Readers write: A hopeful story, eschewing fear, and picking up sports
Letters to the editor for the Dec. 14, 2020 weekly magazine. Readers discuss the sport of rowing, moving past fearful responses, and more.
Staff
A hopeful story
The cover story “Pulling together” in the Oct. 26 Monitor Weekly, written by Harry Bruinius about rower Arshay Cooper, is one of the most moving and inspirational articles I’ve read in over 40 years of reading the Monitor. Hats off to Mr. Bruinius for his sensitive writing and to the Monitor for continuing to provide exceptional, hope-giving journalism in these contentious and troubled times.
John Wegmann
Port Angeles, Washington
Eschewing fear
Regarding the “From the editor” column “Looking past false choices” in the Oct. 26 Monitor Weekly: Editor Mark Sappenfield, without writing the word “hope” itself, has penned here a perfect statement of what the Monitor’s journalism has always been all about: looking past false choices. The use of fear is shown to be a norm we readers must always eschew in favor of finding higher and right motives in our lives and our governments. We can and must have a certain sense that our country’s growth to that “more perfect union” is a work in progress that will ultimately find success and equity for all.
David K. McClurkin
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Picking up sports
Sue Wunder’s Home Forum essay “Proud to be included as ‘one of the guys’” in the Sept. 14 Monitor Weekly took me back to 1947. I remember the year well because I had to leave my hometown of Roselle, New Jersey, to be with my mother in Phoenix. I was 11 and I flew with my 4-year-old brother; I can still remember what my mother looked like when we got off the plane.
In Roselle, my best friend and I shot baskets in the hoop attached to a garage and played softball with the boys at the field next to our elementary school. So when I found myself in Phoenix, I went down the street to the orange grove, where there were pickup games of softball going on. And for Christmas my father sent the only gift I asked for: a fielder’s mitt.
So thank you for the memory. Later on I had four boys and I even learned how to pass a football!
Janet L. Honecker
Wheeling, West Virginia