2.28.23 Parents change school library policies, and farming with camels

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A candidate to lead Scotland as first minister is an outspoken Christian. She faces relentless opposition. What are her chances to win election?

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today parents act to clean up their public-school libraries.

Plus counter-cultural farming … as Christians in community.

And WORLD commentator Steve West on the wonder of reading to kids.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, February 28th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time now for news with Kent Covington.

China COVID source » The White House is brushing off a Wall Street Journal report this week about the origins of COVID-19.

The Journal reported that new intelligence has led the Department of Energy to conclude that COVID-19 likely came from a lab in China, though it reached that conclusion with low confidence.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters:

KIRBY: There is not a consensus right now in the US government about exactly how COVID started.

But GOP Congressman Andy Biggs said the intelligence is beginning to vindicate him and many other Republicans.

BIGGS: We were completely shut down, called conspiracy theorists and had our reputations attacked and savaged.

The Chinese government has responded angrily to suggestions that it’s responsible for the pandemic. It severely limited or denied access to UN investigators tasked with finding COVID’s origin.

West Bank » Kirby also weighed in on recent bloodshed in the West Bank.

A Palestinian gunman opened fire yesterday, killing one Israeli. The attack follows more violence over the weekend.

The spike in tensions came after both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict announced that peace talks in Jordan had led to an agreement.

Kirby told reporters:

KIRBY - The United States will continue to remain actively engaged in this format with all parties over the coming weeks, including through a follow up engagement next month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Israel has moved more troops into the West Bank to try to restore order after the weekend’s violence.

Weather » Severe winter weather continues to batter much of the country.

Much of Northern California is under blizzard or storm warnings through Wednesday as a major storm moves east.

National Weather Service forecaster Bob Oravec.

ORAVEC: Over the next several days it looks like there’s going to be an additional four to six feet of snow across and through the Sierras.

In Michigan more than a thousand people are without power for the fifth straight day … and high winds spawned at least nine tornadoes in the central U-S on Sunday and Monday.

UK trade agreement » The UK and European Union say they’ve patched up a trade dispute over Northern Ireland.

Speaking just outside of London, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared:

SUNAK: I am standing here today, because I believe we have found ways to end the uncertainty and challenge for the people of Northern Ireland.

The so-called Windsor Framework sets rules for imports and border checks between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the rest of the Republic of Ireland, which remains part of the EU.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen called the agreement historic.

LEYEN: It provides for long-lasting solutions that both of us are confident will work for all people and businesses in Northern Ireland.

Sunak promised a vote on the agreement in Parliament.

New Turkey quakes » A dust cloud rose over the ruins of a five-story building in southeastern Turkey on Monday, after yet another earthquake shook it to the ground.

That was just one of dozens of buildings to fall on Monday after a 5.6 magnitude earthquake.

One person died and more than 100 were injured.

A February sixth earthquake and its aftershocks have killed about 50,000 people and caused more than 34 billion dollars of damage to Turkey.

Florida takes control of Reedy Creek » Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law that ends Disney’s unprecedented total control over its properties near Orlando.

DESANTIS: How do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all the other theme parks different? And so we believe that was not good policy.

Disney’s control over Reedy Creek Improvement District came with unique tax benefits and the power to self-regulate. But the law now puts the district under control of a state board.

Professor Emeritus at Rollins College, Dr. Rick Foglesong said the arrangement dated back to the 1960s.

FOGLESONG: Florida was really glad to have Disney interested in them and was willing to give just about anything that the company wanted.

DeSantis and Florida Republicans began scrutinizing the arrangement after Disney waded into politics, opposing a parental rights law at the behest of LGBT activists.

Senator Fetterman Health » The office of Democratic Senator John Fetterman says he is on the road to recovery. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The senator from Pennsylvania is still at the Walter Reed national military hospital. He checked in roughly two weeks ago for treatment of severe clinical depression.

His staff said that he suffered from depression in the past, but it worsened after he suffered a stroke last May while campaigning for office. Doctors say that depression is common after a stroke.

