Transcript

3.2.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Washington Post for this Monday, March second. As a reminder,
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Radiohi he is a reading service intended for people who
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are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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to read printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton,
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and as you know, on Mondays, we begin by reading
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Paul Prather's weekly column from the Lexington Herald Leader. Paul's
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with us this week. The name of his title of
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the title of his column is the measure of our
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walk with God isn't in results, but in faithfulness. I
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don't know how many newspaper columns I've written. I guess
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probably well over a thousand, maybe more, but we'll call
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it a thousand. Of course, thousands of columns I could
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count on my fingers the ones that I think were
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any good. My efforts have consistently fallen short of my aspirations,
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week after week, year after year. Yet here I am
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entering the month in which I'll turn seventy, still sweating
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over these little essays. I feel the same way about
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my preaching. I'm fast sneaking up on fifty years as
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a minister. I've delivered far more sermons than i've written columns.
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What maybe four thousand and I've rarely stepped out of
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the pulpit that I didn't feel like a dufuss, which
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raises obvious questions. If that's how I feel, why did
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I just quit? Why not getting a job driving an
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L eight one truck or teaching high school history or
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sprang bugs for Orchid. I've asked myself those questions time
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without end. The answer is complicated, but boiled down this
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long ago, writing and preaching were what I felt by
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God to do. That's not because I thought I could
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do it better than other people, but because it seemed
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that's what God created for me, whatever his reasons. And
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I responded, Okay, I'll do that. Then the door started opening,
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with surprising little part, a little planning on my part.
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It was if the Lord shoved me through the portals
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he'd already unlocked. I've long felt that writing columns and
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preaching is a duel calling. Consequently, with the pain, disappointments,
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and self doubt have come purpose and joy too. I've
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been able to help my people despite my deficiencies. Here's
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something I've been thinking about lately. Twenty five years ago,
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I was nursing my first wife as she wasted away
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from cancer. Renee slept much of the day and I
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needed something to keep me from going nuts. I couldn't
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leave the house and couldn't make any noise. I decided
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to pursue an old pipe dream, which was trying to
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write fiction. I bought laptop and went to work in
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the den where Renee's sick bed was, and I cranked
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out several short stories. The most successful, The most successful
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thing I've ever written, was one called The Faithful. It
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was analogized as one of the best Southern short stories
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of the decade. The Faithful tells of six old women
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who were the last surviving members of the fictional Johnson
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Baptist Church Branch and rural area. That they tended to
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their whole lives just as their parents and grandparents did,
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but the world was moved moving on. The farming community
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of Johnson Branch has vanished, and the old women must
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shut down their once thriving place of worship. That church
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building is as much a living being to them as
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the ken and neighbors who once filled the pews. They're
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forced by circumstances to hire a student from a Bible
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College to deliver the final sermon. He's shallow and gluttonous bombastic.
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His message is entirely inappropriate for the occasion. He tries
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to convince the old women to repent of their sins
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and get saved. His mousey wife, corobides in one of
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the ladies Lucille, that she never intended to marry a preacher.
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When my mom read the story, she laughed out loud
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at the Bible student and his wife. She recognized rightly
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that I intended them as a self deprecating characture of
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Renee and me. Recently, for some reason, I went back
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to the faithful. It's one of those ten things I've
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written that eyel like. For the first time, I understood
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I was indeed in that story, but not as the
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Bible Student, or at least not as him anymore. Lucille,
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the story central character, reminisces about brother Edwin Thomason Johnson,
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Branch Baptist pastor from when Lucille was a teenager until
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she was sixty. He lies in the church cemetery now,
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and she misses him keenly. She reminds the other women
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of something Brother Edwin used to say. Folks I'm not
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the prettiest man in the country, and I ain't the smartest.
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If I can't do nothing else, I can be faithful,
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and his faithfulness helped change her life for the better.
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Six women have stayed at the church this long. Partly
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it's a knowledge to him his faithfulness has become theirs.
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Walking through the church graveyard, looking at the tombstones of
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people she loved who have gone to their glory, Lucille
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decides she needs to come back next spring if she lives,
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and keep her health and plant new flowers on their graves,
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even if the vandals just trample them down. To her,
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it's the principle of the thing. You do what you
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can and what you should, even if the results are
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out of your hands. In the years since I wrote
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those words, I've grown old myself. My health is breaking down,
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my congregation has declined. I don't know what comes next.
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In a way, I've become Brother Edwin. I didn't understand
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when I wrote The Faithful that I was writing my
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own future. But I've kept producing my little, imperfect news
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columns and papers, and preaching my little inarticulate sermons, even
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as the crowds wandered away, and my energy waned to me,
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asked Brother Edwin. It's all about being faithful. You do
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what you can and what you should, even if the
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results are out of your hands. Of course, the results
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are always out of your hands. You plant flowers even
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if the vandals trample them down. Fortunately, God doesn't judge
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us based on the results we get. It is the
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one who endures to the end who will be delivered.
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Jesus promised Brother Edwin. Lucille and I tried to endure
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to the end. And as you know, Paul Prather is
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the pathstir of the Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling and
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you can email him at prtpd at yahoo dot com.
