The World and Everything in It: August 19, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. Hi, my name is Laura Watson. I'm a photographer and mom to three in Los Angeles, California. I hope you enjoy today's program.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Good morning!

Today on Legal Docket, the lawyer-client relationship from a Christian perspective.

AUDIO: Humans are made in God’s image. And that’s the way all lawyers should see their clients.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, the Monday Moneybeat.

AUDIO: As president, I will take on the high cost of food.

Economist David Bahnsen is standing by to analyze candidate Kamala Harris’s economic proposals. And the WORLD History Book. This week, the 90th anniversary of an American tradition.

AUDIO: Thousands of young Americans set to work building their entries for the All American Soapbox Derby.

ROUGH: It’s Monday, August 19th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

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

ROUGH: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: DNC preview » Democrats have gathered in Chicago, ready to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president again, this time with a little more pizzazz. That as the Democratic national convention kicks off today.

Security will, of course, be tight as Democratic leaders and delegates convene. Chicago Mayor Brandon John:

JOHN:  Our local police department has worked with the Secret Service as well as other local agencies to ensure a safe, peaceful, yet vibrant, exciting convention.

It’s been nearly two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris officially won the Democratic nomination in an online vote. That means tonight’s vote will be ceremonial.

The party’s biggest names will take the stage this week. But senior Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller says he’s not impressed.

MILLER:  All the big names that they're rolling out are from yesteryear. I mean, they're rolling out Bill Clinton, Crooked Hillary, President Obama. And of course, nothing says future like the current president, Joe Biden.

Campaigning » Vice President Harris rallied supporters in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

HARRIS: Our country  is going to be as strong as our willingness to fight for it — and to fight for what we stand for.

She also gave a pep talk to campaign volunteers in the critical swing state, as did her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz:

WALZ: Each of these volunteers and the people who belong, they all said it. They said it is so much better to be for something rather than against something. To be for the future, not going back.

Harris has enjoyed a surge in recent presidential polls. An average of the latest polls shows Harris with a slight edge of Trump nationally. And she now leads in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin and has almost entirely erased Trump’s edge in Arizona and Pennsylvania, which are now dead-heats.

Mideast cease-fire » Secretary of State Tony Blinken is back in the Middle East today. He’ll use his ninth diplomatic mission there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to renew his push for a cease-fire agreement.

Secretary Blinken will meet with top Israeli officials today before traveling to Egypt tomorrow. He’ll take part in what mediators have billed as a last push to reach a deal. Those talks will happen in Cairo later this week.

NETANYAHU: [Speaking in Hebrew]

But a temporary truce remains elusive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blasted Hamas for seeking more changes to the latest cease-fire proposal.

NETANYAHU: [Speaking in Hebrew]

The prime minister said, “We still stand by the same principles Israel has laid out previously which the U.S. government supports.” He added that it is Hamas that has been obstinate in the process, and he called on world leaders to put pressure on the terror group to accept the latest offer.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham weighed in on Sunday, saying even if we do achieve a cease-fire …

GRAHAM:  I'll say this until I can't say it anymore. What is the day after like if we get a cease-fire and we don't have the Arabs come in and take over the Palestinian file? We will be right back at it again.

Graham insisted that normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is the key to peace in the region.

Former Russian prisoner speak out » One of the Americans prisoners freed from a Russian prison as part of a massive recent prisoner swap is speaking out.

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a writer and journalist. 

MURZA:  You know, events like this, events like this exchange that happened on August the 1st on the runway of Ankara International Airport, this was the largest east-west prisoner swap since the days of the Cold War, events like this really prove wrong, you know, those skeptics and those cynics.

Some critics aid the exchange could incentivize Russia and other authoritarian regimes to hold more Americans as political hostages.

The Russian government in 2022 sentenced Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for criticizing the Kremlin. He was charged with treason and spreading “false information.”

Ernesto storm » Tropical Storm Ernesto churned away from Bermuda and headed further out in the Atlantic on Sunday.

Lyndon Raynor with Bermuda's disaster preparedness team said the island territory is breathing a sigh of relief.

RAYNOR: We have survived Hurricane Ernesto, and so now all efforts are being made to have the island return to some form of normalcy as soon as possible.

Ernesto has been sending powerful swells toward the U.S. East Coast. Officials said strong rip currents are to blame for one death while officials have rescued many more.

SOUND: [Protests]

Venezuelan protests » Pro-democracy demonstrators waving Venezuelan flags took to the streets in Venezuela's capital of Caracas and around the world over the weekend.

