Le Figaro, “Consternation and revolt” (Original in French)
Yves Threard
“Three soldiers, one teacher, three children. Killed in cold blood. With these seven murders, brought together by the same procedure and committed with the same weapon … [o]ne is struck by fear. And we seek an explanation ... Why?
First, there are victims. Could they be chosen by chance? Here, soldiers, Muslim. There, toddlers of 4, 5 and 7 years, Jews, killed in their school along with their French-Israeli professor. Islamophobia on one side? Antisemitism of the other? Perhaps. No doubt.
Then there was the context. The presidential election, fraught with political and ideological tensions. But also … the French presence in Afghanistan, the interminable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As many excuses as possible that, simply cannot justify the unjustifiable.
Finally, there is the killer or killers. …it is hard to imagine that the motive, whatever it may be, can be dissociated from suicidal madness.
…
The presidential candidates have suspended their campaigns. The political debate, its games and its little phrases in parentheses. But France, grieving, hurt, dismayed, must not remain prostrate. She must ask for the better protection of all citizens. "Regardless of origin, race or religion," according to our Constitution, which this tragic news demands we maintain.”
Mark Sappenfield
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.
