What on earth was the Sun Journal thinking to publish, in depth, the topless cafe story (Feb. 25)? The story could have been simply the facts, period, but, instead, the paper chose to make women prancing half-naked in public look acceptable, wholesome and respectable.

Am I a prissy prude? No. I am a realist as to what is base, degrading, shameless and in poor taste. Look around at how society has steadily degraded itself. Our dear children are pushed into fashions that should make their parents blush. “But it’s the fashion,” they say.

I counseled one young woman who was having problems with men. When I suggested that if she clothed herself more modestly, perhaps she would have less trouble, she said, “But I’m told I have a cute figure and I want to show it off.”

Those kinds of news articles add to the problems.

I am also thinking of a co-worker who objected to a catalog being used for fundraising in a school. He was dismayed at the content in the hands of children. He shared that he was fighting pornography, and the pictures set him back. His conclusion, “If I am hurt by this, aren’t others?”

The editors have a responsibility to society to not pander to baseness. Report the news? Of course. Contribute to the trashing of society as that story did … no.

The paper gave free advertising toward still another slip into society’s slime. For shame.

Phyliss B. Jamison, Canton