Reply #23: I try hard not to hate. Like you, the list is very short--Bush and Reagan, maybe.

[jobycom]

Even them, I hate their deeds more than them. I hate Reagan, more than I hate Bush. I despise Bush for what he's done, and I found absolutely nothng redeemable in him. But it's not hate--I can still feel pity for him. Reagan, I just absolutely hate with a deep passion I'm not even sure I understand. Sure, as a well-meaning teenager I felt that every one of his speeches targeted me and the virtues I was most proud of, and told me that I--liberal, anti-war, non-hater, non-racist--was the problem with America. I still hate him. I don't even feel bad about hating him. I've had people hurt me personally, deliberately, in the worst ways possible, and I don't hate them. But I hate Reagan.

But the hatred on this board is overwhelming. At Bush, at Pelosi, at Clinton, at Democrats, at Barry Bonds, at Tom Cruise or Britney Spears or whatever singer/actor/painter/writer they feel is overrated. At the fans of entertainers they hate. Some people seem all about hate, as though it makes them better than the people they hate, as though they need that boost in their own self-image.

It's stifling. I get tired of that. I get tired of people who play word games and pretend they aren't hating, when they are, and who try to justify their petty hatred by arguing that the person or people or group they hate deserve it. That denial sickens me as much as the hate. And it makes me ashamed of myself, for that one hatred I can't shake.

So I guess, yeah, I get tired of hating. I get tired of being angry. Hatred is bad, every time. It weakens the hater, and undermines the message. It makes an honest motivation into an impure emotion. It destroys reason. It destroys love. It destroys everything I as a liberal believe should be paramount. It cheapens everything I claim to believe. So yes, I get tired of feeling it, and I'm sickened when I can't defeat it. Not that I feel I have to love Reagan or Bush to be a better person. Just that I need to stop hating. Period. Hatred is an evil force, regardless of who is hated.