Anger is my sin. I'm much better at it than I'd like to be. I've been trying to live without it or at least not live for it, but this morning I find myself paraphrasing Conan (the Barbarian, not the annoying nerdy TV guy) and saying "Today is a good day to be angry".
I avoided the news yesterday. 9/11 is still full of memories and emotions for me and I didn't want to sit through the CNN reconstruction.
I thought I'd be safer today, so I cruised BBC news online.
There I read that President Bush claims that "The War Against Terror” is:
"The decisive ideological struggle of the 21st Century and the calling of our generation,"
"It is a struggle for civilization. We are fighting to maintain a way of life enjoyed by free nations."
Anger. Disbelief. More Anger.
I sat quietly and let it ebb.
I tried to remind myself that this is just another politician working to help his party win elections in November
I tried to find humour in the idea of President Bush using a word like civilization (echoes of a Vietnam war poem "we're gonna civ'lize dem basards")
I tried to believe that there is good in the heart of every man.
BULL-FUCKING-SHIT
The word split my head like a pumpkin hitting the concrete.
Anger that this man let those people die on his watch and then made a career out of exploiting their deaths for personal political gain
Anger at the cowardice of using humanistic hyperbole to deflect attention from his complete failure to protect his people, heel his nation, rip up the roots of aggression or even exact revenge on the aggressor
Anger at the arrogance of a man who sends others to die and to kill to finish his daddy's war and wraps his motives in the flag to place himself beyond reproach.
Anger most of all on behalf of all those who died on the day, all those who have been killed in their name, and all those who have died for the ambition of their leaders.
Anger
Pointless, useless, impotent anger.
This man WON his second election without any hanging chads.
He knows his people.
He may even mean what he says.
I should not be angry. I should be doing something.
Anger is easier than action.
But anger has a price. Long held and nurtured, anger grows into hate and hate diminishes us all.
4 comments:
Anger can turn into hate, but it doesn't have to. I live in the US and have never been a supporter of our current president, nor are most of my friends. Not a week has gone by in the past few years that I have not heard a negative comment about him, sometimes a very hateful one. If I listened to certain radio talk show hosts I could hear the hatred every day.
To my surprise I find that feeling of hatred frightening and repulsive. Hatred is dangerous. I may be angry with the president, but I don't hate him. I do pity him, however, because he cannot possibly be a happy person. Those who are tend to engender happiness in others, and that is one accomplishment he'll never be able to claim.
Hi Anonymous,
some on told me that anger allows the possibility of hope; hate blocks out hope.
I think you are right to be repelled and frightened by it.
Unfortunately, Bush has done much to earn hatred around the world.
I can't really stretch to pity. I'm not that involved in who he is, just what he does.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
You know what angers me? ...the thought that the very people who are supposed to read your blog are the very people who don't. They are experts at evasion and denial. When I was a born-again Christian we called it protecting ourselves from the evils of the world. Why am I not a christian anymore? Because it is these people who voted for Bush and supported everything that is causing your anger now. And yet it is these who claim that their eyes have been opened.
Hello again. I like the idea that anger allows many possibilities. It's what I've been trying to teach my children for years. Anger is OK, and they should not be afraid of it. What they do with it is their choice. Personal responsibility is an important value in our family.
I think the reason I feel pity for Bush is because since he is the leader of our country, I can't help but feel a sort of attachment to him and retain some hope that he will improve. He's like a father you really want to love, but he just causes too much pain and humiliation.
Charlie, I hear you. I live right next door to one of the people you describe. The worst part is, she's raising her children to be just like her.
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