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Readers write: Seeing both sides, art theft solution, and more

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Ann Hermes/Staff
Southeastern Louisiana University freshman Taylor Gautreaux poses at the Catholic student center on April 5 in Hammond, Louisiana. Ms. Gautreaux does sidewalk counseling outside of abortion clinics and is active with Louisiana Right to Life.
  • By Monitor readers

Seeing both sides

Regarding the June 24 Monitor Weekly: From Mark Sappenfield’s column, “Getting past despair and indignation on abortion,” to Jessica Mendoza’s cover story, “The new activists,” as well as other articles, I gained insights into the humanity on both sides of that issue and others.

One of the most frustrating aspects I find in today’s political environment is my own failure to grasp whatever it is that leads others to support different candidates and sides of issues than I do. 

Why We Wrote This

Letters to the editor for the July 22, 2019 weekly magazine.

Reading the Monitor forces me to gain glimmers of that understanding with each edition. Thank you.

Alan Willis
Portland, Oregon

Art theft solution 

Regarding the May 6 cover story, “Whose art is it?”: This article is thought-provoking and balanced.

May I suggest a solution to the issue of museum ownership of stolen artifacts? The 3D printer has become an important tool in creation and replication. Why not create an exact copy of the art, which the current owner will retain and exhibit? The original can then be returned to its place of origin.

I agree with those who decry colonialism in the argument that an African museum’s exhibition space is inferior. If Nigeria, upon recovering its treasures, is unable or unwilling to properly care for them, no one can stop them. If we disagree, we should help them to improve their infrastructure and cultivate expertise.

Rusty Wyrick
Ghivizzano, Italy

Refreshing perspective

Cultural critic Candace McDuffie is a welcome addition to the Monitor. She has introduced me to important black writers and thinkers, such as Damon Young, and also to new expressions of faith from African American millennials.

American black culture has enormous global influence. Thank you for including it in the Arts and Culture section.

Carol Rea
Auburn, Maine 

Latin plurals

I applaud Melissa Mohr’s June 24 column, “Confused by plural nouns? Blame Latin.” As a grammar prescriptivist, I abhor the current trend toward sloppiness in that area for the following reasons.

We are losing our cultural connections to the multifaceted and rich origins of the English language. Equally important, the drift in language is generally toward a reduction in the dimensionality of our range of expression. 

William H. Cutler
Union City, California

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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”:

“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.

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