PORTSMOUTH — The world’s best track and field athletes will be in Budapest, Hungary, later this week for the World Athletics Championships, which runs from Aug. 19-27.

Hampton Roads will once again be represented as Chesapeake’s Grant Holloway (Grassfield High) and Hampton’s Jalani Davis (Bethel High) will compete in the 110 hurdles and shot put, respectively.

Being a former college hurdler, I’ll definitely be glued to my television to see how our locals and Team USA does at the championships.

But every time I watch a track meet, my mind always goes back to a young man from Portsmouth who shocked the world.

I remember when he swept the 100, 200 and 400 at the Group AAA state meet in 2004.

Then that summer, he went to World Junior Championships in Italy and won gold in the 400 meters and set two junior world records as part of the American 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams.

Then he was off to East Carolina, but didn’t stay long as he turned pro in 2005.

Two years later, LaShawn Merritt was the No. 2 ranked 400-meter runner in the world.

Talk about taking the fast track — pun intended.

I caught up with Merritt recently as we talked about his past, present and future.

He is one of the most decorated athletes at the World Championships as he’s won 11 medals, including eight gold. Only Jamaica’s Usain Bolt has won more medals.

He also is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. He won two at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 400 meters and 4×400 relay. He won another gold in the 4×400 relay and a bronze in the 400 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Merritt’s personal-best time of 43.65 seconds ranks ninth all-time.

“The fact that you chose something, and what you chose, you were able to be the best in the world, that does mean something,” he said about his accomplishments.

What makes Merritt different from many of today’s sprinters is that he was never one to boast or brag. Instead, he let his performance on the track do all his talking.

Dwayne Miller, who coached Merritt, used to tease him about it.

“I told him, ‘You’re the quietest quarter-miler,” Miller said laughing. “You never got this feeling of arrogance from him. He would win a race. He would act the same way if he lost a race. That’s what I loved about him because you have to learn to be humble in your success. And he was that all the way from the beginning to the end.”

That humbleness is what his mother, Brenda, loves about her son.

“After he won, he was just humble,” she said. “We all want to win, but sometimes we win and go beside ourselves. LaShawn is different. He’s just a down-to-earth everyday person. He does his thing and then it’s over.”

Even after he beat his nemesis, Jeremy Wariner, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there was no rubbing it in or boasting, even though no one would have blamed him if he did.

Everyone was expecting a close race between the two, but Merritt won easily. He ran a personal-best time of 43.75, which was then the fifth-fastest time ever. He beat Wariner by nearly a second, which was the largest margin between first and second place in an Olympic 400 final.

Merritt’s father, Owen, remembers the race well.

“I will never forget it,” he said. “I was jumping so high, my head almost hit the ceiling fan.”

That victory made Merritt the face of the 400 meters.

And his epic battles with Wariner made everyone want to turn in, including Dwight Stones, who covers track and field on television.

“For that rivalry, I think it pushed both of them to be better than if they were without each other,” he said. “I think those guys are responsible of reigniting the 400 and showing that sub 44 is not that big of a deal.”

Merritt also overcame controversy.

In 2010, he was banned from competition for two years after he tested positive for a banned substance. After his two-year ban was reduced to 21 months, he finished second to James at the 2011 World Championships.

“Even though I didn’t win that,” he said, “I felt proud about how I was able to lock in on that with the adversity and still get second in the world.”

He won the 400 at the World Championships in 2013 and finished second in 2015. He also was third in the 400 at the Olympics in 2016.

Merritt’s career was cut short in 2017 when he developed a bone spur in his toe, which caused other problems.

“I was having to run with plantar fasciitis,” Merritt said. “Having to run with that was the worst thing. I went through that for two or three years. I trained in pain.”

Merritt, 37, realized he couldn’t take it anymore and retired sooner than he wanted.

He stays busy now as a registered travel agent. He also trains athletes at speed camps, works with USA Track & Field and continues to do motivational speaking engagements as well as other projects. He’ll be doing a camp/clinic at Churchland High on Sept. 9.

