Editor:
(To John Keisling:)
Your column appearing in the Sept. 12 issue of the Wildcat regarding Susan Smith was not even mildly amusing.
True, everyone has a right to an opinion. Unfortunately, unless you have had personal experience with such an overwhelmingly emotional issue such as pregnancy and abortion (life and death), you have very little to base your opinion on. Please do not be patronizing and retort with the statement 'you were born.'
To have treated this issue with such light-hearted and light-minded derision places you within the pontifical male majority on this planet who feel they are endowed at birth (along with their genitalia), with the right to decide what happens to a woman's body and ignore the consequences she might be forced to endure for the rest of her life.
Here's a little quiz for you and all your brethren:
1. If you had a relationship with a woman you didn't want to marry and she became pregnant, would you:
A. Hope to hell it doesn't end up costing you a bundle of money.
B. Be willing to take the child and raise it on your own.
2. When you have sex with a woman do you:
A. Assume the woman takes care of birth control?
B. Personally make the effort to practice birth control?
3. When you have sex with a woman who is not on the pill do you:
A. Become somewhat annoyed with the inconvenience/messiness?
B. Make an effort to include the method in your lovemaking and make sure it is handled correctly?
4. You meet a wonderful woman and find out she is an unwed mother. Would you:
A. Avoid the possibility of her ever becoming more than a friend?
B. Consider dating and the possibility of one day marrying her?
5. Pray tell, when 'checking out the babes' who do you look at?
A. Those cute little adolescently thin girls with hours to spend on hair and nails.
B. The woman with the slight tummy bulge, short nails and tired look which maternity imparts to women without finances to include a health club and trips to the beauty salon, along with diapers, baby food and health insurance.
If you honestly answered these questions with B., you have my apology. If not, I suggest you publish an apology for your off-handed attitude. Even though I personally support a woman's right to a legal, safe abortion, I also respect the rational opinions of those who feel abortion is wrong.
Joy Abernathey
Management Information Systems Senior