To the Editor:

I am in total agreement with Sue VonHaugg’s letter to the editor last week regarding use of the word c--- in The Enterprise newspaper. I can understand how you would want to use it and all the other slur words in the online edition without blanking them out, but I disagree with your reasoning for using it in the actual physical newspaper.

To me, “just one example” is one example too many. I am arguing this point from a sense of decency, which seems to be sorely lacking in much of our world today.

Your response seemed to gloss over Sue's comment that “...there are not just adult women but also children, who read this newspaper…”. (Does a mother really want to answer a young child's query: “Mommy, what’s a c---?”.)

I think you can still “accurately convey the insult or what Sarah Gordon has had to endure” by blanking out most of the slur word. It’s not by any means pretending or disguising it didn’t happen.

That’s because people will still get it; people understand why something is blanked out. They can also always go to your online edition for the full text, as you directed them to in your editor’s note.

Kathi Reynolds

Voorheesville

Editor’s note: See related editorial.