“I do miss competition, though. I loved that,” he said. “It was always all eyes on me when it was time to line up, and I was always comfortable taking on that pressure of being able to show up mentally and physically to display my gift and hard work to the world.”

The Virginian-Pilot asked ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot launched late last year, to create a top 10 list of athletes who hail from the Hampton Roads area. It said that Merritt ranked ninth. I personally believe that is far too low.

Others view his legacy in the sport.

“Purists will realize that he was one of the best,” said Brooks Johnson, who coached Merritt and was on the U.S. Track and Field Olympic coaching staff in 1976, ’84, ’04 and ’08. “But he’s not a bragger or a showoff, so a lot of people won’t recognize him for how good he was.”

What Stones liked about Merritt was his strength in the final 50 meters.

“From a technical standpoint, I think he may be the best at maintaining form in the homestretch of anybody I remember seeing,” he said. “For him to do that and look so good and easy doing it when he was in his prime, I always remarked that he kept his form better than everybody else. That’s why it looks like he’s accelerating past everyone else, it’s just that he’s deaccelerating less than everybody else.”

Miller thinks Merritt will go down as one of the greatest to do it in the 400 meters.

“I think so, considering his longevity and consistency,” he said. “To do what he did for such a long period of time, he was something special.”

Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, [email protected] Follow @LHRubama on Twitter

Merritt’s medals

Olympics: three golds (two in 2008 and one in 2016) and one bronze (2016)

World Championships: eight golds (2005, 2007, two in 2009, 2011, two in 2013, 2015) and three silvers (2007, 2011, 2015)

World Indoor Championships: one gold (2006)

World Junior Championships: three golds (all in 2004)

ROME — The family of a U.S. publishing executive killed in a boating collision in southern Italy is urging Italian authorities to fully investigate the Portsmouth native’s death and hold accountable anyone responsible.

“We are cooperating with the Italian authorities in their investigations, and will continue to do so until they conclude,” read the statement from Mike White, husband of Adrienne Vaughan, on behalf of her family.

Vaughan, 45, graduated from Churchland High School in 1996 and the College of William & Mary in 2000, according to her obituary. She went on to become president of Bloomsbury Publishing’s U.S. branch and was killed Aug. 3 when the rented motorboat she was aboard slammed into a chartered sailboat off the Amalfi Coast.

The motorboat’s skipper is under investigation for suspected manslaughter and causing a shipwreck, prosecutors have said. No charges have been announced.

Salerno Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli said Aug. 5 that Vaughan was sunning herself on the boat’s bow and bounced into the water at the moment of impact. Two doctors who were among the passengers on the sailboat dived into the sea to try to help and a nearby vessel brought her to shore, but Vaughan died before she could be taken to the hospital.

White and the motorboat’s skipper were injured; the family’s two children were unharmed.

In the statement issued by a spokesman, White said Vaughan’s death had devastated the family.

“Her absence from our lives and the terrible circumstances of her death are impossible to comprehend,” he said.

“We look to the Italian authorities to fully investigate the circumstances leading to Adrienne’s death, to ascertain where responsibility for this lies, and to ensure that any person who is found to bear responsibility is held accountable under the Italian criminal justice system,” he said, adding a request for privacy for the family.

Last year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, dramatically changed how women access reproductive health services, including abortion.

Virginia is one of only two states that doesn’t codify access to abortion in its constitution and didn’t have a law on the books set to take effect when Roe fell. That puts the issue front and center on the ballot in November, when voters should protect reproductive health choices for women throughout the commonwealth.

Though the pro-life movement had fought for the court to overturn Roe for decades, when those efforts proved successful last year, it created a cloud of uncertainty about the future of abortion services in America.

The Roe decision rested on the conclusion that the Due Process Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment includes a right to privacy, which supersedes state restrictions on abortion services. Dobbs, conversely, says there is no such right and punted the issue back to individual states.

What’s followed is a mishmash of laws that vary tremendously from one state to the next. A woman in one state may decide with her doctor that abortion is the right course and face few, if any, hurdles; a woman elsewhere may live in a state that has criminalized abortion with few, if any, exceptions, forcing her to bring the baby to term — possibly at the risk of her health or that of the fetus.

Some states had those draconian laws already on the books, set to take effect in what was considered the unlikely event the court overturned Roe. Other states guarded against that possibility by enshrining the right to abortion access in their state constitutions, putting it out of reach of meddling legislative busybodies.

Virginia did neither. Republican legislatures did not pass a so-called “trigger law” when they held sway in Richmond, and united Democratic control of the General Assembly and Governor’s Mansion similarly failed to deliver an amendment to protect abortion access.

That leaves the issue determined by the laws on the books — which generally follows the Roe standard of permitting abortion through the first two trimesters, but requiring approval from three physicians after that timeframe. Virginia allows abortion at any time to protect the life of the mother, but also requires that life-saving services be at the ready should a fetus show signs of viability.

The commonwealth’s neighbors with Republican legislatures moved aggressively in the wake of Dobbs to tighten their restrictions. That includes North Carolina, which now prohibits abortion after 12 weeks. Pregnancies caused by rape and incest are only allowed through 20 weeks and the state’s “life of the mother” exception expires at 24 weeks.

“Virginia is now serving as a central access point for abortion in the South, while also currently facing its own barriers to care,” Tarina Keene, executive director of REPRO Rising, told The Virginian-Pilot in May.

Commonwealth Republicans have made no secret that, if given control of the General Assembly, they would work with Gov. Glenn Youngkin to impose similar restrictions here.

“Any bill that comes to my desk I will sign happily and gleefully in order to protect life,” Youngkin said last year, and promised to pursue a ban after 15 weeks. Several bills introduced by Republican members this year to restrict abortion access failed to gain traction in the Democratic-led Senate, including one that the sponsor, Sen. Travis Hackworth, described as “a life at conception bill” that would prohibit the procedure after 20 weeks.

Democrats cannot win the Governor’s Mansion this year, nor will they win supermajorities to override a gubernatorial veto to expand abortion access. But the party’s candidates, by and large, promise to hold the line on access and prevent further restrictions when the legislature convenes next year.

Virginia should remain a place where a woman and her doctor can make reproductive health decisions based on their individual circumstances and needs. The parties have been clear about their intentions, and voters should respond accordingly.

Portsmouth police are investigating after a man died from gunshot wounds early Saturday.

Police say they responded to a gunshot wound report at a local hospital around 2:43 a.m. Saturday. Keith Alexander Wright, 31, died from his injuries.

Authorities say the shooting occurred near the 1200 block of County Street.

Those with information about the shooting can call 757-393-8536 or 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, [email protected]

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was in a battle in the Mediterranean Sea without ever leaving the pier at Naval Station Norfolk.

The carrier had been teleported into the 6th Fleet area of responsibility as part of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ “Large Scale Exercise 2023.” The live, virtual, constructive exercise uses real-world intelligence as part of a simulated scenario, putting 25,000 Sailors and Marines on a “road to war” in which they interact with each other and adversaries in a cyber battlespace — little different than a multiplayer video game.

“We would execute this much akin to if we were underway in the 6th Fleet AOR today, and as a matter of fact, the Gerald R. Ford is underway right now in the 6th Fleet AOR and we can literally see their tracks as we are in the virtual environment next to them,” said Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, commander of Carrier Strike Group Two, while aboard the Eisenhower on Friday.

The goal of the exercise, which began Aug. 9 and will run through the 18th, is to improve the services’ cohesiveness, test new technology, identify gaps in capabilities, and put pressure on military members from the deck plate to the highest level of leadership.

“We have a responsibility to duty to be able to respond globally to threats and vulnerabilities, to peer adversaries and competitors. And the only way you get great at that is by practicing that and you have got to practice it at the highest levels,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of Fleet Forces, in a media roundtable held Friday.  

The exercise is following “a very aggressive percolating event that will eventually turn into kinetic warfare,” Caudle said. Simultaneously, opportunistic second and third parties will try to take advantage, “with the hope that the U.S. has its eye off the ball a bit and doesn’t have the capacity to deter those other opportunistic events going on.”

“Large scale exercise is a demonstrative way to let put the world on notice that we’re watching it all. And we are able to, with our global force, operate anywhere in the world, and be a force for good there,” Caudle said.

This is only the second Large Scale Exercise; the first was conducted in 2021. It spans 50 commands across the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean, including six carrier strike groups, three amphibious readiness groups, 25 submarines and ships live and 50 virtually. Three Hampton Roads-based carrier strike groups are participating: the Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush and Harry S. Truman.

The Naval Warfare Development Center at Naval Station Norfolk is serving as the hub of the exercise, controlling the scenario and simulated adversaries, and replicating decisions that would be made by higher headquarters and combatant commands, like the Secretary of Defense. More than a dozen retired flag or general officers are representing combatant commands to simulate decisions the most senior of defense leadership might make during a time of war.

Of those, is Adm. James Foggo III and Adm. Scott Swift.

“Obviously, we have a limited number of things — ships, aircraft, people — and there’s going to be tugging and pulling as the scenario progresses,” Foggo said. “Somebody’s got to sit back in Washington and balance that out and say, ‘Well I can’t give you more of that.’”

This, Foggo explained, creates “healthy tension.”

“We are stressing the force. There’s just not enough stuff to go around. So, somebody’s going to get what they need here. Somebody else here may have to wait a little bit. But where are the priorities? Where is today’s battle?” Foggo said.

Approximately 150 miles from Norfolk, dozens of Marines from Combat Logistics Regiment 2​ were feeling the stress. They have been camped out in Oak Grove, North Carolina, since Aug. 6, reacting to simulated challenges, as well as realities of the real world while acting as an arming and refueling point.

“The fuel tanks haven’t been used, so when we tried to fill them with fuel, we noticed something like leaks, either from dry-rotted hoses or cracked pipes — stuff that we are not able to identify unless there’s fuel in the tank itself,” said Sgt. Nicolas Casson, a bulk fuel specialist, serving as the forward arming and refueling point officer in charge.

Capt. Jason Motycka, a pilot training officer acting as site lead for Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464, said the austere environment has also presented challenges in operating and maintaining the aircraft.

“We have had some some maintenance challenges, but the marines responded extremely well. We have integrated with other units to get the support we needed to fix our aircraft to continue to operate. So overall, we’ve responded the way we wanted to,” Motycka said.

Meanwhile, back at Fleet Forces headquarters in Norfolk, Caudle meets with Adm. Stuart Munsch, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and Adm. Samual J. Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, daily to synchronize operations across the globe, discussing their challenges, what can and can’t be solve independently and what resources require more coordination.

For the first time, the three 4-star generals, with Caudle in person and Munsch and Paparo appearing via a video conference, met with media Friday to discuss how they are being stressed.

“The scenario is already stressing that our unified command plan carves up the world into areas of responsibility for our combatant commanders to operate forces to conduct warfare if called upon in certain geographic areas. Of course, our adversaries and competitors understand this perfectly well. And so it is in their best interest to see if there’s a soft underbelly there and work those seams to understand whether or not we are well coordinated to handle cross flow and coordination,” Caudle said. 

On a global scale, coordinating forces across operational areas during even a simulated war is “the most challenging part.”

“We are very cutting edge out here and watching what’s going on in the world and very quickly adopting the behaviors we see and the performance we see in technology. I can’t go into the specifics there. But it’s something as recent as what I was briefed on this morning is folded in to the exercise this afternoon,” Munsch said.

In a watch room lined aboard the Eisenhower, crew are standing by 24 hours of day, seven days a week to participate in Large Scale Exercise 2023 virtually — about a dozen screens hang from the steel walls, showing a map of the 6th Fleet area of responsibility.