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It's been a busy weekend, so let's turn to the
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front page of the Washington Post for this Monday the
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head story Trump pursues an Iranian decapitation without a plan
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for what comes next. The US says it took only
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hours into military strikes on Iran for the United States
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to find itself familiar but unsettling position, the swift removal
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of a global foe, only to confront an aftermath that
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history suggests will prove difficult to navigate. The killing of
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Ayatola ale Kamanini marked the latest decapitation or defeat of
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a bitter US adversary overseas, following the oulster of the
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Taliban in twenty oh one, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
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in Iraq two years later, the breaking of Momar Gadafi's
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grip on power in Libya in twenty eleven, and the
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capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Morado just two months ago.
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The United States has often followed such triumphant moments with
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attempts to fill the void, deploying thousands of troops, spending
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billions of dollars, seeking to nurture fledgling democracies, or, in
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the case of Venezuela, leaving the decapitated government in power.
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But those efforts have largely brought disappointment, yielding states that
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remain riven by conflict, having revolted against the US role,
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or hardly rank as robust US allies. President Trump appears
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to be pursuing a starkly different approach with Iran, signaling
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that he has no intent to use American troops to
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steer the path of a country whose fate has been
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buffeted by US power since Iran's last Democrat elected government
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was ousted in nineteen fifty three in a CIA backed coup. Instead,
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Trump has sought to put the onus on Iran's besieged
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and divided population, saying in a video address early Saturday morning,
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when we are finished take over your government, it will
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be yours to take. This will probably be your only
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chance for generations. Trump's inclination to bomb first and then
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wash his hands of whatever comes next in Iran has
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alarmed US allies. Security officials in the Middle East and
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in Europe have raised concerns that the United States is
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unleashing forces that could spill across borders, disrupt a global trade,
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and lead to asymmetrical terror attack reprisals, all with no
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certainty that the remaining Islamic hardliners won't ultimately retain their
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hold on power. Some lawmakers or articularly Democrats, have expressed
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similar concerns. It's like we're going to break all the
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China and you guys decide how to put it back together.
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It seems like that's a strategy, said Senator Tim Kaine,
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Democratic Virginia on Sunday. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South
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Carolina a long time from supporter profess Nous plan was needed.
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It's not my job, it's not the president's job to
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select or even support new government in Iran, Graham said
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on NBC's Meet the Press. It's the new Iran, whether
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it's a cleric or a representative democracy. Our goal is
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to make sure it does not become the largest state
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sponsor of terrorism, and that's a win for us. Before
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the Iran strikes began, the CIA examined multiple scenarios for
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a post Commanini government, According to people familiar with the matter,
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who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive
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intelligent assessments, Agency analysts concluded that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
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the elite alarmed force that answered directly to the Iyatola,
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would be best positioned to take power, but stopped short
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of predicting that outcome. They said the Iranian opposition, which
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has no clear leader, was seen as less likely to
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assume control of the government, which has been ruled since
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nineteen seventy nine by theocrats overseeing an a nominal democracy.
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Western security official cited similar projections in interviews Sunday and
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warned that Iran, the nation size of France, Germany, Italy
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and the United Kingdom combined, could face years of infighting
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among site Muslims, who represent the majority of its ninety
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million people, as well as Kurdish Balucci factions. On Sunday
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and phone calls with multiple journalists at several news outlets,
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Trump seemed to revel in the cap incapacitation of the
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Iranian regime, saying that the strikes had wiped out potential
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successors to the supreme leader. After assessing Trump's comments and
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the impact of US Israeli attacks, a German security official said,
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the worry in Berlin and other European capitals is the
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plan is to have no plan. Detailed examinations of contingencies
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obviously have not played out in the American mind, the
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official said, leaving unclear what will happen when the bombing
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ends and the people really go into the streets, as
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Trump desergs them. Trump has already expressed willingness to deal
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with an interim ruling council announced in Tehran after Cammanini's death,
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as long as it has no intention of reconstituting the
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nuclear or ballistic missile programs. The US says it is eliminating.
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They want to talk. I have agreed to talk, so
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I will be talking to them, he told The Atlantic
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magazine Sunday. Asked whether the United States would support Iranians
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if they took to the streets to demand a completely
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new government, Trump said he would have to look at
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that situation at the time it happens. A senior White
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House official, speaking on the condition of having unity about
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an ongoing effort, noted that the President did not commit
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to immediate talks with the newly announced ruling Council, said
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only that eventually he will talk. For now, Operation Epic
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Fury continues unabated, the official said, using the Defense Department's
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name or the military action direct in and out. US
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military interventions have had success and quickly leading to lasting
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democratic rule, including in Granada in nineteen eighty three in
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Panama in nineteen eighty nine, but these efforts and more
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recent wars of regime change, including troops on the ground,
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something the Trump White House has pledged, will not happen.
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Trump's perceived lack of post conflict planning stands in contrast
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to major US military missions in recent decades that were
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often accompanied by detailed, if ultimately futile, blue plants for
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bringing democracy to states ruled by autocrats. The most example
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is a rock for the George W. Bush administration, aspirations
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of erecting an American friendly ally in the Middle East
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involved planning as extensive as for the invasion itself. Even
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before thousands of US troops massed on iraqs borders, an
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entire suite of Pentagon offices was dedicated to organizing a
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new Iraqi government, with every expectation it would be warmly
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welcomed by the liberated population. Hussein's government in Baghdad was
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quickly toppled, and within months the dictator was captured and executed.
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In October of twenty twenty three, Bush delivered a triumphant
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speech bore the US aircraft carrier before a mission accomplished manner.
