February Issue 2004
Commentary
by Tom Starland
Positive Points of Being Angry
I'm no longer an angry young man. Now that I find myself in what I hope is my middle-ages, heading into what might be my twilight years - I've changed. I'm even more angry than that young man could have ever imagined.
I thought my generation was going to offer the us a better America, a better world, and a better way to live - and what did we get? Sometimes I think it's Huxley's 1984 instead of 2004. There are some who want to police what you read, how you think, what you believe in, who you marry, and the world to boot.
Needless to say, I'm not happy with the way things are going and I don't think a lot of other people are either. In fact, I'm angry. Why not!
Lately, many people seemed to be concerned about having an angry man in the White House. Politicos (that's not what I really call them) have done their best to tag Presidential candidate Howard Dean as an angry man - especially in light of his speech after the Iowa Caucus. They ask themselves over and over - "is this the kind of leader we want loose in the White House?" I ask, why not?
I've seen the speech over and over and what I see is someone who lost one battle, but was telling his troops - the war is not over - we're going to fight on in the next state and the one after that and we're going to fight all the way to the end.
Some people who wanted to be President of our country dropped out after one debate. Some dropped out after one caucus. Some are there for the long haul.
I don't know if Howard Dean is the right choice for our next president, but I'm not worried if he's angry. Sometimes it takes someone to get angry to make changes. Be thankful that our forefathers got angry about the way the "colonies" were being treated. Be thankful people got angry about having Pearl Harbor bombed. Being angry about things is not necessarily a bad thing. If I hadn't been angry about the way the visual art community was being treated by most other media I might not have started this paper.
And ask yourself what would you rather have in the White House - an angry man or a mad man?
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