Sensitivity may be justified after all

I enjoyed Don Savelle’s amusing comments concerning the excessive sensitivity about “insults (Daily Inter Lake, Sept. 9). But I’m wondering whether objections to a football team calling itself the Redskins is really excessive. 

After all, “redskins” is a disparaging term given Native Americans in the 19th century by the likes of Gens. Custer, Miles, and Sherman who sought to subjugate, if not exterminate, them. Might that excessive sensitivity surface in other ethnic groups if, for example, we had professional sports teams with names like the New York Kikes, Philadelphia Dagos, Green Bay Polacks, Chicago Hunkies, and the Atlanta Crackers? —Jim Clarke, West Glacier