SOUND: [Protests]

The protesters responded to a call from the country’s political opposition after disputed President Nicolas Maduro’s highly questionable claim that he won another term in office in a recent election.

Protesters gathered in Caracas, Tokyo, Sydney, Miami, and several other cities. Demonstrations across the world said they wanted to express support for Venezuelans who are fearful of speaking against Maduro from within their home country for fear of brutal crackdowns on protesters.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: On Legal Docket, living out the love of Jesus as a defense attorney. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

This is The World and Everything in it.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: It’s Monday the 19th of August.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time now for Legal Docket.

Lawyer Bob Cochran has spent his career writing about Christianity and the law. His most recent book is titled The Servant Lawyer. It aims to help law students and seasoned attorneys think about law practice from a Christian perspective—by raising questions.

ROUGH: Such as questions like these: Should a lawyer refuse to represent certain clients, a terrorist, a big corporation, or someone like Harvey Weinstein? Is it ever okay to use deceptive tactics in the courtroom? Should lawyers go to court at all given what Jesus said about settling matters “on the way to court” before you get there?

EICHER: A couple of law schools have adopted Cochran’s book into a class.

Today, one of his former clients is a convicted felon who talks about how Cochran influenced his life for the better.

ROUGH: Let’s go back to January 29th, 1979. Even now 45 years later, it’s a day Sidney Cutchin believes he’ll never forget. A police officer knocked on the door of his dad’s home in Charlottesville, Virginia. The night before, Cutchin did something he shouldn’t have.

SIDNEY CUTCHIN: Robbed a gas station.

He was just 20 and had finished two years of military service. Cutchin had five brothers, and back then, all the Cutchin boys had bad reputations.

CUTCHIN: We called ourselves gangsters. That’s what we did. I mean at that time.

As a boy, Cutchin had a strong sense of right and wrong.

CUTCHIN: I was in the church when I was real young up until 14 when I really found God as a child. And there were certain things that I would never do. I knew it was just biblically wrong to do. I wouldn’t do to people, I wouldn’t do certain things. And I knew that was just the hand of God until I got into trouble for the first time.

EICHER: That was the night he robbed the gas station. He was with one of his other brothers. They were physically aggressive enough not even to need a weapon.

CUTCHIN: Actually, it was just a physical hand. They called it strong arm. You knock them down and take the money.

Cutchin and his brother ran off to a nearby hotel.

But there in the parking lot some students from the University of Virginia were hanging out. The college boys yelled racial slurs and one threatened the Cutchin brothers with a baseball bat.

CUTCHIN: And they were coming to hurt us. And he swung, and I ran into him and caught the bat and snatched the bat from him. And I ended up beating him with the bat.

The next day when police arrived, Cutchin got cleaned up.

CUTCHIN: Went on down to the police station. Got back into the room. Never saw daylight no more until 1982, September 11, 1982, that’s when I saw daylight again.

ROUGH: He spent those years in prison for strong armed robbery and malicious wounding. But early in the process, right after his arrest, was when Cutchin met Bob Cochran, a lawyer but not a criminal-defense attorney.

BOB COCHRAN: Back in those days you didn’t have a public defender.

Instead, the city of Charlottesville simply asked local attorneys to volunteer for criminal defendants. Pro bono work. Cochran had signed up on a list for court appointed attorneys.

Like his new client, Cochran had also grown up in church.

COCHRAN: My father was a Baptist pastor. And I guess through high school and college I was the rebellious preacher’s kid, and kind of running away from my faith.

And in his first year of law school, he looked at his future path to success: become an editor of the law review, then work for a big New York firm. Yet he suspected that wasn’t going to bring him meaning and purpose. So he joined a Bible study, read a lot of C.S. Lewis, and took a course called Law and Religion.

COCHRAN: It really called on us to think of the connection between our faith and law practice and law. We had wonderful, wonderful talks about what might be the tensions that would be there.

EICHER: In the first few years out of school, he started to feel the tensions. He was still young when he first got the call about Cutchin’s case. Cochran received a copy of the confession and remembers thinking the police “had the goods” on him.

COCHRAN:  It was pretty obvious from the confession that he had committed the offenses that he was charged with.

For his part, Cutchin was suspicious of Cochran and had strong opinions about the court system.

CUTCHIN: Court appointed attorneys were traitors. They’re not really there to help you. There’s there to help get you convicted, because they’re not going to do more than they have to.

