This is Hugh Hewitt for Townhall.com.

Each year at this time, we are granted a three-day weekend in what amounts to a kick-off to the summer months ahead.

This year, Memorial Day weekend is particularly welcome as the nation feels the easing of pandemic restrictions, the benefits of vaccines and the closing of this “COVID chapter” in America. You can sense a sigh of relief.

But let me encourage you not to miss perspective.

This Memorial Day weekend take some time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifices made by so many who are interred at Arlington National Cemetery and the other national cemeteries around the United States.

Remember also those who served and those who have paid very high prices, but short of dying.

Thank the servicemen and servicewomen in your circles. Don’t neglect the opportunity—especially—to say “thanks” to those who said “goodbye” to someone they loved as a result or their service to our great nation.

Put your flag out. Give a civilian salute.

Today—once again—a grateful nation says “Thank you.” 

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On Tuesday, Minneapolis marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

It was a surreal moment, framing the outcome of the Defund the Police movement perfectly. Dozens of shots rang out through George Floyd Square, forcing reporters to seek cover. Meanwhile, media anchors such as at ABC filled the gap by discussing police reform rather than the soaring rates of violent crime that followed the city council's promises to abolish the police department.

It’s a disconnect we see in the rest of the country as well: media talks endlessly of reform while—as CNN noted last month—homicides went up 33 percent last year in major cities, an unprecedented spike created by the vacuum left from demands for police retreat.  And violent crime has continued to rise in 2021, even over those peaks.

In Minneapolis, the experiment in abandoning law enforcement has left Mayor Jacob Frey begging neighboring jurisdictions to lend them police officers to quell the violence. It’s a sad conclusion to a lost year, in a city that still refuses to meet its responsibilities for public safety.

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The media today has a profound credibility problem.

I recently interviewed Jane Coaston of The New York Times. She was candid in her answers to a long string of my questions about her “intuitions” about the views and votes of the Manhattan-Beltway media elites. 

Coaston assumes exactly what the vast majority of Donald Trump voters believe: The news media is, as I like to say, “far, far, far left and an extension of the Democratic Party.” 

Some years ago, longtime Post reporter, now with the New York Times, Thomas Edsall told me that Democrats outnumbered Republicans in newsrooms by a margin of between 15 and 25 to 1. That was in 2006.

Judging by Coaston’s guesses, that margin has gotten even more lopsided today.

This isn’t a plea for fairness. It’s a plea for change. Hire a hundred more Coastons—and demand the same sort of rigorous candor and disclosure from them about their views—and trust will rebuild. 

It’s the denial of deep bias that is cancerous.

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The evidence is mounting that the American work ethic is disappearing right before our eyes and it's being made clear in the aftermath of the pandemic.

It’s going to have huge consequences. 

The United States has had at the center of our cultural ideal the fact that we are meant to work, that work is important, even vital.

Daniel Henninger—writing for The Wall Street Journal—asked the question, “Is the American work ethic dying?” 

Jobs are available. Henninger notes that “… it is impossible not to be struck by how many employers say that former and prospective employees after a year of forced unemployment simply will not work.”

There are today currently 8 million fewer Americans working than before the advent of COVID-19. 

The pandemic,  says Henninger, “accelerated a transition evident for years” toward, “an emerging idea that life is less about work and more about play.”

This is very bad news for the character of the American worker and for the future of the American economy, for the future of America.  

I’m Albert Mohler.

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The Supreme Court announced last week that it would hear an abortion case coming from the state of Mississippi. 

The case is Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The infamous abortion clinic in Jackson, Mississippi is challenging legislation that makes abortion illegal after the 15th week of a woman’s term. 

If the law is upheld, lives would be saved—lots of them.

This is big news, it’s not necessarily the case that the court will reverse Roe v. Wade. I often refer to the cumulative case theory of the pro-life movement. That comes down to this: Pro-life legislation and pro-life lawyers working to erode Roe v. Wade step-by-step—law by law, restriction by restriction, court precedent by court precedent. Make no mistake, this case is huge and the president will be massive.

