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Readers write: Young people lead the way

Letters to the editor from the Dec. 25 Weekly. Readers discussed the biases behind conflicts and young people’s quests to mitigate climate change.

  • By Monitor readers

The roots of conflict

The article “In Italy, a school teaches reconciliation over revenge” in the Dec. 11 Weekly gets to the bottom of what people are doing to understand each other and to deconstruct conflict.

We are seldom aware of the stories that underlie biases, but indeed, they are stories, promoting an agenda. It’s the most important kind of education – teaching people to see, listen, and be open to others. Thank you!

Deborah Pierce
Newton, Massachusetts

Aspirational youth

The cover story “Climate change is driving a youth revolution” from the Nov. 6 Weekly is brilliant reporting! I plan to share it with my children and grandchildren.

I am a baby boomer and a retired high school teacher. I have long been interested in the wisdom and aspirations of current youth. It is wonderful to hear about the active networks that they are building to fight climate change.

Good on the Monitor for helping them to be heard. I liked the honest, frank way this was delivered. It is clear that we no longer have the luxury of evasion.

Robin Clarke
Melbourne, Australia

Focus on people over topics?

The cover story “Suing the world to save it. Children pioneer a right to a secure future.” in the Nov. 27 Weekly raises – without explicitly asking – the question of whether lawsuits against governments are an appropriate means of addressing climate change. Some options are given, pro and con. It seems to me any answer to that question must take into account the remedies that are sought in the lawsuits.Yet this discussion of climate cases doesn’t mention that. In reading this seven-page article, I’ve learned something about the lives and motivations of the climate activists, but nothing of substance about the lawsuits.

Similarly, “What a Texas-sized battle over state history means” in the same issue goes into detail about the personal attitudes of the parties, while providing only vague outlines of the issue itself. The Monitor used to be valued for in-depth analysis of current issues, but I fear its focus is shifting to politically oriented human-interest stories.

Jennifer Quinn
Abingdon, Virginia

Young pioneers

I wanted to thank the Monitor for its excellent series “The Climate Generation,” especially the Nov. 27 Weekly cover story, “Suing the world to save it. Children pioneer a right to a secure future.” It reminded me that true leadership is not based on rank and often is most effective coming from the bottom up instead of the top down. It also brought to mind a Bible passage, Isaiah 11:6, reading: “And a little child shall lead them.”

One of my favorite definitions of leadership is getting ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and the article certainly reflects this idea in many meaningful ways. Many thanks again to the Monitor for its unwavering commitment to serving as an inspiring resource and example for the world.

Clay Jackson
Buckeye, Arizona

The power of individuals

The Dec. 11 Weekly cover story, “In a return to forgotten lands, young farmers go small, demand less,” is so interesting. It was so beautifully written and photographed. I loved how the story returned to the young Portuguese couple, who were drawn back to start a farm and build on the impact individuals can make.

Bob Whittlesey
Spokane, Washington

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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.”

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.

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