It’s Offensive to Call Harley Bikers Horrid

* The article “How Weird Is My Valley” by John Glionna (Valley Life, June 25) contains the highly offensive expression “horrid-looking Harley types.”

Is this narrow-minded, judgmental excuse for a writer aware of how much money Harley-Davidson and those who ride Harleys have raised for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. over the years? I don’t see yuppies in their BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes doing annual toy runs for poor children the way bikers do.

Of course, the fact that bikers are good people doesn’t address his assault on their appearance. But who’s to say what’s horrid? I wonder if the writer in question would use such a loaded word to describe the look of a group of African-Americans, Asian-Americans or American Indians.

For my money, the idea of daily scraping my face with a sharp metal fragment and wearing business clone outfits qualifies as horrid. Your writer needs to grow up a bit and learn a little appreciation for people unlike himself.

GEORGE D. MADISON

Glendale