Readers write: Voice from Moscow, Canada鈥檚 First Nations, and typing prowess
Letters to the editor for the April 22 & 29, 2019 weekly magazine.
Workers at the General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, head home after a shift. In the 1980s, some 23,000 people worked at the plant. The remaining 2,900 will be laid off when the plant closes at year鈥檚 end.
Laura Cluth茅/Special to 海角大神
Voice from Moscow
After reading Fred Weir鈥檚 Feb. 21 Daily article 鈥�When Putin goes, will Putinism persist? Russians debate,鈥� a similar question was triggered in my mind: When Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Boris Yeltsin went, why didn鈥檛 Khrushchevism, Gorbachevism, and Yeltsinism persist?
The answer is obvious.聽
Russia鈥檚 modus vivendi is an endless territorial expansion, and the legacy of those Kremlin leaders who shrink it 鈥� be it by giving Crimea to Ukraine like Khrushchev or by dividing Soviet Russia into independent republics like Gorbachev and Yeltsin 鈥� is bound to perish and not persist.
But Vladimir Putin is different.聽
To begin with, in Russia, Chechen separatism has been successfully crushed. NATO鈥檚 relentless expansion toward Russian borders has been halted by hypersonic missiles.
And last but not least, plans for further Russian territorial expansion will involve the moon and even Mars.
So, as Mr. Weir touched on in his article, Putin adviser Vladislav Surkov is 100% correct in claiming that 鈥淧utinism鈥� will survive any challenges.
Mergen Mongush
Moscow
Canada鈥檚 First Nations
Many thanks to Sara Miller Llana for her balanced and in-depth reporting on Canada and how America is perceived by its northern neighbor in the Feb. 25 cover story, 鈥�Northern composure.鈥澛�
Hopefully the rage that is spreading through the world won鈥檛 gain a foothold there.
A follow-up article on Canada鈥檚 First Nations would be welcome. Can restorative justice prevail for indigenous peoples in the larger society?
Julia McBee
Decatur, Georgia
Typing prowess聽
Pamela A. Lewis, the writer of the March 11 Home Forum essay 鈥�How I tapped into my success,鈥� wrote a beautifully crafted essay that I lingered over. I enjoyed her phrasing, sentence structure, and storytelling ability.
I hope her essays continue to appear in the Monitor pages so we can all delight in other tales she might have to share.
Elaine Zavodni-Sjoquist
Portland, Maine