The World and Everything in It: June 20, 2024

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Hey, it’s our June Giving Drive, and I owe you a reminder: we’re down to two days left for you to take advantage of the match!

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BROWN: Now your Thursday program. It’s going to be a good one. Stay with us and see if you agree.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Russia strengthens ties with North Korea as Western allies rally behind Ukraine.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: We’ll talk about it with a foreign policy expert. Also, how to prevent big wildfires out West. And a young man with an insatiable love for music.

AUDIO: I play the banjo, the mountain dulcimer, the guitar, the mandolin, the fiddle, the dobro, the piano, the organ, and did I already say the oboe?

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas on electoral threats to democracy.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, June 20th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for the news with Mark Mellinger.

SOUND: [Pyongyang ceremony]

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Russia-North Korea alliance » Russia and North Korea have signed a new mutual defense pact.

The two countries’ leaders, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, announced the agreement from Pyongyang yesterday. Under their new pact, if either country is attacked, the other will come to its aid.

PUTIN: [Speaking Russian]

Putin saying both countries are fighting what he calls the neo-colonial practices of the United States and its satellites.

KIM JONG UN: [Speaking Korean]

Speaking there, Kim Jong Un calls Russia a powerful country and says North Korea is immensely proud of their strategic partnership.

NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg says Western governments should be concerned.

STOLTENBERG: We need to be aware of that authoritarian powers are aligning more and more and they are supporting each other in a way that we haven't seen before.

Stoltenberg went on to say this new alliance makes NATO more important than ever.

In just a few minutes, former White House National Security Council official Will Inboden will join Myrna and Mary to further unpack the implications of this alliance.

AUDIO: [Nasrallah]

Israel latest: Internal flap, Hezbollah » Tough talk from the leader of Hezbollah, claiming his terror group has new weapons and intelligence capabilities to target critical positions inside Israel in an all-out war.

He also claims Hezbollah has more than 100,000 fighters ready to go.

A U.S. envoy has been in the Middle East this week, trying to ease tensions as Israel prepares to possibly add a major war with Hezbollah to the one it’s already fighting with Hamas in Gaza.

Meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken won’t shed light on closed-door talks with Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly slammed the Biden Administration for withholding weapons.

BLINKEN: I’m not going to talk about what we said in diplomatic conversations. I can just say, again, that we have a commitment to make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against a whole variety of threats.

There are also new signs of internal conflict among Israeli leaders. The Israeli army’s chief spokesman on Wednesday questioned Netanyahu’s stated goal of destroying Hamas in Gaza, saying Hamas is an idea and a party and whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong.

U.S. sends $360 million to Taiwan » The U.S. is bolstering Taiwan’s ability to defend itself from China, sending several hundred million dollars’ worth of weapons. WORLD’s Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: The U.S. State Department says the Biden administration approved a new 360 million-dollar weapons sale to Taiwan earlier this week.

Those weapons are expected to include missile equipment, as well as hundreds of long-range drones armed with warheads.

The State Department says the sale will serve U-S national security interests by helping Taiwan modernize its armed forces…and improve its ability to defend itself.

But the move is expected to anger China.

Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and has threatened to consolidate it by force, if necessary.

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

Louisiana 10 Commandments law » Louisiana has become the first state to require the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.

Governor Jeff Landry:

LANDRY: If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.

Starting next year, the new law requires poster-sized displays in large, easily readable font across all public classrooms, including universities.

It also permits the display of other historical documents like the Declaration of Independence.

Opponents say they’ll challenge the law’s constitutionality in court, claiming it violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Kentucky for just that reason.

Deepfakes bill » A proposed bill is taking aim at a new kind of pornography.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar are co-sponsoring the Take It Down Now Act.

Cruz says this bill would create tough criminal penalties for people who distribute so-called deep-fake pornography.

That’s porn created through the use of artificial intelligence using the likenesses of specific people.

