To the editor:

I reflected upon Alice Lieberman’s use of the word “cowboy” one recent dawn while walking across the white snowscape to cut ice giving my cattle access to water in the frozen morning.

Having been involved in the cattle industry for 50 years, except when in college and the Marines, I was not offended by her quote.

Cowboy, like most words (possibly excepting “is”) has multiple meanings. It has defined a band of Revolutionary War guerrillas, outlaws in the early West, a boy who tends cows, a horseman overseeing numerous cattle … also “one given to display or recklessness.” (Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary)

This last definition probably comes from the violence visited upon Kansas towns during the 1860s-1880s by Texas cowboys. Kansas legislation of the time sought to contain such cowboys (to protect the Kansas beef industry).

From her contest, Ms. Lieberman clearly intended the last definition. “Cowboy” has been so used in everything from scholarly articles to modern films. In “Spy Game,” actor Brad Pitt describes a guerrilla group in Beirut, Lebanon, as “cowboys.”

Whether or not President Bush is a “cowboy” or he merely wants a certain foreign dictator to believe he is, Ms. Lieberman did not demean those upstanding, honest, hardworking Americans producing beef that, on occasion, is what’s for dinner.

John M. Solbach,

Lawrence