The World and Everything in It - June 3, 2021

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

American cities are experiencing an uptick in crime.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Also some states are reforming their voting laws. Restrictions, or reforms? We’ll talk about it.

Plus people with Parkinson’s Disease put up their dukes in the art of boxing.

And commentator Cal Thomas on the perils of taxation without representation.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, June 3rd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Good morning!

BROWN: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden, top Republican hold Oval Office talks on infrastructure » President Biden met in the Oval Office on Wednesday with GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito who’s representing Republicans in ongoing infrastructure talks.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier in the day not to expect any big developments to come from the meeting.

PSAKI: It would be more of a discussion, and certainly we’ll see what comes out of the meeting and what the appropriate next step is.

The two sides have moved closer on an agreement, but a gap of almost $800 billion remains between the latest GOP and White House proposals.

Privately, the president has sized up the $928 billion Republican offer as unworkable. That’s largely because it taps unused COVID-19 funds to pay for it.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday…

MCCONNELL: One of the suggestions that we’ve made to the administration is to repurpose some of this extraordinary amount of money that’s gone out to state and local governments across the country.

Republicans consider Biden’s plans to raise taxes for infrastructure spending untenable.

The administration has set a June 7 deadline for a bipartisan deal. Some Democratic lawmakers are now pushing the White House to pull the plug on talks and push a bill through the Senate using budget reconciliation, which would not require any Republican votes.

World’s largest meat processing company largely up and running after ransomware attack » The world's largest meat processing company has resumed most production after a weekend cyberattack.

JBS USA Holdings, which is headquartered in Colorado, said it’s been able to get the “vast majority” of its plants back up and running after a shutdown caused by a ransomware attack.

The hack came just weeks after another cyber attack forced the shutdown of the largest fuel pipeline in the country, causing thousands of U.S. gas stations to run dry.

Former U.S. cybersecurity director Chris Krebs said Wednesday that every company is at risk…

KREBS: You thought that you would be spared, that criminals wouldn’t go after you? Guess what, they went after our gas and they went after our hotdogs. No one is out of bounds here.

JBS reportedly notified the federal government that a ransom demand came from the ransomware gang REvil, which is believed to operate in Russia.

VP Harris gearing up for trip to tackle root causes of migrant surge » Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing for her first international trip as VP. She’ll travel next week to Guatemala and Mexico to discuss root causes of a migrant surge on the U.S. southern border.

Harris told reporters Wednesday that she’ll kick off the trip by meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei

HARRIS: We have a lot to discuss. It is about what we need to do and can do together to both support the folks who need help in terms of hunger, the economic development piece, the extreme weather, and the impact that has had on their economy.

Harris previously held virtual bilateral meetings with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico. The Biden administration has pledged over $300 million in relief to the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Texas Gov. declares disaster along southern border » Meantime, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says it is the Biden administration’s policies that are fueling the border surge. He has issued a disaster declaration in dozens of counties in southern Texas, citing a crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border in his state. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more .

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The Republican governor declared a disaster in 34 counties along or near the border. In a statement, he said Biden’s border policies have—quoting here—“paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.”

He said landowners in south Texas are “seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis.”

The governor added that since March 6th of this year, Department of Public Safety Troops have made more than “1,300 criminal arrests, apprehended over 35,000 illegal migrants and seized over 10,000 pounds of drugs.”

Abbott said declaring a disaster in those counties will free up more resources to—in his words—“protect landowners and enforce all federal and state laws” stemming “from the border crisis.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Business group sues MLB over All-Star game move » A group of business owners in Georgia is suing Major League Baseball over its decision to pull the All-Star game out of the Atlanta area this year. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the move was in protest of a new law which tightened election laws in the state.

Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of the Job Creator’s Network, which is the group bringing the lawsuit.

ORTIZ: Our small business owners were getting decimated already from COVID. They were looking forward to this for 21 months, so this decision by Manfred was really horrific for them.

