To the editor:

Let me say first of all how much I enjoy reading the Alexandria Times and eagerly await its arrival each Thursday in my front yard.

I must take issue, however, with your “Thumbs Up” in the January 3 edition of the Times in reference to the Dallas Cowboys. Specifically, Publisher Denise Dunbar referred to the Cowboys as the “hated Dallas Cowboys.”

I am no fan of the Cowboys or any of the teams that serve as rivals to my beloved Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots (I am a native New Englander). But to use the word “hated,” even in a humorous fashion, is taking things a bit too far — particularly in today’s climate when we all need to be extra sensitive to thoughts and feelings that could incite unnecessary grudges.

I know I am reading more into this than you intended, but I get unnerved when I see respectable newspapers fall prey to this type of unnecessary language.
– Stephanie Cabell
Alexandria