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Readers write: Train memories, Brontës depiction, people's enemies

Letters to the editor for the May 22, 2017 weekly magazine.

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Toby Hollis/Morning Sentinel/AP/File
A freight train crosses the Kennebec River in Winslow, Maine.
  • By Diana Morlock Virgil Monitor reader
  • Janette McFarland Monitor reader
  • Robert F. Benson Monitor reader

Train memories

I really enjoyed Robert Klose’s March 27 essay, “A freight train sings me an iron lullaby.” The picture was spectacular. We had a railroad close to our house years ago and could hear the train whistle. The train stopped service in 1992, and we now have a rail trail on the corridor. There are no more train whistles, but we hear lots of talking, laughing, and people enjoying themselves. I was bicycling the Katy Trail in Missouri several years ago, and as I was reaching my destination I heard a train whistle. It was a perfect conclusion to a great ride. Thanks, Robert, for reminding me.

Diana Morlock Virgil

Brownsburg, Ind.

Brontës depiction

Regarding the March 27 Chapter & Verse blog, “ ‘To Walk Invisible’ brings to life the Brontës and the genius forged on the moors”: I recently viewed “To Walk Invisible.” It was excellent – much better than the 1946 movie “Devotion.” I have read all the Brontë novels and never wondered where they found the material. This PBS production showed the darker side of life that engulfed them. All three sisters were very intelligent and had the gift of writing without resorting to flimsy methodology. I recommend viewing this production.

Janette McFarland

Fruitland, Idaho

People’s enemies

In John Yemma’s March 13 Upfront column, “The value of striving for truth,” concerning President Trump’s collision with the media, we are reminded that the president has branded reporters as “enemies to the American people.” Reporters can take comfort in this label by identifying with the main character in Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 classic play “An Enemy of the People.” In the play a scientist earns this label for discovering his town’s water is polluted and insisting that this information be made public even though it will impact the local economy, which is based on a spa; he earns the label for speaking the truth.

Robert F. Benson

Silver Spring, Md.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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”:

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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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