These are the Haters in my Neighbourhood

Well, we have some new neighbours on the block, and I am none too pleased. Understand, I live in an inner city community. I am used to having pimps, dealers, gang bangers and junkies for neighbours, but this bunch- they make my blood boil.

You see, skin-heads have moved in.

I first saw them a few weeks ago. While my guts told me that they were neo-Nazis, I convinced myself that they just didn't have good sense to know better about their hair cuts and clothes and what they represented. However, it soon became clear that my instincts had been correct.

I decided to follow them as they walked by one afternoon, under the auspices of walking the dog. It turned out that they lived only a few houses down. In their window hung a large Dixie flag, and on their mail box was a sticker that said, "My boss is an Austrian painter". They were having a small bonfire in their front yard with white supremacist music blaring from a stereo.

Almost as disturbing as their presence in my community is the emotions it has stirred inside me. For the first time, I have experienced (short lived) hate. Not anger or rage, but raw, hot hatred. You might think that those feelings are acceptable, given what they stand for, but it is not that easy. Can you really be justified to hate a hater?

But what is the alternative? Elie Wiesel once said, "The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference". So, I can't just complain, and while I cannot excuse or ignore their behavious (as something needs to be done), can I do it without being guided by my anger for them?

I am left, therefore, with a deep sense of obligation- an obligation not only protect the neighbourhood from their evil, but to try to save the skin heads from it. It terrifies me, but not as much as the fear of compromising, whether it be to hate or to indifference.

I'll let you know what happens.