Is it ok to speak ill of the dead?

To the editor: Ann Friedman's opinion piece touched home. While I didn't know it at the time, I was a second-wave feminist in 1962 attending Pasadena City College. When I learned I had to participate in the Rose Queen process as part of my physical education class, I adamantly refused. My instructor was stunned; I had to write an essay about sports instead, which I was happy to do. I'd never heard the word feminism at that point, but my goodness, when Phyllis Schlafly started her campaign to keep women at home, I was outraged.