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Readers write: women's leadership; helping Syrians; news that offers hope

Letters to the editor for the Feb. 29, 2016 weekly magazine.

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Damir Sagolj/Reuters
DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen waves to supporters as they celebrate her election victory at the party's headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan January 16, 2016.

Women’s leadership
Regarding the Feb. 1 Monitor’s View “Managing for ‘cool’ innovation: A female president might help”: I found the suggestion ironic that Taiwan might benefit from female leadership. I find myself thinking daily that a “feminine style of leadership – which is generally more collaborative – may be just what” the United States needs. I’m not backing one particular candidate yet, but in the midst of a radically polarized Washington, it’s not just Taiwan’s government that could use more collaboration!
The Rev. Linda Johnson Seyenkulo
Totota, Liberia

Fair treatment for Syrians in Aleppo
Regarding the Feb. 10 online article “Under Russian fire, Syrian rebels blame West for abandoning their fight” (CSMonitor.com): The United States, together with its allies who supported the United Nations-sponsored peace talks for Syria’s embattled residents, should step forward now to ensure fair and humane treatment of those who have little choice but to surrender in Aleppo. This would show genuine and vital concern for moderate Syrian rebels who have opposed Bashar al-
Assad’s regime and do much to repair the reputation of the West in the Middle East.
Jerry McIntire
Viroqua, Wis.

News with a message of hope
Thank you for focusing on some upbeat news in the Feb. 8 issue. With all the negative events that are so front and center in the news these days, my outlook on world news took a definite upbeat view as I read the cover story, “The war against global poverty,” and the Monitor’s View about Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau, “For a world wallowing in gloom, a new torchbearer.” You’ve warmed this great-grandma’s heart with hope and gladness.
Sparrow Senty
Madison, Wis.

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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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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

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