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Readers Write: Building trust with Iran, Thailand wants democracy, and NCAA eligibility needs reform

Letters to the Editor for Jan. 19, 2015 weekly magazine:

Anderson: Trust should be established between Iranian and foreign diplomats when negotiating Iranian nuclear program. 

Inturart: Thais want democracy and media coverage's focus should be on this goal not court gossip. 

Davis: Some college coaches wield their power over players who want to transfer.

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Reuters/Damir Sagolj/File
A protester with messages written on her back and arms joins others protesting against military rule at the Victory Monument in Bangkok.

Building trust with Iran

The Dec. 15 Monitor’s View “Critical mass in Iran nuclear talks” described the trust demonstrated between Iranian and foreign diplomats negotiating constraints on the Iranian nuclear program. It’s a fact. Trust is real and it is powerful. Does any other news source recognize and report on positive, encouraging, and important world-changing events? The endless supply of disappointing, disillusioning stories from other organizations spreads despair and apathy. Pick up any Monitor issue and you find real balanced news. The Monitor describes why the negotiators chose to trust one another: It is an effective route to each party’s goals. 

Chris Anderson
Ogden, Utah

Thailand wants democracy

Regarding the Dec. 15 online article “In monarchist Thailand, does money now trump a royal title?” (CSMonitor.com): The doings (or misdoings) of junior Thai royals are irrelevant to Thailand’s problems – and solutions.

The run-up to a failed election in February 2014 was marred by deep political polarization, mass unrest, and murders. The military coup came in May when many Thais feared the onset of civil war. The calm of Bangkok’s streets today is largely because of the government’s commitment to a new democratic constitution. Thais want a more sustainable form of democracy, and national surveys show overwhelming support for that goal. Progress toward a new constitution, not court gossip, should be the focus for serious analysis of Thailand’s politics.

Polthep Inturart
Bell, Calif.

NCAA eligibility needs reform

Regarding the Jan. 12 Monitor’s View “In college football, a way to determine the real champs”: Other issues that could use tackling are those of college players who lose eligibility when they transfer or who have been denied an athlete release by their coaches altogether, for a variety of reasons. The power that some coaches wield over players needs addressing.

Timothy Davis
Great Barrington, Mass.

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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.

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