥淚 felt unheard and dismissed and things just escalated to the point that I can鈥檛 take back.鈥 He added: 鈥淚 just regret my decisions. ... I鈥檓 here now to atone for them.鈥

A similar approach may be working in the most serious charges yet brought against defendants tied to the Capitol mob. Eleven people face charges of sedition and obstruction of official proceedings. Among the accused are the leader of an extremist group called the Oath Keepers and several of his foot soldiers. All allegedly espoused violence and arrived at the Capitol armed. Two have already pleaded guilty.

One, a man from Georgia named Brian Ulrich, wrote in an encrypted chatroom prior to the attack, 鈥淎nd if there鈥檚 a Civil War, then there鈥檚 a Civil War.鈥 Fifteen months later, standing before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., he fought to compose himself as the judge read the terms of an agreement for his cooperation that did not shield him from high fines and prison.聽鈥淢r. Ulrich,鈥 the judge asked, 鈥渄o you need a moment.鈥 The defendant urged Judge Mehta to continue. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to get any easier.鈥滺e then took a moment to weep.

At a time when threats of violence against public officials seem to be on the uptick and many Jan. 6 defendants are taking plea deals to avoid jail time, the courtroom exchange between Judge Mehta and Mr. Ulrich offered a hint of something different 鈥 a turn away from violence and the lie that sparked it, marked by remorse and a magistrate鈥檚 compassion.


A 海角大神 Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication 鈥 in its various forms 鈥 is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church 鈥 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston 鈥 whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

An openness to the spiritual facts about God and His creation brings about healing and harmony.


A message of love

Terrance Williams/AP
A bird checks out a golf ball on the ninth green during the first round in the Women's PGA Championship golf tournament at Congressional Country Club, June 23, 2022, in Bethesda, Maryland.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norri. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when our Henry Gass talks to an artist who wants you to lower the bat, take off the blindfold, and appreciate the pi帽ata 鈥 an art form that dates back hundreds of years.

More issues

2022
June
23
Thursday

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