Anger isn't a socially acceptable emotion, but it's a real
emotion with a lot of power. I vented
to a friend after a contentious board meeting about children's education. Her mother-in-law said "Oh, don't get
worked up about it. You can't change
anything." I lost it and loudly
told the very nice old lady "Yes, we can change things! The reason things don't change is because
people like you won't do anything about it!"
I continued to serve on the board, doing my best to educate
the educators about the value of arts inclusion. My anger fueled my fight for the kids who were getting ripped off
in their educations. We have decades of
data that clearly demonstrates that the arts improve children's performance in
academics, yet the arts were erased from the curriculum.
Another woman told me we shouldn't provide free lunches to
poor kids. She put her kids in
religious school, and other people could do the same. If parents don't work hard enough, too bad if their children
starved. I exploded. How callous can a person be to let children
starve?!! It's not their fault if their
parents are poor, but they'll pay the price in their mental and physical health
for the rest of their lives if they grow up malnourished. That selfish woman will have to support
those kids in their adult years too.
(I'm pretty sure I shouted something about Jesus not approving her sanctimonious
attitude too.)
I suppose the core of my anger isn't always sublime. I've been hungry. I've been angry about being hungry too. My anger is personal, but I can spread it out to encompass other
hungry people. I've been victimized by
selfish people, therefore selfishness opens a wound in me that never heals.
I don't want to be angry, that's why I try to keep my anger
under control. I'll admit that
sometimes I can be afraid of my own anger because once it's loose I'm not sure
what's going to happen.
At my first job out of college I was called in front of a
large panel of execs who told me to quit drawing black athletes. "We're a white area. Our readers won't relate to all these black
people." I remember my first
sentence. "There are a lot of black people in Painesville and
Euclid." I have a dim out-of-body
memory of saying a whole lot more, but I have no clue what. All I know is that the owner of the
newspaper told my boss that I was never to be fired and that he personally
wanted to be informed if I quit. (I
guess I screwed up my chance at permanent employment by quitting not long after
that.)
Anger is motivating.
When things are bad enough, getting angry is the way towards
change. In our personal lives, or
changing the world, sometimes there's a reason to wake the dragon.
"Usually when people are
sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they
get angry, they bring about a change." ~ Malcolm X
"It is wise to direct
your anger towards problems — not people; to focus your energies on
answers — not excuses." ~ William
Arthur Ward
"Anger is just anger. It
isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters. It's
like anything else. You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to
make the choice." ~ Jim Butcher, White Night
