The Rev. David Baer is out to save the town of Whitewood's honor from the shame of a street named Hooker.

Baer, a Lutheran pastor in the small northern Hills town, asked the Whitewood city council to rename the street that honors the Civil War general, Joseph Hooker. Baer finds it offensive because of the word's connotation with prostitution.

We heard from many readers who found Baer's sign-change campaign humorous, sad, silly and maybe even a little dirty-minded.

One man, who happens to be named John W. Hooker Jr., thinks it is Baer, not his family name, that's offensive. "I think the Rev. David Baer should just get over it. Everything with the name of 'Hooker' is only wrong in his mind."

Some Civil War buffs claim that Gen. Hooker's last name is, indeed, the origin of the slang term for prostitutes. He had a reputation as a ladies' man throughout his military career, and at least one historian described his Falmouth, Va., headquarters as a combination of a "bar room and a brothel." One popular legend states that a band of prostitutes following his division was called 'Hooker's Brigade' or 'General Hooker's Army.'

But despite Hooker's reputation as a hard-partying, hard-drinking man, there is no historical evidence that the term derives from his last name. The word "hooker" was in widespread use as a euphemism for prostitutes as early as 1845, long before the good general become a public figure. Gen. Hooker can't take credit, nor should he get the blame, for it.

We think Whitewood must be a wonderful place to live, if its biggest civic problem is a street named Hooker. The pastor who wants to change it, however, does give us slight pause about attending church services there.

The street committee of the Whitewood city council is taking public input and will make a recommendation to the full council on Dec. 17. We hope Whitewood chooses to celebrate the history of all the famous Union Army generals that its streets honor.

We say leave Gen. Joseph Hooker in command on Hooker Street.