CRUZ: If you post or share non-consensual intimate images – either real images, or deep-fakes – then it’s a crime. It’s a felony punishable by up to two years in prison if the victim is an adult, and up to three years in prison if the victim is a child.

The bill would also require social media companies to remove deep-fake pornography within 48 hours after they’re notified of its existence.

Heat wave » From the Midwest to the Northeast, more than 70 million Americans are trying to keep cool amid extreme heat.

One man from California and his family are trading one set of sweltering conditions for another as they tour New York City.

Besides wearing hats, staying hydrated, and carrying an umbrella, here’s what they’re doing to stay safe.

ROB GARDUNO: Depending on where the sun’s hitting, we’ll keep in the shade of the buildings as we’re walking through and kind of traversing Manhattan. And we’re taking frequent breaks, just like this one. So in the cool shade, there’s a nice little cool breeze.

Into the weekend, forecasters say temperatures in some spots will continue to climb well into the 90s, and could reach triple digits.

Factoring in the heat index, a lot of cities will at least feel hotter than 100 degrees.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Fresh support and funds for Ukraine. Plus, a child prodigy playing the church organ.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 20th of June. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up on The World and Everything in It: International security.

Yesterday, Russia’s Vladimir Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang and the two announced a mutual support agreement.

REICHARD: This comes after last week’s G7 summit when leaders from Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S. met in Italy. During that summit, President Joe Biden signed a ten-year security deal with Ukraine.

BIDEN: Our goal is to strengthen Ukraine's credible defense and deterrence capabilities for the long term.

BROWN: Joining us now to talk about these developments is Will Inboden. He served on the staff of the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, and now teaches at the University of Florida. He’s also a commentator for WORLD Opinions.

REICHARD: Will, good morning!

WILL INBODEN: Morning, Mary. Great to be with you.

REICHARD: Well, let’s start with the G7. Leaders made a deal to loan Ukraine nearly $50 billion, some of that coming from profits on frozen Russian assets. And before that, the U.S. signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. Will, what do you make of the timing of this Western support? Seems like it could’ve been more effective if it came last year when Ukraine was pushing Russia back on the battlefield.

INBODEN: Yeah, Mary, it's a classic case of better late than never. You know, Ukraine really has suffered from the diminished American and Western support over the last six months. You know, particularly as it's a combination of the Biden administration being too little, too late with the weapons that Ukraine needs, and then the targeted abilities that they need. And then similarly, you know, Congress was, I think, you know, slower than it should have been, in approving the big new aid package. But at the same time, you know, it is better late than never, because there still is a chance for Ukraine to turn around its fortunes on the battlefield. And you know, overall, our European allies in NATO and the G7 have been surprisingly steadfast in their support for Ukraine. You know, again, there's also always more they can do. But considering that things have been worse before, I take some encouragement in the new security partnership that the United States signed and then the renewed G7 support for Ukraine. Unfreezing the Russian assets and delivering them to Ukraine was also a good move that's been long in the making. It took too long to get there, but again, better late than never, since those were ill gotten gains by Russia, and there's a certain amount of justice in that being provided to Ukraine for their economic support.

REICHARD: Well, another development this week is that 23 out of 32 NATO countries are now hitting the mandatory 2% GDP spending on defense.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Russian aggression is the main reason for the uptick, but he also credits Donald Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense. What does that tell you about America’s role in setting defense policy?

INBODEN: This is encouraging, especially when you look just several years ago, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's something like maybe only five or six NATO countries were meeting the 2% of GDP goal for defense spending. So now the fact that we're up to effectively two thirds of them is encouraging. I do think Stoltenberg is correct that it was primarily driven by the threat from Russia. Right? I mean, that really concentrates the mind when Russian aggressor invades a neighboring European country in Ukraine, and Europeans finally realized the need to increase their own defense spending.