Fetterman’s staff gave an update on his condition Monday. It said his recovery would be a weekslong process, and staffers are keeping him up-to-date about Senate business and news.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

COVINGTON: And I'm Kent Covington. Straight ahead: a Christian is running the office of First Minister in Scotland.

Plus, how parents are getting explicit literature out of school libraries.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 28th of February, 2023.

This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for joining us today! Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up on The World and Everything in It: a Christian politician making history in Scotland.

Kate Forbes is the front-runner to replace Scotland’s outgoing first minister. The first minister is the head of the Scottish government … not a small job in the age of Brexit, coronavirus, and ongoing calls for Scottish independence.

EICHER: Forbes became something of a political celebrity in 2018 when she was appointed finance minister at the age of 29. Now in the running for first minister, she has come under fire for her Biblical views on topics such as abortion, marriage, and transgenderism. Forbes belongs to the F-C-S … the Free Church of Scotland.

Here now to talk about it is David Robertson. He’s a political and cultural blogger and a pastor in the FCS, and he’s well-acquainted with this controversy.

Welcome Pastor Robertson!

ROBERTSON: It’s nice to be with you.

REICHARD: Well, would you paint a picture for us of the spiritual climate of Scotland right now. How common are Biblical convictions like those held by Kate Forbes?

ROBERTSON: Scotland used to be known as the land of the People of the Book. And in my view, we've secularized quicker than any nation in human history. I would say that the spiritual atmosphere is particularly dark, with the new kind of progressive religion having taken over as a state religion, and that biblical Christians are increasingly isolated, and indeed under attack as Kate Forbes has been.

REICHARD: Where does the Free Church of Scotland fit within that climate then?

ROBERTSON: The Free Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian Church, it holds to the Westminster Confession, so it would regard the Bible as inerrant. It is conservative evangelically. It has a wide variety of political opinions within it—we don't, you know, pick one political viewpoint. But we were declining, and I would say almost dying until the end of the 20th century. And since then, there's been a kind of mini-renewal. Not revival yet. But it is a growing church. And Kate Forbes is a young woman within that church. And it's a great shock to many of the progressives in Scotland, that someone so young, and in such a position of power, can be a Biblical believer.

REICHARD: David, could you tell us more of what you know about Forbes? Did she run for Scottish Parliament on a socially conservative platform?

ROBERTSON: No, she's a member of the Scottish National Party. And so what's independent for Scotland, she's a very capable young woman she ran in the highlands became what we call a member of the Scottish Parliament. And then because of a scandal, she was plunged into having to give the budget speech, which is the big speech for government. I think she had to do it within six to eight hours. She did brilliantly well became finance minister, and I think people were aware of her socially conservative views, but never really raised them. But now the progressives are so terrified. See, the thing about progressivism is it's not democratic, it doesn't allow for any other point of view. So right now we're experiencing what I call a witch hunt against Kate Forbes.

REICHARD: Now is this a true statement that Forbes was known more for her stances on poverty and fiscal responsibility than she ever was on these identity politics matters. Is that true?

ROBERTSON: Yes, but I mean, here's the astonishing thing. Scott, the raison d'etre of the Scottish National Party is to independence. But I actually think the progressives couldn't care about independence, they can't care about anything except their doctrines. Nobody denies that Forbes is by far the most competent of the candidates who are standing for First Minister. What they are now questioning is whether someone who holds to socially conservative views is fit, even fit to be First Minister. So it's a question not of what you will do, but who you are. And that is the most worrying thing about what's happening in Scotland.

REICHARD: So Forbes is really trying to walk a thin line in this day and age. She says that she opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. She also believes in representative democracy, though, and she won’t try to change existing marriage laws. Do you think it’s possible for a Bible-believing Christian to hold that line today?

ROBERTSON: We'll find out. Right now Scotland has been asked a question is Is it possible for somebody who does not accept the state doctrines, and they are religious doctrines on issues such as same sex marriage, euthanasia and abortion? Is it possible for such a person to be in civic office in high position of high power? We will find out the answer in a month.

REICHARD: We should probably clarify that unlike in the U-S, the head of the government in Scotland is not chosen on a country-wide vote. The members of Forbes’ party are selecting a party leader, who will become first minister of the government. David, how does that affect her chances of winning?

