Today, Will Saletan took a shot at me in his Slate column, Human Nature, lecturing me on common ground in the context of the Tiller murder. Below in my response...

Dear Will,

First off, very glad to know that common ground is here to stay, the proof of which is that you're finally on the bandwagon, and, let's face it, you only jump on wagons once the entrance gets crowded. As another example let's consider your realization several months ago that the pro-life movement is really about fighting contraception now. Those of us whose work you've been skimming for years now have been arguing that for at least five years, see in this regard my book, How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America. In fact, I know you've seen it since you recommend it. I have been disappointed that you chose this moment to finally cite a stray comment by me rather than refer to the ideas in my book which, I have long noted with pride, you have ably popularized.

Indeed, Will, you have been for a long time an able popularizer of others' original thinking. Your deficit as a writer on this subject has long been an inability to connect emotionally, to feel one way or the other the closeness and the poignancy of important events. Perhaps one disadvantage in making a personal connection is that you primarily quote, refer to and seemingly write for the brotherhood - andrew sullivan, russell douthat, etc., all talented pundits, though I've often wondered why a woman never made it into your reflections on abortion.

Let's leave aside the cheap shot that you have made above - and you know it. As one who's actually been working on the issue of common ground for years, I welcome you to the fold. Just as a point of future reference, in 2003, long before it became the issue de jour, I co-wrote an op-ed with an pro-lifer for the New York Times, entitled "The Right to Agree." I have been calling for common ground loudly ever since.

In this regard, I have what I hope will be an important announcement. Beginning next week, I will be moderating an ongoing common ground forum on RHRealitycheck.org. This is something that has been in the works since before the election. Here we will actually bring together important voices on both the pro-life and pro-choice sides. We will discuss, despite the real pain that it causes both sides, the possibility of coming together on at least some difficult issues. Here we will be addressing the issues from inside our two communities not, as you do, from a stony remove - I'm tempted to say from on high, but won't. And just so you know my common ground work has put me in touch with the most capable and thoughtful people on the pro-life side, those who are as aghast as we are by the Tiller murder.

In any case, I invite you to visit our discussion on. I'm sure you will find fertile ground to till.

And while speaking about you and fertile ground, I need to point out the important point you miss is that the murder of Dr. George Tiller is a deep, and perhaps abiding wound for the pro-choice side. Since you may not communicate with many intimates in that movement perhaps you've missed the profound rage that this senseless act has sown across the pro-choice spectrum. And in fact risks returning us to more comfortable, long established battle lines. My intent in that LA Times article was to express what many are feeling in the pro-choice community, not to endorse it. I spoke to the reporter for over an hour and am not pleased that that was the line that he chose - but the media is the media. The larger point is that your homilies about thinking bigger thoughts are just the kind of abstractions that deprive your work of an edge and a resonance that might extend its influence beyond the small band inside the beltway. Given your talents as a writer I urge you to take the plunge and try to understand the emotions that have been stirred as well as their consequences.

Cristina Page