The Twitter-sphere was alive and well last night during the Grammys. I don’t normally watch award shows but I felt compelled last night to see what the music world’s reaction to Whitney Houston’s death would be.

Instead, I was treated to a Chris Brown performance within the first hour. Then again in the third.

The hatred then started and didn’t really stop all night. Tweet after tweet about how much people hated Chris Brown…about how a woman beater was performing at the Grammys…about the nerve of the people who actually gave his Q-Bert inspired performance a standing ovation.

I didn’t sit idly by. I was fairly vocal about my disdain for Brown performing at such a prestigious event.

So the question really is: Why can’t we just let it go? Hasn’t Brown already apologized? Hasn’t he completed rehab? Why all the hate? My answer to that is simple:

He’s a douchebag.

The guy’s apology was half-hearted and absolutely appeared to be nothing more than a PR move. He didn’t sound sincere in the slightest and appeared more upset that he had to “keep doing it” when repeatedly asked about it.

If he had only come right out sooner afterwards and said, point blank, I totally fucked up and I’m so very sorry…then publicly donated money to battered women’s charities…then did some public service where he spoke to high schools speaking out against men who abuse women…then, perhaps, this wouldn’t be haunting him around years later and get to the point where he won’t even walk do interviews on the red carpet at the Grammys for fear of “more Rihanna questions”.

But he didn’t. Instead, he threw fits on the set of the Today show and constantly complained about being asked about the incident over and over…openly wishing it would “just go away”.

Why stay mad at the guy?  Here’s one more reason…

A simple brush-off apology for the above abuse isn’t good enough to the general population. It may be good enough to sell a few albums and even win a Grammy last night, but the hatred and the incident will follow him around for the rest of his life…simply because he couldn’t provide a heartfelt apology that the world could hear.

Want to see something that’s just plain SCARY??  Check out these insane reactions to Brown’s performances last night. Seriously…these comments take women’s rights back about 100+ years.

So while Brown sits back and thinks he’s finally made it back to the mainstream, I would rather provide you with some abuse statistics to read through instead.  Y’know…it just seems more important:

• Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten.

• Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Most often, the abuser is a member of her own family.

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

• Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.

• Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a breakup.

• Everyday in the US, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.

• Ninety-two percent of women surveyed listed reducing domestic violence and sexual assault as their top concern.

• Domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the US alone—the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.

• Based on reports from 10 countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been physically abused by their partners had never contacted non-governmental organizations, shelters, or the police for help.

• The costs of intimate partner violence in the US alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.

• Men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.