By Michael Ford, Alexandria (File photo)

To the editor:
About two weeks ago, I was in one of the small businesses on King Street. A man was at the counter and the business had those election- themed buys, an item in blue and an item in red.

As the promotion goes,the purchase of one or the other is intended to denote which way you intend to vote. The man commented on them and the clerk threatened him if he bought the red item.

Now, it was said in an “I’m kidding” sort of way, but the look in her eye seemed serious. I got so embarrassed that I left the store. It’s time to stop this sort of attitude where it’s acceptable to talk about assaulting someone because they have different views.

This is nothing short of bigotry — intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself, if you need a definition — a very unattractive thing to witness and have in our city.

If you’re a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or other, it’s important to have a dialogue with others about the election, I suppose, but it needs to be done without resorting to brutality, spoken or otherwise. This is America and Alexandria, the hometown of George Washington, and to behave like a narrow-minded bigot who feels they can threaten others — jokingly or otherwise — because they have a different opinion, is not what we are supposed to be about.

Stop this insanity and drop this nasty, barbaric attitude. Minds are like parachutes: they only work when open.