Readers write: Trump and journalism, terms for land
Letters to the editor for the April 17, 2017 weekly magazine.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews take part in the 'Mayim Shelanu' ceremony to collect water from a natural spring, which will be used to make matza, the traditional unleavened bread, near Jerusalem on April 9, 2017.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
Trump and journalism
I found the March 13 cover story, “The war over facts,” a delight. Your magazine always provides readers with a balanced view. Your citation of historical facts gave me a perspective that I had lacked. Whereas I do not care for President Trump’s attitudes (or policies), I was relieved to see that this disdain for the press is not unique among politicians.
I also appreciated the DC Decoder article, “Is Trump on a ‘dictatorial path’?” The comments by Steven Schier reassured me that we are not on an “unprecedented dictatorial path.... Not yet.”
Please keep up your wonderful journalism. I have been enjoying The Christian Science Monitor (print version) for about 15 years. I first subscribed to it when my elderly dad told me he had used it in his high school English classes in 1938.
Jeanne Mattole
Honeydew, Calif.
Terms for land
The Feb. 20 Upfront column, “What decides a claim on land?,” twice mentions “the Holy Land.” Is it not high time at least to rethink this phrase? Better yet, why not retire it? If only part of the planet is holy, as the phrase implies, what does that make the rest of it?
Moreover, if a bit of that land is holier than anyplace else, which bit is it? Does it encompass Mecca and Medina, lands holy to Islam? The aboriginal people of Hawaii revere land as an ancestor. First Nations of North America venerate places like Devils Tower. To Hindus, the Ganges River is holy. Whoever built the ancient places of worship on England’s Salisbury Plain clearly thought of that land as holy. All these people would probably challenge the notion that only one place, not theirs, is the Holy Land.
I am not just quibbling over words. Many of today’s environmental, political, and spiritual problems are rooted in ideas about human relations with land. Perhaps our world would be more pure and peaceful if people would embrace the concept that the entire planet on which we live is holy ground.
Heu ‘ionalani Wyeth
Anahola, Hawaii