2020
August
28
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 28, 2020
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Laurent Belsie
Senior Economics Writer

The places change, the images do not. The wrecked homes, flooded streets, downed power lines left in the wake of Laura’s landfall early Thursday will look all too familiar to the survivors of powerful storms of the past like Harvey, Andrew, and especially Katrina, which also hit the Louisiana coast 15 years ago this week. And while the worst predictions of destruction did not come to pass, Laura is still linked to at least six fatalities.

What’s less visible is the human response to such disasters. You can glimpse it with videos of the nurses who rode out the storm at Lake Charles, Louisiana, hospital to care for 19 babies in neonatal intensive care, the volunteers manning emergency feeding stations, and the woman in Texas leading a llama to safety.

Even more powerful are the acts we don’t see. Neighbors making sure everyone is safe. People sharing with strangers food that otherwise would go bad in a refrigerator without power. The collective cleanup that begins even before the emergency crews arrive. I’ve witnessed it firsthand covering hurricanes and tornadoes, starting with Andrew in south Florida three decades ago. It’s as if the winds that tear down walls also break down the mental barriers that keep us separate.

When all that is familiar is twisted beyond recognition, we reach out and reaffirm our common bond. Hurricane recovery is a long hard slog. But just as Miami, Houston, and New Orleans rebuilt, so will Lake Charles and the surrounding countryside.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Law enforcement officers stand guard during a protest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Aug. 25, 2020.

What happens when fear becomes the engine driving both sides of America’s social upheaval? Fear can sharpen attention. It motivates action. It’s an emotion that can drive change. But that action isn’t always good.

Is it ever appropriate to shoot someone in the back? The stigma stems from a general code of honor (it’s seen as cowardly) or ethical principle of engagement. A noted exception: if the fleeing person poses a serious threat.

Jessie Wardarski/AP
Dozens of students and their family members gather outside St. Francis Xavier School in Newark, New Jersey, on Aug. 6, 2020, a week after the Archdiocese of Newark announced its permanent closure. This year, some 140 Roman Catholic schools have closed permanently.

As the pandemic makes waves in the education ecosystem, more attention is being paid to which models will survive. Some private schools find themselves in sink-or-swim situations that may affect options for families post-crisis. 

Courtesy of Mark Finney
Six months after a prescribed burn of high intensity by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the University of California, Berkeley, young-growth coast redwood trees in Annadel State Park sprout at their bases in March 1990.

Resilience can be hard to muster in the face of devastation. In Big Basin State Park, California’s beloved redwoods offer a lesson in hope and rebirth.

Essay

Mike Ehrmann/USA TODAY Sports NPStrans toppic
A detail of the jersey of Russell Westbrook, #0, of the Houston Rockets during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks at The Arena at ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex on July 31, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The NBA tried to create a perfect bubble to return to play. But it all came crashing down with the shooting of Jacob Blake. And there’s a deeper lesson in that.


The Monitor's View

REUTERS
Rev. Al Sharpton looks out from the Lincoln Memorial at a rally and march in Washington Aug. 28.

As protests go, the one in Washington today on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was perhaps the largest since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Thousands of people rallied in a call for criminal justice reform and racial equality. But crowd size was not the point. After weeks of marches across the United States that also saw violence committed largely by those not advocating for social change, the Washington rally was remarkable for its peacefulness.

That is important as the rally was held on the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” address in the same place. He left a legacy of using nonviolence as a tool for change. Lately, with violence around the protests, American society has been in need of a large display of civil behavior.

Protests by unarmed civilians remain critical for those who seek an end to unnecessary violence against Black people by police. Relying on the opposite of physical force carries moral authority, or what the famous Czech dissident Václav Havel called “power of the powerless.” In itself, nonviolent activism creates social trust and a civic culture. It attracts others by signaling a value of love. It often melts the resistance of security forces or others trying to end legal protests with violence. And it puts a spotlight on those who keep resorting to violence.

Around the world, nonviolent resistance against nondemocratic authorities has been rising over the past few years even as authoritarianism is on an uptick. Digital organizing enables quicker assembly of street demonstrations and other civil dissent. Also a victory in one country for nonviolent protests is now more visible in other countries. 

Nonviolent resistance, writes scholar Jonathan Pinckney in a new book, “From Dissent to Democracy,” helps people envision a different order. “This makes it inherently creative, expressive, and empowering.” He says there have been 78 transitions to democracy by the use of peaceful protests between 1945 and 2011. Nonviolent campaigns are three times more likely to end in democracy than other challenges to a regime, such as through a military coup or a revolt by a powerful elite.

The latest country to enjoy a burst of peaceful pro-democracy protests is the former Soviet state of Belarus. Three weeks after the country’s dictator rigged an election, civic activism keeps growing. “Belarusians have gained a new-found sense of dignity and belief in the power of nonviolent collective action,” writes Mr. Pinckney. 

Peace is an action. It not only helps bring democracy or improve on it, it can also sustain it.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Struggling to breathe and starting to lose consciousness, a woman turned to God in heartfelt prayer. This brought a tangible feeling of God’s love for her, and in very short order she was completely well.


A message of love

Joe Giddens/PA Wire/AP/File
When I entered the Sistine Chapel for the first time, I couldn’t help but mimic every other visitor in the room – head tilted back, eyes opened wide, slack-jawed. That type of vertical viewing doesn’t make for the most dignified of poses, but in the presence of such lofty frescoes, did any of us have a choice? Vatican City’s famous ceiling is not the only work that demands an upward look. The interior of the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, offers a display just as stunning. The 16th-century calligrapher Rezza Abbasi designed its domed interior. The intricate mud-brick mosaic that covers the walls has unsurprisingly won the mosque a designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From Italy to Iran, there is no shortage of soaring works well worth the strain on your neck. – Ann Hermes, Staff
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

That’s it for today. Be sure to tune in Monday when we look at the movement to keep active seniors out of nursing homes.

In the meantime we’d like to point you to a special conversation with Monitor science writers Eva Botkin-Kowacki and Eoin O’Carroll on climate change on the podcast “Let’s Find Common Ground,” produced by the Common Ground Committee.

More issues

2020
August
28
Friday
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