| Good morning from Washington, the federal city named for the father of our country. George Washington and other imperfect humans set something rare in motion, Jarrett Stepman writes. Vandals continue to target statues and other monuments. You’ll want to see Virginia Allen’s list. Plus: legislation to protect these historical markers; the violence doesn’t spare churches; what states bore the brunt of the coronavirus; June’s good guys with guns; and a movie about conservatives who happen to be black. On this date in 1976—seven years to the day since American astronauts arrived on the moon—the unmanned U.S. probe Viking 1 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars. | |
| | | | By Jarrett Stepman
In America, we lurch toward justice because we have a just system, or at least a system that allows for justice and the truth to succeed. That was not inevitable, as the history of the second country in the New World to declare independence shows. | |
| | | By Virginia Allen
The list of American statues and other monuments that have been toppled, decapitated, defaced, or removed since the May 25 killing of George Floyd grew longer almost daily through June and into July. | |
| | | By Norbert Michel
Just 1% of the counties in the U.S., representing 16% of the population, are responsible for approximately half of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths. | |
| | | By Rachel del Guidice
The California Republican’s legislation would withhold some federal funds from state and local governments whose officials fail to act to protect monuments from vandalism. | |
| | | By Tony Perkins
Congregants in Florida’s Queen of Peace Catholic Church were praying in the sanctuary when they heard a car crash through the foyer. Seconds later came the smell of smoke clouding the entry. | |
| | | By Amy Swearer
In Lake Elsinore, California, a store owner intervened with his firearm to protect a woman from an assailant, police said. | |
| | | By Rob Bluey
“I am not a victim” is the message that conservative African Americans send to the left in the new film “Uncle Tom.” | |
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