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Readers write: Searching for leadership, and peace

Letters to the editor from the Nov. 6 Weekly. Readers explored possibilities for peace amid the war in Gaza, and questions of leadership in U.S. politics.

  • By Monitor readers

Prayer and protest

The attack on Israelis by Hamas in southern Israel was an evil and illegal act of inhumanity. We must pray, push against, and protest regarding this horrific modern-day act of injustice.  

Sadly, many hardworking Jews and Palestinians are caught in the crossfire of this horrific crisis, which is a violation of Jewish and Palestinian civilians’ basic human and civil rights. All people of goodwill pray, push, and protest for peace in the Middle East.

The Bible admonishes us in Psalms 122:6 to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” The peace of Jerusalem requires a mindset for change to work intelligently through the hard, jagged-edged issues of land, life, and legacy between the Jews and Palestinians.

Arthur L. Mackey Jr.
Roosevelt, New York

The issue of firm leadership

The issue at hand in the article “Help wanted: What will it take to be next House speaker?” from the Oct. 4 Daily is leadership. Leadership begins at the top – not the bottom. Democrats have a leader with decades of experience and a vision that has guided Democratic members of Congress. 

The Republican Party leader has not provided such vision or leadership. Normally, the leader of the party would step in and try to resolve congressional differences like those in the House. That was not done. Without leadership from the top, House Republicans will continue to flounder.

Robert Kibby
Albany, California

Preventing drug addiction

I’m sorry you didn’t discuss prevention in the Sept. 11 and 18 Weekly cover story, “Oregon’s bold drug policy isn’t working, yet.” 

The HighScope Perry Preschool Study showed that high-quality preschool dramatically reduces drug use and arrests.

In addition, there are programs for elementary schools and middle schools that provide alternatives to gangs, such as the Peacekeepers program, which reduce suspension rates in schools. Studies have found that students who get suspended or expelled are at higher risk for drug use later. 

Please do an article on prevention.

Marsha Epstein
Los Angeles

The value of experience

The article “Age and politics: Americans test boundaries” in the Sept. 5 Daily is an excellent, comprehensive look at a difficult subject. As a senior myself, I understand at least some of the challenges they face. But I also know that experience gives invaluable context for decision-making, and the “long” perspective can lead to strength in negotiations and in spotting pitfalls before we tumble into them.

Rosalie E. Dunbar
Dracut, Massachusetts

“Peace as an aspiration”

The article “Saudis pivot from seeking peace with Israel to trying to contain war” in the Oct. 12 Daily is outstanding – especially given that it was written in the first week of the war, which can be so fraught. The Monitor has simplified for the reader the clear political contours of what’s at stake (normalization of relations with Israel and defense of Palestinian human rights) alongside the very tangible humanity of deeply thoughtful and engaged Saudis, from the everyday to the politician. All this when other outlets are consumed with the horrors of war. 

The Monitor presents, from its sources, peace as an aspiration. Such reporting is an excellent contribution to the atmosphere of world thought. Thank you.

Chris Raymond 
New London, New Hampshire

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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”:

“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.”

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