At convention, Democrats struggle with stereotypes – of other Democrats

While it's useful to see larger trends of political support, such as white millennials for Bernie, on the streets of Philadelphia there is a far more colorful mosaic.

9. 'My interest in politics started in 9th grade'

Story Hinckley/Staff
Megan Vyasan at a Bernie or Bust rally in Philadelphia, Penn. on July 26, 2016.

"I think they think we all want stuff for free," says Megan Vyasan, responding to how she feels perceived by Hillary Clinton supporters. "But I have to say that I’m 22, I’m a teller at a bank and I’m going to school for accounting and political science. My interest in politics started up in 9th grade and teachers recommend students to go to Washington for leadership programs…. So since then I’ve been following [politics]. After I went to this conference and I got to meet my state representatives.

"They can say I don’t know anything, but I think I might know a little bit more than they think."  

9 of 10

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.

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