‘Denali will always be Denali’
Cassidy Randall at The New York Times
The “decision to return to the McKinley name” for Alaska’s mountain is a “slap in the face of recent efforts to acknowledge America’s history of colonialism and restore Indigenous place names,” says Cassidy Randall. It also “ignores the history that cemented the mountain’s original name in our lexicon.” The “name Denali became entwined with mountaineering, the pursuit that made the peak famous outside Alaska.” The “mountain has always been, and will always be, Denali.”
‘Violence signals time is short to build a united Syria’
John Sawers at the Financial Times
Syria is “struggling to emerge from the shadows of the Assad dictatorship,” and “violence this month in the coastal cities is a worrying sign that the country could splinter,” says John Sawers. There had been a “tense calm after the collapse of the old regime,” but “hatred of those responsible for the torture and mass killings under the old regime was still bubbling.” Trying to “reestablish autocratic power in such a diverse country is a recipe for violent resistance.”
‘After a rare execution by firing squad, a fresh call to abolish the death penalty’
The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board
It’s “understandable that most Americans paid little attention to a rare execution by firing squad that took place in South Carolina last week,” says The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board. But it’s “clearer now than ever before that the death penalty is an unjust form of punishment that provides no discernible deterrent to crime.” As “retribution, the death penalty may have merit, but retribution isn’t the same as justice.” It would be “even better to end the death penalty.”
‘Can the free press be saved?’
Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Guardian
Americans “now find ourselves trapped in an information environment more tightly controlled than ever by a handful of oligarchs,” Katrina vanden Heuvel. Media has “long faced dwindling audiences and, as a result, relied more and more on corporate benefactors.” These “essential institutions are stuck carrying water for the billionaire class.” The “task of rebuilding truly independent news outlets, then, falls to journalists, readers and any concerned citizens who recognize how imperiled our free press has become.”