Hawk With No Choice

Upon closer inspection, the hawk was not just standing in the yard.  Hawks don't do that.  As the car moved closer, its enormous wings spread apart and the beautiful animal took flight; in its talons, a freshly killed and partially eaten squirrel.  The hawk had no choice in the matter of whether or not to kill the squirrel.  Its body needed food, its eyes searched the ground below for small animals, and the squirrel became fuel for the extension of the bird's living existence.
Animals, whether wild or domesticated, behave in expected ways in given circumstances.  They have no free will and must respond to certain situations in predefined patterns.  We don't always know what those responses will be, since we don't always have all of the facts about an animal's present state, but animals do not "plan" or "decide" how their existences should proceed, or what impacts their actions will have on others.  Their animal instincts take over and direct their actions.
Many people also refuse or otherwise fail to consider how their decisions will affect the lives of other people and proceed accordingly, based solely on their individual wants and needs.  When this takes place, the person in question is reducing itself to the state of the animals, rather than realizing its full potential as a human being created in the image of God.
People every day, all over the world, make difficult choices and engage in unpleasant activities for the sake of others, whether those others are specific individuals or just society in general.  These people bring themselves closer to God, Jesus, Allah, or their own inner peace with their actions, and they drive themselves further away from that higher power when they choose to pursue selfish objectives at the known expense of others.
One of the "new" things that Jesus brought to the world was to love instead of hate one's enemy, for it is easy to hate one's enemy; does not even the common godless criminal or brute love his neighbor and hate his enemy?  I will try to pray for and love the enemies of God and man, the ones who knowingly and remorselessly hurt others in pursuit of their own ends, hopeful that they will change for the better, with the strong faith that as long as we trust in God and do the right things for the right reasons, everything will be just as it is intended to be.