ROBERTSON: If it went to a vote of the media, if it was up to the elites, she wouldn't have a chance. But if it goes to the ordinary members, I think she'll she has a really good chance of winning. I certainly think if it went to the electorate in Scotland went when she would win quite easily. But that's not how these things are decided. So it's a very, very interesting time. She's such pressure was put on her that she was expected to withdraw. And I remember one journalist a couple of days ago, just writing I have no idea how she's still standing in this race. There must be some kind of supernatural power. So it's quite remarkable. She's a very brave young woman.

REICHARD: Final question here, David. One of Forbes’ opponents is Humza Yousef, the current Scottish health secretary. He is Muslim and has said he observes religious traditions such as Ramadan. Has his religion come under the same scrutiny as Forbes’?

ROBERTSON: No, not in the same way. So for example, during the same sex marriage debate, Kate Forbes was asked how she would have voted she was she wasn't a member of the Scottish Parliament then. And she said she would have voted No, and that's what got her in trouble. But Humza Yousef said he was for it, yet he arranged deliberately a meeting with some civil servants, because he came under pressure from his mosque and not to vote for it. The mosques in Glasgow came out with a statement effectively disowning him or criticizing him and supporting Kate Forbes, saying they agreed with her socially conservative views. And it's a crazy world and maybe, you know, I'll finish with just saying this. Maybe God is doing something here. For Scotland. I really hope and pray that it is the case because otherwise we're on the road to nowhere.

REICHARD: David Robertson of the Free Church of Scotland, thanks so much for joining us.

ROBERTSON: Thank you. It's been a privilege.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

The parents behind new policies in school libraries.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Now a quick warning for parents: some of what we are going to be talking about may not be suitable for younger listeners. So it might be well to hit pause or skip ahead until you’ve had a chance to review this. What you may find objectionable is about a minute away.

In recent months, states like Florida and Texas have issued school library book bans—or so some in the media are saying. You may have heard this kind of report.

CBS NEWS: A florida school district has pulled 176 books from its libraries to comply with the new state education reform law championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

NAJAHE SHERMAN, CBS REPORTER: When it comes to banning books, Florida comes in second in the US. Only Texas has banned books more frequently than Florida's public schools.

RICK KLEIN, ABC NEWS DIRECTOR: Republicans now are sensing that there's a lot of anger out there among parents of school aged children and that that is the kind of anger that crosses party lines.

EICHER: So who are these “angry parents,” and what exactly are they doing to get books banned? We spoke with WORLD’s Mary Jackson to learn more about what’s going on.

JACKSON: So the debate over what books are appropriate in school libraries has become supercharged in large part because parents started speaking up coming out of the pandemic, seeing what was going on in their kids classrooms, and becoming more aware of the books that their kids were being exposed to, and the word kind of spread. And more and more parents started reporting those books to their school districts, and initiating review processes or seeking to improve those that were already in place. So these parents have also been organizing campaigns and starting groups like moms for liberty.

REICHARD: Moms for Liberty: it’s a nonprofit parent/teacher group based in Florida that has chapters across the country. You may have seen videos of members reading excerpts from some of the so-called banned books at school-board meetings, including this one from a mom named Vicki Flannery. Now, I won’t play any of the explicit content, but I do want you to hear how Flannery finishes her presentation.

FLANNERY: “Do any of you—any of you—find this book that depicts a sexual encounter and rape acceptable for any minor, regardless of gender or sexual orientation? Because I do not find this at all acceptable. A child is a child, and if you see this acceptable, you belong on a National Registry and not a school board.”

EICHER: What you might be surprised to learn is that Moms for Liberty is not even two years old; it started in 2021. Mary Jackson explains that even though parents have been reporting objectionable books for years, this current movement is driven by something new.

JACKSON: Starting around 2015, the year Obergefell normalized same-sex marriage, we've seen this shift from say, like Harry Potter books being challenged to extremely graphic titles like Gender Queer, and the content is a lot worse. And it's more likely to be celebrated and promoted in school libraries.

REICHARD: Back in July 2022, Florida passed a law that requires schools to have their books vetted by media specialists trained by the state. While this approach may help remove problematic books, it’s not the only solution.

JACKSON: There are, you know, local school districts where there's a better review process in place now, and parents are really happy about that they, they feel heard, and they feel like there is a mechanism in place for them to, to raise awareness about a particular title. But it obviously does get tricky when parents begin challenging titles for other reasons besides sexual content…And the government really is getting more involved in the books that kids are allowed to read or pick out in the library.

EICHER: You know, back in February, WFLA Channel 8 reported that a theater company in St. Petersburg, Florida was opening what it called a banned books library. Turns out, conservatives weren’t the only ones with concerns. In addition to books like Gender Queer, this library carries books like To Kill a Mockingbird which some progressives object to because of racial slurs. Avery Anderson of American Stage explains the rationale for the library.

ANDERSON: A threat to any form of storytelling is a threat to every form of storytelling.

REICHARD: But not all books are the same.

JACKSON: You know, there is a big difference between books that perhaps expose a child to an idea or a way of thinking or talking that may be offensive today, and requires some discussion between the parents and the child, And books that include graphic descriptions or images of sexual encounters and abuse...We're not talking about classic books here.

EICHER: Right, the books are all still available online, so to say “banned books” is not accurate. What parents are getting is transparency about what books their kids have access to in public-school libraries. They are also getting a say in deciding what books go in that limited space.

JACKSON: The books that we're talking about, the most challenged books, are disturbing and clearly crossed the line in terms of age appropriateness. You could say, for parents, the trust has been broken, and they really see the need for more scrutiny when it comes to the sexual content.

REICHARD: While there may be room for disagreement about the best way for state governments to regulate the content of school libraries, the bottom line is that parents need to be the ones to decide when and how to introduce their children to topics of sexuality and gender.

JACKSON: A book that is put on a display in a school library and attracts a child's attention that has extremely graphic images or descriptions of explicit sexual content, you know, that that really does take something away from the parents and takes something away from the child.

Mary Jackson is a senior writer for WORLD, and you can find her full article on wng.org, where we’ve included a link in today’s transcript.

https://wng.org/articles/war-of-words-1676943364

NICK EICHER, HOST: Last week Blaine Parker was digging up shellfish along the Florida coast for some homemade chowder.

When he uncovered an unusually large mollusk.

As Parker was preparing to … well, prepare it … he realized he had something really special.

Most ocean quahogs are three to four inches in length and weigh up to a half pound. Parker’s find measured about twice that in length and about five times the weight.

Upon closer examination, he noticed the shell thickness … and, listen, this guy is an expert. It was like counting the rings of a tree-trunk … and he was able to figure this quahog was likely born in 1809—the same year as Abraham Lincoln.

Instead of eating the historic shellfish, Parker donated it to Gulf Specimen Marine Lab where he works.

Oh, and we should mention this important nugget. He made the dig on Presidents Day weekend. So he came up with a clever name …

He named it Aber-clam Lincoln.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: He must be a listener.

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 28th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Pets With A Purpose.

Today we return to the Bruderhof community in Australia. They are a Christian community that works, serves, and lives together based on their understanding of Acts 2 and 4.

REICHARD: How that plays out on a daily basis affects not only the people but the animals on their five and a half thousand acre farm in Australia. WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis has the story.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: The Bruderhof meet together outside several evenings a week to encourage one another. One way they do that is through singing fun folk songs. Tonight’s theme is Spring.

The Bruderhof live unconventionally. Not everyone can give up all their possessions to live, work, worship, and breathe together every day for years on end. But that is what the Bruderhof see as their calling.

JOHANNES IN THE FIELD: “They like the clover. They like the grass. They like the oats. I mean, the top third of the grass is the most nutritious. They’ll eat the oats off the plants…”

Johannes Meier is the farm manager at Danthonia Bruderhof in Australia. He works to connect what the Bruderhof believe with what they do on the farm. Meier uses unconventional farming methods that are part of a global trend called regenerative agriculture. It’s about more than just soil structure and how to feed your animals. It includes thinking philosophically about things like…dirt.

JOHANNES: …talks about the soil and all the components that build fertility, and produce growth as being like a symphonic orchestra. And if all those instruments are playing their own tune, it just sounds horrific. But when you bring it in line, and they're all playing together to the same beat, it's something of great beauty. And that’s, that’s where we’re going…[35:35] And all of that is when we're in line with God's order for creation.

One symphonic movement plays out in the microcosm of the Bruderhof orange grove. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Oddball,” where dogs guard penguins in southwest Victoria, you’ll recognize the fluffy white teddy-bear-looking dogs called Maremmano-Abruzzese Sheepdogs, or Maremmas. These fiercely loyal guard dogs originated in Italy and are often described as gentle giants. Foxes would disagree.

ANDREW: We've got these two dogs. One is called a Ringer, and the other we called Chase.
They're not hunters in as much as they'll just chase them off. They're big…And they probably would kill an animal if they caught it, but they're not that fast.

Bruderhof member Andrew Blough takes care of the young dogs.

ANDREW: …And so they're both puppies. I got them from a farmer down near Canberra …[3:02] and we got them to be in with our laying chickens…to protect them from foxes and other predators like eagles.

The dogs bond with whatever they’re guarding.

ANDREW: Whether it's sheep or goats or chickens, ducks, and once they know who they're guarding, then they are very good guard dogs.

These dogs protect 300 laying hens–or chooks–that fertilize the orange trees and keep them free of pests.

ANDREW: A lot of the old farmsteads would plant a few citruses around, and then they would put their chook pan underneath, because citrus…[17:10] they're shallow-rooted and a heavy-feeder for nitrogen. And so the chickens underneath would deposit a lot of manure in there. And so they kind of work together quite well.

Blough keeps a beehive near the oranges.

ANDREW: …and when you get the orange blossoms, and the bees just go completely nuts, but the honey, it has an orange flavor to it.

The dogs generally train each other. The younger dog, Chase, still plays a bit too much with the chickens. He hasn’t graduated to working full-time yet.

ANDREW: We would like in the long run to be able to have a moveable chicken house that we can take in other paddocks and move the layers. And in that case, then we wouldn't have a fox-proof fence and then the dogs would really be doing what they're supposed to do.

Blough says one of the hardest things with working dogs is not getting too attached.

ANDREW: I bring my grandson up here every evening, to feed them. He's just turning two. And he loves the dogs, and they're really good with him…And I hope I'm not bonding too, too much with them, because they're really friendly.

It’s easy to see how chicken-guarding dogs contribute to living and working together while mirroring the Bruderhof commitments. But then there are…the camels.

Johannes Meier’s unconventional means to increase the farm’s productivity and diversity includes adding unconventional animals.

JOHANNES: So out west, they're having a major problem with camels, there's way too many of them and they cull them and so we were able to pick up the camels at a very low cost. I think the most expensive part bringing them here was the freight.

Camels came to Australia in the 1840s from India and Afghanistan to help explorers reach the harsh Outback. When immigration laws kept cameleers out of Australia and cars came on the scene, handlers simply set the camels loose. Feral camels now number in the hundreds of thousands.

JOHANNES: And camels, love thistles…[0:45] And that's the first thing they go to when you put them in a paddock.

And that is why they’re here at the Danthonia Bruderhof.

JOHANNES: So we brought them in as a way to control woody weeds. We have the Sweetbriar. And we have Blackberry. And we have thistles.

The Australian government requires that property owners control noxious weeds or else pay a hefty fine.

JOHANNES: And we don't use herbicides on this property anymore…and so we needed to find another alternative control for that.

But camels are more than just natural weed-whackers. Their cud-chewing has biological significance for the cows. When camels and cows share a water source, their saliva mixes in the water. The camels’ unique microbes help the cows break down their feed better. It’s like backwash with benefits.

JOHANNES: And a camel is much more efficient at breaking down fiber and the feed. And therefore, when the camel shares those, that biology with the cow, the cow is able to be more efficient with the feed available to the point where it's measurable and beneficial to the cow.

They get rid of weeds. They help the cows digest better…

JOHANNES:…And I guess the third reason is they're just fun to look at.

