Editor,

Emerging from a Whidbey bay, something omitted from the “Jurassic Park” movies as too scary growls to me, “Hello, human.” My terrified body wants to toss out things I can’t mention here. “Don’t worry, I’m Grx, an anthropologist from another star system. I won’t eat you; your flesh makes me puke.”

It continues, “I just finished the 11-18 issue of your newspaper. What’s this story about a murder of a 17-year-old student in Oak Harbor? Aren’t you all inhabitants of an island of peaceful farmers and fishermen and counterculture people with white hair? I guess your young humans take a while for their brains to mature. Our species has similar problems, as we evolved on such a ferocious world, so our young tend to eat each other. For our species, supervised cannibalism solves a lot of problems involving school lunches for the poorer students in our society.”

Grx asks me, “How do you handle youth problem on your island?”

“Nothing magic,” I admit. “I volunteer for Ryan’s House. I once taught for one of the most dangerous high schools in Seattle, Rainier Beach, so I kind of like being around flaky and slightly scary young people. The people who run Ryan’s House provide some shelter, temporary foster homes, food, clothes and kindly attention. I don’t speak for them because they are devout Christians while I am a fanatical atheist. On everyday practical matters, they seem intelligent and sensible, and they tolerate my peculiar beliefs.”

“Ah, yes, religious belief, a very eccentric custom on your planet. We dropped our superstitions a billion or so years ago, but as long as people don’t kill each other in the name of imaginary entities, why not invent deities and worship them and imagine we live forever even after our physical body decays?”

I finish: “Please tell your star ship to drop off a donation before you head out.”

I am lying. There is no Grx from another planet. In my opinion, prayers are totally useless. I don’t speak for Ryan’s House. I am probably irritating the staff. If you talk to them, they will tell you how you can help in tangible ways. In my opinion (not expert), they are competent and sensible. Your contribution may help prevent a tragedy. You never know.

STEPHEN KAHN

Langley