Analysts say local businesses may have missed out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the 2021 All-Star game.

The suit accuses the league of violating a civil rights law, which is "intended to protect against conspiracies resulting in damages to another in his person or property." It also charges that MLB violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The lawsuit is seeking the return of the All-Star game to Atlanta or $100 million in damages plus a punitive award.

Major League Baseball has not publicly responded to the suit.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: what’s behind the increasing violence in U.S. cities.

Plus, Cal Thomas on the commission we really need.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 3rd of June, 2021.

You’re listening to World Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up on The World and Everything in It, crime in America’s cities. 

Memorial Day weekend is often when the summer crime season takes off and homicides spike. This year was no different.

REICHARD: But violent crime is becoming more common no matter what day it is. Violence is on the uptick in nearly every city over the past 18 months. What’s behind it? WORLD’s Sarah Schweinsberg reports.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: Curtis Farrar has pastored a church near downtown Minneapolis for four decades. His neighborhood has changed a lot during that time.

Farrar, who is Black, says the neighborhood used to be primarily made up of minorities. And it used to have a lot of gang activity.

FARRAR: And over time, that really changed. And we were able to reach a lot of those gang members. And so and as a result of that, businesses start coming into the neighborhood. The killings and the shootings had really stopped. And I think people could feel the change. And a lot of white folk came and moved into that neighborhood.

Farrar says the relationship between the police and minorities was never perfect. But overall, the community felt pretty safe.

Then last May, a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. Protests erupted, and the neighborhood’s trust in police shattered.

Pastor Farrar’s church sits across the street from where Floyd died.

FARRAR: The dynamics of the community changed. And, and I mean, people started coming out in the neighborhood and said that enough is enough.

As the protests continued, police put up 12 barricades around the block where Floyd died. The police rarely cross the barricades because they don’t want to provoke protesters. In their absence, violence has flourished.

Farrar says some days it sounds like he’s living in the OK Corral.

FARRAR: We was there the other day and I never heard so many gunshots in my life.

Those gunshots are a part of an overall increase in crime last year. Minneapolis saw a 21 percent jump in violent offenses in 2020, including murder, rape, robbery, and assault. That spike has continued in 2021. The city is on track for a near-record number of homicides.

And Minneapolis is not an outlier.

According to data analyzed by CNN, 63 of the 66 largest police jurisdictions saw a jump in at least one category of violent crime in 2020.

For many cities, that was homicides. Portland saw an 82 percent increase in murders last year. Los Angeles had a 36 percent jump. Houston’s murder rate climbed 42 percent. Many urban areas haven’t seen homicide numbers like these since the 1990s.

Some criminologists attribute the increase to the social and economic upheaval caused by COVID-19.

Peter Moskos is a former police officer who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He says there’s little evidence to support that explanation.

MOSKOS: I do think it's important to sort of get away from the arguments that COVID suddenly caused people to shoot each other. The rise in violence last year in 2020,  it did not happen in other countries. Something happened here. And it happened by and large, in late May and early June, and then continued till now.

Moskos says that something was the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests—and sometimes riots—that followed, calling for police reforms.

In the wake of the public outcry against police, Moskos says in certain communities officers have cut down on interactions with people. That includes fewer arrests and tickets.

MOSKOS: It wasn't just a minor decline, you know, we're talking, 80 percent fewer tickets, for minor offenses, that kind of thing. There were just fewer interactions by design and choice. They don't want to be that next viral video.

At the same time, many departments are also experiencing recruiting shortages and early retirements, leading to fewer cops on the streets.

Rafael Mangual is a legal policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute. He says staffing issues have been building for several years.

MANGUAL: We had somewhere around 720,000 uniformed police officers in 2013. That's down to about 680,000 now.

But Mangual says protests and public discourse have further depressed police morale. That affects hiring and retention. Department budget cuts don’t help either.