I will say this is a historic concern. I mean, ever since the creation of NATO under Harry Truman, just over 75 years ago, every American president from Truman forward, including Trump, of course, has pressured the Europeans to increase their defense spending. They have a bad pattern of free riding on the American security umbrella. But I will say we shouldn't focus only on the defense spending numbers. Other things matter, such as the quality of their forces, the quality of their training, the quality of their technology, and their willingness to fight. Right? Their willingness to deploy their assets there. And again, we're seeing some improvements on the part of the Europeans in that respect as well.

So the trend lines are favorable, and certainly former President Trump deserves some credit for having perhaps accelerated the American pressure on the Europeans.

REICHARD: Over to North Korea now. we’re still waiting for the exact language between Russia’s and North Korea’s pact, but from what they’ve announced, it sounds like they are promising to support each other against “aggression.” What could that mean for the war in Ukraine?

INBODEN: Yeah, this is a worrisome development, this, these renewed ties between Russia and North Korea. I've written elsewhere, I've called this the new Eurasian belt of tyranny, because you've got this new partnership between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, all united around a common hatred of the United States and Western values. And also united around mutual military support for each other. They're sharing defense technology. North Korea is helping resupply Russian ammunition and munitions for its artillery, especially. Russia is now providing North Korea more guidance technology for its satellites and its missiles, including some nuclear missiles which can hit the United States.

So this is, this is worrisome. It's a crafty move by Putin, but it also shows how the threats that we face are interconnected. And it also, you know, bodes poorly for Ukraine, because it shows when countries like North Korea or Iran, you know, the terror sponsoring state, which is providing drones to Russia to use against Ukraine, North Korea and Iran now, you know, see a benefit in bringing harm to Ukraine.

REICHARD: You recently returned from a trip to Europe. Are there any other developments in the region you’re keeping an eye on?

INBODEN: Well, I think one of my main takeaways from just having returned from Europe, and also, as we see the report on the G7 Summit, is, you know, there's some good news to share. Like I said, as far as some of this new European commitment to defense spending and some sense of common western values to stand against the tyranny and aggression we're facing from these different dictatorships. But I also felt a certain sadness and worry over just the weakness of Western leaders right now. Right. You look at the G7 leaders there, you know, Justin Trudeau from Canada; Joe Biden from the United States; Rishi Sunak from Great Britain, who's probably on his way out soon; Schultz in Germany, who's got very low approval ratings—They're not a very inspiring bunch, right? They are not very well liked by their own publics. A lot of them are having very difficult re-election challenges, and it's just a real contrast to, if you will, the heyday of the G7 in the 1980s when you had leaders like Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, and Nakasone in Japan, and Brian Mulroney in Canada. These were leaders who are really committed to Western values, to the strength of the Western alliance, and played a key role in winning the Cold War. And we just don't have those, those leaders on the stage today. You know, the one bright spot is Prime Minister Meloni of Italy, actually. You know, she's courageously pro-life. She's committed to Western values. She's a little more charismatic than some of the others. So it's a it's a curious turn of events indeed, when Italy is providing the leadership at the Western alliance so desperately needs and the other leaders are so lacking.

REICHARD: Will Inboden, professor at the University of Florida and commentator for WORLD Opinions. Will, thanks again!

INBODEN: Thank you, Mary.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Wildfires. Since 2019, the average wildfire season in California brings about 75-hundred fires annually

SOUND: FIRE FIGHTING FROM MONDAY

MARY REICHARD, HOST: One of the biggest fires so far this season is the Post Fire. It began last Friday north of Los Angeles. It’s burned more than 15-thousand acres. As of Wednesday morning, was about 40 percent contained.

BROWN: WORLD’s Paul Butler comes now to explain why wildfires are increasing in frequency, and introduces us to a Christian firefighter with a few solutions.

AUDIO: [WEATHER FORECAST FROM WINTER]

PAUL BUTLER: Above-average precipitation this winter reduced the early-season wildfire risk for most of the western U.S. But that rain and snow early in the year means more ground cover months later, and that creates a new problem as summer heats up.