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By then, insurgent groups had already begun mounting bloody attacks
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on US and Allied forces, and an offshoot of the
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al Qaeda terrorist network, which would eventually become the Islamic State,
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was gaining a dangerous foothold. The country soon plunged into
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a civil war that the United States often seemed powerless
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to quell. During a near decade long occupation, Trump, then
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a New York businessman, initially supported the Iraqi invasion before
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quickly turning against it. The massive US investment of resources
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and attention in Iraq was also a factor in the
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failures to secure a democratic Afghanistan. After the rapid oulster
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of the Taliban government, which had sheltered September eleventh, mastermind
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Osama bin Laden after an overwhelming display of US and
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proxy forces prompted Taliban leaders to flee. The United States
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spent the next two decades struggling to pacify the country. Eventually,
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US troops withdrew amid a chaotic collapse in twenty twenty one,
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as the Taliban swept back into power. President Obama, seeking
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to avoid the perceived mistakes of his predecessors, approved a
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limited Allied air campaign with no ground forces in Libya
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in twenty eleven that toppled the regime of Gaddafi, who
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fled his compound and was captured and killed by a
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Libyan mob after being dragged from a culbert. Fifteen years later,
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that country remains split in two pieces, controlled by rival
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factions through bloodshed, and though it has diminished since a
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twenty twenty seas fire. After campaigning as an opponent of
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costly US wars overseas, Trump has now presided over two
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military campaigns aimed at regime change in as many months,
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the overnight capture of Maduro in January in the death
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of Kamenitia and other Iranian leadership figures on Saturday, in
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an Iran campaign he now says will likely be finished
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within the month. Trump's efforts to avoid any ongoing US
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presence in either country, let alone their responsibility for rebuilding,
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appears to reflect a determination to avoid the enormous costs
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earlier conflicts inflicted on the United States and the tarnished
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political legacies of his predecessors. Next, US troops killed the
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Mediterranean counter attacks, fueling air defense fears. Three US troops
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were killed and five others seriously wounded amid ongoing hostilities
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with Iran, military officials, said Sunday, the first known American
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casualties and a campaign that has quickly heightened concerns about
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the Pentagon's ability to protect the personnel. An unspecified number
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of troops also sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions, and
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are in the process of returning to duty. According to
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a statement from the US Central Command, which oversees operations
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in the region, the three slain Americans were part of
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a sustainment unit in Kuwait, two US officials told The
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Washington Post. One of the officials said the three troops
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served in the Army. The military official statement on the
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deaths did not specify where the service members were killed,
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a deviation from the Defense Department's traditional notification procedures when
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announcing the US combat fatalities. The secrecy underscores how fraud
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the situation has become for service members deployed in the
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Middle East, as Iran attacked US facilities, an interest and
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a half dozen countries following the death Saturday of the
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Supreme Leader Ieto la Ale Camerini. Spokespeople for the Pentagon
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and the Central Command declined to comment for this article.
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The three fatalities. In a statement, Central Command referred to
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the fallen troops as killed in action. Returned the U
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s States to a familiar footing in the Middle East,
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where successes US administrations prosecuted costly devastating wars over the
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twenty years that followed the nine to eleven terrorist attack,
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and announcing the start of operation had been fury over Saturday,
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President Trump acknowledged the possibility that American lives may be lost,
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saying that often happens in a war. In a video
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statement released by the White House on Sunday, the President
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praised the three troops who made the ultimate sacrifice for
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our nation and said that sadly, there will likely be
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more before it ends. He told The Daily Mail that
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the campaign could last for four weeks. Numerous US facilities
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throughout the region have come under attack since US and
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Israeli forces began attacking targets in Iran, a mission Trump
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has said that is intended to top of the theocratic
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government in Tehran and destroy its military capabilities. Central Command
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said Sunday that US forces have destroyed more than one
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thousand targets so far, including navval ships and submarines, missile sites,
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communication links, and the command and control centers for the
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Iranian Revolutionary Regard. The astonishing figure after less than two
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days of military operations reflected what one US official ascribed
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as a very aggressive effort to knock out as many
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of Iran's capabilities to launch missiles and drones as quickly
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as possible. Like others, this person spoke on the condition
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of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to
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the news media. Still overnight, military officials in US operation
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centers tracked dozens and dozens of missiles and attack drones
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launched by Iran throughout the night, said another person familiar
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with the situation. Iran is in full retaliation. The person said,
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vast number of retaliatory attacks and the array of sites
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being targeted, including non military sites and Arab nations across
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the Middle East, is concerning. After so much of the
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regime's top leadership was killed, this person continued, officials are
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worried about the command and control of those weapons, the
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person added. Inside the Pentagon and among some members of
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the Trump administration, it was deepening concern Sunday that the
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Iran conflict could spin out of control, said people familiar
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with the situation. The mood here is intense and paranoid,
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one person said was said to comment there is anxiety
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among senior leaders that the fighting will extend for weeks,
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further stressing limited US air defense stockpiles. People familiar with
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the situation said there is concern about this lasting more
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than a few days, said another. I don't think people
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have fully absorbed like yet, what has happened to the stockpiles?
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They added, noting that it often takes two or three air
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defense interceptors to ensure that an incoming missiles stopped. House
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Armed Services Committee top Democrat representative Adam Smith of Washington
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said this operation will force the US to further expend
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munition supplies that are already strained at this point. It's on.
