海角大神

At peace with semicolons

I really enjoyed Melissa Mohr鈥檚 deft columns on the semicolon (鈥淕etting the skinny on the semicolon鈥� in the Sept. 16 Monitor Weekly issue, and 鈥淪emicolons Part 2: When to use them鈥� in the Sept. 23 issue).聽There was a time I hated the semicolon for reasons I鈥檝e forgotten. Later, as an attorney, I started using the 鈥渟emi鈥� a lot to glue together related thoughts that needed expression in the same breath.

Closer to the end of my career, after reading Karl Ove Knausg氓rd鈥檚 鈥淢y Struggle鈥� series, I started using what Ms. Mohr refers to as 鈥渢he dreaded comma splice鈥� because it seemed an effective way to knit related thoughts 鈥� the ones in limbo between self-conscious, elitist semi-fragment and sentence 鈥� into the same breath.聽But comma splicing didn鈥檛 feel right; each time I spliced I sensed my deceased mother, Elizabeth (me not I, lie not lay, neither epithet nor asterisk), reading with concern over my shoulder.聽

Now Ms. Mohr has done it: She鈥檚 explained the how and the why, and given me the cleansing breath to accept my punctuation as it comes. My thanks to her.

Grant Parsons
Traverse City, Michigan

Rethinking 鈥渟uperpower鈥�

In the Sept. 9 Monitor Weekly cover story, 鈥淭he superpower in waiting,鈥� Howard LaFranchi wrote that 鈥渋t takes about 400 Indian farmers to produce the equivalent of what one American farmer does.鈥澛燘ut do those 400 Indian farmers have the same ecological impact as the American farmer? The cover story would have us believe the American way is the best way, though it may not be.

I believe that farmers in all countries could bring their skills to the city, where small gardens could provide food and beauty. In return, urbanites could bring community, art, and other amenities to the farms. Industrial farming has not proved to be the best or only answer to hunger.

We need to start redefining 鈥渟uperpower鈥� countries as nations with healthy, happy people who use community centers and small urban farms, and are able to share their unique ideas with the world via the global communication network.聽And I think it will be those shared ideas that heal divides: rich versus poor, educated versus uneducated, democracy versus autocracy.

I really enjoy the Monitor Daily鈥檚 podcast version, and I share the Monitor Weekly. Thank you for the reliable news you deliver and the uplifting articles that bring awareness to people creating a better world.

Ruth Mintline
Richardson, Texas