Marcelle du Plessis, Sea Point
A lovely park morning unfortunately gets completely disrupted by unnecessary human intolerance.
A homeless man, peacefully sleeping under the park tree in the far corner of the park, is bothering nobody. A few dogs and owners are relaxing in the park throwing balls for the dogs and having a lovely morning, when a lady arrives and immediately rings up her husband. Within two minutes, her husband arrives with an enormous stick (like a baseball bat) in his hands. Barging towards the homeless man (who is still peaceful and not bothering anyone), he starts screaming at him, threatening him and telling him to get out of the park. This intimidation carries on and becomes more and more aggressive.
This man forcefully picks up all this homeless man’s possessions and puts them outside the park screaming at him to get out, as the park is for children and dogs.
This carries on for at least 10 minutes. Now aggression is flying.
The attacker walks away and leaves his wife with other park goers needing to deal with a very upset and understandably aggressive homeless man. The wife is still defending her husband’s actions.
I am extremely saddened at the lack of kindness and intolerance shown by this couple. I understand that it is uncomfortable to be around homeless people and that it can instil fear, I have had my own experiences with some homeless people too, but attacking someone who is being completely harmless, minding his own business is uncalled for.
Unfortunately, incidents like this one fuel racial ideas and opinions, something our country really needs less of.
Apart from this, can we not simply respect other human beings and other creatures around us? There is always a respectful way to handle a situation.
If we could all make an effort to leave every situation in a better state, our community and our world would change bit by bit.
I urge Sea Point residents to become model citizens and to show some kindness and tolerance. I know many of them do and I encourage every one of us in the community to show a bit more love.