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It's not like we can say, hey, Ron, we're out
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of missile defense system, so we're going to take a
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pause for the moment. Is that okay? It will stretch
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our ability to defend everything that we need to defend,
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Smith said, characterizing US resources as stretched thin. As The
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Post reported last week, the president's senior military advisor, Joint
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Chief Staff General Dan Caine, warned the White House that
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munition short fools falls, and lack of broad military support
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from other US allies would add considerable risk to any
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operation in Iran and to the US personnel put in
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harm's way. The US has a vast amount of firefire
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in the region, including nine destroyers capable of shooting down missiles,
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but videos circulating online show that one of the other
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major threats US troops face is from Iran's fleet of
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Shabbad drones, which fly slow and low and are not
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optimal targets for US air defenses. Trump has said in
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multiple social posts since the operation began that he's committed
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to a long term military operation against Iran. Unlike the
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Precision operation in June targeting Iran's nuclear program. The President
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has said US heavy and pinpoint bombing would continue for
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days uninterrupted to achieve our objective of peace throughout the
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Middle East. The descriptions of shrapnel and concussions noted in
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Central Command statement Sunday point to missiles or drones which
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produced blast injuries. While US and regional allies have intercepted
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much of the incoming fire, some attacks have broken, including
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numerous salvos that blasted the US naval base in Bahrain
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in twenty twenty four. Three U S soldiers were killed
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and others wounded in a drone of track on their
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base in Jordan. Commanders and personnel failed to properly detect
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and intercept an Iranian made drone that smashed into the
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troops living quarters. Investigators later found senior leaders denied a
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request to position an air defense system there, and next
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three US jets downed in an apparent friendly fire episode,
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and the conflict spreads to eleven. Three US fighter jets
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were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defense amid active combat.
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US Central Command said Monday, as the US Israeli conflict
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with Iran sharply escalated into regional fighting. All six crew
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members ejected safely in the overnight incident, the US said.
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In a separate post, Kam said a fourth U S
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service member has died from injuries sustained in Iran's initial
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retaliatory salvos of the weekend, which continued into Monday morning
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with attacks on several Persian Gulf states as Bellah responded
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to the killing of Iranian leader ale Kamanini with rockets
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and drone attacks on Israel, prompting Israeli strikes in the
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suburbs of Barut and other Lebanese strongholds of the group.
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The conflict also reached European Union soil, with the UK
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reporting a drone attack on its military base in Cyprus.
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Three US F fifteen Strike Eagles, flying active combat missions
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and supported the offensive against Iran, went down late Sunday
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over Kuwait after being fired upon mistakenly by that country's
27:48
air defenses the US Central Commands as all six crew
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members ejected safely and were recovered and were in stable condition.
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Trump outlines one month of strikes. The assault on Iran
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will last four or five weeks, president Trump told reporters.
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Trump told Fox News that forty eight Iranian leaders were
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killed in the initial strike, and posted on truth social
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that the US led operation had sunk nine Iranian naval ships,
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including some that were relatively large and important. Then Israel
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strikes back at Hesbelah. The conflict zone expanded into Lebanon
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after Hesbelah initiated a rocket drown attack on Israel. Israeli
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rockets struck the group's stronghold in Beirut and targeted weapons
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and storage facilities and other infrastructure, the Israeli military said.
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The Israeli military, warning of further strikes, also issued evacuation
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orders to civilians across dozens of villages in Lebanon. Iran
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announced then on Sunday that an interim leadership council was
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ruling the country following the assassination of Supreme leader Ali Khania.
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Iran faces an opaque fraud process and one complicated by
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the deaths of many senior officials in the initial strike
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in the ongoing war to select a new leader in Iran,
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State Broadcast reported five hundred and fifty five people killed
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in the ongoing air strikes by the United States and Israel,
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citing figures from the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The Washington
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Post could not independently verify the Iranian poll, and eight
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Arab countries reported attacks by Iran, Bahrain of Rock, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman,
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Saudi Arabi Cutter, and the United Air of Emirates. In Israel,
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at least nine people were killed near Jerusalem, one person
29:44
was reported killed in central Tel Aviv, and more than
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one hundred were injured, Israeli authorities said our next story.
29:54
A Texas Senate race is testing democrats stomach for race
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and gender fight in the final weeks of the Senate
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primary race. Here, Representative Jasmine Crockett has accused her Democratic opponent,
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James Talerico, of supporting ads that are straight up racist
30:14
against her. She's called the questions about her electability in
30:18
the Red State a dog whistle aimed at demeaning her
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as a black woman, and picked up the endorsement of
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the twenty twenty four Senate Democratic nominee, who blasted Tallarico
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for allegedly privately referring to him as a mediocre black man.
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Talerico denied criticizing him based on his race, and tall
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Rico has no control over the super PACs airing of
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the ads Crockett objects to. As the two face off
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in the March third primary for a crucial US Senate
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race in Texas, These thorny questions of race and gender
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have consumed the heated battle between the two Democratic Party stars.