But as the two talked, Cutchin changed his mind.

CUTCHIN: I found out he was a Christian. My mind went back to where I was when I first went to church. I said, okay, God done put this man in my life for a reason. (Laughs) I got a Christian lawyer!

Cutchin pled guilty, but where Cochran thought he might be the most helpful would be in the sentencing hearing.

COCHRAN: You know, digging into Sidney’s background. Pointing to the challenges of being raised in a tougher part of town.

He thought the judge ought to know that. And that he was raised by a single parent — his dad. When Cutchin was 14 his mother died.

COCHRAN: Sidney had some skills. He had a good military record.

ROUGH: At the sentencing, Cochran asked Cutchin’s dad to testify. He needed a character witness. But …

CUTCHIN: And I’ll never forget my dad told him: Sidney’s a pretty good boy. But he dangerous.

Oh, no. Cochran did the best he could to argue that Sidney Cutchin wanted to straighten out. Go to community college …

COCHRAN: I looked at Sidney. We were about the same age. I thought, there but the grace of God go I.

Making a plea, Cochran’s voice broke.

But it didn’t appear to move the judge much, if at all. Cutchin got 12 years for the malicious wounding, and six for the robbery.

When Cochran left the courthouse later that day, another attorney walked up to him.

COCHRAN: He said, “Bob, let me give you some advice.” He said, “Don’t get emotionally involved with your client.” He said, “The Cutchin boys are scum. And they’re not worth it.”

He didn’t believe that.

COCHRAN: Humans are made in God’s image. And that was the way I saw Sidney. I think that’s the way all lawyers should see their clients.

EICHER: Yet the two lost touch. But after about three years, Cochran was driving near the prison where he knew Cutchin was:

COCHRAN: And I just decided I’d stop and see him.  Just encourage him a little bit.

Cutchin was working in the prison kitchen.

CUTCHIN: The warden came back in the kitchen and got me. Said, “Your lawyer here to see you.” I said, “What do you mean my lawyer here to see me?” And I came out and there he was on the other side of the gate to stop by to check on me to see how I was doing. And I couldn’t believe it. And we prayed. He prayed for me. He prayed for me a couple times.

EICHER: After that visit, Cochran moved to California to teach law. But Cutchin remained on his mind and in his prayers.

ROUGH: Cutchin finally got out of prison, but not out of trouble. Within two years, he committed robbery again, armed robbery. And back to prison again, a place he calls the devil’s domain. Rape. Drugs and alcohol. Fights. Time in the hole. Even still …

CUTCHIN: God is always talking. We just ain’t listening. Or we’re ignore Him. But I knew He was pulling, and every now and then I’d pull my Bible and I’d pick it up and read. I knew God was real. I knew Jesus was real.

Cutchin tried to appeal his case time and time again. But one day it became clear no judge was going to rule in his favor.

CUTCHIN: And that’s when I just gave up and decided to commit my life to God.

When he was released this time, on his way out the prison gates a prison official made a comment.

CUTCHIN: “We see you in two years.” I said, “You think?” “Yeah, you’re going to throw that Bible away.” Because I had my Bible in my hand. I said, “Really? Don’t hold your breath.” That was 22 years ago.

EICHER: Cochran spent those years in California, teaching and writing about Christianity and the law.

When he began to think about retiring and returning to his hometown of Charlottesville, he decided to search for his former client. And word got back.

CUTCHIN: Your lawyer friend looking for you, man. He represented you years ago. I think his name is Bob. And then, I think you contacted me. I gave him my phone number to give to you.

COCHRAN: Yeah, that was probably 30 years after I represented you. So you and I got together for dinner and you told me all this.

CUTCHIN: [Laughs]

EICHER: Today, the two get together for dinner often. Cutchin thanks Cochran for being his lawyer and God for changing his heart.

ROUGH: Not long ago, Cutchin filled up his car with gas, went inside the station, and noticed the clerk mopping the floor and getting ready to close up.

Cutchin noticed something else too: bags of cash sitting out in the open.

CUTCHIN: I see the moneybags right there. She’s got all stacked up. Four of them. Ain’t nobody in the store but me and her. I could be like I used to be. I could run right out the door with that.

But he didn’t. Not only that, when the clerk gave him too much change, he didn’t even take the few extra dollars.

CUTCHIN: Normally, I would just pick it up and walk right out the door, but God would not let me take that money off of that counter. She said, thank you for being so honest. I said, Thank God. Because Sidney would have left. It’s amazing what God will do with your heart.

