NAMES: Respond appropriately

All of us have been called offensive names by rude or immature people. Determining how to react to name-calling is generally learned as a child. If the name is ugly, why should there be a reaction at all — unless to say, “That’s not true” if desired.

A woman who knows her status as a USA citizen founded in the Constitution and the Amendments and the Declaration of Independence can ignore the implications of the bizarre name she was called. In another situation (say “groping”), girls and women control the situation with a resounding “no” or pushing away or getting out of the environment.

We live in a society grounded in individual rights, not in a society where women are legally enslaved, hidden, prostituted, gang raped, forced into child marriages or into compromising situations, or kept uneducated. Women can control themselves in name calling and be vigilant in social situations and get on with abundant life. It is our responsibility to teach children, boys or girls, and young men and women appropriate behavior and responses with each other and in difficult situations.

MARY SMITH

Coeur d’Alene