With regret, I saw that The N&O, the tocsin, stooped to using "illegal aliens" in its May 14 edition. Would you please substitute "undocumented workers" and deal with the necessary additional space in some creative way?

Why brand a group in such a hateful, uncaring way as to call them "illegal"?

When I left the sheltered world of children's Sunday School and began the adult venture into good moral behavior, church members used to contemplate this dilemma: You, the father, were out of work, and your family was hungry, perhaps starving. Would you steal to feed your family? I always understood that the answer was yes. A good provider would do anything necessary to care for his loved ones.

We now have many people in this country who would have preferred to stay at home. There is no work there, i.e., no food and no opportunities. They met the need to work in our fields and build our houses and provide us with a rich ethnic supply of tiendas, tacquerias and tortillerias to warm our hearts and bellies. God bless them every one.

The word is "undocumented." Please don't stoop to the meanspirited nature of shortsighted people.

Jane Hamner

Raleigh