It is a lovely sunny morning and I am nearly home following my early morning walk. A little girl on her bicycle comes towards me riding on the footpath. As she approaches she pauses and says: 'please could I ask you something?” 'Of course,” I reply.

'What church do you go to?”

'Oh,” I respond, 'I don't go to any.” I pause slightly. 'Some people do, some people don't.”

She too pauses a little and then: 'I go to church in Otumoetai.”

'I used to go,” I tell her, 'when I was little.”

We smile at each other and resume our separate ways. So why was this a big deal? She was but another human being in our world who was a little bit curious and wanted to know things. She was also brown. I wondered for how long will she remain open and curious, willing to stop an elderly pakeha woman and ask a question?

When will she realise that this lovely city of ours is home to people who would deny her humanity and label her in ways that is bigoted, uninformed, and plain nasty? I am unable to understand the fervour and sense of righteousness that many of the recent letter writers to The Sun exhibit. They have lost their humanity.

S Quaddel, Tauranga.