“It’s probably one of the most dynamic and most stressing situations that we put our watchstanders through and our air crew through, where we actually simulate in the training environment, us being shot at by threat aircraft, threat ships, and threat of land based — we call them cruise missile defense threats — that we could incur if we go into a combat operation once we deploy,” Miguez said.

The Large Scale Exercise, he said, gives the crew more opportunities to hone their “reps and sets” prior to their next deployment. The Eisenhower is scheduled to deploy later this year.

“My mantra with all my worker commanders is nothing is stable. Every time we go into an environment, the weather could be different, the adversary could change, we could have a bad intel that we think we’re rock solid on. And then all of a sudden, we’re in a crisis situation,” Miguez said.

“We do prudent planning all the time. But there are occasions where we get thrown a curveball, and it is how we deal with it. That’s why we that’s why we are in here doing this right now, so we are prepared for the unknowns.”

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

Trails of Purpose now has a pathway to Pungo, having resolved an apparent impasse with Virginia Beach over how the city classifies equine-assisted psychotherapy.

The nonprofit group applied for a conditional use permit in early May to expand its facility to 1628 Mill Landing Road to meet a growing need for mental health services.  It provides therapeutic care for military members and veterans, using horses for assisted psychotherapy and mental health education.

The expansion plans abruptly halted in July — more than two months into the process — when the city planning department determined that the proposed use of the property for equine assisted psychotherapy was recreational, and the application was withdrawn.

However, city staff and Trails of Purpose have since come to a resolution — updating the proposed use of one of the structures on the property. In doing so, the classification of the proposed use for equine assisted psychotherapy was changed from a “recreational and amusement facility” to agriculture-related.

“We are incredibly thankful, regardless of what changed their — the city’s — mind. This was very stressful for everybody involved. So we are feeling very relieved and very thankful to have the city’s support in recognizing our mission is important,” said Kayla Arestivo, co-founder of Trails of Purpose.

The property in question — a 38-acre parcel dubbed “One Red Maple Farm” — is locked into a strict contract through Virginia Beach’s Agricultural Reserve Program. The program prohibits the development of anything that is not “farm related,” barring council approval.

“After the permit was evaluated by the city attorney’s office and the zoning administrator, the planning department was advised that the applicant’s proposed use was considered recreational and was not consistent with the ARP (Agricultural Reserve Program) easement,” city spokesman Bryan Clark said in July.

The proposed use previously included converting an enclosed structure into a dedicated indoor counseling space, which Clark pointed to as the issue with the site plan.

“The applicant met with city staff and discussed significant changes to the proposed use from what was submitted in the original application. There is no longer a standalone therapy use in the proposed application. All uses are horse boarding and agriculture related,” Clark told The Virginian-Pilot in an emailed statement Friday.

Arestivo confirmed she met with city staff and agreed to removing the dedicated indoor counseling space from the site plan. Trails of Purpose will still be able to offer semi-outdoor counseling spaces in the barn and the covered riding arena.

“But had I known it was just this indoor space, we would have changed it from the start,” Arestivo said.

According to both the city spokesperson and Arestivo, Trails of Purpose was advised its proposed use was not in alignment with the reserve program, and the application was withdrawn.

“We were told by the planning department a couple of weeks ago that there was no way forward and that we needed to withdraw our application,” Arestivo said.

By then, the nonprofit had already hired three counselors and began leasing seven new horses. Volunteers have also worked for two months to clean the property, clearing overgrown vegetation, animal pens, a bunk house and a barn. They had hoped to open the location in early August.

Arestivo said they pushed back, asking what was considered agricultural.

“Dog kennels, livestock care, crop production and horse training is agricultural — that is the way the city of Virginia Beach defined it. But horse training is a human service. And in equine-assisted psychotherapy, you are engaging with a horse for the human, too. I think once we started to frame it that way, they understood,” Arestivo said.

Because the application was withdrawn, it never went to the City Council for a vote. Even so, the nonprofit’s challenges in expanding to Virginia Beach drew the attention of elected officials, Arestivo said. Among those was City Council member Michael Berlucchi.

“I woke up one morning and on the front page above the fold is this article,” Berlucchi said. “I’ve spent a large portion of my efforts on city council working to raise awareness and improve access for mental health services. And so for me to read that initial article was very disheartening because it appeared to me that we were not being reflective enough about policies when we had a good thing looking at us in the face.”

Berlucchi said he began to advocate for Trails of Purpose within City Hall “to ensure that this was reviewed in a fair and complete manner” and encouraging further exploration of “all legal and proper avenues.”

“The property is in the Agricultural Reserve Program, which I believe in the importance of preserving agricultural property for farmland and protecting the agricultural economy. But I don’t see equine assisted psychotherapy as being in conflict with that. I think it’s very much in concert with agricultural use,” Berlucchi said.

Trails of Purpose counsels about 100 military members, veterans and their families per week. Arestivo, a licensed mental health counselor, launched Trails of Purpose alongside her husband Kyle at their family’s 15-acre farm in 2019. Since then, the number of military members who seek solace with Trails of Purpose has doubled.

“There’s clearly a need for the services that they provide. And I think communities should be finding way to support organizations like this and make things easier for them, rather than more difficult,” Berlucchi said.

Trails of Purpose will submit an updated plan, as outlined in the city’s planning and agriculture departments to review. Following the staff review, the application will go to the Planning Commission and finally City Council.

The official opening of the Pungo location will be determined once Trails of Purpose completes the permitting process. But Arestivo hopes to open the gates to military members and veterans in need in the next month.

“We know our city loves our military and this was further proof that Virginia Beach is a supportive community and a great place to live,” Arestivo said.

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

It’s been a strange, complicated year for congressional decision making on the Pentagon budget. First came the debt ceiling agreement, where Congress rolled back domestic programs but left the Biden administration’s $886 billion request for national defense untouched. Now, final passage of the main bill authorizing Pentagon spending — the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — is hung up on culture war debates rather than debates about the hundreds of billions in expenditures at stake in the legislation.

But the biggest fight over the Pentagon budget is yet to come. Hawks such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers, R-AL, have argued that the current proposal of $886 billion in military spending for Fiscal Year 2024 is not enough. Instead, they are advocating for an emergency package that could arrive in Congress as early as later this month that would give them the opportunity to add tens of billions of dollars for the Pentagon beyond what is already contemplated.

On the flip side, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, ever mindful of commitments he made to Freedom Caucus members in exchange for his appointment, has said that it is “not time” for an emergency package for the Pentagon.

Even given these complexities, there will almost certainly be an effort to boost the Pentagon budget, likely tied to a new aid package to Ukraine. This would be reminiscent of what was done from from 2011 to 2020, when Congress and the Pentagon used the war budget — officially known as the Overseas Contingency Operations account (OCO) — to fund hundreds of billions of dollars of Pentagon programs that had nothing to do with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. OCO essentially served as a safety valve — a slush fund — to evade upper limits on the Pentagon budget established by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Using war spending to fund unrelated items was a bad idea during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is a terrible idea now. It’s important to keep supporting Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself, in tandem with a diplomatic track aimed at ending the war on terms acceptable to Kyiv. However, mixing Ukraine aid with additional funding for pork barrel projects that only benefit key members of Congress will muddy the waters of any debate on the size and conditions under which additional military assistance to Ukraine should proceed.

A sum of $886 billion is more than enough to provide an effective defense. This military budget is already hundreds of billions of dollars higher than at the heights of the Korean or Vietnam wars or the peak of the Cold War. It is three times what China spends annually on its military, and 10 times what Russia spends.

All that money is being spent on an overly ambitious strategy that calls for the U.S. to police the world and to win a war with Russia or China rather than working to prevent such conflicts from occurring in the first place. Ukraine’s ability to hold off Russia without U.S. boots on the ground underscores the fact that a large army is not necessary to address so-called great power conflict.

