Wilding

To watch the unfolding of the story around the gang rape and mutilation of the woman in Central Park in New York is to view the massive denial of responsibility by men for the crimes of violence against women in this male-dominated culture.

For all George Will’s rhetoric about evil (“Calling ‘Wilding’ Exactly What It Is: Evil,” Op-Ed Page, May 1), the fact remains that women live in the shadow of fear night and day and that this fear is justified.

While the atrocity in New York has captured the attention of the media, census figures show that there is one rape every 2 minutes in this country. Ninety percent of homicides are committed by men with this statistic being true throughout all cultures.

We read that in New York there is talk of reinstating the death penalty. This is the “solution” of this male-dominant society which history shows does not work, but has successfully avoided the problem, which stems from the basic injustice of a society which preaches “freedom and justice for all” but denies it to over half the population who are women.

Both television programs I watched on this subject, “This Week With David Brinkley” and the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” were dominated by men who evaded any mention of this basic injustice; only the lone women on these panels addressed the debasement of women as a source of what is obviously a crime of violence against a woman.

When women share power equally with men in all facets of our lives--social, economic and political--we will see an end to violence, as well as creative solutions to problems we may face in our nation and in the world.

FRANKIE HALLER

Bellflower