ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290503
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

COLUMNIST SHOULD TAKE HER OWN ADVICE

ELLEN Goodman's April 6 column ("Women's message - without women") was sexist and unjust to men. Nonviolence is not a peculiarly female virtue. If men perpetuate most of the violence in the world, they also have led the fight against violence for centuries.

Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, William Penn, Albert Schweitzer and 67 out of the 76 individuals who have won the Nobel Peace Prize were men. So was Jesus Christ.

Men have good reason to reject violence because they are its primary victims. Nearly four-fifths of American homicide victims are males, as are most of the victims of other crimes against the person. Most of the people who die in wars are men. Men who advocate nonviolence aren't "turning their backs on male history," as Goodman would have it, but are simply choosing another strand of a male (and female) history that is a lot more diverse than she recognizes.

Goodman points out that "there's more than us and them, winners and losers." That's good advice; she should take it herself. SAMUEL B. PAYNE JR. FERRUM 


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