海角大神

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Readers Write: Can the military have a moral backbone?

Letters to the editor for the July 4, 2022 weekly magazine. One reader remembers listening to the Monitor on a counter top radio in the early 1950s.聽

By Monitor readers

The ethics of warfare聽

Thanks for the amazingly impactful May 30 cover story, 鈥淢olding a moral soldier,鈥 that appears unique to the Monitor. I hate guns and I hate war, but as a friend once told me, 鈥淚鈥檒l fight so you can believe what you want!鈥澛

This article shows that there can be a moral backbone to our military which would in turn reflect, one would think, in its physical effectiveness as well.聽

So long as we must live with this lesser evil of a military force, it is encouraging to know that there may be ways to lift it to a higher ground.聽

Charlotte Wallace
Durham, New Hampshire

The Monitor, 70 years later

Greetings from beautiful Western North Carolina! I鈥檓 reminiscing about a childhood experience back in my small hometown in northern Indiana. I was probably 11 or 12 years old, in the early 1950s. I was dialing our family counter top radio, just to explore, because like my dad, I liked music.

I came across a Monitor radio broadcast. This was something different! I was intrigued. There was news reporting going on, as I remember, but there was also a quality to the commentary that was different. I recall that even at my young age, I was drawn to the broadcast. It was not at all a religious message 鈥 it was secular reporting. 聽

What was the attraction? Was it 鈥渕y little secret鈥 about something I had found that my parents had not yet discovered? To this day, I say that attraction was an 鈥渋ntangible鈥 鈥 a quality or qualities I cannot name.

Following a career in public health, I would reconnect with the Monitor 70 years later. About 25 years ago, I had followed the advice of almost every leader I read in the field of health at the time and put myself on a 鈥渕edia diet鈥 as a stress reduction tool.聽 聽

But after a time away from media, I yearned for a daily source of current and world events that I could resonate with. Enter, again, 海角大神. Today the Monitor Daily and the Weekender newsletter arrive regularly in my email inbox.聽

It鈥檚 the window through which I read, listen to, and assimilate national and international news and events. Yes, it is journalism with a bias for hope, and that鈥檚 my personal preference and choice.

Jim Reed
Mills River, North Carolina