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Readers write: Plight of captive whales, curtailing hate will end war, purpose of elections

Letters to the editor for the April 13, 2015 weekly magazine.

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Mike Blake/Reuters/File
Young children get a close-up view of an Orca killer whale during a visit to the animal theme park SeaWorld in San Diego, California, March 19, 2014.

Visiting captive whales not justified
Regarding the March 27 online article “SeaWorld debate flares: Are families souring on orca shows?” (CSMonitor.com): True to Monitor journalism, this article endeavored to stay neutral. However, ending it with the family that understood the cruelty involved, but chose to take their child to see captive whales anyway, tilts the story in the wrong direction. I have friends who have made that choice, choosing to view the experience as educational for their children. The money spent on tickets was, and is, the very thing that supports and perpetuates the cruelty to those whales.
Gail Christensen
Burbank, Calif.

Curtailing hate will end war
Regarding the March 30 online article “Gaza in ruins: why money, cement, and leadership are scarce,” (CSMonitor.com): The cycles of war and rebuilding between Hamas in Gaza and the neighboring nation of Israel remind me of the myth of Sisyphus in which a man is required to follow a hopeless course without change or benefit for all eternity. Piles of rubble are not the cause of the repeated attacks on Israel. The proximate cause is the irrational animus Hamas and other Islamist irredentists have toward Israel and Jews everywhere, which they then act upon. The cycle cannot be broken until hatred for Jews is curtailed.
Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati

The purpose of elections
Regarding the March 21 online article “Nigeria’s ruling party regains ground after election delay” (CSMonitor.com): Candidates seeking public office ought only to be seeking public office in order to serve all the good citizens of Nigeria and not only the elite social oligarchy who will perpetuate the status quo, ensuring that civic social change for the ordinary citizen is marginal at best. Nigeria is a country blessed in natural oil. Nigeria is even more blessed by its citizens, who often display exuberant entrepreneurial ambition.
Monte McMurchy
Toronto

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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