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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