Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com.

Dear Prudence,

The twit who inquired about dissing the offspring of the discarded relatives needs perhaps something more along the lines of a swift kick in the rear. If these are older children, as is suggested by requests for letters of recommendation and invites to graduations, then these are more or less formed people, who deserve to be accepted or rejected on their own merits--not for any slight their parents may or may not have committed. Anything less is the moral equivalent of present-day Jews not buying a new VW Beetle because it's made by a German company, a sort of inherited grudge, if not racism.

In England, they think people are important, or not, based on their birth. This is America, and we hold that people deserve to be admired or respected because they have earned respect or admiration.

--Yours,

Mike C., Brunswick, Maine

Dear Mike,

Though Prudie doubts the estranged relative will be swayed by your opinion, Prudie agrees with you and hopes that your thoughts might make a difference in someone else's thinking.

--Prudie, agreeably

Dear Prudie,