By Charlotte K. Jarmy

Reflections

How can hate exist in a world where my beautiful hummingbirds frolic around our feeder? The irony is that the birds were not frolicking but fighting to defend their right to have exclusive sipping privileges. I waved them away as I avoided their dips and dives and heard the wild whirring of their wings. One out of 10 may have gained the feeder in time to drink. But it was easy to see that he was on the alert for the attack he probably knew was coming.

Later on, a fluffy little bunny invaded our yard and proceeded to take possession of everything that was green. He thought he had entered bunny heaven: yum, yum, see all the fresh vegetables. My amused tolerance stopped when the aggressive intruder started nibbling on my purple petunia that I had worked so hard to plant. “Scat,” I shouted. It was the wrong word, but what do I know about bunny language? He looked at me as if to say, “Don’t bother me, I’m eating.” What nerve! I didn’t invite him to enter my yard.

Howard, who will protect his veggies from an army of hungry bears, threw a rock at the bunny. “Don’t hurt him,” I shouted. “I didn’t even reach him,” he said. Our neighbors chased the little “immigrant;” he didn’t belong. He was different. … Do you get my drift?

When we drive along El Camino, I glance at the groups of men just waiting there. Someplace deep inside of me, I feel uncomfortable. They need help, but they keep coming in greater numbers. What can we do to help? Can we speak their language?

I hope you realize that what I’ve written so far is like a satire to cover a deep worry that started with the undisguised hatred that erupted in Durban, South Africa, at the UN conference on race. The need to villify and distort came out in such angry language that one wonders how anything could be accomplished. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” I wanted to say, “You’re here to agree on terms of compromise and reconciliation. Do we really need more hate anywhere in the world?” How could the conference hope to have meaning in the light of such destructive rage?

If it’s necessary to say, “We’re sorry,” do so. If we need to apologize for our vice in the far past and in the more recent past, let’s do so. Let’s admit to our racial errors and move on to reasonable and humane actions to correct our problems in the present. Today, I watched little Irish Catholic children being threatened and shouted at as they walked through a street where the people had a different religion. They only wanted to get to their school. I remembered similar scenes in our country when little black children also had to be led by the army to protect them from the hatred of others.

This kind of hate is sick and sadly endemic in all parts of the globe. Tiny hummingbirds and a cute bunny don’t deserve to be shouted at or chased. But they are only symbols of a far more serious problem.

Those who hate others who are different carry a cancer in their souls.

Jarmy’s column is published the third week of the month. Send comments and suggestions to her c/o editor Bruce Barton at bruceb@latc.com.