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It, the Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time to talk business, markets, and the economy with financial analyst and adviser David Bahnsen. He’s head of the wealth management firm The Bahnsen Group and he’s here now.

David, good morning!

DAVID BAHNSEN: Good morning, Nick. Good to be with you.

EICHER: Alright, let’s talk about Kamala Harris saying she’s going to tackle inflation.

KAMALA HARRIS: As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans. Like the cost of food.

Proceeding then to say how …

HARRIS: And I will work to pass the first ever federal ban on price-gauging on food.

Gouging, of course, what she had to have meant. But she talked about grocery prices, some tax policy, and housing, which we’ll want to talk about, too. But lots of economic policy stories last week.

BAHNSEN: Well, I think Nick, the first thing I should say is, when we say "lots of economic policy this week," it is by far the least amount of policy that we've ever seen in a campaign. And so, now the reason why we're really focusing on your question about what Kamala Harris said this week around price gouging of groceries is those are the only two areas that there's been any sort of policy discussion.

And lest I be accused of being overly partisan here, even President Trump has put out very little specificity in this campaign about policy. This week, they said to him, What are you going to do to change the economy? And he said, "Drill, baby. Drill." You know, so there's a platitude about being pro-energy, but there's not a lot of specifics out there with either candidate. Yet maybe that will change.

This week, we got a little bit of specifics from Vice President Harris, and I think surprisingly, it didn't focus on a lot of the normal areas that are within the Democratic Party platform. It focused on grocery prices, which are up 1.1% year over year, but are up substantially between 20 and 30% since President Biden took office, and there's a whole lot of reasons for that.

And what she stated was that she wanted to appoint and empower—and this would require legislation—federal government ability to intervene on prices to essentially —and again, it's always clouded with really vague rhetoric, excessive profit taking and prices that reach a level where it would allow The Federal Trade Commission authority to intervene.

It isn't just crazy for a free marketeer, right wing conservative like myself. CNN went ballistic about it. The Washington Post wrote one of the best op-eds I've read, saying it was not just bad, but dangerously bad. Price controls when they were done by Richard Nixon were a bad idea, and price controls when they're done by Kamala Harris are a bad idea. They facilitate hoarding, they facilitate shortages, they facilitate a black market for product. And worst of all, they are driven by a very, very faulty and disproven premise, that somehow the local time and place on the spot, farmers and manufacturers and producers and grocers and people with skin in the game in these transactions, that somehow those people know less about where prices ought to be than a bureaucrat at a regulatory agency in Washington, DC.

The price control rhetoric that she's leading with may or may not prove to be politically interesting, but economically, it's disastrous.

EICHER: Well, she didn’t stop at the grocery check-out counter. She continued on to housing. Talk about that, David.

BAHNSEN: So coupled to her price gouging policy this week, she also came out last Friday with a proposal to boost home ownership and $25,000 subsidy from the government for first time home buyers who they could establish had faithfully paid their rent on time for two years, was part of it. President Biden had proposed something similar earlier in the campaign, but it was a $10,000 level, so she went two and a half times the level President Biden did.

I was critical of President Biden then, and I'm critical of Vice President Harris now for attempting to solve a supply problem with a demand solution that will make it much worse. You cannot subsidize something without it getting priced in when there is more money coming into something, the price of that thing naturally, organically actually creeps up. This is non-controversial. It's known. And if anyone says, “Well, what's an example of something that the government subsidized and it's made prices go higher over time?” Look no know further than health care and college education.

But the one thing I'll say is that Vice President Harris did say, “and I want to oversee the construction of 3 million new homes when I am president.” Now, I don't know what in the world the president can do to facilitate 3 million new homes, but at least she was acknowledging that one of the reasons we have a housing affordability problem is we don't have enough homes. So in a lot of ways, I was encouraged that she at least, whether she knows she's doing it or not, was conceding the supply side point. But the reason we have too few homes and the reason we need more homes built, isn't really at the federal government level, it is almost entirely state and local regulatory land use zoning, a general cultural mentality of what we call nimbyism, not in my backyard, where people are opposed to the construction of new housing and new projects. None of these things would be under the purview of the White House or any aspect of the executive branch of government at all.

So, while I'm happy she conceded the supply side dilemma, I don't think there's anything she can do about that, nor did she propose such. What she did propose on the federal side is demand fuel, and I think it's a terrible idea.

