Time - USA (2022-06-20)

4 TIME June 20/June 27, 2022

FROM THE EDITOR

Before and after

FOR MANY OF US WHO ATTENDED, THE 2020

World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Swit-

zerland, will forever be associated with the fi rst

time we began to take in the potential scope of

a mysterious virus that had infected what was

then, by offi cial counts, a few hundred people. As

TIME’s delegation arrived in Davos, correspon-

dent Charlie Campbell was traveling to report on

the story from Wuhan, China. A police offi cer at

the market that was considered ground zero in

the outbreak told him that “analysis” was under

way. But the takeaway was already clear: our very

connectedness had become a global threat. Last

month, we connected in person again with the

world facing a new threat—and much of it aligned

against a common foe—in the wake of Russia’s in-

vasion of Ukraine.

But while crisis is a

terrible thing to waste,

the world’s track record

over the past few years

is not encouraging. The

increase in global carbon

emissions, of over 2 bil-

lion tons in 2021, was

the largest on record. In-

equality, staggering even

before COVID-19, has

grown deeper. Even the

lessons of the pandemic

itself seem to have been

lost: while 80% of people in high-income coun-

tries are vaccinated, only 16% of those in low-

income countries have gotten a shot, according to

Oxford University’s Our World in Data.

So, in producing a special edition for attend-

ees in Davos—a project made possible with the

support of our partners at SOMPO, and which is

excerpted in this issue—we looked for voices to

off er pathways forward. The meeting also gave ex-

ecutive editor Naina Bajekal a second opportunity

to interview European Commission President Ur-

sula von der Leyen for this issue’s international

cover story. Von der Leyen is leading the E.U.

through a major turning point—the theme of this

spring’s World Economic Forum meeting.

But, as she told Naina, “a democracy can al-

ways fail if we don’t stand up for it on a daily

basis.” Potential turning points are all around us.

It’s not always easy to spot them, or to know what

the “after” portends. The people and stories in

this issue remind us that the answer is not at all

predetermined, that we have the power to shape

it—and the responsibility to ask the hard ques-

tions about how we will get there.

Edward Felsenthal,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO

@EFELSENTHAL

AS WE WORKED to put together these stories

about crisis and opportunity on a global level,

we were once again confronted with one of the

hardest of those questions. The tragic massa-

cre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas,

brought the U.S. to 213 mass shootings this year—

and 27 shootings at schools.

The word enough is one that we have used

several times on the cover when, with painful

frequency, we are left to tell the story of such a

tragedy. We used it after the shooting at Marjory

Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.,

in 2018, and in 2019 after a week in which 35 peo-

ple were killed in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio;

and Gilroy, Calif. Now, we use it again, in the af-

termath of what were three major mass shoot-

ings in just 10 days—from Buff alo, N.Y., to Laguna

Woods, Calif., to Uvalde. Creative director D.W.

Pine turned to John Mavroudis, who created that

2019 cover, to draw the

list of cities that suff ered

those 213 shootings,

based on data from the

Gun Violence Archive,

which defi nes such inci-

dents as having at least

four people injured or

killed, excluding the

shooter.

“So many familiar

places to draw again.

Chicago. Baltimore. Las

Vegas. Louisville. Hous-

ton. Jacksonville. Stock-

ton. And so many new places,” says Mavroudis.

“In the time it took me to carefully write the

words UVALDE, TX, that gunman extinguished so

many beautiful lives. I could feel the sadness and

fear and horror overwhelm me again.”

And just in the time it took that digital-fi rst

cover to go to print, the sadly unsurprising hap-

pened: those 213 shootings have already been

joined by about three dozen more. The bigger

question, of course—far more important than

what words we use—is what we as a society do.

The gavel shape formed by the word enough

on our new cover is meant to signify the need

for action. And that’s what the vast majority

of Americans want, with 81% supporting clos-

ing background-check loopholes, according to a

Pew survey conducted last year. To try nothing

in the face of routine massacre is unconsciona-

ble. As our cover asks, “When are we going to do

something?”

Potential

turning

points are

all around

us. It’s not

always

easy to spot

them, or to

know what

the ‘after’

portends

Illustration by

Tim O’Brien

for TIME

On the covers

Illustration by

John Mavroudis

for TIME

Photograph by

Dana Lixenberg

for TIME