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Letter to the Editor: Ignore women who don't support women

By naming her campus peregrinations, "The Lies Feminists Tell," Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, positions herself as an opponent of everyone who considers themselves supportive of the rights of women to self-determination.

Her targeted emails to faculty that she has identified as "feminists," by a wholly exclusionary metric, intensify the feeling that she is banging her metaphorical shield with her spear.

I am sure that some feminists have told lies, but deceit cannot be regarded as a defining feature of this diverse demographic.

Founded on her religious fundamentalism, Hawkins' crusade reflects the generalized deterioration of the national debate. She has a perfect right to speak against clinical practices of pregnancy termination, just as the majority of Americans are free to proclaim that the preservation of the fetus is secondary to the decisions of its mother. But to vilify all thoughtful Miamians who regard themselves as feminists with the panoptic title for her April 25 talk suggests that Kristan comes dripping with contempt for our community.

As a scientist, I have learned that the best way to deal with buffoons who contend that Earth is 6,000 years old, or those that deny the increasing warmth of the globe, is to ignore them. Kristan deserves the same response from Miami.

moneynp@miamioh.edu