Anthony Marrone is fire chief for Los Angeles county:

MARRONE: Unfortunately, this vegetation will soon dry out and become fuel for wildland fires…

That dried grass and other undergrowth is known as the fuel load. This summer’s load is high, similar to California’s summer of 1970. It was the year that changed how the state battles fires.

HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY: Dozens of small fires started in widely separated areas…

The Laguna fire was the one of the largest and most devastating California fires in history. On top of that, more than 700 additional fires popped up across the state in the weeks following. 20,000 firefighters fought the blazes, but they couldn’t communicate effectively, they weren’t equally trained, and response times were slow. The fire destroyed more than 1400 structures, and killed five firefighters and at least 8 civilians.

Soon after, California launched: Firescope, a statewide program that makes communication and coordination possible to fight many wildfires all at once across many departments.

So response time is much better than it was 50 years ago, but when fires begin in remote areas they can go undetected, at least until they’re too big to get under control quickly.

So some communities are turning to technology for help. Start-up companies like Pano AI are using high quality 360 degree video cameras and machine learning systems to monitor large areas of forest as a first line of defense.

MAYOR CRUICKSHANK: Welcome this morning…

The city of Ranchos Palos Verdes just installed one of these high-tech fire towers earlier this month. Lizzy Malmarth is an account executive with Pano AI:

LIZZY MALMARTH: So every minute, a panoramic image is being taken that is scanned by AI, that is trained to look for the first signs of smoke…

But monitoring systems don’t prevent fires from happening. So property owners have to do their part, what’s called “hardening their homes.” Ranchos Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruickshank:

MAYOR CRUICKSHANK: This includes simple steps like maintaining a defensible space around your home, keeping your roof and gutters clean and using fire resistant materials to protect against wind blown embers and fire.

In the last 100 years more people have moved into areas that used to be wilderness. And that’s meant firefighting has shifted to prioritize suppression, putting fires out in order to protect property.

Jon Hill is a 36-year veteran firefighter. He currently serves as operations commander for the city of Aurora, Colorado.

HILL: We're great at suppressing stuff, but it's also led to a problem.

The problem is that by working so hard to avoid fires, it means in many areas, the land is carrying a much higher fuel load than is safe. The more fuel there is, the more damaging wildfires become we they happen. One solution according to Hill is a controlled fire to clear away that fuel at least in our country’s vast federal lands.

HILL:  Fire is not always a bad thing…

It’s called “prescribed fire.”

HILL: And that helps, overall, in just the forest ecology.

Fighting fire with fire has a long tradition in North America. Native Americans used prescribed fires long before colonists moved west. It turns out that it’s good for the land. Forests and wildlands recover quickly after low intensity burns, usually within 1 to 5 years. The reduced fuel load also lowers the risk of severe fires that can take decades to recover from.

HILL: It's just cleaner and it's, it's a healthier forest in the long run.

Commander Hill began his career with the U.S. Forest Service on a trail and hand crew: digging trenches, and creating fire breaks. Today he leads a team of firefighters. It’s dangerous work.

HILL: Every time I go out my wife and, we pray. We pray for the crews on the line. We pray for the people in harm's way…because we know what we're going to run into in these situations. And we just pray for…that everyone comes home.

Hill has a special bond with many of the firefighters he’s worked with over the years. Every morning he sends out a daily bible verse to a text group.

HILL: It's a way of it, just sending that encouragement of  the Word of God, out to everyone, every day.

A recent verse was 2 Peter 3:18:

HILL: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him, be the glory both now and forever. Amen…

He says those verses are a lot like “prescribed fires.” A little word of encouragement that they might not need immediately, but it often reduces the fuel load for when life gets crazy.

