Urges respect in responses

Re. Beverley Ryder's letter Stereotyping the poor (Castanet, March 24)

I am in support of some of her thoughts and ideas, just as I support some of the ideas and thoughts of some male contributors.

I may not agree with everything said but I choose to not respond with an attacking diatribe against the writer. I personally experienced a very negative attack from a regular contributor. He did not like the ideas I presented and rather then keep the written conversation open and try harder at reading between the lines, he chose to fire back at me paragraph after paragraph.

(Castanet’s letters section) gives people the ability to express their thoughts and feelings but it should not allow contributors to engage in negative and abusive responses.

Personally, I think there is a real lack of respect in some submissions and the editor could do a better job choosing not to post them.

Carol Lissa