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National Democrats may need Texas, which has remained outside their
31:04
grasp for decades, to flip blew this year to have
31:09
a shot at regaining control of the Senate, but they're
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eager to avoid debates over identity they have consumed the
31:16
party in recent elections. Some blades blamed those debates for
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their twenty twenty four losses, as voters, particularly Latino voters
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who drifted rightward, saw the party giving short shrift to
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economic issues. The race will test whether Crockett's promise exciting
31:35
core Democrats an embrace of identity politics is enough to
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edge out Tollerco, who's appeal to independence, and even moderate Republicans,
31:46
as some voters and strategists, saying he may be a
31:49
stronger general election candidate. Crockett, who's built her reputation as
31:54
a fighter taking aim at President Trump and other Republicans,
31:59
said she is simply hitting back even when the attacks
32:03
come from within her own party. She's leading tall Ico
32:06
in recent polls after starting a race much better known
32:10
among Democrats than him. Crockett and tall Rico are both
32:16
leaning into their large social media followings and are largely
32:20
aligned on policy. The distinctions are mostly stylistic. No one
32:26
really believes that I'm the type of person that takes
32:29
punches lined down, Crockett, who's forty four, said in an interview,
32:35
acknowledging that people have got had told her the primary
32:39
is getting nasty. I've been getting punched pretty hard since
32:43
before i even got into this race. Crockett's message is
32:48
clearly resonating with the state's black voters, were coming down
32:52
and droves to support her. She's vowed to transform the
32:56
electric in the state that Trump won by more than
32:59
thirteen percent points by exciting voters of color, but whether
33:04
she can actually do so they come down to the
33:07
Latino vote, a larger group whose political diversity means they
33:14
may not show as much support. The group that's up
33:17
for grabs is the Latino votes. At State Representative Trey
33:21
Martinez Fisher, a Democrat who represents a district in Bexar County.
33:27
The person who wins this race is the person who
33:31
can bring that coalition together. Really, voting data suggests sky
33:36
high Democratic enthusiasm, with tens of thousands more Democrats turning
33:41
out to vote so far than Republicans, who are involved
33:45
in an even more bruising primary featuring Senator John Cronin,
33:50
Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Representative Wesley Hunt. As of
33:55
February twenty fifth, a recent University of Texas poll showed
34:01
Crocket beating Tallarico by roughly seventy five percentage points. Among
34:05
the state's black primary voters, who tend to turn out
34:08
at higher rates. Pall Rico outperformed Crocket by six percentage
34:14
points with white voters. Latinos, who her early voter data's
34:20
suggest will be the second largest voter group in the primary,
34:23
were evenly split between the two. Whichever candidate wins will
34:29
have to work to consolidate Democrats in the states at.
34:32
Adrian Sainz, a Democratic political strategist. Former White House aid
34:37
in the Biden and Obama administrations say's worries the focus
34:42
on the race and gender so far doesn't put us
34:47
on the best footing. Pall Rico, a thirty six year
34:51
old state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, has largely avoided directly
34:56
criticizing Crockett, she sharpens her attack on him. He denied
35:02
criticizing Representative Colin Democrat, who ran against GOP Senator Ted
35:07
Cruz in twenty twenty four and endorsed Crockett based on
35:11
his race and a private conversation with the political influence.
35:16
His pitch of empathy and reaching out to even Trump's
35:20
most ardent supporters is in part aimed at those Latino voters.
35:25
Tensions are rising in this primary, and you know, accusations
35:30
are getting thrown around, Talarico said in an interview after
35:34
a news conference outside of Immigration Customs Enforcement facility on
35:39
the outskirts of El Paso. My job as a leader
35:44
is to try to lower the temperature, try to get
35:47
us to remember that we're all on the same team,
35:49
and to keep our eyes on the prize. Talerico has
35:53
aggressively reached out to Latino voters, picking up the endorsement
35:57
of Tihano singer and Congressional CAS candidate Bobby Pudlido, quoting
36:02
Puerto Rican's star Bad Puney and speaking in Spanish at
36:06
campaign stops and in videos with Spanish language influencer. Crockett
36:11
has been emphasizing Trump's draconian immigration enforcement in her outreach,
36:16
while backing away from a former comment criticizing some Latino
36:21
Trump supporters for having a slave mentality right now, if
36:27
we don't understand we're in a modern civil rights movement,
36:30
then we're not paying attention, she told the crowd in
36:33
El Paso. Republicans have said they'd rather run against Crockett.
36:38
There's lampooned Tramp and other Republicans in scorching terms they
36:43
believe could motivate their base and an off year election.
36:47
A national Democratic Party apparatus has stayed neutral, but privately
36:53
many Democrats would agree that she would fare far worse
36:58
than Tallerico. Statewide conversations with more than two dozen Latino
37:03
voters at Crockett and Callerico events and early voting sites
37:07
across the state suggests Crockett's raw discussion of race and
37:12
how she feels it's been used against her. Has attracted
37:16
Latinos who admire her fiery, unfiltered style and who are
37:22
moved by the idea that a woman of color representing
37:24
them in Washington, but it's also alienated others who find
37:30
less to relate to or on fear the discussion will
37:33
turn off white Anglo voters more conservative Latinos. Just because
37:40
you have the loudest vegaphone doesn't mean you're the base,
37:44
said Ryan Truheo forty eight, a facilitator for special need students,
37:49
who stood in a snaky line to see tylerco outside
37:53
in East El Paso banquet hall. These social identity words
37:58
are killing the democratic through Veo, said Talla Rico as
38:03
the unique ability to hold a conversation in a very
38:07
far right wing Christian household and perhaps win some new voters.