MANGUAL: Last July, New York City was supposed to have an academy class of, I think, 900 officers or 1,200 recruits. And that class was cancelled as a result of the $1 billion budget cut that the mayor signed last summer. L.A. I think it was a 300 officer class that was canceled. So that's one of the sort of immediate effects that I think we're probably already feeling.

But out on the streets, some community leaders have a different perspective. Steven Robinson is a minister in Philadelphia working to end gun violence. His city saw a 40 percent increase in homicides last year.

Robinson says COVID-19 lockdowns exaggerated issues that drive crime.

ROBINSON: It’s a lot of different things. It’s poverty. It’s the lack of resources. It’s despair. It’s hopelessness.

Robinson says more police or just better policing isn’t the only answer to crime. Police can’t change hearts.

ROBINSON: This is about evangelism. It's about evangelism, living the Word and preaching the Word, going out into the streets.

In Minneapolis, Curtis Farrar says his community sees the need for police more than ever after the last year. But neighborhood residents also worry that a bad cop will show up when they call for help. So, he says, many people have stopped calling in crimes or helping police catch criminals.

Farrar says local police need to do more to rebuild the neighborhood’s trust, before the community will trust them to serve and protect.

FARRAR: Someone needs to come to us and say hey, look... we made a bad mistake. We hurt you. We violated your trust. But we do know you need police. I don't mean say it on the news. Come talk to me, come talk to the community.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Next up: The battle over new voting laws in states led by Republicans.

Texas Democrats over the weekend walked out of the state House of Representatives, where Republicans hold the majority. Democratic Representative Chris Turner said they did it to block Republicans from passing a new elections bill.

TURNER: Democrats used the last tool available to us. We denied them the quorum that they need to pass this bill and we killed that bill.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: In response, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced he would order a special session to get the bill passed.

The bill in question would, among other things, bring an end to new voting accommodations introduced during the pandemic. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said this week...

PATRICK: We simply want to stop some rogue counties, like Harris County where Houston is, that’s created 24-hour voting. It’s against the law. Number two, they also had drive-in voting. It’s against the law.

BROWN: The bill would also tighten rules on mail-in voting. And block local officials from sending ballot applications to anyone who didn’t request one.

Republicans say the changes made to accommodate the pandemic needed reform. The changes now are designed to protect the integrity of future elections.

But Democrats, like state Representative Nicole Collier, say the effort is really about making it tougher for minorities to vote.

COLLIER: They don’t want you to know the truth on that bill. They don’t want you to know how they don’t want to see you at the polls.

REICHARD: Cutting through the politics and the noise here—what would this bill actually do or not do? Here to help answer that question is Professor Kevin Sims. He is Senior Professor of Political Science at Cedarville University. Good morning!

KEVIN SIMS, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: Professor, we mentioned just a few of the provisions in this bill. But give us a synopsis of what’s in this legislation.

SIMS: I will. The bill is intended by the Texas Legislature to really update their voting laws post-pandemic. So they put a number of things into place during the pandemic to make voting easier. So that is where you get these extended voting hours, you get ballots that can be turned in just almost at any time, any place, you know, extended days for that—all of that to reduce things like that, well, they had drive thru voting, social distancing.

So, the pandemic hopefully is behind us. So what the Texas Legislature says to do is, okay, let's update everything post-pandemic, let's make it work again. So things like 24 hour voting, yep, that would go. Republicans say we don't need to do that anymore. People can get to a polling place. You’ve got about 12 hours for a polling place to be open, you can get there, you can vote.

So that's really what it's intended to do is do away with some of the restrictions on the pandemic and bring it into conformity with really where largely the rest of the country.

REICHARD: Now, with regard to the voting window on Sundays, Republicans have actually walked back a portion of this bill just in the last couple of days. The bill had limited early voting on Sunday to 1 to 9 pm. Critics charged that aimed to curb get-out-the vote efforts at black churches. And Republicans now say that was actually an error in the legislation?

