I wanted in the worst way to lash back at the cads who, from their car, “yelled a derogatory word for blacks” at the family enjoying a balmy afternoon in the Old Port (“Ugly incident in Old Port leads to burst of online debate about race in Maine,” April 6).

Those ignorant young people come from a miserable environment with social attitudes that would best be deleted from society. It’s so unfortunate that too often, valuable and life-enriching learning at school is undone in the home.

A more eloquent writer than I, Charlotte Bronte, put it this way in her novel “Jane Eyre”: “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”

Two ironies in this story.

One, that this insult was visited upon Shay Stewart-Bouley’s family. Mrs. Stewart-Bouley is a professional in the Biddeford and Saco community, and her focus is peace.

Among other things, Mrs. Stewart-Bouley created and for years directed a program in Biddeford called Joyful Harvest, a warm and welcoming place where latchkey children could go after school and where their parents picked them up after work.

Staffed by volunteers, Joyful Harvest provided safety, snacks, companionship, help with homework and a myriad of interesting, age-appropriate activities. Thank you, Shay Stewart-Bouley.

The other irony is that this incident happened on Good Friday – a day of remembrance for another Peacemaker.

Bonnie Tallagnon

Biddeford