Editors note: The Editor sincerely apologizes for the errors in the guest column that should have been titled “Time for an Age of Reason and Compassion.”

In a letter published June 19th in the San Juan Journal, the editor decided to change our proposed headline which was: “Time for an Age of Reason and Compassion” and replace it with these words: “Girls don’t need help-boys do.”

This is a distortion. We note that the headline has now been changed in the online version of the Journal as well as the more extensive and correct attribution.

Why is this important? Print only readers of the Journal might assume that we approved of that headline. However, it represents the kind of zero-sum thinking we are unalterably opposed to: where if one group of people is helped, it means another group is slighted. Nowhere in our essay did we make such a claim. Both girls and boys deserve our help. We simply point out ways that legislators and leaders can carefully consider measures that deal with the boy/young man crises (majority of suicides, opioid overdoses, etc.) without diminishing similar efforts for women and girls.

Secondly, we submitted our essay as a guest column, not as a letter. Why is that important? In a guest column there is room for a more complete description of the writers whereas a published letter is limited to just a few names. The previously published letter says that it is written by Sean Kullman and Philip W. Cook San Juan Island. Sean Kullman does not live on San Juan Island so that is a misleading attribution. We hope this essay would help introduce our organization to interested Islanders. We plan to meet with thought leaders in the community in the coming months to further introduce outcome-driven proven programs and efforts to reduce such harms as substance abuse, high school and college dropout rates, and many other issues.

We are pleased and grateful to the editor for acting swiftly to make the needed corrections.

Sean Kullman is the president of the Global Initiative for Boys and Men a non-profit 501(c)3 incorporated in Friday Harbor. www.gibm.us Kullman lives in Pleasanton California. Philip W. Cook is the Secretary/Treasurer of the group and lives on San Juan Island.