I Have Anger

ROTD

In Spanish, if you are hungry, you say, “yo tengo hambre”. Literally, I have hunger.

Well. . .

I have anger.

I am angry as fuck.

Don’t worry. I’ve been this way for a long while. Ask any of my partners.

I can afford anger.

I’m old and white. I may have fallen out of the ugly tree but I managed to miss every ugly branch on the way down. I’m closer to height, weight proportional than not. I endured enough education to get a bachelor’s degree in Leisure Studies. I live like a king compared to 4 billion other humans on this planet; however, just for comparison’s sake, I’d have to work more than 10 million years to have as much as Jeff Bezos. Most likely, longer than that.

I didn’t do the math.

I squeezed that comment in because economic inequities have long angered me. Mother Teresa should have been a billionaire. Martin Luther King, Jr should have been a billionaire. Jonas Salk should have been a billionaire. My father should have been paid much more for the church community building he was doing. Mothers, everywhere, should be more highly valued and that value reflected in our economic numbers. Full-time teachers should be paid a minimum of X a year. I don’t know what that number is but I’m guessing it’s considerably more than most of them are being paid.

The money is there.

It’s given instead to social influencers and hate radio personalities and Super Bowl bets and chief executive officers who fail miserably and hedge fund managers who don’t give a shit how their money is made and talking heads who are pretty and merely repeat what they read on a teleprompter and shortstops like Alex Rodriguez who are in no way a hundred times more valuable than the latest phenom or any other shortstop in major league baseball.

The money is squandered on military projects that were obsolete before they’re finished, government boondoggles in general like the bridge to nowhere, bailing out businesses that were too big to fail, vanity parades and air shows and letters to every American to announce something every American already knew.

The money has always been fucking there.

In the meantime, fellow Americans of color continue to live in a state of fear and for good reason. It would be one thing if they only had to fear those who wear their racism on their sleeves but they also have to live in fear that the people paid to “Serve and Protect” may murder them on a whim as well. I know police officers. I consider those I know to be good friends and good people, but in a country of 330 million individuals, there are going to be a significant number who are not very good people.

They’re going to be racists who wear it on their sleeves.

Open racism cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, and those of us who are old and white and privileged, need to speak out. And we need to be ready to shout down those who decide, for whatever reason, to brush aside the rules of civility and let their racism out. Open racism can certainly not be tolerated in our police departments, fire departments, armed forces and government institutions.

Of course, we’ve known that for decades. Laws have been passed. Speeches have been made. Lives have been lost. More laws have been passed. More speeches have been given. Even more lives lost, ruined, imprisoned.

Remember the secret social media group of border patrol members whose grotesqueries were exposed? What happened to those people? My guess is. . . nothing.

I bring it up because - on the whole - people rarely suffer the consequences of unveiling their racist tendencies. Especially if they are in uniform.

This has been going on a very long time.

The anger I have now has been there since I started connecting the dots. Since I started paying attention. Since my bubble of concern grew beyond myself.

The current occupant of the White House is giving racism a voice. He is not the sole problem and removing him will not solve the problem. But he is the rotting head of the fish.

What he does, what he says, how he does it. . . it all makes a difference. And one short statement of consolation can in no way balance statements meant to inflame and exacerbate and fan the flames of discontent. Since he took the oath of office of the president, he has condoned, enabled and embraced racists and racism.

From the initial immigration ban to Charlottesville and his “good people on both sides” statement.

From his hiring of noted white supremacists to his insistence on a “big, beautiful” wall on our southern border.

From birtherism to the wonders of his genetic makeup.

From his token recognition of a black supporter as “my African-American” to his lumping of all immigrants from Mexico into the “rapists and murderers” categories.

From his off-the-cuff comments about “shithole” countries to his demeaning words toward women, the disabled, veterans, ad infinitum.

I have anger.

And I intend to use that anger to bring about the change this country sorely needs.

I want to turn that old quote from German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller on its head. I want it to read:

First they shouted down and shamed the racists to go back into hiding. Then they shouted down and shamed the money changers to share the wealth. Then they hunted down the war criminals and human traffickers and pederasts and pedophiles and put them in prison and threw away the keys.

And, before we knew it, life was on the upswing.

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Judd Legum’s Popular Information is an excellent website and newsletter for staying informed in a more meaningful way. His tagline is: It’s for people who give a damn.

Also, I have not read either of Seth Abramson’s books Proof of Conspiracy or Proof of Corruption but I follow him on Twitter and he has some incisive commentary about the depth and breadth of the rot in our system.

Here’s a cute picture of Sally that helped sell some gift certificates this winter to make up for all of the above. Photo courtesy of Mike Warren.