A hiss overwhelmed the room. We were on a stage at Lincoln Center, talking about Kansas. And if the audience walked in wanting me to be the enemy, I had just inadvertently confirmed that I was. All it took was a word.

The event was the screening of documentary based on the Thomas Frank bestseller “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” We’d just watched a part of it focusing on George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor who was murdered in 2009 on a Sunday in the church he regularly attended. It was a cruel, cowardly, evil act. I was the token pro-lifer on the panel discussing all things Kansas in the Big Apple, and, as far as those gathered were concerned, I had just played to type. I used the m-word. Murder.

Had you pointed this out to me, I would have, in all innocence, been bewildered by

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