2023
May
09
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 09, 2023
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

So much of American politics today promotes a profound sense of impotence – the inability to move entrenched forces, even a degree. With devastating frequency, mass shootings tragically underscore this fact. 

The Monitor does not exist to advocate for any particular policy, but for the expansion of universal values such as compassion, freedom, responsibility, or honesty, to name a few. This can be accomplished in countless ways that defy partisan lines. Yet it is inescapable that mass shootings, while the result of many variables, are inextricably connected to America’s gun laws. Although mass shootings are not unique to the United States, their scope and frequency are. 

We know deaths would rise if we loosened seat-belt laws or car safety regulations. Why are guns seen as different?

This past weekend, I felt that profound sense of impotence after the latest in America’s series of mass shootings. But here is where journalism can play a vital role. It does not need to tell us what to think. But it can keep us awake. 

Falling into the indolence of despair must never be an option. To this end, the Monitor has put together a collection of stories to show that ways forward are possible and that problems remain entrenched only so long as we turn away or view the other side as the enemy. The special edition went out to all our subscribers this morning.

In Nashville, Tennessee, last month, more than 5,000 people linked arms, forming a chain 3 miles long that ended at the statehouse. Their demand: Do something. “This is not a political issue. It’s a public safety issue,” the nonpartisan coalition said.

So often, the product of entrenched politics is a loss of hope and agency. But that can be true only when we give up.   


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Alicia Fernández/Special to the Christian Science Monitor
Orion Palacios cuts the hair of his brother Gary Palacios, both from Venezuela, in a makeshift salon outside the abandoned building in which they live on April 26, 2023 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They're waiting to see how – and when – they can seek asylum in the U.S.

Mexico was never a “migration nation” like the U.S. But American policy written during the pandemic has caused a bottleneck at the border – and forced Mexicans to rethink their obligations to migrants.

Argentine public universities are free and don't require entry exams, but the low graduation rates have experts asking if higher education can be both inclusive and high quality.

Across US, so far a record year for mass shootings

Behind tragic deaths this weekend at a Dallas-area mall was a shooter apparently fueled by white supremacist ideology. The incident was part of a wider rise in mass shootings, as our data visualization shows.

SOURCE:

Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University Mass Killings Database

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

How do you get good – really good – at something? The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik looks at the importance of small steps – and a willingness to look foolish.

Paul Irmiter/Courtesy of The Capri
Capri Glee! member Rosanna Hudgins performs during the community choir’s spring concert in North Minneapolis, April 25.

What does it take to create unity? An amateur choir in Minneapolis fosters opportunities to connect – and spread joy. 


The Monitor's View

Reuters
A soldier sits inside a military vehicle in Yangon, Myanmar.

Dictators worry when young men start to listen to the voices for freedom among the people rather than join the military. For Vladimir Putin, a mass conscription last year to boost troop numbers in Ukraine went so badly the Russian leader appears reluctant to do it again. A similar problem now confronts the military junta in Myanmar two years into a brutal war on pro-democracy forces.

The army in the Southeast Asian nation has shrunk by an estimated half because of problems in recruitment. Among the rank and file, defections and desertions are on the rise. Many fighting-age men now side with the values of the National Unity Government (NUG), a resistance force created after the military ousted an elected government in 2021 and put democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi in prison.

With fewer soldiers on the ground and a massive loss of territory, the regime has resorted to air strikes on NUG forces and civilians. “So far in 2023, Myanmar had the highest number of civilian casualties by airstrike in the world,” claims the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.

One attack in April killed some 100 people, bringing an unusually strong international response. “All forms of violence must end immediately, particularly the use of force against civilians,” said the head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Then last Sunday, a convoy of vehicles carrying officials from Singapore and Indonesia came under fire in Myanmar, presumably from pro-regime forces. The convoy was carrying humanitarian aid.

ASEAN leaders – except those from Myanmar – are meeting this week in Indonesia to assess their efforts to end the war and facilitate talks between the junta and the NUG. “The aim is to provide space for the parties to build trust and for the parties to be more open in communicating,” says Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

ASEAN’s member states have more autocratic rulers than elected ones, which makes it difficult for the regional bloc to act boldly on Myanmar. Yet as that nation’s fighting force dwindles and atrocities rise, ASEAN may be forced to change tactics. It also recognizes that the pro-democracy forces are better united and organized – and better able to persuade young men not to side with the military.

Some wars are won less with deadly ammunition than with decisive persuasion.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

We can find harmonious progress and freedom from anger by understanding our creator to be Love, as a man found after a conflict arose. 


Viewfinder

Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
Visitors view the newly restored tapestries hung along the perimeter of the main nave of St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, May 9, 2023. The 17th-century tapestries depicting the Triumph of the Eucharist and episodes from the life of Jesus Christ are being exhibited in public for the first time since undergoing a 16-year-long restoration process in Brussels.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow, when we look at fallout from today’s verdict against former President Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation case.

More issues

2023
May
09
Tuesday
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