HILL: Especially, you just don't know, um, you don't know who's struggling with what, right, anxiety, depression, you know?  I've got to be faithful in that, and I just pray that the word of God blesses them. That they're able to hear it. They have an eye to see, an ear to hear, and most of all to know His love, that's really it.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Maybe you love a bargain at thrift stores. A woman perusing the shelves in D.C. really hit the jackpot.

Anna Lee Dozier paid $3.99 for a vase with a Mexican motif that she thought was a knock-off.

But on a trip to Mexico she saw vases that looked just like that one back home. So she asked the curator of the Museum of Anthropology about it.

Sure enough, turns out Dozier’s thrift store find is a genuine ceremonial vase of the Mayan Empire nearly 2,000 years old!

She opted to repatriate the vase as the right thing to do. And she had other motivation:

DOZIER: I'd also like it out of my house because I have three little boys and now I'm petrified that at any moment I could be the one after 2,000 years to finally wreck it.

REICHARD AND BROWN: We get it!

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 20th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A special gift for music.

When I was just 11 years old, I was the Sunday School piano player for my little church in Mobile, Alabama. But I was no child prodigy. I just practiced really hard and loved playing for the Lord.

REICHARD: That sounds like you today, Myrna. And now we’ll meet another child who also loves to play music and has parents who support his talent.

Here’s WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis with the story.

AUDIO: [PRELUDE]

AMY LEWIS: In the balcony of the church, Izaak Atlas Schwartz slips on soft organmaster shoes and plays an organ prelude without any printed music.

Izaak’s ability to play the keyboard came in handy when his church of about 80 members briefly went online in 2021 and needed someone to accompany the hymns while the church musician was on vacation.

IZAAK SCHWARTZ: And that was my first time actually playing the actual organ for the church.

A few months later the church musician moved to the Midwest.

IZAAK: …then I became the permanent organist.

Izaak was 10 years old.

For the past three years, Izaak has been the main musician for Knowlton Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, alternating between the piano and the organ.

AUDIO: [Organ music]

IZAAK: I like the kind of music that gets played on it and then all the different stops that can sound like all kinds of different things. They can get really loud, which is how I like to play it sometimes.

He’s quite young to be the church’s primary musician, but he likes earning money to feed his appetite for musical instruments.

IZAAK: I play the banjo, the mountain dulcimer, the guitar, the mandolin, the fiddle, the dobro, the piano, the organ. I have an accordian that I kind of know how to play. Did I already say the oboe?

Plus, he has a cello concert next week. And he plays in a bluegrass band called Long Acre Hollow.

Izaak’s gifts are exceptional. But he’s not the first child to be so musically accomplished. One notable example is Mozart, often regarded as one of Western music’s greatest composers. He’s also one of the most famous child prodigies. At age three, Mozart watched his father teach his sister how to play the keyboard. Within two years, he was composing simple music. When he was seven, his father took him and his gifted older sister around Europe to play for powerful people.

David Feldman taught human development at Tufts University. He told DW History and Culture that gifted children definitely have rare abilities. But that’s not all it takes to succeed.

DAVID FELDMAN: It also requires the efforts of those around the child to be equally focused and equally dedicated and equally wise about how to support and promote that talent.

That wisdom includes knowing how much time to devote to such a novel gift.

AMANDA SCHWARTZ: It’s been a struggle probably to find balance. Because he’s so talented, you have so many people pulling you saying ‘You’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do this…’

That’s Amanda Schwartz, Izaak’s mother.

AMANDA: I think I spent probably three weeks away from home with just Izaac last summer doing some of these things because of the opportunities.

Izaak’s parents and three siblings all play multiple instruments, but none of them love playing quite as much as Izaak does. His mom is willing to see where his talents take him. But she keeps a close eye on him.

AMANDA: Like, when you have a kid with talent like that, as long as they’re still enjoying it, I'm willing to do all the things to try to help him make it but, um, whenever I see him stressing out, I’m like, Izaak, maybe it’s time to take a step back. You know, let’s focus on other things. Let’s do something fun.

