vileness

Is hate always a bad thing?

I hate hearing the word fuck (and all its forms) spat out from every passing group in the hallway, and the way that consonnance clings in the air with a foul scorn. I hate other words, too--the remarks between guys about the girl they want to get with. Such a slut, they say, their grins even audible.
I hate the trash left here and there, the food mashed into carpets, the cans haphazard in the grass, that seem to bear the careless delight of snubbing others' service. All this makes me want to lunge at someone and hold them by the collar and throttle them until they understand their offense. I hate that reaction in myself.

I saw an empty 40 oz. bottle of malt liquour in the bathroom, all covered in duct tape where someone's hand had been.
Walking back to my room this evening, in the damp air, I heard a car rev and squeal by through the center of campus. My jaw clenched. "You idiot," I thought. "You're going to hit someone." The car rumbled away, and the song I had been humming was interrupted. And for a few seconds, no matter how I focused, I couldn't find the right note.