2020
October
19
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 19, 2020
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Amelia Newcomb
Senior editor

I voted Saturday – an annual act of civic participation that reminded me of the bond so many Americans share in getting to the voting booth.

My family’s experience on the first day of early voting in Massachusetts was not like that of many of the 28 million people who have broken voting records this fall. We didn’t, for example, have to show up at 2:45 a.m. to beat long lines – the choice 79-year-old Maxine Shelby and her niece made Saturday in Marrero, Louisiana, after Ms. Shelby’s daughter endured a seven-hour wait Friday. Some queues were easily explained: In Boston, the opportunity to vote at historic Fenway Park proved a strong lure. But in Georgia, the impact of a dearth of polling places – which did not keep pace with surging voter registration – was hard to countenance. 

Still, we witnessed, as so many people have, the reliable calm of the poll workers, the applause for young citizens casting their first presidential votes, the friendly nods as ballots drop into the collection box. Across the nation, groups like Pizza to the Polls or Chefs for the Polls have stepped up to nourish weary voters and hard-working volunteers. And I couldn’t help but be struck by how, in an indisputably challenging year, a powerful lot of patience and strong spirit is on display as Americans show their commitment to making their voices heard. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Sakchai Lalit/AP
Pro-democracy demonstrators hold posters of protest leaders who have been arrested, during an anti-government protest at Victory Monument in Bangkok Oct. 18, 2020.

A new generation is propelling the escalating protests in Thailand. These young people are bold and impatient – and, as one expert notes, “They’re more and more the driving force in Thai politics.”

Sara Miller Llana/The Christian Science Monitor
Jim Rodger is a brainchild of the "Prime Ministers Path," a project that was intended to take Canadians on a tour of their 22 former prime ministers, including William Lyon MacKenzie King, shown here. But amid controversy over the legacy of the first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, the idea is on hold.

This question goes to the heart of the many controversies that have emerged over historical statues: Can a monument ever be contextualized enough to tell two sides of a story?

A deeper look

Clayton Hauck/50 Eggs Films
The Manley crew team returns to the water in Chicago.

Arshay Cooper remembers the moment he realized he had to tell his story, now both a book and a documentary, because “on the other side of that despair, on the other side of that fear, there is courage and healing and hope and the opportunity to grow.”

Essay

A young Black conservative, Chris Prudhome says he is often ostracized and judged. But, he says, “chastising and ridiculing people without hearing their thoughts is not how to solve things.”

Difference-maker

Students are another group that frequently gets labeled – with apathy. But have you noticed those really young workers at polling stations? They're challenging that image by the thousands.


The Monitor's View

AP
Migrants from Morocco are detained by Spanish Police after arriving at the Canary Island, crossing the Atlantic Ocean sailing on a wooden boat.

Since March, the pandemic has not only shut national borders, but has also led to fresh thinking about issues of migration across borders. In many countries, the absence of new migrants has made the heart grow fonder for them.

In Canada, which ranked as the most-accepting country for migrants in 2019, the flow of immigrants has slowed to a trickle. This has caused the government to plan for 351,000 new permanent residents next year, the highest number in a century. 

Australia has seen its net migration fall to negative levels for the first time since World War II, sparking debate about the impact of having fewer migrants in the economy. 

In the United States, where a drop in migration was influenced by both COVID-19 and the restrictive policies of the Trump administration, a Gallup Poll finds Americans want more immigration rather than less for the first time since 1965. In the election campaign, only 15% of voters see immigration as an issue. Just two years ago, it was the most important issue. “Public support for immigration shows far less of a partisan divide,” the Gallup survey found.

Perhaps the most welcome debate over migration is in Europe. Last month, the European Commission proposed a new policy that would reshuffle the burdens of migration between its 27 member states. The aim, says EC President Ursula von der Leyen, is to remind Europeans that migration “defined our societies, enriched our cultures, and shaped many of our lives.” That point was made clear during the pandemic by the spotlight put on the outsize role of migrants in “essential” jobs.

Ever since 2015, when Europe was flooded with refugees from Africa and the Middle East, the European Union has sought a cohesive migration policy. At first it tried to impose quotas on member states to accept asylum-seekers. The new plan is more genial, offering them alternative ways to contribute. Finding a compromise is critical if the EU wants to save its so-called Schengen system of border-free internal travel once restrictions on travel are lifted after the pandemic.

Countries that rethink their immigration policies now might be better positioned to use migration in recovering from the pandemic. “People on the move can be part of the solution,” said António Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration. He hopes Europe can “reimagine the governance of migration and human mobility as safe, orderly, inclusive and human rights centered.” 

The pandemic has made daily life for many seem inhospitable. The best antidote could be in making the world more hospitable, by broadening the welcome mat for migrants when borders reopen.


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.

Wherever we are, God’s intelligence and wisdom are here to help us find our way – as a woman experienced quite literally when her GPS failed her in an unfamiliar remote area.


A message of love

Carl Recine/Reuters
A new Banksy artwork is seen in Rothesay Avenue, Nottingham, England, Oct. 17, 2020.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

I hope you enjoyed starting off your week with today's stories. Join us tomorrow to meet Lina Zedriga, a lawyer who thought she was done with politics. Instead, she is now deputy to Bobi Wine, whose campaign to upset Uganda's long-ruling president in February elections is sparking excitement.

More issues

2020
October
19
Monday

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