EICHER: Alright, before we go on to defining terms, is there anything David in the economic data or in the markets that we need to talk about?

BAHNSEN: Yeah, just very quickly on markets and economic data. This week, I wrote a whole Dividend Cafe about how you just had that one week where everything was really headed down, and then the next week, where everything turned back up, and largely just for the inverse reasons that the next week of earnings results looked better than the prior week had and the economic data this week, retail sales were up far more than expected. The PPI and CPI inflation data definitely showed continued downward pressure.

The weekly jobless claims came in less than expected. So one week, there's this sort of second guessing. Hey, are we about to see some economic vulnerability in the very week following? It's second guessing. The second guessing, so that will continue for a bit around, you know, what the strengths of the economy and markets really are. We saw a lot of that in the first couple weeks of August to just a ping pong match back and forth.

EICHER: OK, defining terms for this week. Two of them: price gouging, a political term, and price controls, a proposed solution. What’s meant by gouging? And then price controls, how do they operate and what’s the downside?

BAHNSEN: Well, I think that one of the very interesting things about being asked to define price gouging, and again, any term that's going to become important in the sort of national policy lexicon ought to be defined. And yet, the irony is that for those of us who would critique the concept of  gouging, one of the arguments we'd make is it doesn't have a definition.

What is price gouging other than something very subjective, and subjective for who? Politicians, bureaucrats, regulators. If one were to say right now that they believe eggs are being price gouged by egg producers, which are up, the prices are up five and a half percent year over year. It would be interesting to ask why bread and cereal prices are down over 1% year over year. Is there corporate greed with egg manufacturers and corporate benevolence at bread and cereal? It's a bizarre argument.

Now, for those of us that study economics, or people who haven't studied economics, who are just regular human beings with eyes and ears, you might assume that there are just different supply and demand circumstances, generally, conditions affecting producers that will impact prices.

But of course, price gouging implies that there's not competitors who want to take advantage of one other party's price gouging. In other words, if one is pushing up prices very high and getting exorbitant profits, exorbitant profits are a signal to another producer that there's a lot of money to be made here. And so, how do you capture market share from someone making a lot of money? You charge less. And if there's much wide margins, you have plenty of room to do so. This is what an economy is. This is what markets are doing all day, every day, with every product.

And so, unless you have a monopoly, which can only happen because the government created one, as long as there's competitors with bread and cereal and eggs and any other product, price gouging is nothing more than a political term to demonize profit making. And therefore, the term should be rejected out of hand. Price controls are the way politicians say they want to deal with things like price gouging or with just high prices. Price controls can be soft, like, for example, President Biden's prior proposal to limit the percentage of growth in rent year over year. Others in the way Nixon did, it can actually come in and set an absolute level around a given price.

Essentially, price controls are an attempt to remove the market from setting prices, buyers and sellers, and impose a disinterested third party, obviously a politician in setting and controlling prices. The criticism of price controls from left and right economists over the years is that they don't work. That price controls disincentivize production of new product, which is itself the solution to high prices.

EICHER: Ok, David Bahnsen is founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group.

A couple of things, one, I’ll put a link to David’s essay in the September WORLD Magazine. It’s free if you don’t have a subscription and haven’t used up your free articles, otherwise, you really ought to subscribe. There’s no free lunch, as David has taught, and the wonderful buffet we serve up in exchange for that subscription is quite good and worth the price. No gouging and no price controls.

Second, check out David’s latest book, Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life at fulltimebook.com.

David, I hope you have a great week!

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, Nick. Great to be with you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, August 19th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

JENNY ROUGH: HOST: And I’m Jenny Rough. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today, a communications advance makes live sports broadcasts possible—even when held halfway round the globe.

And, how a picnic opened a crack in the Iron Curtain.

EICHER: But first, the beginning of a 90-year-old racing tradition with crates, wagon wheels, and the dreams of boys. Here’s WORLD Radio Executive Producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: In 1933 Ohio photojournalist Myron Scott needs a subject for the Sunday Picture Page … that’s when he sees kids racing homemade carts down a hill. After snapping some photos, he convinces the newspaper to sponsor a similar race for readers.

Two weeks later, thousands of people show up to watch as more than 300 boys compete for a cash prize racing homemade go-karts made of soap boxes, old crates, and roller skate wheels. They’re nicknamed “gravity racers” or “soapbox cars.” Audio here from the Prelinger Archives.

