EDITORS: Phil Campbell skillfully selected out two "links" in the "chain of events" narrative I shared with him ["The Rape Revisionist," Phil Campbell, Feb 1]. These were the following: my perceptions of sex offenders; and my perceptions of victims. He attempted to cover a discerning process that took nearly two decades of my life. Journalistically, the article succeeds because it encourages strong dialectical discourse. But for a fledgling organization [the Whitestone Foundation] that is inviting open dialogue about sex crimes, Campbell's article is somewhat troubling. In focusing upon my evolving discomfort with the victims in court, Campbell relinquished this link: my later realizations that victims themselves aren't the problem--rather, it is the systems. In Jeffrey McKechnie's case, one victim was caught in a system that forced her to express her fear, anger, confusion, and outrage in poems rather than in ways that can impact the event fittingly. Systems where the victim's voice is merely a token, where communities are left to vent their feelings without guidance, and where no opportunity exists to learn from the event are systems that ultimately suck our personal power away. Thinking more systematically led me to the "missing link": Restorative Justice (RJ) theory. Campbell did not provide a full understanding of this theory. Suffice it to say, RJ is the antithesis of the systems I have described above.

Lastly, Campbell left out this vital link: my relationship with God. Luck is not the vital ingredient for success here. What is also needed is lots of faith, which is limited only by the extent of our own imaginations.

Tamara Menteer, via e-mail

DEAR STRANGER: I don't think Tamara Menteer has the answer, and I doubt if she thinks so herself. But she has made a start. She has catapulted herself out of the punishment/vengeance box and has begun thinking of potential steps to a solution. If the rest of us would follow her out of that box, we might find a lot of other ideas out there. It's time for victim's advocates to talk seriously about responsibility, not blame; restitution, not punishment; and long-term solutions, not vengeance.

Ginny NiCarthy, via e-mail

EDITORS: I was pretty disgusted by Phil Campbell's feature article about the "rape revisionist." I feel that Tamara Menteer is working through her own personal issues and projecting onto other victims and rapists. She isn't [emotionally] removed enough to be professional and has no business being a social worker. [A rape] by a violent stranger vs. Menteer's own rape experience is entirely different.

Anonymous, via e-mail

EDITORS: I have supported [Tamara Menteer's] Whitestone Foundation for about two years now. I, too, was a rape victim: a semi- violent rape with a gun pointed at my head. I decided early on not to be a victim, and go on with my life. Some sex offenders need to be locked up forever. But the others can be rehabilitated. They can be productive, contributing citizens rather than costing us [excessive amounts of money] per year to maintain [them] in "mental" hospitals (prisons).

Joyce Hayes, California resident, via e-mail

EDITORS: I am writing in disgust. "The Rape Revisionist" was a disappointing example of The Stranger propagating the idea that victims of rape need to be ashamed of speaking about their horror--except in the socially acceptable, unemotional way that Tamara Menteer has seemed to master. Women have enough trouble coming forward about their rapists. Shame on you for printing an article that discourages speaking out. Was I supposed to believe that Menteer was a crusader who had overcome her pain, and is a whole and better person because she can now defend her antagonists? I didn't. Instead, I heard one messed-up woman belittling the efforts of other victims. (Poetry, however lame, is a way of confronting and expressing, and that poetry-reading rape victim got further than Menteer has ever gotten.)

Am I supposed to empathize with the bastard who tore off my dignity along with my pants, like Menteer is able to? Menteer is a prime example of someone who never prosecuted her own violator: jaded and unwhole. The Stranger contributed to the stigmatization of victims of rape.

A.H., via e-mail

DEAR PHIL CAMPBELL: The atavistic thinking and practice of self-appointed "gatekeepers of Hell" (like State Rep. Ida Ballasiotes) has gotten us where we are today: nowhere. At 10 years old, I was repeatedly molested. At 17 years old, I was beaten, raped, injected with a lethal dose of heroin, and dumped in an empty lot, naked and left to die. Menteer's approach to sexual- offender treatment is both brainier and ballsier, humanitarian, and potentially more efficacious to reduce the reoccurrence of sexual assaults. Where does one go, what does one do to keep from offending? People [like Ballasiotes] should not be in public office.

Jim R. Schmarje, Seattle

HEY STRANGER: The profile of Tamara Menteer touched on an irony about sex offenders that, were it not so pathetic, would be hilarious. The thing is this: Most sex offenders have "cognitive distortions" (i.e., seriously twisted thought processes). Duh. One of the most common [distortions] being a deeply held belief that they are truly despicable monsters, even before committing any "offense." So, just like Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking propels losers toward success, the darker flip side of that same power propels outwardly normal young men to act out their secretly harbored beliefs that they're contemptible slime balls. They rape.

If they're lucky, they get caught and get treatment--usually some prison time, too. And while in treatment, they're taught that they weren't really any more screwed up than the "average" person. What sets them apart from other people is that they stupidly acted upon their feelings of low self-worth, and actually raped people. Dumb! Now, granted, this is a super-simplified, condensed model of sex offender pathology and treatment. But the rub is this: While in treatment/prison, the sex offender learns that he's NOT a horrible monster--and that his obsessive thoughts to the contrary were a big mistake. Gee. What a relief! But when he is released back to the community (if he's lucky), people on the streets react to him as if he were some kind of... well, monster!

Like I said, if it weren't tragic, it'd be funny.

Dan Pens, inmate, Twin Rivers Correction Facility, Monroe,WA

[Editor's note: Dan Pens is a sex offender who has been imprisoned since 1981 on two counts of first- degree rape.]

DEAR EDITORS: What the fuck is wrong with Phil Campbell? He gives Tamara Menteer a six-page soapbox from which to escape responsibility for her own stupidity, label her male friends as "sex offenders," and trivialize rape. Tamara's assertion of "victimhood" does real damage to the political and judicial progress we've made in this country on the issue of sexual assault.

What is Tamara's motivation for crying rape? Why would she publicize her own appallingly bad judgment unless it was to purchase political credibility for her stance on sex offender rehabilitation? While Menteer's approach to reform is fresh, courageous, and worthy of discussion, her definition of rape should infuriate anyone unfortunate enough to have experienced the real thing; and her exploitation of this incident for political gain is outrageous, crass, and beneath contempt.

Menteer secluded herself in a room with "at least six" men who she "knew," and proceeded to smoke pot and drink "phenomenal amounts of alcohol" with them. Menteer "asked the men... if they wanted to have an orgy." She willingly stripped and initiated the sexual encounters. She admits that her fantasy and the actual reality were very different, and that she felt ashamed. She never confronted any of the men, or filed charges.

Any woman that pulls a train and then cries rape infuriates me, and should infuriate everyone, male and female. Victimhood, as Menteer herself points out, is damaging all by itself. Carrying the label of victim can cause more harm than rape alone ever could. And the root of victimhood is the inability to take responsibility for your own behavior. I applaud Menteer for having the courage to spark discussion about new methods of treatment and rehabilitation for sexual predators, but she has irreparably damaged her own credibility. And Phil, what the fuck were you thinking?

Bret Robinson, Tacoma, WA