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Readers write: Mesquite glamping, quantum comic, and more

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Michael Bonfigli/Special to The Christian Science Monitor
  • By Monitor readers

Mesquite glamping

On the heels of the 2019 United Nations climate report, it was very disappointing to read the Aug. 5 Monitor Weekly cover story, “Splendor in the Mesquite,” about glamping. A story about the efforts of the Trump administration to dismantle long-standing environmental safeguards (the Endangered Species Act, for example) would have been far more relevant and edifying to Monitor readers. 

The Monitor needs to be far more direct about its climate reporting. This global threat needs immediate and decisive action and prayer. Widespread complacency needs to be disrupted and the facts need to be widely broadcast. The Monitor – with its base of engaged readers – is in a perfect position to do this.

Why We Wrote This

Letters to the editor for the September 2, 2019 weekly magazine.

Sharon C. Lincoln
Boston

Quantum comic

I really enjoyed “Beyond Schrödinger’s cat: A serious comic about quantum physics” in the July 8 & 15 issue of the Monitor Weekly. I taught high school physics for many years and thought the comic explanation was very well done. It was simple, to the point, and did a good job of explaining the difference between Niels Bohr’s and Erwin Schrödinger’s approach to quantum physics. Congratulations on having the courage to try explaining quantum physics, which can be very complicated.

Richard Feren
Manchester, New Hampshire

Woodstock and beyond

Regarding the cover story “Field of tie-dyed dreams” in the Aug. 12 Monitor Weekly: I see a remarkable shift in social consciousness from my grown children’s generation to mine. We challenged society in the 1960s, with its reluctant position on war and civil rights. Collective urgency has diminished; leading by example is the new voice of change. Continued fear for the future of a healthy environment has now led to a more personal response, with individuals buying organic food and limiting carbon footprints.

Even we “gentle activists” mentioned in the article can still picket the White House, call our representatives in Congress, welcome diversity, reduce water consumption, and make smarter choices at the grocery store. Glad you could find some photos of mud-surviving optimists in August 1969 that you could print in the Monitor! One of my few regrets in life is not seeing in person Jimmy Hendrix play the anguished national anthem at Woodstock. Heart-stopping history without words.

Ann Hymes
Laguna Hills, 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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