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Readers write: Looking for the good

Letters to the editor from the Mar. 11 issue. Readers discussed the war in Gaza, humanity's pessimism about progress, and new climate innovations.

  • By Monitor readers

A scoop of hope 

How delightful is the article “In Ecuador, they all scream for ice cream” in the Jan. 15 Weekly! Ecuador has recently gained the mass media’s attention only because of the explosion of violence, which many attribute to illicit drug trade.  

While it is important that we Americans understand the critical events in other countries, the heartbreaking news of the ongoing death and destruction in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere can be oppressive and depressing.  

The Monitor’s reporting about the tradition and joy around a simple pleasure – ice cream – is a lovely antidote. It is not frivolous or pandering to fit into the “good news” category. It is a charming window into the domestic culture of a country many Americans couldn’t locate on a map. And while I don’t plan to travel to Quito, Ibarra, or Salcedo, the first thing I will do when I do travel there will be to seek out a helado de paila.

Rusty Wyrick
Ghivizzano, Italy

Why focus on the negative?

After reading the Jan. 1 and 8 cover story – “Pessimism or progress: What do you see in 2023?” – I am mystified not only by humans’ constant preoccupation with the negative aspects of life, but also with the unfortunate tendency to overlook progress. 

Also baffling is the disconnect between people’s perception of crime and actual crime statistics, leading to the erroneous conclusion that we were safer in the past. Long forgotten are the dangers of the past, such as the militant bombings of the 1970s, which, according to FBI records, numbered more than 2,500 in an 18-month period early in that decade. 

Today’s political candidates often proffer a return to an idyllic past as a surefire way to garner votes. But why anyone would want to return to more poverty, higher crime rates, and lower life expectancy is beyond me. As the Billy Joel song says, “The good ol’ days weren’t always good.”

Rick Soule
Surprise, Arizona

Consume less, gain more

The Dec. 11, 2023, cover story, “In a return to forgotten lands, young farmers go small, demand less,” is inspiring and forward-looking. 

It encourages the future of humanity to consume less and mutually benefit people, land, and animals. We are advised to focus on community, good food, deep connections, and nature, which help to connect artists to farmers and vice versa. 

Valuing time and connections over money shows that people’s hearts are opening. This can’t help but improve (and restore) the climate and atmosphere, and teach us to think more unselfishly. Many thanks for this beautiful article and its appearance during the Christmas season.

Robin Pryor 
Eugene, Oregon

Threads of polarization

Particularly with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as discussed in the article “Schooled in ‘social justice,’ more students flock to Palestinian cause” from the Jan. 1 and 8 Weekly, one can observe widespread ideological and political partisanship in news and commentary. There’s an ugly external politics of polarization. On social media the polarized views are especially amplified.

Many people residing outside the region actively decide which “side” they hate less and thus “support” via politicized commentary posts. I anticipate many actually keep track of the war by checking the day’s-end death toll score, however lopsided the numbers. 

Frank Sterle Jr.
White Rock, British Columbia

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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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