Meier enjoys the camels…usually…

JOHANNES: I like them from a distance. A camel can kick in every direction, not just backwards…[3:50] Some of our community members have no problem going right up to them and stroking them, which is at their own risk. But, no, they're good fun.

Meier is more than an unconventional farmer…he is a Christian, with strong convictions about how we ought to live in this world…and that affects everything he does…

JOHANNES: I guess, my appreciation for how nature shows us how to live has grown, and that if we as people, and I'm not just talking about the Bruderhof, but about…all people on earth if we would live you know, in that way, of working together of symbiosis, of care, of sharing…[51:53] I'm part of a whole, and I'm gonna give my best….[52:54] And so I see in nature like a picture of how we should live as people.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis, in New South Wales, Australia.

REICHARD: Be sure to check out Amy’s cover article in the latest issue of WORLD Magazine. It’s called “Cultivating Community” … and it’s about the Bruderhof and how they care for the land. We’ve placed a link in today’s transcript.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Reading to children is one of the joys of life. WORLD commentator Steve West shared this audio of his wife and son reading together nearly 30 years ago:

WIFE AND SON: God sent a very big fish up out of the water to save Jonah from drowning. That fish looks very nice! He does. He looks like he’s smiling.

EICHER: Maybe reading aloud to your kids or grandkids is something you haven’t done in a while. And if you haven’t, I have a suspicion you may find some motivation here.

STEVE WEST, COMMENTATOR: When my daughter was 16, I started reading to her at bedtime. It's not as if I never read to her before, but somewhere along the line she decided she didn't want to be read to but would read to herself. Well, that fits. She never needed as much care and maintenance as her older brother. Every child is different.

I was challenged to begin reading to her again by a 2011 book titled The Reading Promise. The author, Alice Ozma, now married with a daughter of her own, writes of the promise she and her father made to each other: that he would read to her for 100 nights straight. Alice’s mother left the home when she was 9, and Jim Brozina began reading to his daughter to give her something permanent to count on: his time and attention.

So having read to Alice for 100 nights, they vowed to reach 1000 nights. Yet they ended up reading to each other for 3218 nights—nine years—for at least ten minutes a night, often longer–no matter what. It was a reading streak—one that didn’t end until Alice went to college.

I made no such promise to my daughter, just an indefinite and open-ended commitment. She went off to college about two years after that, too-short a period of time to rival Alice’s dad.

For my son, being read aloud to was a regular nighttime ritual. When he was an infant, I laid him on the floor beside me and read aloud whatever I happened to be reading, moving seamlessly from the Bible and catechism to James Michener’s fiction and Emily Dickinson’s poetry. It wasn’t about comprehension but sound, not about words and meaning but about cadence and rhyme and who was reading to him.

After he began to better understand the words, we graduated from Goodnight Moon and The Jesus Storybook Bible to longer books. I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to him when he was six, 30 minutes at a time, sometimes more, my throat often dry and raspy near the end. That’s over 576,000 words. Sometimes, I confess, my voice trailed off as I fell asleep, sputtering nonsense, only to be stirred by an insistent voice scolding, “That’s not right, Daddy. Wake up.” He had an annoying habit of reading another book while I was reading to him, and so to test him, I would deliberately misread the story. He’d always call me on that.

Those days are long over, and yet I’m buoyed by the hope that those times of reading aloud are remembered, that my children will smile as they consider all those nights of words, and their dad—not primarily because we read a book, or because of what we read, but because for a short time we had each other.

It’s not really about books after all. It’s about forging a relationship, about a child and a parent. “Reading to someone is an act of love,” writes Alice.

Alice’s father adds, “No one will ever say, no matter how good a parent he or she was, “I think I spent too much time with my children when they were young.’”

March is National Reading Month. Maybe it’s time for a reading streak. Find a child or grandchild, and get busy.

I’m Steve West.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow on Washington Wednesday, a special tradition in the US Senate.

And, making music out of plastic. We’ll meet a violinist crafting instruments on a 3D printer.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I'm Mary Reichard. 

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes: “...I call to God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. Psalm 55:16-18

Go now in grace and peace.

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