SIMS: Yeah, and, you know, it was there. They changed the polling place time from—you're correct—from one o'clock to nine o'clock. Black churches traditionally have used a thing called soul to the poll. S-o-u-l. Soul to the poll where they would meet maybe with your congregation at nine o'clock in the morning and take them to the polls in a car caravan to the polls and you’d all vote together. Well, that gets lost if you don't start till one o'clock. Republican response to that initially was, Well, hey, poll workers want to go to church, so we should allow them opportunity to go to church. Well, maybe but you know what you go to church, a lot of these people go to church on Saturday, there are early morning services, that was really a pretty weak argument, pretty lame. I think that will probably disappear and you'll go back to having polling places open on Sunday, probably from seven to seven, or from nine to nine, something like that. So I think that will probably disappear.

REICHARD: It would bar 24-hour and drive-through voting. And as we mentioned, it would also tighten rules on mail-in voting. How so?

SIMS: You saw this not only in Texas, you saw it in Georgia, I think in Florida,  where you could mail-in—ballots got sent out to everyone who were registered to vote. You didn’t even have to request the thing. You may not have voted for five years. You may have been dead for four those five years but you're still registered to vote, well, you got a ballot in the mail. So it was rife for fraud. So the changes would be that you can get a mail-in ballot, but you must request it. One of the things they did away with which I think is really very good is did away with signature validation. So all you need to do now is simply provide something like a number off your driver's license, or the last four digits of Social Security. So we're not looking for signatures to match and all that kind of stuff.

REICHARD: In Georgia, where they just passed new rules around mail-in voting, Gov. Brian Kemp, in defending legislation there cited New York’s absentee ballot laws. He said you have to have an excuse there to vote absentee, whereas that’s not the case in his state. Assuming this Texas bill becomes law, how would it compare to the mail-in ballot rules in other states around the country?

SIMS: That's a good question. Interestingly, this for mail-in ballots would be less restricting than some of the states, even in the northeast, blue states, Democrat states—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, all of those states are actually somewhat more restrictive than Texas would be or Georgia. Colorado. That's been the debate over moving the All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver. Denver is actually more restrictive than Atlanta was.

REICHARD: Both sides have cited concerns that the other side says are baseless. Republicans in passing together voting rules in Texas and other states say they’re trying to prevent voter fraud. Have Republicans in Texas presented evidence of a significant problem with voter fraud?

SIMS: They really, to my knowledge, they have not. And I think that's been the case in most states. Is there voter fraud? Yes, sure. There's voter fraud in every election in every state, but enough voter fraud to overturn elections? That amount of evidence has yet to be demonstrated anywhere, you know, to provide evidence and say, well, we're going to try to restrict voter fraud. Well, that's a noble endeavor. But is there a real problem with voter fraud in Texas? Precious little evidence to that charge.

REICHARD: And on the other side, Democrats say asking voters to verify their identification on ballots by providing a driver’s license or Social Security number will suppress the minority vote. Texas already requires ID for in-person voting, as is the case throughout most of the Western world. Many Democrats, however, said requiring ID for in-person voting would suppress the minority vote, but have we actually seen evidence of that?

SIMS: Actually, no. There is some evidence that minorities, let's say black and brown voters do. The numbers are higher than white voters in presenting an ID. But access to IDs is actually open equally to everyone, regardless of race or gender. So, anybody can get an ID. So, I think that's a pretty weak argument to say this is discriminatory on the basis of race. It’s really open to most anyone who wants to go get an ID.

REICHARD: Professor Kevin Sims with Cedarville University has been our guest. Professor, thanks so much!

SIMS: You are very welcome. Thank you for having me on.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, we all enjoy a night out on the town on occasion.

Things can get out of hand, though, when the revelers are a herd of elephants.

Fifteen pachyderms wandered out of their nature preserve and took a 300 mile hike to the outskirts of the city of Kunming, population 7 million. Now the task is to persuade the herd to head back home. They’re trying to lure the animals out with elephant favorites like grasses and root vegetables.