38:13
Last presidential election, in which Democrat from Mala Harris lost
38:18
to Trump, revealed the country's racism and misogyny. Heo said,
38:24
when it comes to voting people ought, I hate to
38:27
say it and not educate it. To ignore the reality
38:30
is insanity. It's doing the same thing and expecting different results.
38:36
But as i Ah Mendoza twenty six, who came to
38:39
see Crockett at an event at a beer garden in
38:41
San Antonio, saw herself in the candidate and was excited
38:46
by the edda of a black woman representing Texas. She
38:50
is a double minority elect myself. She's a woman and
38:54
a person of color, said Mendoza, who is Mexican America.
38:58
When I look at who's on TV, I don't see
39:00
anybody that looks like me, and that's a problem. Crockett's
39:04
boldness in the face of subtle and overt racism in
39:07
Congress and along the campaign trail has made her a
39:10
role model of Mendoza, a high school college counselor, and
39:15
many of her students, she said, even if they hold
39:17
different identities. When Vice President jd Vance mocked Crockett's sweet
39:23
girl persona and nails last year, she responded by accusing
39:28
him of ignoring Trump's corruption and defiance of the Constitution.
39:34
Last month, she accused a super pac that supports Teller
39:37
Eco of darkening her skin in an ad, which the
39:40
pact denied in a statement candidates are not allowed to
39:44
coordinate with super packs. People are labeling her as too aggressive,
39:49
saying she's too loud, but women of color inclined to
39:53
get that way. Mendoza said. The Latino voters call Crockett's
39:58
bluntness a sign of authenticity. I just like the way
40:01
she represents herself, unapologetically says who she is, said Reuben
40:06
Hernandez Valdez, regardless of what is politically correct. Nine miles
40:12
away outside of polling side in San Antonio's heavily Latino
40:16
West side, Henry Rodriguez eighty one and Erica Andernagurez thirty
40:22
nine said they were supporting taller Rico in part because
40:26
they worried about how Crockett might fare in the general election,
40:30
especially with other Mexican Americans like them. Still, we have
40:36
in our midst Latinos who would not vote for a
40:39
black person, and that's sad to say, but I think
40:41
it's true, Rodriguez said, over barbicoa, tacos and pepsi by
40:46
the back of Aranguiz's red pickup truck. He laid out
40:50
the differences among the state's Latino demographic, which is historically
40:55
has not turned out to vote in proportions as high
40:58
as the state's black voters. More progressive of Mexican Americans
41:03
might identify with Crockety said, but others see a sharp
41:07
line between themselves and a black Texan, a divide exacerbated
41:11
by Crockett's comment that Hispanic Trump voters have a slave mentality.
41:18
Crockett might have a harder time winning those voters back.
41:21
Aranguis said, Latinos who have switched sides, there's a point
41:26
in our lives where everything seems hard, she said, We're
41:30
tired of playing the high prices. You don't know where
41:33
to go left right. It's not just when one thing
41:37
that made people switch and next an Army Corps project
41:43
could wipe out one of Florida's last thriving coral reefs.
41:49
Dive shop owner Bill Cole leaned back in his captain's
41:53
chair and raised the volume on the Martarita Bill radio
41:56
station and watched six trails of bubbles trick up through
42:00
the clear blue water fifteen feet beneath the surface. Divers
42:05
drifted through one of the last thriving coral reefs in Florida,
42:10
spotting juvenile parrotfish and grunts darting between branches of staghorn
42:15
coral that survived the catastrophic heat waves and disease outbreaks.
42:20
That have rendered their species all but extinct in the
42:23
continental United States, but soon this refuge could also be
42:29
wiped out, not by hot tub water temperatures and a
42:33
mysterious plague of stony coral tissue loss disease, and by
42:38
the US Army Corps of Engineers less than a mile away.
42:43
The core is planned to deepen and widen the shipping
42:46
channel leading into Port Everglades, blasting through the reefline and
42:51
dredging up sediment that could smother acres surrounding coral. According
42:56
to federal scientists, if approved, the project would result in
43:02
the largest impact the coral reefs permitted in US history,
43:06
Andy Strelchik, the Southeast Regional Administrator for the National Oceanic
43:11
and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Division, who wrote in a letter
43:16
to the Army Corps officials last year. A separate analysis
43:21
from Science at Ina and Shed Aquarium found that authorizing
43:26
the project would constitute the largest impact in US history
43:30
the populations and critical habitat of the danger's species at
43:35
ESA listed species. A similar dredging project at the Port
43:41
of Miami in twenty fourteen killed more than half a
43:45
million corps, according to a twenty nineteen state at Port Everglades,
43:50
more than ten million corals could be in harm's way,
43:54
according to the NOAA and shed aquarium scientists. Dolphins, sea turtles,
44:01
and one of the last mating populations of endangered queen
44:04
conk in the US could also be harmed. It's not
44:08
just concerning because it's going to hurt my business, said Cole,
44:12
who's been a diving instructor in Fort Laudreill for forty
44:16
six years. It's going to hurt my business because it
44:19
might kill the reef too. Fort officials said the project
44:23
is necessary make room for a new generation of massive
44:27
container ships and fuel tankers that underpin the regional economy
44:32
and keep Florida's cars, trucks, and planes full of gas, diesel,
44:37
and kerosene. A bigger channel would also create jobs, reduce prices,
44:43
and allow fully loaded ships to make fewer port calls
44:46
and burn less fuel, they say, cutting pollution. Plus Nearly
44:52
half the project's one point three to five billion dollar
44:55
budget would go toward projecting and restoring the effective reefs, mangroves,
45:00
and seagrass beds by funding less harmful dredging techniques, water
45:06
quality monitoring, and new coraal research facilities. It would also
45:11
include a massive effort to rescue and replant threatened coral
45:15
before dredging begins. According to a Port Everglade's assistant director,
45:20
David Andrewson, the opportunity that we have here with cooral
45:25
propagation and nursery growth is at once in a lifetime opportunity.
