To the editor,

If somehow they could make a movie of my early life, I would edit out a few things. I hope that if something surfaces that would put me in an unnecessarily bad light after my death, and which might be hurtful to others, my family will do their best to remedy it.

I’m thinking in particular of a rhyme we used to use when choosing who would be It or go first or get the last candy. My siblings and I chanted it unthinkingly: Eeeny, meeny … No one I respected ever used the word that is so offensive in that rhyme. We just said it because that’s how we learned it from other kids, who learned it from other kids.

It shames me now, and I’d beg my kids to chop that part out of any record of my early life.

That’s what Dr. Suess’s family is doing in ceasing to publish six of his books. He did a lot of good in his life and they want that to last, without the stuff he’d cringe about now and which might cause confusion or pain to some child. They’re honoring his memory by doing this. I hope my family would do the same.

Maureen Ash

River Falls