THE EDITOR: As I sit here thinking, I continue to be tormented by my dastardly behaviour to a family of four on Saturday afternoon, shooing off the father from a distance before he could put in a word, forcing him to turn and walk meekly away before he could ask for help. And little feet having to do the same, playing the part of the one to ring the doorbell as is customary in these situations, but having to follow her dad, all part of this deadly game of survival or death, swallowing your pride and this affront to your dignity as a father.

Maybe it was the football match between England and Ukraine on Saturday afternoon and my being interrupted in the middle of it. Or perhaps my annoyance over this invasion of my privacy like with people like myself nestling in the comfort of their living rooms while others are reduced to begging by this pandemic. Or maybe it was the fear of catching covid19 drilled into us by the perennial taunting to that effect. Or simply being tired of the stream of people asking for help throughout the day which has increased ten-fold at this time of this dreaded disease. Or maybe I was just trying to justify to myself this physical distancing that many of us perpetrate against the many who are not so fortunate,

But whatever I may have concocted to rationalise my behaviour, why do I fail to satisfy my conscience over this inhumanity to my fellow man? I think I found the answer in the reaction of the little girl, her little feet tripping after her retreating dad, not fully understanding in her innocence a world that could be so unkind to one like herself. For didn't Maurice Chevalier in Gigi 'thank heaven for little girls' and didn't some speak of little girls as 'sugar and spice and all things nice?'

If she could only ask, 'Is this any different from the news clip of the Israeli soldier in the recent conflict who seemed oblivious to the cries of the little girl appealing for her little brother being taken away to prison, or the tears of the little Canadian native girl begging the Catholic nun to spare her life because she loved being herself, only to be bludgeoned to death and placed in a shallow grave?

I am lucky to have a nine-year-old granddaughter who is 'sugar and spice and all things nice' and I wouldn't want anyone to ill-treat her for any reason in the world and here I was on a Saturday afternoon doing the same.

But this lament just won't do. Maybe this incident is the catalyst to make me see, and hopefully others, that this must never happen again to another family, which brings to mind the three girls and two boys from the Shawn Doul family from La Romaine not being able to write SEA and CXC, and the three children of Dennisa Hosein from Freeport equally deprived and featured in a Sunday newspaper.

As against the pappyshow charity for the cameras we often see, we, as individuals or preferably as part of a community group, must actively seek out such people and try to make their lives better, like all the people who ring your doorbell when you are looking at an exci