Getting on the Defensive

[Guest guest]

My dear ,

You created a firestorm when you stated that women who didn't breastfeed their

infants were poor excuses for mothers. I hope you understand why people were

offended by such a statement. You became defensive in your position and

proceeded to become even vitriolic and offended even more people and distanced

them from your cause. No one said you were not welcome here and if you have

that feeling, it is your way of fending off the mistake that was made by trying

to shame the very women who have upheld you in your right to free speech. This

is not the I envisioned you to be.

It is not enough to say you have the right, with it comes responsibility and

allowing them to have their say, that's the way freedom works. You do not gain

friends by name calling and I think that the women in this group have used great

restraint in replying to your accusations. What about adopted children, are

they different because they were bottle fed? What you have done is condemned

all women who did not breastfeed their babies and painted them all with a broad

brush, not even knowing the reasons they did not. For many it was not an

option. In some countries you might be labled a zealot. Your statements appear

to be saying that it's your way or the highway. When I had my first child, there

was a woman breastfeeding her baby while smoking a cigarette, with ashes falling

on the baby and blowing smoke so close to that baby's face. Now would you call

that a good mother, just because she was breastfeeding her baby?

Please be fair and admit that you have offended some and others who have

remained silent, offer an apology and mend the fences that have been broken.

You will be thought of as a much better person than you have come off to be by

your censure of other's rights t speak out. This is not a religious or even a

political issue, it is personal and because it is so personal, it has roused the

many who are tolerant. When you cross the line, the natives get restless, they

want to shield the very liberty you attack. I never perceived you to be that

sort of person.

China is correct, if you were in the US, your doctor would probably have

reported you for child endangerment based on all of the warnings documented by

Novartis. That was all included in my first post to you. I think she also made a

very good argument in your defense that we are all united because of CML and no

one is forcing you off, it is of your own volition. Play fair, don't pick up

all of your marbles and go home just because you lost the first game.

Carpe Diem,

Lottie Duthu