To the editor:

Are you a parent or a grandparent? Maybe an aunt or uncle? Are you a friend? A teacher? Are you a member of a faith community?

Listen to the rhetoric: The words, the names, the combative expressions. What would you say to another person in your faith community, your student, your friend, your niece or nephew, if you heard them saying the same things that way?

What would you say to your child or grandchild if you heard them saying those things that way?

Or, maybe I should ask, if you said those things out loud, that way, what would your parent or grandparent say — or, if they are no longer around for you … what would they have said to you?

Katharine Preston

Essex