Dear Congressman Cramer:

This letter is in response to your phone call and statements in the Grand Forks Herald this week.

The women professionals who work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault had high expectations for our meeting with you. We wanted to discuss the needs of our communities and how our programs that serve North Dakotans with a focus on ending violence against women could be improved with your help.

It has been three days since we met, and I am still stunned and outraged by what we experienced. I have always believed that the job of an elected official is to listen to the concerns of constituents, treat them with basic respect, and help try to solve problems. Instead, we were treated rudely and disrespectfully, like an arrogant bully who was disgusted with the people he had to interact with and who had no understanding or interest in protecting women from violence.

I read in the paper that you want to apologize for the “tone” and “style” of your comments. This is very disappointing to me and to my colleagues that fight to protect women from violence in our community. You should be sorry for your words and take responsibility for them.