Editor:

This letter is in response to "A Familial Vote" (Aug. 6). Author Michael Tout states that racing is a "controversial and at best questionable community activity." However, he fails to state specific examples other than "macho power displays" and "noise pollution," of which the noise pollution argument of one or two days a month during the day seems extremely petty.

As far as the "macho power displays," many sports and occupations were male dominated until women became inclined to participate and became enabled to do so. Does Amelia Earhart or Madame Curie ring a bell to you? The fact that he does not like something doesn't make it wrong. He seems to be a very intolerant person even though he claims to come from a family that does not condone "mean-spirited bulling" as a form of "familial conviviality." Has he ever heard of "live and let live?" Some Humboldt settlers didn't like the sound of the native ceremonies and look at what that intolerance led to.

Sports in general are not P.C., yet in this non-politically correct environment millions of people from different races and backgrounds become friends and build trusting relationships because they can interact as real people instead of a "bubble-boy" type façade. I would imagine Tout may have been very sheltered and might have not played many sports. Sports are competitive, passions run high. Sports build lifetime friendships, and most of all character. Racing, in fact, is one of the only sports where men and women can directly compete at the same level at the same time against each other.

I will be taking my daughter to the races. She will be able to see a segment of real people doing what they love. If she wants to, she can race a car of her own.

Jason Cole, Fieldbrook