On tone and phrasing

If your editors were familiar with tone, I believe they would not criticize NARAL and Chelsea Clinton as “unseemly.” Nor would they suggest their own likeness to The Onion, whose subtlety makes theirs seem a wrecking ball.

Item: The phrase “abortion-inspired ice cream” is not simply misleading in context. The phrasing is disingenuous and tone nasty.

Item: The remark about NARAL, “The acronym stands for something forgettable, but mostly it stands for abortion on demand,” is also disingenuous, since you know very well what the acronym stands for and that the term “abortion on demand” is nowhere to be found in it but “reproductive rights” (equally encompassing birth control, fertility therapy, and pregnancy counseling, etc.) is. You think the key word is “abortion.” I think the key word is “rights.” You address the one term exclusively but not the other. NARAL is honest in presenting both.

Item: The observation that “a good many Americans … don’t believe abortion is just the removal of an unwanted growth, like a skin tag, but the taking of a human life” is an unwarranted dismissal and grossly insensitive, since you cannot say with certainty how any woman feels about it or what any woman “believes” about it, as if belief were a point of fact, much less law. The tone is nasty.

Item: Do not get me started about puritans and bear-baiting. Suffice it to ask, what has pleasure to do with this topic or your point? You imply something you dare not come out and say.

Are you actually acquainted with any so-called “pro-abortion types at NARAL”? I doubt it profoundly, because I read how you call them names.

You might get a blood-pressure cuff and heed its readings daily. The way your emotions drown your reason, at least on this topic, may be as harmful to your physical health as it is to your composing.

SHEARLE FURNISH

Little Rock