All From the Editors

Through this past year of pandemic-driven isolation, one thing has become clear: It’s not the locale that makes the community; it’s the people.

Over the years, I realized that growth and maturity aren’t door prizes waiting at any particular birthday. They are learned and earned over time.

Sy Green’s parents couldn’t pay for his sophomore year at Palma School. Then a group of inmates at a state correctional facility stepped in to help.

Something else happened as the world confronted COVID-19. We caught a glimpse of what a global effort can accomplish in a shared crisis.

I have often wondered how it would be to see like a photojournalist. In the right hands, the camera becomes a key that unlocks the world. 

It goes without saying that 2020 was not the brightest year. But despite all the hardship, progress still flowed like a stream beneath the surface.

This year, the arrival of dusk carries a different kind of weight, and holiday gatherings will be subdued. So where can we turn for a bit of light?

David Blankenhorn believes the collapse of partisan goodwill is only a symptom of a collapse of trust in one another – and he wants to fix it.

In the pandemic, we’ve reported on students and families who are struggling. But we also saw a steady stream of people who have stepped up to help.

President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation might have seemed absurd to many in 1863. Yet his focus on order and harmony is still applicable today.

The message had always been the same: Leave your opinions outside the stadium. But this August, something changed, and the sports world erupted.

The global experiment in expanding freedom isn’t over. What does the world need to learn? One idea that’s surfacing: the importance of responsibility.

As a growing lead places Joe Biden near the threshold of the White House, the lessons of the past week point to how a divided nation can find a path forward. 

Each new star is an amalgam of all who came before; each song a single snapshot in time. But more than that, music is a reflection of us.

Building a better American democracy could take a while, if it happens at all. In the meantime, how can we as individuals be part of the solution?

The goal of politics, in its lowest common denominator, is to persuade you that you face a zero-sum decision.

Many have become acutely aware of the bitterness of isolation. But there’s a flip side to that realization – a new appreciation for human connection.

Here we are, at a moment when mutual miscalculations have in some ways put both the U.S. and China on the back foot. But reason  can still prevail.

Majorities of voters in both major U.S. parties say it is essential for someone in high political office to be compassionate and empathetic.

By the time you read this, we will have made a change aimed at both unifying the Monitor and putting the Weekly magazine on the best path to thrive.