This is as exaggerated as the number of missing children on milk cartons. For years, we've tried to teach daughters to go through the world neither naive nor cynical, neither numbingly dumb nor terminally suspicious. I suppose there's bound to be some gender unease every time a creep pops into the headlines. In a way, the reports are progress. The problem is the reaction, or the overreaction.
Today there's an urge to send men and women back to their own corners.
In the Army there's a call to resegregate the sexes. In transporting the sitter, it's girls only. One of the great pluses of the generation of change has been friendship. The camaraderie of dorm mates and co-workers, the loosening of roles, has helped us to see each other through some prism other than sex. Michael Kennedys notwithstanding, familiar coexistence is what builds trust.