The second issue is even more important: The Mississippi law and thus this particular Supreme Court case focuses on the life of the unborn child. That is the biggest issue here. 

We should watch and hope and pray for change from the courts.

We also need to hope and work and pray for a change in human hearts.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has put forth a massive budget that proposes to spend $268 billion next year. Included in it are rebates for many families in the state—a provision that will undoubtedly win support as he faces a recall election this Fall. 
 
But a good look at what he proposes reveals a bigger problem. A desire to spend money without transparency into or accountability for how it’s being spent. It’s an age-old problem that we see in state capitols and yes, in Washington, D.C. too. It’s become a particularly acute problem during a time when eye-popping sums of money are being spent in the name of “relief” and “recovery.” 
 
California has a neutral scorekeeper called the Legislative Analyst Office, that just reviewed Newsom’s budget proposal. Their advice: don’t spend the money until there’s a plan in place to spend it wisely and account for every dollar that goes out the door.  
 
Seems like basic advice. It’s what families and businesses across our country do. We should hold our public leaders to the same standard.  

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I recently participated in the annual shareholders’ meeting of AT&T. The conservative Free Enterprise Project had attempted to place a proposal on the ballot this year which would allow shareholders, the owners of the company, to vote on whether the company should be required to disclose its charitable contributions. 

According to the conservative group, Second Vote, AT&T has a history of giving to organizations which support abortion, something that there’s no moral case for, and certainly no business case either. Even ignoring the sanctity of life, there’s no business reason for a company to support the killing of future customers. 
 
AT&T lawyered up and got the Securities and Exchange Commission to block the proposal from the ballot. I asked them why and they simply did not answer the question. 
 
So: AT&T management used shareholder dollars to fight a shareholder resolution to keep shareholders from voting on how shareholders’ money is used, and then refused to discuss it with shareholders at the shareholders annual meeting. 
 
For a phone company, AT&T seems pretty disconnected.
 

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This week the CDC finally said that vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks indoors or outdoors. It’s about time.

No such luck for our long-suffering children. The CDC has told schools to keep kids in masks for the rest of this school year.  Worse, it said this guidance can inform school planning for next year.

This is craziness. Every adult who works in schools has already had a chance to be vaccinated. And according to the CDC itself, young children are at a higher risk of severe illness from the flu than from COVID 19.

Too many little ones have already spent too much of their lives in masks, unable to breathe normally or fully interact with their peers. They shouldn’t pay the price for the adults’ unreasonable fears.

Those who want their children to wear masks may keep having them do so. For the rest of us, it’s time for our kids to be able to smile in public again.

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This Supreme Court has announced that they’ll be hearing a case on abortion. The decision has media buzzing that the conservative majority has finally targeted Roe. Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks had been overturned in lower courts relying on precedents regarding viability. Taking the case certainly suggests that the current court wants to take another look at scrutiny over abortion rights.

Despite the coverage and the protest, the court signaled that it will take a very narrow approach. The court declined to address its Casey precedent, which requires strict scrutiny of any abortion restrictions. Their grant only involves the question of constitutionality for any pre-viability restrictions, which suggests that any change will be incremental.

But: Incremental progress would still be progress. Wise pro-life leaders know the Supreme Court will not issue sweeping rulings, and have pursued a legal strategy of building cumulative change on incremental progress. While this case may not win the war, the Supreme Court could advance the lines with its decision.

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There is another war in Israel.

Hamas, the internationally recognized terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip, unleashed thousands of missiles aimed indiscriminately at civilian targets in Israel. If it were not for the sophistication and effectiveness of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, scores of Israelis would be dead.

The Israel Defense Forces responded appropriately, bombing Gaza with precise munitions aimed at Hamas terrorists, killing scores of senior terrorist leaders and exploding the tunnels underneath Gaza.

As the IDF begins ground operations, there’s no question that Israeli leaders and the Israeli people will be wondering whether or not their key ally—the United States—will be with them as they defend themselves.

We ought to be.

President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan should make clear to our ally and to the hard left in their own party:

America stands with Israel.

Israel should do what is necessary to secure the country and diminish or defeat the threat from Hamas.

This is no time to equivocate.

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