An expert in Asian elephants says it’s possible the elephants’ leader “lacks experience and led the whole group astray.”

BROWN: Might be a human application there...

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 3rd. We’re glad to have you along for today’s edition of WORLD Radio. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Each year, about 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. For many, the brain disorder progresses to the point where daily tasks become difficult. But there is growing evidence that exercise improves symptoms. One in particular has really caught on: boxing. Here is WORLD correspondent Jenny Rough with the story.

AUDIO: BOXING BELL

JENNY ROUGH, REPORTER: On a Tuesday afternoon, a 74-year-old woman shuffles into a boxing gym in Franklin, Tennessee. Her gait is wobbly, but she makes it to the middle of the floor. She wears black yoga pants, a black t-shirt, and a pair of pink Ringside boxing gloves. The kind with Velcro straps, not laces.

AUDIO: VELCRO STRAP

After a warm-up, coach Seb Zewdie holds out two punching paddles.

SEB ZEWDIE: Start with the left, c’mon! One, two, three, four.

The woman is my mom. She has Parkinson’s disease. Zewdie began working with her not long after her diagnosis three years ago.

Parkinson’s disease causes muscle stiffness and makes body movement difficult. No known cause. No known cure. It’s the second most common degenerative nerve disorder. Alzheimer’s is the first.

A growing body of evidence suggests that non-contact boxing may slow Parkinson’s symptoms. Zewdie’s students punch paddles and bags, not one another.

Zewdie learned to box as a boy growing up in Ethiopia. He played other sports, too.

ZEWDIE: When I was a little kid, I used to play Ping-Pong and basketball and soccer and running.

He worked out at the YMCA near his home. A coach who trained elite athletes noticed Zewdie’s passion and talent. The coach told Zewdie he was good enough to be an Olympic athlete.

ZEWDIE: He said, “Seb, you are a great athlete. I want you to choose one sport that can take you to the Olympics.”

At the time, Ethiopia had three summer Olympic sports teams: track and field, cycling, and boxing. Zewdie says he wasn’t fast enough for track. Cycling? Too expensive. That left boxing.

He awoke every morning at 5:30 a.m. to run. Then headed to practice. His first of three for the day. He attended school at night.

ZEWDIE: I focused 100 percent of my power, my energies, to be on the Olympic team.

At 18, he was heading to the 1984 summer Olympics games in Los Angeles. Or so he thought. It was the Cold War. In May, the Soviet Union announced it would boycott the summer Olympics. One by one, Soviet allies followed, including Ethiopia.

Zewdie was devastated.

ZEWDIE: I mean, just that one just shattered all the dreams. And after that, you know, I just, I don’t have any life, no dreams.

Boxing matches had taken their toll. Zewdie kept coughing up blood. He learned he needed heart surgery. Three years after his dashed Olympic dreams, he came to the United States for the operation, and stayed. He worked as a limo chauffeur and taught boxing to professional athletes and celebrities.

One day, a doctor showed up for lessons. Zewdie asked what motivated him to box. The doctor said his Alzheimer’s specialist sent him. The doctor had little coordination and a lot of confusion. When Zewdie asked him to punch right, the doctor punched left. But with each lesson, the doctor improved.

ZEWDIE: I said “Wow!” I said, “The workout really helps him a lot for his coordination” … And I was surprised.

That experience opened Zewdie’s eyes. He could use his skill for a new purpose. Today, he dedicates much of his work to Parkinson’s students. Like my mom.

Another one of Zewdie’s students: 69-year-old Christy Tudor. Two and a half years ago, Tudor noticed a tremor in her left hand.

CHRISTY TUDOR: I was playing on my phone. And I noticed my hand was shaking, you know. I'm going, Oh, gosh, I've got some computer, play Nintendo disease or something, you know, that people are on their phone too much.

Then, another symptom.

TUDOR: As I walked, my left foot would drag.

