2023
October
20
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 20, 2023
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Ken Makin
Cultural commentator

I heard about the tragedy of Leonard Cure, and my heart sank. How could a man with a surname of healing have to endure such heartache for so long?

Mr. Cure, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years for a crime he didn’t commit, was gripped by a fear that he would once again be denied justice without cause.

His nightmare came true this past Monday during a struggle with a Georgia deputy. According to reports, the deputy, who was white, pulled over Mr. Cure’s truck, saying Mr. Cure passed him going 100 mph. A series of escalations ended with the fatal shooting of Mr. Cure, who is Black.

Mr. Cure’s fears are my own. The tragic tales of Sean Bell, shot by police the morning before his wedding day, and Philando Castile, born 48 hours before me, haunt me.

Mr. Cure’s last name offers a glimpse into what seems to be both the simplest and the hardest solution – a need for a deeper humanity. The officer couldn’t have known Mr. Cure’s tragic backstory. Mr. Cure couldn’t have known what it is like to be an officer. Where is the space and opportunity for benevolence?

Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, says Mr. Cure “is someone that was failed by the system once, and he has again been failed by the system. He’s been twice taken away from his family.”

The Innocence Project is an organization that seeks to reverse wrongful convictions, but it can also speak to an effort to restore. In the face of political polarity, economic uncertainty, and international conflict, there can still be space for a cultural reset.

We are not combatants in a war. We are human beings, and even just the benefit of the doubt toward our neighbor could be the beginning of a revolution.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

From the 1979 hostage crisis to support for Islamic militants, Iran has afflicted U.S. presidents. Now it’s testing President Joe Biden in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as in Ukraine. 

Mohammed Salem/Reuters
People eat at the home of Ibrahim Alagha, who shelters over 90 people who fled their homes amid Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 20, 2023.

Room on the floor to sleep. A catering business-turned-community kitchen. Even as humanitarian aid is held up on the border with Egypt, Palestinians under siege in Gaza are relying on each other and sharing what little they have.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Rep. Jim Jordan pauses as he speaks about his bid to become the next speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 20, 2023. Republicans later dropped him as their nominee.

Two weeks have passed with House Republicans unable to elect a speaker, amid signs of rancor within their conference. Has an ethos of brinkmanship gone too far?

In the wake of intense criticism surrounding statements about the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, campuses are wrestling with their role. Should they be amplifying their students’ opinions, or should there be a return to a more neutral stance that promotes the First Amendment?

LUIS BERNARDO CANO
Raul Tolosa, a small farmer and rancher, shows a photo of a jaguar taken with a camera trap on his land. He was one of the first farmers in the area to use electric fences to prevent jaguar attacks on his cattle.

Wildlife conservation works best when it involves the community. In Colombia, an unusual partnership helps protect jaguar habitat through innovation and collaboration.


The Monitor's View

One after another, societies caught under autocratic or corrupt governments keep seeking road maps back to clean, stable democracy. Now it is Venezuela’s turn. On Sunday, its people have a possible opportunity to decide who they want to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in elections next year.

The weekend ballot is only a primary, but it could be transformative. That is because it is citizen-run. A group of civil society groups has set up voting stations while educating and mobilizing voters to choose a candidate among the opposition parties.

Attempts by the government to ban certain candidates have strengthened popular resolve for change. At rallies for María Corina Machado, a Yale-educated engineer whom polls predict as the likely winner on Sunday – despite being prohibited from running by the government – supporters chant, “We’re not afraid,” and “Until the end.”

“Within Venezuela ... there is a surprising level of faith in the potential of elections to bring political change and restore democracy,” wrote Mark Feierstein, a Latin America expert at the United States Institute of Peace, in Americas Quarterly.

This democratic vigor received a boost this week when the government signed a partial pact with opposition leaders on free elections next year. The agreement follows years of stop-start international attempts to coax Mr. Maduro to embrace a return to democracy. During a decade in power, the Venezuelan autocrat was increasingly isolated for corruption and human rights violations. The U.S., under both the Obama and Trump administrations, applied ever stricter sanctions.

But geopolitics favored a thaw. Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. It is also a major source of migration. More than 7 million of its citizens have emigrated. In just September, roughly 50,000 sought entry across the U.S. southern border. A deal signed Tuesday brought immediate benefits. The Biden administration agreed to ease embargoes on Venezuelan oil and gas for at least six months. Both sides have also engaged in a prisoner swap.

Such reciprocal gestures underscore that the strength of punitive measures like sanctions resides in their wise use. “The power and integrity of United States sanctions derives not only from our ability to sanction bad actors, but also to delist them,” a senior official said in a State Department briefing on Wednesday. “Our ultimate goal with sanctions is to bring about positive change in behavior.”

In Venezuela, that includes encouraging a climate for fair elections, safe political opposition, thriving civil society activity, and unrestricted journalism. Although skeptics doubt Mr. Maduro will allow free elections next year, voters and democracy advocates see an opening.

“There is a great opportunity, but we have to do things right,” Henrique Capriles, a leading opposition leader, told El País after he was recently banned by Mr. Maduro from participating in this weekend’s poll. “The transition in Venezuela involves a recognition of the adversary, it involves dismantling this kind of all-or-nothing existentialism that has done us a lot of damage.”

Through sticks and carrots, states try to influence each other. Yet citizens build their own nations, drawing strength from qualities of selflessness and courage. A restoration of self-government in Venezuela is underway. It has started with ordinary people organizing their democracy from the grassroots without fear. 


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature
PhotoStock-Israel/Moment/Getty Images

Being still and knowing what it means that God, good, is omnipotent wins the war within that helps bring forward the brotherhood of man under one Father.


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Ritzau Scanpix/Pelle Rink/Reuters
Large waves caused by strong gusts of wind crash on the northern coast of the island of Bornholm, Denmark, Oct. 20, 2023.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. In addition to continuing our coverage of the Middle East and the U.S. Congress on Monday, we’ll examine the political situation in Pakistan, where a former prime minister is returning after years of self-exile. What does fairness look like in a situation where there have been so many missteps and injustices on all sides?

Also, our “Why We Wrote This” podcast, about how Monitor journalists approach their work, resumes next week. In case you missed it, this July episode with Taylor Luck remains a very timely listen. He describes a rising generation in the Mideast whose hopefulness and sense of agency have endured cycles of conflict. 

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2023
October
20
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