HATERS - noun - people that make up reasons to hate certain people just because they aren't as wealthy or successful as them. (UrbanDictionary.com)

I remember the frirst time I started hearing that word. It came from the hip hop movement of the 80s. It was basically describing a lot of the ill will and jealousies that many of the successful rappers felt back in their respective communities. Many of these rappers are from poor places that have the same socio-economic struggles and statistics that we have here in the SouthCoast. Because they had risen out and above the struggles of their community and had become successful and wealthy, they became a target for many of the people they live with. Because they are proud and most of them care about their community and have a long history of giving back, this jealousy and pettiness bothered them considerably. Now, the word "hater" has crossed all kinds of borders like many other trends associated with hip hop (ethnic, race, music, money, etc.)

The word is so commonly used now that it wouldn't phase me if I heard it from an eight-year-old or an 80-year-old. And for good reason - there are a hellofa lot of haters out there. They're insidious. They're everywhere - in every crack of the Internet, every social place, every dark cellar, every board room. Like the Urban Dictionary says, they hate because they are jealous, and they're not satisfied with their menial lives. So anybody who achieves success, makes money, distinguishes themselves, thinks out of the box, and tries to be creative, instantly becomes the target of these lowlives. These people who achieve find themselves under constant attack from the haters - whether it's on Internet message boards, in mindless social gossip, at the gym, at work, wherever. They're constantly hammering away and destroying from the core the success that they desperately envy.

Nowhere around here does that take place more than on the Internet boards of our local newspaper, The Herald News. It's funny - one of the favorite topics of this paper is to examine some of the worst neighborhoods and the dangerous effects of absentee landlords in the SouthCoast. Ironically, I feel the worst, most hateful neighborhood is the one that the Herald News is the landlord of - their own readers comments section - and they are most definitely absent.

Day after day, story after story, their own rules of no personal attacks, keeping the language civil, etc. are violated. Day after day, the filth and the slander is omnipresent. Whether it's me, a local politician, or a noted businessman, no person  is righteous enough to be untouched, no cause is just enough to be safe. Everything and everybody is under constant personal attack. The results of this behavior aren't good - they are winning. The nasty, miserable, slanderous sonofabitches are winning.

But they are not winning with me.

This is something unfortunately I've grown up with. From getting booed at CYO games when I was eight, to where I am now, I am one of their favorite targets. Most people who know me know this: in some twisted chaotic way, it motivates me to do better. Without question, I have heard and talked to many good people who are reluctant to get involved in their community, are hestiant to get involved in politics, do something daring with their business, or get more entrepreneurial, because in this culture of hatred they will become the topic of the day for many of the hatlers. Their families and their friends will all be exposed to the nastiness and the filth.

To some people who are already successful, that is too big a price to pay. The next time the Herald does a story of a bad neighborhood or an absentee landlord, tell them to look in the mirror and clean up the property that they control, as well, because they are responsible for the worst neighborhood in Fall River, and they are the absentee landlord.