Hey, guess what? I'm anti-hatred!

Researchers have discovered a hate circuit in the brain. Good.

Now, I've been struck lately by how often people are hateful--it's not just that the word is overused ("I hate ice cream!"), but people really hate each other. They hate co-workers, politicians, and products deeply and violently. I hear it on the radio, in my own office, and at home.
I have never associated any of my negative feelings towards a person as hatred. I can say truthfully that I've never hated anyone, not even a public figure. I'm beginning to think that I've given the emotion too much credit--I imagine it to be a pure, intense aggression, something that you instinctively know to be hatred. But considering the phenomenon of hate mail, for instance, I guess it's much more arbitrary. Hatred just seeps from the stuff. It's relentless and it's common. It is grinding me into the ground. I guess the entire population except for me has a vibrating, pent-up vitriol that they are just waiting to unleash on strange journalists--strange in that they are strangers. It's crazy!

I finally had to submerge myself into the filthy little pool that is "reader's comments"--oops! I think there's a little hatred in that sentence--and stand up for Heather Mallick, who has been viciously attacked by both Canadians and Americans since her controversial Palin article. Well, actually, she's always been viciously attacked--is it plain sexism? Hatred for the fun of it?

Here is her response to the controversy and here is my comment, at the bottom of the article.

And Bryn, do you still have a job? Last I heard, you were kicked out of the restaurant that you work in.