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After reading the letters in response to Sarah Godfrey’s article “Hell on Heels” (11/21), I must write. First: Go on, Godfrey! Whether folks like what you have to say or not, whether folks think that your piece is journalism or not, and regardless of what judgments they may form about you, keep on writing, because you can!

Given the responses, it looks as if I was the only person “moved” by this story. Maybe I was so moved because I see a nexus between recent violence elsewhere, reported in the local and national news, and violence as discussed in the article. I wasn’t even moved by the club aspect—I am 34, and I don’t even go to clubs or bars.

Sadly, statistics show that girls and young women are engaging in violence more than they have in the past. There has always been a cultural belief that girls could talk about their problems (even if they were screaming and yelling), while boys always fought it out—or, now, shoot it out. Whether that belief was ever supportable or not, each year more girls and young women are arrested for engaging in violent crimes. Something has changed in our society. I am not looking forward to the day when girls and young women will start packin’—in their purses! We have enough unsolved murders of young men, particularly in this city and in my ward—adding young women to these numbers would be even more devastating.

Do any of the readers responding to Godfrey’s article remember that just a few weeks ago, a young girl was held down, kicked, and beaten by a group of her female classmates at Ballou High School? Ballou is not a club; it is not a bar; it is a school! Watching the perpetrators in handcuffs being arrested outside the school was not pretty. Obviously, because the police were involved, they must have beaten the victim pretty badly.

Open your eyes, listen to young girls talking to each other, and notice how they now communicate. Statistics and my own eyes show that violence among girls and young women is on the rise. Godfrey’s article may have only focused on clubs and bars, but she reminded us of the bigger picture: our schools and neighborhoods. Again: Write on, Godfrey!

Congress Heights