Mr. Edwards characterized Ms. McLeod’s guest column as a “rant,” fueled by her “seething anger” and full of “vicious caricatures” and “distortion of facts.” He backhandedly criticized the quality of her education, and by extension, the university from which she recently received her degree.

Furthermore, he created a false dichotomy of Ms. McLeod’s motivations in her writing. According to Mr. Edwards, Ms. McLeod either “intended to enlighten and inflame,” or she “intended to offend and inflame” those who read her piece — inflammation being the one constant. Of course, throughout Mr. Edwards’ writing it was evident his patronization for Ms. McLeod as essentially a foolish, young woman — albeit one who is full of “passion” and “fervor.” Her column was “a waste of time,” according to Mr. Edwards, who proudly imbues his writing with an air of confident rectitude throughout.

Mr. Edwards was, quite obviously, one who was sorely offended by Ms. McLeod’s writing. And in his closing paragraphs, he made what I can only describe as an insultingly patronizing and obviously insincere offer to pray for Ms. McLeod and “ask that a Mass … be offered for her.” What an artificially lovely and uplifting way to end a bout of trying to shame someone with whom you disagree.

The very sad fact — again, in my most humble opinion — is that Mr. Edwards could have made some genuinely cogent points in his response. Ms. McLeod was indeed wrong about the punishments to be meted out to mothers who have abortions under this new Alabama law. It’s the doctors performing them who would be guilty of a Class A Felony. And maybe she painted some “conservatives” and/or “evangelicals” with too broad of a brush.

But she wasn’t wrong about the fact that these kinds of extremist laws are being enacted by “old, white men.” Out of 140 members of the Alabama legislature, 22 are women. So, yeah, it’s mainly men who are well over 50 (average age in Alabama Legislature is 58), and who are white (75 percent of the Alabama legislature) who are passing these highly restrictive laws that will directly affect the women who are faced with what must be the agonizing, heart-wrenching, life-altering decision to have (or not) an abortion. I can only imagine … and that’s mainly because I’m an old, white man.

So, debate is good. It is healthy. Opinions can be strongly held (and should be in many instances). But respect for others is kind of basic to meaningful communication, in my humble opinion. I applaud The Smoky Mountain News for offering such an open forum for discussion and debate. But I hope that the nastiness that has become all too common in this day and age does not come to permeate discussions about such weighty topics as this.

(John Sanderson is a retired principal and teacher who lives in Canton. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)