Staying Angry
Advice from BBBR Resistance Fighter Robert C.
Dear Diva,
I don’t know how you do it! Every day another
brilliant satire! “The Americans formerly known as voters”, the “Mad
Cow” piece
[by We Will
Not Forget]!
What can I say, you make my day!
As I have
mentioned recently, now comes the hard part - to stay angry, and through that
anger, to stay focused. The past week has given me plenty to be angry about,
and I suspect it has given you plenty too. I still harbor hopes that the era of
El Doofus can be ended before the full four years (the arrogance and past lies
may catch up with them yet), but we have to prepare for the worst, and that
means sustaining this anger for the full term of His Fraudulence.
And just a year
is a long time (one revolution around the sun, four seasons, and all of that!).
In one year some of us will fall in love, some of us will fall out of love.
Some of us will marry, some of us will divorce. Some of us will start a family,
some of us will see our children start a family. Some of us will experience the
inexplicable joy of having an infant barf on our shoulder, some of us will
experience the inexplicable anger of watching a toddler toss their food across
the room. Some of us will cry as we send our children off to kindergarten, some
of us will cry as we send our children off to college. Some of us will find a
career, change a career, buy a car, sell a car, buy a house, sell a house, some
of us will soar on personal triumphs, some of us will sink on personal
tragedies. And all of us will relearn the truth that “life goes on”. The
financial and emotional demands put upon us by our daily lives will inevitably
work to dilute our sense of purpose. And don’t think that the enemies of
democracy aren’t counting on this. As R.W. Apple Jr., wrote in the NY Times
last Sunday, 1/21/01, “But the debate (on his - Smirk’s - legitimacy) is likely
to grow softer as the nation grows accustomed to pictures of Mr. Bush speaking
from the Oval Office, boarding Air Force One, accompanied everywhere he goes by
the strains of “Ruffles and Flourishes” and “Hail to the Chief”. In the television
age, those images, more than anything else, confer the mantle of authority and
legitimacy on a leader.” Time, in this case, is not on our side.
So how does one keep
and maintain a sense of outrage and anger for the long haul? I’d like to share
with you a few of my thoughts on this, and would like to hear how others plan
to stay properly pissed.
First off, print out
a copy of your (The Diva’s) New Year’s Resolution, and hang it somewhere you will see
every day. Print out any article that you find on the net that really
gets your juices flowing – Vincent Bugliosi’s piece on the supreme court, or
Dave Chandler’s “Deal With It” do it for me - keep them handy. Anytime you see Smirk the Wonder
Chimp on TV making nicey-nice with some black kids at an inner-city school, and
you start to wonder what is was that made you dislike this guy so much, reread
the articles.
Make it personal.
For me, it was the realization that my actions and emotions following the coup
where the classic clinical symptoms of someone who has suffered from a sudden
and tragic personal loss, say the loss of a loved one in a freak accident. I
was, in fact, in mourning for the death of democracy. But democracy hadn’t been
ill lately, and she didn’t just died of old age. (She does seem to suffer from
a chronic wasting disease, which usually flares up during republican administrations,
but she always seems to rebound.) No, she was murdered, by judicial decree
under the cover of darkness. But democracy is not an abstract concept,
democracy is us, the people, the will of the people! This crime was committed
against all of us! Keep it personal, not abstract. It’s easier to stay angry
that way.
Write it down.
Search you feelings. Try to remember how you felt when the counting was
stopped, try to remember how you felt when the December 12th verdict came down,
try to remember how you felt when Al Gore took the bullet on national TV. (I
know how I felt - and I cried at all of them!) And then, write it down! Refer
to it anytime you feel you anger subsiding.
Remember your
history. This coup is not just an isolated event. It is just the latest and
most outrageous of a series of outrageous assaults on our American ideals
stretching back over 20 years. Remember Watergate, the secret war on Cambodia,
the resignation and the subsequent pardon - Truth & Justice both got
roughed up a bit here! Remember the back door contacts by the Regan campaign,
led by ex-CIA director William Casey, to ensure that American hostages remained
captive in Iran for the purely political reason of diminishing the Carter
presidency in the election of 1980. Freedom, particularly the freedom of those
Americans held hostage, took a major hit on this one, along with the usual
punching bag, Truth. Remember the resulting illegal sale of arms to Iran (the
payback to Iran) and the subsequent diversion of funds to support the illegal
war against the Contras, remember how Bush Sr. (ex-CIA director himself -
anyone see a pattern? - republicans?), pardoned Casper Weinberger and others
“for crimes that they may or may not have committed” in this scandal - just
about all our ideals got bloody on this one. If you are not old enough to have
lived
though these events,
go to the library and read up on them. Remember your history.
Stay connected.
Don’t expect the mainstream media to reflect your outrage, and don’t allow
yourself to feel that you are alone. There is a growing on-line community eager
to embrace you. You are among friends. Visit sites like this, and visit often.
Better still, visit opposition sites - “guaran-damn-teed” to raise your anger
(if not anxiety) level a notch or two. Listen to right wing hate radio every
once in a while (not recommended for people with high blood pressure or heart
problems). I find that 15 minutes of sleaze-ball Bob Grant on the way home from
work cures me of any apathy that I may be feeling that day.
Listen to any angry
music that gets you pissed at the power structure. I find that most anything
from my favorite Bob’s (Dylan and Marley) works, but you may have other
preferences. (Springsteen and Melllencamp in their “populist” mode works for me
too, and I’m still trying to locate my LP of “Crown of Creation” by the
Jefferson Airplane, but, not only do
I digress, but I
date myself!)
But most of all, and
this is important, have fun! The goal is to use our anger to stay focused and
committed to overturning this illegitimate and lawless regime from power. But
we must not let our anger turn into hate. I truly believe in the universal
truth at the core of the “Star Wars” saga - that hate invariably leads one down
the path to “The Dark Side”. Look at our opponents, our enemies if you will,
hateful people all . Who can deny that they represent the “dark side” of human
nature? Do they look happy? To me, they all look like they’ve been sucking on
lemons, or suffering from extreme gastrointestinal distress! Can you envision
the Cheney’s bouncing on a mattress in
a spontaneous afternoon of unbridled lust? (I shudder at the image!) Can you
see Ms. Rice knocking down some brews at a friend’s house for a Monty Python
video marathon? (Has anyone ever seen her smile, a genuine, from the heart
smile?) They are hateful (and may I add, dangerous) people. They hate all that
is good and loving and joyous in human nature - they see it as a weakness, a
weakness that must be crushed. So love, and be loving. (It’s our best defense!)
And damn it, stay angry!
Yours truly, in
admiration, and in resistance,
Robert C.
New York
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