Soon after, a Parkinson’s diagnosis. Her doctor gave her a prescription for medication. And this advice:

TUDOR: He says you've got to exercise and exercise hard. … Your brain will get the signal to your muscles to move and to do things.

So Tudor joined a boxing class.

Zewdie says non-contact boxing is a total body workout.

ZEWDIE: Boxing is really helps for everything. It helps for your coordination, for your speed, agility, strength, and your balance, for your stamina.

All that can help prevent falls, a high risk for Parkinson’s patients. But the benefits are not limited to physical fitness. The exercises help with brain function, too. Instead of calling out the combinations—jab, cross, duck, hook—Zewdie makes his students memorize them.

ZEWDIE: Number 4!

AUDIO: [Two Punches. Pause.]

ZEWDIE: No. Come on, come on. I’m not going to say number four. Go! Number 4! … Number 3.

TUDOR: That's the hardest part for me. I think for everybody, you know, switching combinations.

About a year after she started boxing, Tudor noticed significant improvements. No more hand tremor. No more foot drag.

TUDOR: And so that has stopped. Since I've been boxing, almost all my symptoms have gone away.

My mom’s symptoms have not improved quite as dramatically. She can no longer drive. Or cook. She never knows what she will face each day.

Zewdie says back when he trained for the Olympics, his coach used to say: “Suffer for good.” For a long time, he didn’t understand that—he just wanted his suffering to end. Now it’s what he teaches his students: Everyone suffers. Don’t waste it.

ZEWDIE: Most of us now, we don’t like to suffer. We give up.

Instead of giving up, push through. Use that suffering to build strength—not only strength of body, but strength of character and faith.

ZEWDIE: Go. Speed up. Push it. You got this. Good job. C’mon! Suffer for good.

AUDIO: Boxing Bell

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough in Franklin, Tennessee.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 3rd. 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. Here’s commentator Cal Thomas on the anger that Washington ignores to the peril of us all.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Senate Republicans refused to establish a commission to investigate the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. It was billed as a “bipartisan” commission. But who really believes that? In Washington, virtually everything is partisan.

How about a commission to examine the source of the anger that produced the attack? The sources aren't conservative talk radio or cable TV. Those are merely conduits for Americans who are fed up with their government and want it to return to the boundaries established by the Founders.

Violence and destruction were not justified on January 6th, or at any other time. But the riot might go a long way toward heading off future incidents if our leaders understood the rioters’ depth of feeling. They believe their country is being taken away from them without their consent.

We are told we must pay more taxes to a government that has misspent our money for years on programs that don't work but help politicians stay in office. We must live within our means, but government is spending us into unsustainable debt.

We must obey all laws or suffer civil or criminal penalties. But we see countless people breaking the law to illegally cross our southern border. We watch as public schools teach critical race theory as part of what some consider historical revisionism and invite drag queens to middle-school Career Day.

The Pentagon demolished the Trump-era ban on transgender people in the military. I have yet to hear how this will promote unit cohesion, help us win wars, or compete with the militaries of Russia and China. Their priorities are much different.

We spend record amounts of money on public education and yet American kids are behind in important subjects, such as math and science.

Notice there are no proposals for a commission to investigate Black Lives Matter, or the large amounts of money flooding into both parties in an effort to influence elections. No, only people viewed as the "extreme right" are subject to investigations.

There are numerous quotes, even books, about nations that have crumbled under the weight of their own self-indulgence. None surpass the statement by our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. He said, quote— “From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia … could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.”

If we ever do get a commission to investigate what fueled the January 6th riot, that quote would explain our suicidal tendencies. It might also explain the anger many feel.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow is Culture Friday—John Stonestreet joins us.

Also, a new kids’ movie worth heading back to the theater to see.

And last call for listener feedback—let us hear from you—202-709-9595 or record on your phone’s voice memo and email the file to us: feedback@worldandeverything.com.

I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

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

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

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

Go now in grace and peace.

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