I bet that got your attention! When I am stupid enough to watch the pundits on TV or listen to talk radio I am always amused and at times sickened by the venom spewed out across the airwaves. The funniest one I ever heard was some time ago when a person on TV started talking about how much they despised people that are judgmental. Ironic huh? A couple weeks back though I asked myself the question, Is There Room for Hate? Are there times when non violent non destructive hate is warranted? Are there times when the temporary expression of hate somehow heals? I am not talking about hate toward a group of people or carried out in some criminal or destructive way. I am talking about the hate we feel when someone innocent is hurt at the hands of the brutal. Before your moral compass jumps to any conclusions and you fire off an email let me share a story. Somer Thompson was a 7 year old girl that lived about 40 miles from me. She was kidnapped and brutally killed and found in a landfill a week or so later. I am sure you heard about it on the news. As the word spread of her tragic death I watched Facebook, Twitter, My Space etc., explode with detailed descriptions of hate and what they believed the killer deserved. I read blogs, postings and commentary on the animal that did this to an innocent little girl on her way home from school, “we would put down an animal for less was one Mothers cry. I listened and watched as Somers Mom, whose pain is unimaginable, looked into the news camera and speak to the killer, “we are coming for you,” she said! I will not share may personal opinion here about the answer to the question but I would challenge you to ask yourself that question. Is there room for hate? Assuming of course that noone is injured, killed etc and that no laws are broken is there room to temporarily suspend all the love your neighbor morality and just allow yourself to purge the poison of injustice and pain in the form of hate or rage? Radiation and chemo therapy are poison but in the right doses aimed at the right cancer they often heal. I have observed the damaging effects of long held anger and rage in my practice…that is bitterness and is not what I am talking about, in small doses does rage and hate directed and purged appropriately help? Just wondering.