Izaak started picking out Mozart’s songs on the piano at age 3, two years before he started taking lessons. Amanda says that early start on the piano helped Izaak learn other instruments.

AMANDA: I feel like because he started there and because he developed his ear really early on, whenever he started learning a different instrument, it just kind of came naturally. He, like, just knew the pitches and everything.

Even though he can read music well, American folk music is different. For each new instrument, he first figures out how it’s tuned so he can play scales.

IZAAK: So when I figure out the scales, and then the chords, I basically know everything I need to, and then I just practice and then I get better at it.

He wrote a banjo song named after his hometown.

IZAAK: OK, actually I'll play Bartonsville Breakdown. I don't know how well my fingers are warmed up…

After church, Izaak and his family drive to a festival in Pennsylvania. A band needs a banjo player, and they’ve asked Izaak to fill in.

AUDIO: [Izaak solo]

Even with his talent in high demand, Izaak says he just wants to glorify God with what he has.

IZAAK: Well, I thank him all the time for my musical gifts. I’m pretty sure he wants me to use it for, for things like playing at church already, so yeah.

AUDIO: [Gloria Patri, organ with congregation]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 20th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas now…with what threatens the United States from within.

CAL THOMAS: It used to be that after an election the losing side would at least formally usually accept the results and give initial support to a new president during what was then called the “honeymoon” stage. Richard Nixon conceded to John Kennedy in 1960, although he believed the election was “stolen” by Kennedy operatives in Cook County, Illinois. Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush in the razor-close 2000 election. Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016, though she still claims the election was stolen from her. Donald Trump is still in denial that he lost 2020 by more than 7 million votes.

The days of concession “for the good of the country” are gone. Not only is there no honeymoon, the “divorce” now occurs first.

While claiming that Donald Trump would be a “threat to democracy” should he win in November, Democrats are already plotting how to oppose his every policy, including Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants.

One might arguably conclude such behavior makes them the real threat to democracy.

A New York Times story reveals their strategy, including lawsuits to prevent deportations and Democrat governors who are stockpiling the abortion pill. What is it about Democrats and abortion?

Let me see if I have this right. If Trump wins, he will be a threat to our Constitution, the law, the environment and just about everything else. We are a constitutional republic, not a pure democracy, but since Democrats keep using the word, listen to its definition on Dictionary.com: “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” 

Are Democrats saying that if a majority of Americans vote for Trump and/or a majority of electoral votes go to the former president, that is not democracy, but if Biden wins, that is democracy? Those are contradictions, aren’t they?

This is the arrogance of the left which believes it has a divine right (if they believed in the divine) to rule perpetually regardless of the outcome of an election. Yes, we witnessed the same attitude demonstrated by some Trump supporters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but those people, many of whom were arrested and sentenced to prison terms, do not seem to be plotting lawsuits and other strategies to thwart a second Biden term.

In the not-too-distant past, the losing side in an election would lick their wounds, study what went wrong, and live to fight another day. Those days are over. It’s now year-round warfare. It is not good for the country and it emboldens our adversaries.

Perhaps the example of our first president would be worth remembering. In the popular musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, there’s a scene where George Washington calls Alexander Hamilton into his office to tell him that Thomas Jefferson is resigning in order to run for election. Hamilton wants to write a speech attacking Jefferson, Washington tells him to draft a farewell address instead.

In the song “One Last Time,” Hamilton asks why Washington wants to step down and say goodbye…Washington replies, “If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I’m gone.” 

Elections can’t be legitimate only if your side wins and illegitimate if the other side is victorious. And when the voters make their choice clear, spending years undermining their choice is by definition undemocratic. That attitude is the fastest way to undermine the United States into divided states and a perpetually divided people.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday. And a recommendation for your next family movie night. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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 Bible says: If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. —I John 1:6, 7

Go now in grace and peace.

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