2019
May
06
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 06, 2019
Error loading media: File could not be played
 
00:0000:0000:00
00:00
Amelia Newcomb
Senior editor

Walking through Boston in May connects me with a rite of passage that always brings a smile. Newly minted college grads float down the street, resplendent in robe and mortarboard, feet appearing to hover slightly off the ground. Admirers hover and buzz and snap photos. Someone shepherds a bouquet of flowers; younger siblings look on in awe.

Even as higher ed struggles amid a season of scandal and withering criticism, these scenes are a reminder of the good that happens on many a campus – of the power of a degree to transform lives and the act of recognizing that to bring out our better angels.

Some gestures are heart-warming. Take Stephan Wilson’s graduation from Central Michigan University. His mom, Sharonda Wilson, was of course going to be there, though it meant she’d miss her own graduation at Ferris State. But CMU President Bob Davies did a workaround. While she stood on stage at CMU alongside her son, he awarded Ms. Wilson her FSU degree. Tears flowed and the audience rose to cheer.

Other acts aim to heal a heart-wrenching wrong. In 1956, Autherine Lucy Foster became the first African American to enroll at the University of Alabama. She was expelled days later amid intense protests. But last Friday she received an honorary doctorate from the school (from which her daughter also graduated and she earned a master’s in 1992). “I sat down last night, and when I thought about it, I was crying,” she told the Tuscaloosa News. “That is a wonderful campus out there.”

Now to our five stories, which focus on bringing forward important conversations – about religion in politics, South African history, and DNA privacy. 


You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.

Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look

Bebeto Matthews/AP
Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg, from South Bend, Indiana, and civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton (r.), president of National Action Network, pray before their lunch meeting at Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, New York, April 29.
Ryan Lenora Brown/The Christian Science Monitor
An informal diamond miner at work in the city of Kimberley, South Africa. Such miners trawl sites that were once formal mines in search of diamonds that have been left behind.

The Monitor's View

AP
A couple walks through a forest near Frankfurt, Germany.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Alastair Grant/AP
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead official Town Crier Chris Brown announces news of the birth of a baby boy to Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, outside Windsor Castle in England May 6.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for starting your week with us. Tomorrow Dina Kraft will look at the fighting between Israel and Gaza and the debate over whether Israel's hard line is the most effective approach. 

More issues

2019
May
06
Monday
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us