I was shocked, appalled and more than a little disturbed by Lynn Spence’s Point of View in the March 9 edition of the Homer News. I have long known that there is an insidious undercurrent of malice and ill will hiding deep beneath Homer’s beautiful and friendly face, but every time it breaks to the surface and shows its ugly face I am shocked and dismayed.

I have known Lynn and her family for decades now and consider them all sterling examples of all the values Homer seems to espouse. I can’t imagine anyone less deserving of the despicable abuse she has been subjected to on occasion. But then, nobody deserves that kind of verbal slap. And that her daughter was subjected to the same kind of abuse in school is unconscionable. Who are these people who feel it’s their right to spew their venom on anyone, let alone those who least deserve it?

Who are they? They’re bullies and cowards, who always aim their vitriol at the meek and the mild, at people who can’t or won’t fight back. You can find them anywhere, from the lowest to the highest grade levels in school, in business, politics, societies and on the Internet. It would be naive to believe we wouldn’t find it in Homer. Even the Garden of Eden had a snake.

But I do not believe they speak for the majority of people who live in Homer and the surrounding area. I choose to believe that Homer is full of good, friendly, kind and generous people. That has been my experience for 40 years now and that makes me proud to count myself a “Homerite.” You poor people who live in the dark, holding close to yourselves the bitterness, your anger against humanity, your vile bigotry, should try coming out into the light and taking a good look at the beauty and goodness around you — perhaps even emulating it. It’s much better up here, I assure you.