In an article in Saturday, Oct. 13 News-Times, reporter Nathan Whalen wrote, “Their ride didn’t quite get pimped . . .”

He was borrowing from the lyrics of a rap song. Aren’t we trying to teach our children that a pimp is a bad thing? A pimp is a man who sells women for sex. There is no way to clean that word up. It is what it is. Aren’t we trying to teach our children to respect and protect themselves. With language like that in the community newspaper, our job gets harder.

And while I’m at it, would adults please stop referring to teenagers as men and women. They are adolescents. They are still children who are dependent on adults to protect them. They have enough on their plates learning how to be responsible adults when their time comes. But it hasn’t come yet. Let them be children.

A while ago a 12-year-old girl (not yet a teenager) was referred to in a newspaper article as a young woman. She is not a woman. If she was, her abuser would not have been sent to prison for molesting a child.

To refer to these children as men and women gives them the idea that is what they are and gives them the license to do what they shouldn’t do. They may want to have sex, they may want to drink alcohol, and they may not know why they shouldn’t. We adults do know why. Please let children be children and refer to them as boys and girls. When they graduate from high school is the time to start referring to them as men and women, not before.

Janette North

Oak Harbor