Words and their meanings

Hate (Verb used with object): to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward.

I used the word hate in an e-mail to a friend about - of all things - the College Football National Championship Game. I said I "hated" the two teams playing because they've both come under decades of scrutiny about their social and academic ethics vs. their sports goals. In any case, argument was rendered stupid because I used an inappropriate term. The return e-mail led off with the sentence "Hate"?

It was a few days before I thought about it, then came to the obvious realization that "hate" is a word we should really curtail in this country. If someone says they hate the President or hate Senator Clinton for example, perhaps they should reconsider. It's perfectly acceptable to hate soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, but to hate the leaders that sent them there takes you into a totally different reality and dimension. In fact, it could easily be argued that hating a human being who has never really done anything to merit hate, put's the user of the word in a category to be hated themselves. I personally don't like Senator Clinton or the President, but by no means do I hate them, their political positions, or their policies.

I hate people who commit rape, murder, and crimes even more atrocious - if such a thing exists - and I believe it does. I don't like the Rev Al Sharpton; but I don't hate him either. I don't like raging feminists or chauvinists, but I don't hate them. I disagree with - and at times I'm angered by - attorney's and judges - but hate never enters the equation. At least...it shouldn't.

From here on out, I'm going to try and be selective in the verbiage that dominates both conversation and my lousy writing. I can disagree with, dislike, abhor, condemn, despise, detest, deplore, eschew, resent, scorn, and admonish without changing who I am.

But I will save "Hate" for those individuals and situations most deserving.