2018
September
11
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

September 11, 2018
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The outcome of Friday night’s Ocean Springs, Miss., high school football game rested entirely on the shoulders of the homecoming queen.

That’s right, Kaylee Foster was crowned at halftime and then kicked the extra point in overtime to lead the team to victory, 13-12.

Kaylee’s success isn’t unique. Tiaras and football pads are becoming a thing in America.

Last fall, North Carolina kicker Julia Knapp was crowned homecoming queen and the offensive player of the game. In Grand Blanc, Mich., last year linebacker Alicia Woollcott was the second high school football player in her state to be voted homecoming queen. In the past year, at least five states have celebrated these queens who wear football jerseys.

While fewer US teens are playing high school football, the number of girls donning cleats is rising. It’s still a small number. But kudos to the young women redefining gender stereotypes. "Don’t feel sorry for me and don’t help me up when I get knocked down, I know what I’m doing and I know why I’m here,” Alicia told her coach.

On a Friday night, with a few seconds left, the game hanging in the balance, every coach wants an athlete who’s poised, consistent, and fearless in the face of adversity. Those are qualities that have nothing to do with gender.

Now to our five selected stories, including a fresh look at international justice, progress on sexual harassment in the US, and inspiring reads for September.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Justice may be seen as a concept that has no geopolitical boundaries. But today we have two stories on global justice, including this one that rejects putting limits on American safety and sovereignty.

SOURCE:

Chicago Council Surveys

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

#MeToo and government: State legislatures try more self-policing

Check out our maps of progress being made on sexual harassment by US lawmakers: who’s making changes, what kind, and who isn’t making changes.

SOURCE:

Data analysis by The Associated Press

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Rebecca Asoulin and Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Mike Corder/AP
Protesters gather outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Sept. 3. Judges at the United Nations' highest court are listening to arguments in a case focused on whether Britain illegally maintains sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, including Diego Garcia, where the United States has a major military base.

Who really owns the Chagos Islands, a remote outpost in the Indian Ocean? A decades-old territorial dispute is now in a new judicial arena.

Karen Norris/Staff

A letter from…

Air Force One
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Washington bureau chief Linda Feldmann (c.) and the rest of the press pool listen to President Trump aboard Air Force One on their way to Fargo, N.D, Sept. 7.

Washington Bureau Chief Linda Feldmann offers an insider’s view of traveling with the president on Air Force One. There are many privileges, but it offers a fairly narrow perspective on events.

Books

Among our 10 best books of September you’ll find inspiration and insight from a top chef who helped feed Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria and the reformation of a white nationalist raised to hate. We also have Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest on presidential leadership.


The Monitor's View

AP Photo
This photo shows the shuttered Beta Theta Pi fraternity house on Penn State University's main campus in State College, Pa. The fraternity was closed up after the February 2017 death of a pledge from a night of hazing and drinking.

At college fraternities across the United States and Canada, the true meaning of brotherhood has just been clarified.

After several high-profile deaths from heavy drinking at parties or initiation rites, the major association representing fraternities announced Sept. 4 that it will no longer allow frat houses to serve hard liquor at chapter facilities and events.

The ban, which is expected to go into effect at hundreds of campuses within a year, is designed to return these private men’s clubs to their original purpose. “At their core, fraternities are about brotherhood, personal development, and providing a community of support. Alcohol abuse and its serious consequences endanger this very purpose,” said Judson Horras, president and chief executive officer of the self-regulating North-American Interfraternity Conference.

The NIC’s move adds to other recent moves in higher education to persuade students, especially incoming freshmen, that liquor is not a liberator from the stress of making friends or fitting into campus life. And the fact that fraternities themselves are taking action – rather than school administrators – hints at a culture shift in Greek life away from the notion that heavy drinking is an obligatory rite of passage.

In recent years, many colleges and universities have tried to regulate fraternities and sororities, such as by delaying the recruitment of freshmen until spring, or have even banned them outright. These measures are designed to prevent deaths from drinking during hazing rituals as well as sexual assaults.

Punitive steps, however, while sometimes necessary, may not be effective if students, both men and women, simply form underground groups off-campus where they can hide destructive behavior. A far more lasting solution is to ensure they are offered healthy pursuits and fulfilling opportunities beyond academic learning.

Restoring the highest meaning of brotherhood (and sisterhood) is a good start. Students must not only find aspiration toward learning and a career but also inspiration about what constitutes the good life.

With so many challenges facing students on campuses, a group of prominent colleges joined together in 2013 and formed the Resilience Project. These schools are pooling ideas on how to assist students in learning from failure and coming out stronger. At Bates College, for example, students are encouraged to discover “purposeful work.”

At Cornell University, fraternities and sororities have emphasized outdoor recreation, such as camping trips. At other schools, frat houses have refocused on volunteering.

Brotherhood can be a great unifier for students if it is based on higher pursuits, such as giving and trust. Forming common bonds is also a sure way to avoid excessive drinking and the tragedies that come from it.


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.

Today’s contributor explores the biblical example of Saul’s transformation and how it speaks to God’s ability to heal violent intent.


A message of love

Mark Lennihan/AP
A man looks at the North Pool at the World Trade Center during a ceremony Tuesday marking the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. In the background is the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a story about how Jordan is coping with a cut in US funds for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency.

More issues

2018
September
11
Tuesday

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