45:30
Anderson said. There's going to be a significant amount of
45:33
infrastructure that's going to be constructed as part of this project,
45:37
to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and
45:42
that infrastructure is going to remain in place after this
45:45
project is done. The project, first proposed in nineteen ninety six,
45:52
is reaching the end of a drawn out environmental review.
45:57
Environmental groups sued the Army Corps in twenty sixteen, alleging
46:01
that the project would violate the National Environmental Policy Act
46:05
and in the Endangered Species Act, but now Noah is
46:10
on the verge of finalizing a key environmental opinion that
46:13
would pave the way for the project's approval. The Army
46:17
Corps declined to comment for this article, citing the ongoing lawsuits.
46:23
An agency spokesperson referred questions about the project to the
46:27
Justice Department, which did not respond to a list of
46:31
questions about the project's environmental impact sent last month. But
46:36
environmentalists say the project is a destructive boom noggle. We're
46:42
talking about spending more than a billion dollars in taxpayer's
46:46
money to kill some of the last staghorn coral in Florida,
46:50
said Rachel Silverstein, the CEO of Miami Waterkeeper, an environmental
46:56
nonprofit that sued the Army Corps over the Fort Edward
46:59
Glades project. Florida's Reefed Track, the third biggest barrier reef
47:05
on earth, runs about three hundred and fifty miles from
47:09
the dry Tortugas at the bottom of the Florida Keys
47:13
to the Saint Lucy Inlet in Martin County, Once home
47:17
to thriving populations of the state's iconic staghorn coral and
47:22
elkhorn corals, the ecosystem has been in steady to climb
47:27
for decades because of pollution, disease, invasive species, warming waters,
47:34
and damage from boaters, divers, and snorkelers. Then came the
47:38
outbreak of a wasting illness called stony coral tissue loss disease,
47:43
which spread from the area near the Port of Miami
47:46
around its time of the twenty fourteen dredging project and
47:51
a record heat wave in twenty twenty three, corals bleached
47:56
and their population nos died, especially in the Keys where
48:00
the water temperature hit a jacuzzie like one hundred and one.
48:05
When I started this career, the reef was already degraded,
48:09
but we thought there's still some really cool spots, said
48:13
Brian Walker, a research program director at Nova Southeastern University
48:19
who works on a campus at the mouth of Fort Everglades.
48:23
Fast forward twenty five years and damn, we've really seen
48:28
it degrade even more. But some standout reefs remain Walker sit,
48:33
so we're dedicated to try to protect them. Some of
48:37
the densest surviving staghorn coral colonies are clustered around Fort Lauderdale,
48:43
and that's busy shipping port, and coral in this area
48:47
has been growing back after recovering from a disease outbreak
48:50
a decade ago. Scientists aren't sure why these particular populations
48:56
are thriving. They said they'd like to study them in
49:00
the hope of breeding more resilient coral they can use
49:04
to restore Florida's reefs. We keep the corals alive, and
49:09
we save their genetic diversity for the future, and then
49:13
when we have a better environment offshore here, they will
49:16
be able to help kickstart the system back to something
49:19
that everyone would flock to see and love. What you said,
49:24
dredging at Fort Everglades would stir up the sediment and
49:27
heavy metals at the bottom of the shipping channel, and
49:30
they can drift with the current in ten miles long plumes.
49:35
Coral polyps can shed some of the debris that settles
49:38
on them, but over time they get exhausted and eventually die.
49:44
Walker recalls diving through cloudy water to check on the
49:47
coral around the Port of Miami during its twenty fourteen dredging.
49:51
It just looks like milk. You couldn't see pasture arm,
49:55
he said. At least five hundred and sixty thousand corals
50:00
within a third of a mile of the dredging, and
50:03
more probably died as the sediment drifted miles away. According
50:07
to the twenty nineteen study, disease outbreaks have limited their
50:11
recovery in the years since. The aftermath was one of
50:16
the most depressing times of my career. Walker said. Things
50:20
just kept dying on a sunny morning under cotton ball clouds,
50:26
a gold trimmed Disney cruise ship Ease passed a spit
50:30
of mango trees. It pulled into Port Everglades, the world's
50:35
third busiest cruise port. A tourist strolling along its top
50:40
deck looked out over the rows of berths awaiting container
50:43
ships and fuel tankers that supply virtually all the gasoline, diesel,
50:48
and jet fool burned in South Florida, but the docks
50:52
set mostly empty when a cruise ship is in port.
50:56
The latest generation of cargo ships are too big to
50:59
squead through the narrow channel. They have to wait for
51:03
the cruise ship to leave and then float in with
51:06
less than a full load to avoid scraping the bottom
51:09
of the channel. Digging the channel up to ten feet
51:13
deeper and three hundred feet wider in some places would
51:17
add five hundred and fifty million dollars a year to
51:20
the local economy. According to port officials, it's an argument
51:25
they've been making to push for expansion since nineteen ninety six.
