2017
August
31
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 31, 2017
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Houston is home to about 600,000 immigrants of dubious legal status.

But this week, the tension between justice and mercy took a break. Compassion won. As the waters rose, no one asked if his rescuer – or the rescuee – had a green card. In Houston, spontaneous generosity ruled.

Ordinary citizens carried strangers to safety. One man showed up at a shelter with a stack of warm pizzas. A woman hosted 16 people and seven dogs in her home. Two guys tired of watching the devastation on TV put up a sign in a Walgreens parking lot Tuesday to accept donations. The Houston Chronicle described Joe Looke and Daniel Webb  as "middle men of mercy."  Within a few hours, donors filled 30 SUVs with food, water, medicine, and toiletries.

Texan William J. Dyer writes that his Facebook feed is filled with these acts. “I've been choked up in admiration … about small bits of sanity and kindness and extraordinary calm and love that no one, or no more than a handful of other people, will ever see, or know about, or remember.”

Even as the rain eased Wednesday, mercy also ruled, at least temporarily, with a federal judge’s decision to block a new Texas law banning “sanctuary” cities for unauthorized immigrants.

The Texas law is similar to one in Arizona. And the United States is founded on the rule of law. But a lesson may be drawn from Houston: Justice and mercy are often best served when individual circumstances shape the response.

Now our five stories selected for today.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

If you’re tired of America’s polarized politics, there may be an emerging candidate for you. Here’s our look at the rise of a moderate, middle way.

Steve Dipaola/Reuters/File
The autonomous 'Sea Hunter,' developed by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, is shown docked in Portland, Ore., after its christening ceremony in April 2016. Currently oriented toward detecting mines and submarines, the drone is expected to be outfitted with weapons at some point.

Elon Musk is among those warning that robots with artificial intelligence are a threat to humanity. But some argue that robots – not driven by fear or revenge – may have higher moral standards than humans.

American close-ups

Reports from the road

As US cities wrestle with how to respond to white supremacists, one Idaho city offers poignant lessons from its two-decades-long confrontation with hate.  

Courtesy of D.C. Dept. of Energy & Environment
Trainees with Solar Works DC install a solar array on a single-family home in Washington's Ward 8. The organization provides job training to youths from underserved communities while bringing the cost savings of rooftop solar to low-income residents.

This story is about how installing solar panels can instill confidence and satisfaction, and provide a path out of poverty – and out of an impoverishing mental outlook.

What does a garden tell you about the character of a man? Our reporter visits the community plot tended by Jeremy Corbyn, Britain’s Labour leader, looking for answers.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Guatemalans protest President Jimmy Morales's decision to expel Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), in Guatemala City Aug.29.

 One adjective often used to describe corruption in Latin America is “chronic.” Or, even worse, “entrenched.” Such a fatalistic narrative, however, has been challenged in recent days by the people of Guatemala. They have adopted an alternative view that honest governance should not only be the norm but irreversible.

On Aug. 24, President Jimmy Morales – who was elected on an anti-corruption platform – attempted to squelch a probe into alleged shady financing of his 2015 campaign by trying to oust a key prosecutor. Several cabinet ministers then quit. Street protests broke out. Foreign leaders condemned the move. And a high court reversed the president’s action.

Soon after, Mr. Morales wrote on his Facebook page: “The rule of law should always prevail.” He now awaits a decision that could strip him of official immunity in order for him to face charges.

Such a rapid chain of events is testament to a decade of progress in the Central American country toward reversing a culture of impunity. Guatemala’s example also builds on similar achievements in tackling corruption, such as in Brazil and Argentina, that help defy the false stigma of a hemisphere condemned to live with graft in high places.

Guatemala also offers the region another model in pursuing clean government. In 2007, it agreed to the creation of a United Nations body, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, to assist local prosecutors in going after corruption. Dozens of officials have been convicted. Notably, in 2015 then-President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti resigned over a massive corruption scheme in customs. The unique panel remains a highly popular institution.

Morales, a former TV comedian and political outsider, was elected on the hope that he could keep the momentum going in this cleanup of government. Yet by challenging his attempt to remove the head of the UN commission, Ivan Velasquez, Guatemalan citizens realized even more that their newfound embrace of transparency and honesty in governance is the real driving force for change. Such a popular shift in thinking is essential for Latin American countries to draw top foreign investors, create healthy economies, and reduce inequality.

It also might result in descriptions of corruption in Latin America as “faltering” or “rare.”


A Christian 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 – in its various forms – 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 – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

The term “act of God” is often used for insurance and governmental purposes to designate the types of flooding disasters that have recently occurred in Texas, West Africa, South Asia, and parts of Europe. But it also reflects a common thought that such havoc is quite literally God’s hand at work, punishing His wayward children. Many naturally rebel against the notion of such a deity mercilessly punishing sinners and others around them with an indiscriminate flood or hurricane. And Christian Science shares that the healing works of Christ Jesus are evidence that God is not a destructive force, but a saving force, in our lives – shown even today in so many compassionate healing acts by people everywhere. 


A message of love

Gabe Hernandez/Corpus Christi Caller-Times/AP
Displaced by Harvey, Felicia Murphy of Rockport, Texas, talks with Randy Holmes of neighboring Fulton, Texas, inside a FEMA shelter at the Tuloso-Midway High School in Corpus Christi. The federal agency is reportedly operating more than 200 shelters and housing some 32,000 people in the state.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Under President Trump, more and more immigrants are fearful about their legal status and are crossing into Canada. For tomorrow, we're working on a story about what that exodus looks like from Vancouver.

Before you go, check out this inspiring bonus story: What do you do when a hurricane shuts down schools and shelters fill up with thousands of idle children? Tap a child’s curiosity, imagination, and love of reading.

More issues

2017
August
31
Thursday

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