2020
October
22
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 22, 2020
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Yvonne Zipp
Features Editor

Well, good grief.

The latest holiday tradition lost to 2020 is the Great Pumpkin.

In the words of Linus: “Augh! You didn’t tell me you were going to kill it!”

That annual ode to sincerity, autumn leaves, Sopwith Camels, and costumes you make yourself has aired on TV every year since 1966. But this Halloween there will be no Linus waiting faithfully in the pumpkin patch, no Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown, no World War I flying ace hiding out behind enemy lines.

It has been traded away from ABC to AppleTV+, which will stream it free between Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – that animated cri de coeur against commercialism – also will not be on broadcast TV, nor will “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” which posits that sharing what you have with friends makes a feast – even if it’s toast, popcorn, and jelly beans.

Instead of a cape and superpowers, Linus totes a blanket and issues wisdom such as: “Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker,” and “Three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

As Gen Xers, my husband and I grew up with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and raised our son on the Peanuts. For Halloween, he was the World War I flying ace, complete with giant red doghouse and an aviator helmet. We made the costume ourselves, despite me being about as handy with scissors as Charlie Brown.

Shared cultural touchstones are becoming ever harder to find. Charles Schulz, Bill Meléndez, and Lee Mendelson had a genius for celebrating what unites, and setting it to jazz. As Linus says of his pumpkin patch, it can be said of their holiday specials: “You can look all around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Global report

Courtesy of Jessi Rose
English teacher Jessi Rose (right) poses with a friend at the ancient city of Volubilis in northern Morocco.

Global opinion of the U.S. has broadly declined during President Trump’s term. But what has that meant for Americans living abroad, who serve as both observers of and ambassadors for what is happening in their country?

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Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, appears before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee at the Capitol in Washington, May 16, 2019. Along with the advocacy group DAWN, she filed suit Oct. 20, 2020 in Washington federal court against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and others over Mr. Khashoggi's murder.

Even in societies riven by differences, democracy can be a unifying ideal. In the face of repression, Saudis – including liberals, Islamists, Sunnis, Shiites, and former members of the military – have united to oppose the regime.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

Our global columnist picks out clarity, coherence, and compassion as qualities that distinguish leaders who have coped well with the pandemic. But the greatest of these is compassion.

The Explainer

Ivan Alvarado/Reuters
Demonstrators hold bicycles in front of a riot police vehicle during a protest against Chile’s government, in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 25, 2020.

A constitution is more than the backbone of the law – it’s a national symbol. Does Chile need a new one? After months of protest, citizens are debating just how far reforms should go. 

Books

Karen Norris/Staff

More people are making food at home during the pandemic, and they’re seeking inspiration. The desire to nourish loved ones and oneself can spur creativity, whether building meals from pantry staples or exploring cuisines from around the world. 


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Thailand's Royal Army Chief General Narongpan Jitkaewthae participates in a Sept. 29 ceremony in Bangkok to become the new head of the military.

A good reason to track the protests in Thailand is that they reflect how much the world has let go of a belief that military officers know best how to run a country. In the past century, no other country has had more attempted or successful coups (19) than Thailand. It is one of the few places where generals still see civilian rule and civic equality as dangerous.

On Thursday, protesters in Bangkok appeared closer to winning their struggle to have the country run by ballots and not bullets and to send the military back to the barracks. The current ruler, former army chief and coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, was forced to lift a week-old emergency declaration that allowed security forces to quash the protests with violence. Ever agile in organizing pop-up protests via social media, the demonstrators did not flinch. They surrounded the seat of government.

Other countries where generals wield a strong hand are probably watching these events closely. Scholars say the success rate of coup attempts has fallen in the past couple of decades. Today’s military-controlled governments feel greater international pressure to hold elections, even if rigged, in order to create a democratic facade and a minimum of legitimacy.

In Pakistan, an alliance of 11 political parties is demanding that the military stay out of politics. In Sudan, after last year’s protests ousted a longtime military ruler, the country is on the path to civilian rule in two years. Similar protests in Algeria have the military scrambling to stay in power. And in Mali, a recent coup was partially rolled back this month under pressure from the 55-nation African Union. Coup leaders have appointed a civilian prime minister and promised elections.

In many countries, the armed forces often display a hubris of superiority, believing they can run government better because of their discipline, organization, and moral duty to save the nation. Yet they also often fail in the messy tasks of running an economy and social programs or in reining in corruption.

In Thailand, the people have slowly awakened to the identity of being equal citizens and to the need for a democracy based on individual self-governance. As a coercive arm of the state, the Thai military, like militaries everywhere, must by its nature be controlled by civilians.

With fewer coups around the world these days, countries continue to realize that power does not lie in guns but in democratic ideals, reflected through the will of the people. That trend is playing out on the streets of Bangkok, where coups could soon be history.


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.

It often seems as if we need to take sides, politically or otherwise. But even when there’s disagreement, taking a stand for divine goodness opens the door for harmony and progress.


A message of love

Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse/AP
As sunlight weaves through Alpine peaks, so do cyclists racing in the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia, which runs from Pinzolo to Laghi di Cancano, in northern Italy, on Oct. 22, 2020.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today! Come back tomorrow. Politics writer Story Hinckley reports from Pennsylvania, which has become literally a keystone state for the 2020 election.

More issues

2020
October
22
Thursday

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