The defense department doesn’t need more money. It needs more spending discipline. The Pentagon is the only major federal agency that has failed to pass an audit, a circumstance that invites waste, fraud, and abuse. Price gouging by contractors is systematic, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, has pointed out — most recently in a July 27 hearing. Her findings were reinforced by an May investigation by CBS 60 Minutes — price gouging by contractors is rampant, wasting untold billions year in and year out.

Congress should spend more time debating what our defense strategy should be going forward and what weapons are needed to carry it out. Instead, they routinely bankroll parochial projects that bring funds into their states and districts regardless of whether the projects supported by this extra spending align with any meaningful defense plan.

For all of the above reasons, Congress should avoid using the issue of Ukraine aid to lavish more money on a Pentagon that is already overfunded and underperforming.

William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Francis Perez is thinking about coming to America. In the last three years, his family’s coffee farm in Honduras has suffered hurricanes, flooding, and drought.

“I feel that I’m stuck. I don’t feel that I can build the future I want here,” Francis told NPR.

Francis’s thoughts are shared by many in the world. Climate change will leave more people vulnerable to natural disasters, droughts, extreme temperatures, and other disruptions to their way of life, motivating many to migrate north to cooler parts of the planet.

How will leaders respond to this migration? Many politicians and public officials frame climate migration as one simple story: a threat to national security.

Migration is a much more complex issue. But even if it was limited to that one simple story, the problem is that a national security issue points to national solutions, administered through centralized, hierarchical, militarized organizations like the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

Leaving decisions in the hands of the national government means that decision-makers will lack local, context-specific knowledge. Moreover, power will be concentrated, creating perverse incentives that enable abuse and opportunism.

That’s why it’s often better to use a polycentric approach, meaning one that employs multiple decision-making bodies that operate independently of each other. This is the argument we make in our new study published by the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.

In a polycentric system, questions about where migrants work can be decided through negotiations between employers, migrants and sometimes intermediaries such as job boards, hiring agencies or unions. Questions about how to integrate immigrants into their new communities can be addressed at the community level. Sometimes this will be done by civil society groups like churches or non-profits, by neighbors helping each other informally, or by local governments. Unfortunately, the national government often uses force to crack down on these bottom-up community efforts.

These crackdowns are often carried out in the name of security. But even when it comes to security, a polycentric approach is still preferable because it allows local officials to choose policies that fit their community’s public safety needs. Put yourself in a migrant’s shoes: would you feel comfortable reporting crimes to the police if you feared that they would hand you over to ICE?

To adapt to climate migration, or any other big change, a one-size-fits all solution is not enough. What we need is a diverse tapestry of organizations and individuals that work together to use their local knowledge and discover adaptations that work well for those most vulnerable.

We should remember that it’s a multifaceted issue that goes far beyond national security. And multifaceted issues can’t be solved by one central plan. They require cooperation, experimentation and creativity.

To unleash that kind of creativity, we need policies that allow individuals to have the freedom to experiment and cooperate with each other. Unfortunately, today’s immigration system is too complex and inflexible for such experimentation. Recent research by David Bier of the Cato Institute finds that “fewer than 1 percent of people who want to move permanently to the United States can do so legally.”

A simple starting point to enable greater freedom and flexibility is increasing the number of immigrant work visas. Wider legal channels encourage legal and manageable immigration flows. In addition, capitalizing on the recent success of private refugee sponsorship allows individuals and civil society groups to use their local knowledge to help migrants join their communities.

We’ll find the right responses to climate migrants like Francis if we create opportunities for responses at every level instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all national response. Current immigration policies smother the bottom-up adjustments that can help us adapt to a changing climate. Lifting these restrictions would allow more people to use their local knowledge in ways that help us all better survive and thrive in a warming world.

Nathan Goodman is a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center and a contributing scholar with CGO. Justus Enninga is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London and a contributing scholar with CGO. They are coauthors of a new study on climate change and immigration published by the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.