Regarding the May 14 letter, "Someone is always offended": The hyperbolic response that was seemingly manufactured at a cognitive fallacy factory and sent down a slippery slope and into your inbox deserves perspective missing in the writer's analysis.

The Franklin Quakers name has been an issue with members of the Quaker religion for decades; it wasn't manufactured this past year. As a Franklin graduate, I can remember hearing about how Quakers sent letters and made phone calls annually to change the name. After decades of asking and being laughed off, they made some demands in 2015.

The school board has two options: Ignore the people who are having their religion commandeered by a state and local-sponsored entity in the name of "tradition," or respect the wishes of the group being represented by the high school. Looking at the mascots at some of the other high schools: Jefferson was a Democrat, while Franklin was not even a Quaker. Cardinals are a bird. Generals, Warriors and Rough Riders are similar to sports teams as a collective group fighting toward a common goal. Trojans are a fallen civilization that no one could claim to be a part of anymore. Comparing these to the mockery of Quakerism being a colonial-time caricature is willfully ignorant.

Don't be like Coachella Valley High School, which refused to change their mascot from "Arabs" to something else (instead opting to go the racist-light route with a redesigned Arab mascot); Portland's Cleveland Warriors were "Indians," until 1989. In 1992, The Oregonian committed to not printing cultural sports mascots' names. Portland's "tradition" is righting this wrong.

-- Shon Fitzpatrick, Southeast Portland