Skip to footer

Readers write: Influence of ‘Jurassic Park,' Daily praise, wisteria memories, Americans finding common ground

Letters to the editor for the Sept. 3, 2018 weekly magazine.

|
Universal Pictures/AP
Sam Neill stars in 'Jurassic Park.'
  • By David Miller Monitor reader
  • Merry Ann Peterson Monitor reader
  • Mary Paschall Monitor reader
  • Erin Bottger Monitor reader

Influence of ‘Jurassic Park’

The June 11 Focus story, “Rise of the ‘Jurassic Park’ generation,” was great! I am a longtime science teacher, and I, too, have seen the profound influence that this movie series has had on my students over the years.

David Miller

Port Townsend, Wash.

Daily praise

Thanks so very much for the Monitor Daily. I love it! I love the audio, the deep read opportunity, everything about it. Thanks!

Merry Ann Peterson

Seattle

Wisteria memories

Regarding the June 11 Home Forum essay, “Attack of the purple ‘bean trees’ ”: Some of my earliest memories are of the scent of wisterias as I walked home from school. The fence in our side yard was covered with their beautiful blooms. That may be why I love that color.

Mary Paschall

Snellville, Ga.

Americans finding common ground

I really appreciate your July 6 Monitor Daily article “How a Millennial influx is changing a small heartland city.” It’s interesting, balanced, and gives a good picture of the local situation and the attitudes of the participants. 

This is the kind of story that is often underreported, where ordinary Americans are finding commonality and defining a bright shared future for our nation. Small is indeed beautiful when it comes to cities and offers the community and interpersonal interaction so badly needed in our large urban landscapes. 

I’d love to see more coverage on the topic of encounters and commitments between old/young, urban/rural, wealthy/struggling, highly educated/poorly educated, conservatives/liberals, families/singles, etc.

Erin Bottger

Montgomery, Ala.

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: Influence of ‘Jurassic Park,' Daily praise, wisteria memories, Americans finding common ground
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Readers-Respond/2018/0901/Readers-write-Influence-of-Jurassic-Park-Daily-praise-wisteria-memories-Americans-finding-common-ground
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe