My son is 5. He talks incessantly, is not at all interested in sports, and loves, loves, loves Batman. He sings to commercials, to the song on the radio, to tell us what he wants to eat: "MozarELLA Stiiiiccckkkssss!"

He is also the biological child of "Illegal criminal alien invaders," according to an e-mailed letter to the editor that came in this morning (the letter was not directed at my son).

"These Illegal Criminal Alien Invaders - particularly the Hispanics - have NO DESIRE to be a part of us. Their plan is to get enough Hispanics in an area and overtly or ostensibly claim that area as Mexico."  

Spense knows he's different. He's been aware longer than I thought possible. He was in the bath one night when he was, I think, 3, and I mentioned this new person we were going to meet the next day. "Is she brown like me?" he asked.

My husband and I have never hidden Spenser's background. We chose to have everything out in the open from the start, so there's no single revelatory moment; his background is his background and let's get on with it.

We know little about Spenser's birth parents - they wanted it that way. She was young and he was a bit older. They were migrant workers who found employment in the Brockport area. Thus, we picked Spenser up from Lakeside Memorial when he was 2 days old.

FROM THE LETTER: "It's about the good ole USA being the good ole USA when we are rotting and decayed in the ground and our grandchildren being able to recognize the good ole USA as their home."

He's not an "anchor baby" - his birth mother went back to Mexico after she had him. He's not part of a plot to dilute America - whatever fictional and convenient idea of America that the letter writer and others like him or her have.

FROM THE LETTER: "The invaders found that a bunch of punchos (sic) waving Mexican flags and insulting American tolerance is not nearly enough to crack the back of this sweet land of liberty."

Spenser's a little boy who will be taught that, as crazy as it sounds, there are people who'll hate him because of his skin color - and the mess of erroneous assumptions that come with it.

Actually, maybe I should thank the letter writer. Hatred is usually much more sly and insidious. Hate and ignorance like this are easy to identify - and reject.