51:31
Here we are sitting back in the late nineteen nineties,
51:33
and that's not a place that we want to be forever.
51:36
Said the Ports Director Joseph Morris, the project would enable
51:40
those larger, more efficient vessels to be deployed, reducing emissions,
51:46
improving the flow of goods, and reducing costs at the
51:50
stores and at the pumps. Congress also arized the project
51:55
in twenty sixteen, but environment environmentalists gall by the destruction
52:02
of coral reefs at the Port of Miami sued. The
52:06
Army Corps is now processing the project's environmental impact alongside
52:10
scientists at noah's Fisheries program and the Florida Department of
52:15
Environmental Protection, coming up with the plan to limit the damage.
52:20
NOAH is finalizing a key biological opinion that will determine
52:24
how the Army Corps should protect the affected reefs. We
52:29
recognize that something went wrong in Miami, said Anderton, the
52:33
assistant for Director, But he said he wants the Port
52:37
Everglades Project to be the poster child for environmentally responsible dredging.
52:44
That means spending six hundred and fourteen million dollars of
52:48
the project's one point three to five billion dollar budget
52:52
our environmental protection and changing the way dredge boats operate
52:57
and dump less settlement on court reefs. According to an
53:01
August twenty three cost testament provided by the Port. The
53:06
Army Corps is revising its cost estimate. Part official say
53:10
the port has already planted acres of mangroves and seagrass
53:15
and donated the land of the state of Florida to
53:18
offset the habitat that would be destroyed during dredging. The
53:22
CORE plans to monitor water quality near the reefs and
53:26
pause work if it gets too cloudy, and it will
53:29
stop offshore dredging each year during coral spawning season from
53:34
July to October. It has proposed replanning more than one
53:38
million coral and finding the construction of off based coral nurseries.
53:44
Andrew Baker, a coral scientist at the University of Miami,
53:49
said a big burst of federal investment in coral restoration
53:52
could benefit Florida's reefs, but after seeing the damage at
53:56
the Port of Miami, he's not sure it will be
54:00
enough to offset the corals lost to the dredging. I
54:04
worry they were likely to repeat the same mistakes, he said.
54:09
Bill Cole, the dive operator, fell in love with South
54:13
Florida's reefs in the nineteen eighties. He has seen ten
54:17
foot tiger sharks glide past him like a king holding
54:22
court his watch, ships sink, sprout corals, and transform from
54:28
wrex into reefs. In almost half a century in the
54:32
water off Fort Lauderdale, he has marvel chloral coral colonies
54:38
that have grown even reefs across Florida fade, But he
54:43
says he worries about whether the reefs and his livelihood
54:46
would survive if dredging begins at Fort Everglades. A potential
54:51
sign of things to come, Broward County State started work
54:55
on an unrelated dredging project near Port Everglades in December.
55:00
This project, designed to restore the natural flow of sand
55:03
across the Port Channel, is similar and smaller than the
55:07
post channel expansion would be. But on one recent dive trip,
55:12
Cole said he saw a ghostly sediment plume from that
55:15
small dredging project stretch two miles away to a healthy
55:20
stag Horn reef that he's been visiting for decades. It
55:24
made me sick to my stomach. Scientists said they could
55:28
rescue some corals and take them to offshore nurseries, use
55:31
them to see new reefs that could protect other parts
55:34
of the South Florida coastline from damage and waves and
55:37
storm surge. Rebuilding Florida's reefs could save three hundred and
55:41
thirty five million dollars a year, according to the study
55:44
from the US Geological Survey. Environmental restoration doesn't have to
55:49
be just damaging repair. It could be creative in habitats
55:54
actively and that are valuable to be strategically placed, reserved
56:00
and the environment, and save time. That would represent just
56:04
a fraction of the millions of corals. At Harms Way
56:07
near Port Everglades, divers have to carefully chisel each coral
56:11
from the seabed by hand and bring it to the surface,
56:14
which takes a lot of time and labor. Even then,
56:17
some relocated corals wind up dying. Coral relocation is really hard,
56:22
said Ross Cunning, research biologists at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago,
56:26
who studied South Florida's reefs. Most coral relocation efforts target hundreds,
56:32
maybe thousands of coral, and anything more than that and
56:35
you're just talking about years of effort. The corals left
56:40
behind about nine and ten of the current stock, even
56:43
in the best case scenario, would have to take their chances.
56:47
In cloudy water. Some coral colonies have formed over centuries
56:52
and wouldn't be able to bounce back quickly if they
56:55
were wiped out. Walker said, things theoretically could recover, but
57:01
it could take hundreds, if not thousand years or so.
57:07
That means the public officials designing the dredge project have
57:10
a stark choice to make. This is an opportunity to
57:13
decide we want to be an example of doing everything
57:16
we can to protect these ecosystems while accomplishing the goals
57:19
of the project, said Cunning, Or do we want another
57:22
example like the Port of Miami where we had a catastrophic,
57:28
impreventable loss of our critical natural resources. And this concludes
57:35
the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday, March second.
57:40
Your reader today has been Rod Brotherton. If you have
57:44
any question, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please feel
57:49
free to call us eight five nine four two two
57:52
sixty three nine. Thank you for listening, and now please
57:58
stay tuned for continued programming right here on Radio I