“All men are scum so it’s our duty to hate them” was the logic of Karen Wesgal’s letter (The Mail, 11/8) responding to “Bitch Hunt” (10/25). She told how she has been burned a few times and seen other women get burned a few times. Now she has decided all men are evil. Yet I’m sure she could find as many examples of women being callous and cruel to men as men to women, if she spent a little time at it. The style may differ, but the unkindness is the same.

Welcome the real world, Karen. People often aren’t very nice to each other. And there are plenty of people who are socially inept. But no one has a monopoly on clumsiness or heartlessness, not men, not blacks, not Jews, not any group. I think men have plenty of reasons to hate women, but I will not voice the misogynist thoughts that sometimes dance through my mind. Generalized hatred is ugly.

It would be wonderful if people were polite and tried to look for what is good in each other instead of seeking out the bad, both in the D.C. dating scene and wonderful places of compassion such as Bosnia and Rwanda.

Wonderful, but unlikely. Too many of us prefer to spread hatred and suspicion rather than understanding and compassion.

Cathedral Heights

via the Internet