ARCHIVE FILM FOOTAGE: The energy that is forever behind both the competitive sports of youth and the desire to build and create new things is the energy that develops industrious, dependable citizens of tomorrow.

The event is so popular it leads to the first official All-American Soap Box Derby the next year. Chevrolet sponsors the race, offering a four year university scholarship for the first place champion.

ARCHIVE FILM FOOTAGE: Today, Akron is a city filled to overflowing with a big welcome for the thousands who have come from every state in the union to witness the big event …

11-year old Robert Turner nabs the title with his racer made from wood and stroller wheels. Chevrolet and the Work Progress Association build a large race track in 1936. During its golden age, the Derby Downs hosts parades, World Championships, and seats over 100,000 spectators.

The “greatest amateur racing event” is still held to this day. Though soap boxes and roller skate wheels are long gone.

Next, August 19th, 60 years ago. NASA’s Syncom 3 satellite launches into orbit fitted with TV transmitters. Not long after, the Summer Olympics are beamed LIVE into homes around the globe for the first time… Audio courtesy of Periscope Film.

ARCHIVE FILM FOOTAGE: When the Olympic Games were held in Japan, television audiences in the U.S., Canada and Europe, saw the events at the same time as the people in the Tokyo stadium. The star in this exciting communications drama was Syncom 3.

Before Syncom 3, internationally televised events weren’t broadcast as they happened. Instead, they were taped and couriered overseas to local television stations.

NASA’s earlier satellites—Syncom 1 and 2—demonstrated that space-based communication was possible. The Tokyo Olympics was the perfect test for what Syncom 3 could do.

ARCHIVE FILM FOOTAGE: President Johnson applauded the event. He said, ‘I now look forward to seeing satellite systems extend throughout the world. It can be a great contribution toward international understanding, a vital stepping stone toward lasting peace.’

The Synchronous Orbit Communications Satellite was the first to be truly geostationary, meaning its orbit followed the exact rotation of earth, keeping it in the same position in the sky, making satellite broadcasting possible.

ARCHIVE FILM FOOTAGE: Now, Syncom 3 has furnished the last link for telecasts around the world. These accumulated experiences will lead the way to clearer communications on earth, and eventually perhaps, from earth to the planets.

And finally, the story of European visionary Otto von Habsburg and his plan to nudge the Iron Curtain aside…

Habsburg was born the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary in 1912. As a leader of the Austrian Resistance he flees to America to escape the Nazi’s in 1938.

VON HAPSBURG: It is an absolute necessity for us in Central Europe to study the biggest federal democracy in the world which can perhaps save the security and peace of Central Europe after this war.

He eventually returns to Europe which has been carved up after World War II. He dreams of a reunified and integrated continent. In 1979 he’s a member of the European Parliament looking for ways to challenge the Soviet Union’s stranglehold when he has an idea.

AUDIO: [1989 SPEECH CLIP]

On August 19th, 1989, Habsburg opens the fence between neutral Austria and communist Hungary for three hours. He hosts a picnic between the two nations. He distributes pamphlets in German and Hungarian promoting the event. Audio from the European Commission.

DOCUMENTARY CLIP: But the advertisements reached some East Germans residing in Hungary. These advertisements stated that we were opening a gate that had been closed for 40 years.

Austrians and Hungarians gather to hear music, eat goulash, and share drinks. The event is billed: the Pan-European Picnic. Then some unexpected visitors arrive.

East German refugees begin flooding across the border to neutral Austria. As they stop by the picnic, Habsburg offers them money in their journey to freedom. The Hungarian border guards watch calmly, choosing to let them pass.

DOCUMENTARY CLIP: They broke through the border and entered the free world.

More than 600 East German citizens cross over to Western soil—leaving their cars on the other side. Eventually communist guards reinforce the border and the exodus ends. But the picnic becomes a catalyst that many believe results in the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall later in the year. Audio here from November 10th, 1989 courtesy of ABC News:

PETER JENNINGS: Occasionally the shout: “The wall must go.” Thousands and thousands of West Germans come to make the point that the wall has suddenly become irrelevant.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler with writing and reporting by Emma Perley.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: A court in Maine says anti-discrimination matters more than religious liberty when it comes to tuition assistance. We’ll hear about the parents challenging the state. And, as the war drags on in Israel, how the local church is helping two tour guides make ends meet. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: And I’m Jenny Rough.

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 Bible says, “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.” —Luke: 5:27, 28

Go now in grace and peace.

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