External forces can have a clarifying effect.

Let’s assume for a moment that you’re so weary of stories about infighting in Washington and street fighting in pockets of the United States – a surfacing of racial rancor so disruptive that a United Nations committee has called it out as a “failure at the highest political level” – that your desperate eyes are drawn to decidedly “alternative” news, like the discovery this week that it rains diamonds on ice planet Neptune.

We have much closer storms to be concerned about. One, Harvey, is brewing off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. It has already affected refineries. It will, in some form, make landfall on a coastline that’s already imperiled, bringing perhaps 35 inches of rainfall in isolated spots. Preparedness – both in thought and action – offers protection, even at Category 3. Authorities are urging evacuation.  

If Harvey does land a punch, perhaps it will shift the national focus to collective fortitude, to constructive exchanges – to helping, to leadership, and to healing.

Now, to our five stories for today.