2018
December
03
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

December 03, 2018
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Amelia Newcomb
Senior editor

After President George H.W. Bush’s passing, the Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi messaged me. Like several Monitor staffers, he had a memory to share about Mr. Bush’s well-known love for letter-writing and personal connection.

It revolved around Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, which Howard wrote about in 1988. The story mentioned that two decades earlier, then-Congressman Bush backed an effort to protect the river. Soon, Howard received a letter from a preservationist he had interviewed. She enclosed a letter from now-Vice President Bush, who’d seen the article and written that he remembered fondly her good works for Houston.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this guy is VP, and he takes the time to write,’ ” says Howard. “I’ve never forgotten it.”

Then Bush became president. Senior Washington writer Peter Grier recalls witnessing Bush’s connection with troops he visited during the Gulf War. “He started throwing presidential pins and cufflinks into the crowd with a left-handed sling motion, so much like the Yale baseball player from long ago. He was smiling – and the troops loved it.”

And then there was Bush’s failed bid for a second term. Retired Monitor political writer John Dillin recalls interviewing Bush at the White House. When it emerged John was from Florida, Bush asked how he was doing there. “Pretty well with most of my family,” John replied, “but not my mother.” Bush asked for her number and picked up the phone. “She wouldn’t budge,” John recalls, chuckling, but the effort was impressive.

Now to our five stories, including an appreciation of President Bush’s long career and an editorial about public service.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The US-China cease-fire was the headline of the G20 summit. But there's another story worth watching as well: China's President Xi presenting himself as the new champion of multilateralism.

Scott Applewhite/AP/File
President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush walk across the South Lawn as they return to the White House in Washington Aug. 24, 1992. The last president to serve in World War II, Bush’s greatest accomplishment in office was to oversee a peaceful end to the cold war.

As the United States pays tribute to President George Herbert Walker Bush, who died Friday, many are recalling a long résumé of public service that profoundly shaped his tenure in the White House.

When a city offers a model for dealing with the social impact of rising rents, it's worth taking note. In this case, the story is about Oakland, Calif., which is working to fight homelessness and gentrification before they take root. 

Perception Gaps

Comparing what’s ‘known’ to what’s true

Beyond opioids: America’s overlooked epidemic

Many Americans struggle with addiction. As experts work to address everything from opioid to alcohol abuse, many say a much-needed element is empathy, which squelches shame and encourages social connections.

SOURCE:

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Karen Norris/Staff
NOAA GOES-East/Reuters
The intensity of hurricane Michael, seen in this Oct. 9 satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico, caught many Florida residents off guard. Hurricane models have come a long way in recent years, but scientists are still struggling to be able to predict sudden intensification of a storm.

For centuries, hurricanes have been viewed as chaotic forces of nature. This story looks at the valuable insight we're gaining about cyclones courtesy of daring pilots and advancing technology.


The Monitor's View

AP
President George H.W. Bush gets up close with kids at the Shiloh Baptist Church day care center in Washington on May 9, 1989.

If a common thread can be found in the tributes for George H.W. Bush, it is his role in elevating the dignity of public service. Policy leadership, such as the late president’s guiding hand at the end of the cold war, was almost secondary to what is termed today “servant leadership.”

Or as Mr. Bush simply called it, “pitching in.”

From war hero to congressman to CIA director to diplomat to vice president and president, he was a model of that honorable profession known as career government worker. Even in his passing, Americans were reminded about being of service to others in the photo of Sully, his service dog in later years, lying beside his coffin.

Bush chose Texas A&M University, in College Station, as the site of his presidential library in part because of its school in public administration. Since 2000, his foundation has given awards to world leaders for “excellence in public service.” Last year he assembled other living former presidents to join in fundraising for aid relief after hurricane Harvey. He also left behind a legacy of two sons with their own records as high elected officials.

Bush saw politics – despite its worst aspects – as a means for public service, not as a vehicle for money, fame, or personal power. Perhaps he was inspired by a father who volunteered to run town meetings in their community. In his tribute, President Barack Obama said the late president’s life “is a testament to the notion that public service is a noble, joyous calling.” Or as Bush himself said in 1992, “I saw a chance to help and I did.”

In an era of high distrust of government and a decline in volunteering among Americans, his record should be a reminder of the need for more people to help citizens and communities with practical skills and selfless humility. In 2017, Congress was so worried about the state of the nation’s civic health that it set up a panel called the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. Its 11 members are crisscrossing the United States looking for ways to inspire young people to serve the country in some way. Its recommendations are due in 2020.

In October, another notable civil servant, Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, came out with a memoir, “Keeping at It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government.” In it he writes, “One cannot sit here in 2018 without a strong sense of concern about ... the state of public service.” He has formed a nonpartisan think tank, the Volcker Alliance, aimed at strengthening professional education for public service.

But not all is bleak. In a survey of 1,000 “rising government leaders” released earlier this year, the Volcker Alliance found about 75 percent report they intend to continue in government for the long term and that they work among trusted peers. More than 80 percent said their work requires “fostering a culture of responsive service to the public.” 

At root, service to others is a reflection of a higher good. That good can best be seen in the civic virtues of exemplary public servants. Bush senior was certainly one of those. But as his wife, Barbara, might have reminded him, it is better to inspire others to such a calling than call attention to one’s own deeds.


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 temptation to spend time on our devices seems constant, but today’s contributor shares how she learned to be better balanced by considering what is truly satisfying and fulfilling.


A message of love

Michel Euler/AP
Ambulance workers protesting changes to working conditions hold flares outside the National Assembly in Paris on Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. More than 100 people were injured in the French capital and 412 arrested over the weekend in the worst riots Paris has seen since 1968. The “yellow jacket” protests, named for the neon emergency vests drivers must carry for roadside emergencies, erupted Nov. 17 over gas taxes and other economic reforms activists say favor the wealthy, and they represent a big test for French President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for starting your week with us. Tomorrow we’ll take you to North Dakota, where there’s a raging debate over wind power and a question: Do rural Americans have a right to an uncluttered view? 

More issues

2018
December
03
Monday

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