Skip to footer

Readers write: Political coverage, solutions for peace, holiday lines

Letters to the editor for the Dec. 26, 2016 weekly magazine.

|
Myra Beltran/Houston Chronicle/AP
A mid-December day at the University Station Post Office in Houston.
  • By Milton Love Monitor reader
  • Blanca Lucía Echeverry, Marcelo Caruso, Yvonne Lodico, and Dax Crocker Monitor reader
  • Martha F. Barkley Monitor reader

Political coverage

I have been a subscriber to the Monitor for a number of decades and I like the evenhanded, positive editorial tone that you set. However, I am increasingly disquieted by how you portray Donald Trump. You seem to be loath to criticize a man who has sexually assaulted women, who has white supremacist and anti-Semitic advisers, and who demonstrably lies continually. I would have thought that the first of those facts alone would be enough for the Monitor to write an editorial pointing out his unsuitability for office.

So my question is, why the editorial silence? How far would Mr. Trump have to go before you would speak out? I guess I am asking, at what point does evenhandedness become complicity?

Milton Love

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Solutions for peace

Regarding the Nov. 16 editorial, “Peace pact 2.0 to end Colombia’s war” (CSMonitor.com): We propose that the restorative process and truth-telling for victims and former rebel soldiers, who must be reintegrated and carry out community service, incorporate community-supported agriculture. This could help the healing process and provide means for restitution. The CSA could include a host of community transformation collaborations imbued with notions of stewardship and empathy. It will nurture trust-building, ensuring Colombia’s inclusive and enduring peace.

Blanca Lucía Echeverry, Marcelo Caruso, Yvonne Lodico, and Dax Crocker

Grace Initiative, Dorset, Vt.,
and Bogotá, Colombia

Holiday lines

The Dec. 12 Home Forum essay, “Going postal at Christmas,” had a great punch line and was such a realistic rendition of so many standing-in-line experiences during the holidays. Taking jobs from workers is a real issue and having patience is a daily challenge, not only at Christmas. Thank you for writing this gift for us.

Martha F. Barkley

Charleston, S.C.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
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”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

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.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Readers write: Political coverage, solutions for peace, holiday lines
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Readers-Respond/2016/1224/Readers-write-Political-coverage-solutions-for-peace-holiday-lines
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe