Skip to footer

Readers write: Winning over voters, best columnists, complicated topic, help for teens

Letters to the editor for the July 31, 2017 weekly magazine.

|
Zhejiang Daily/AP
A Chinese researcher works on an ultracold atom device at the CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory in Shanghai, China, on July 30, 2015.
  • By Dorothy Kwiat Monitor reader
  • Philip M. Smith Monitor reader
  • Melvyn Howe Monitor reader
  • Carrie Henderson Monitor reader

Winning over voters

Thank you for the Focus article in the June 26 issue about Rep. Cheri Bustos, “A Democrat who woos Trump voters.” Republicans and Trump supporters are not our enemies. They are voters looking for someone to represent their personal interests. Ms. Bustos got it right by engaging in conversations with her constituents at their workplaces and in local grocery stores about what matters most to them. She demonstrated to them that in the grand scheme of things, their issues really matter to her.

Dorothy Kwiat

San Diego

Best columnists

I was a big fan of columns by Mel Maddocks and John Gould in the Monitor, and I did not think they would ever be equaled. But “Verbal Energy” columnist Ruth Walker deserves every praise and thanks for her weekly column, and I would place her alongside the best Monitor columnists.

Philip M. Smith

Bryan, Texas

Complicated topic

Regarding the July 3 OneWeek article “Doubling down on quantum internet”: This was brilliantly informative. It is a complex subject that was written about in an easy-to-understand style.

Melvyn Howe

Greenford, England

Help for teens

Regarding the June 26 online article “Beyond Carter verdict: Helping teens battle suicidal thoughts” (CSMonitor.com): Youths today have so many more problematic influences than when I was growing up. When I felt rather low-spirited, teachers were available. They had a free period when we could go to them. What options are available for troubled youths if they do not have family or friends to talk through some concerns?

Carrie Henderson

Studio City, Calif.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
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.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Readers write: Winning over voters, best columnists, complicated topic, help for teens
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Readers-Respond/2017/0729/Readers-write-Winning-over-voters-best-columnists-complicated-topic-help-for-teens
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe