ha!!!

I told you if George Will looked out of his window and saw thousands of men, women and children dying of hunger in the streets, he would calmly site Federalist Paper 131 or some such.

A little rage, indignation...not that bad sometimes.

Too late for me because I am really pissed!

While anger is acknowledged as a secondary emotion, coming after feelings/acknowledgement of injustice, disrespect, violations of morality and/or sense of powerlessness - it's healthy and needed for anger to replace and validate.

It's not the anger that's harmful - it's how we use the power of our anger in response to the source. It can be motivating or crippling; constructive or destructive; useful or useless and can be a gift or a burden. The outcome is if we choose to use anger as an excuse to just rant, contribute to chaos or a basis to achieve.

Now, can I please borrow the pitchfork?!? I'll return it after I'm done with the tasks at hand - and promise to wipe off all the evidence.

I think you know where I stand Cheeken. A good rousing populist anger in the masses would go a long way towards stiffening the resolve of our more silver tongued leaders to represent our discontent effectively. Some here think our dialogue should transcend such rancor. My 2¢: save that for the beltway gatherings. If the internet isn't a bellwether of popular sentiment, regardless of the sophistication of the particular group of participants, (TPM?), then I'm a monkey's uncle.

Oh, I meant that for Miguelito. Sorry.

In my experience healthy anger represents 'boundary issues, violations, etc.' it informs us that we are perceiving someone, someones, or something as violating our boundaries. It was actually my raising my daughter on my own that taught me this and how to use the information to improve our relationship by figuring out what I needed to do or express to feel that my boundaries were being honored, respected.

So in my perception healthy anger is useful and can spur us out of complacency and into action i.e. pitchfork. But because we are all human beings with emotions and varying perceptions of what is really going on in any given minute how I express my anger should really depend on the situation as it arises.

If I feel not heard and need to be listened to, in one situation it may require being calm and asking to be heard, another situation it may be that raising my voice is the 'only' way I begin to get heard.

I am of the school that there is no one way and we have to be present in the moment to decide exactly how to express ourselves in anger, love(love isn't always 'nice' can be yelling and grabbing poison from a child's hand), etc.

Whatever I decide to do, the most important thing is my desired results. Yelling, for example might get someone's attention but not get them to actually 'listen'.

So having never used the pitchfork, I will defer to others when they find a situation where that is called for and is effective.

But I still feel that overall the american people are complacent and have not gotten angry enough about the violations that have been perpetrated during the last eight years and that's why I don't see as much 'action' in response as I would like.

Seems it is anger vs. complacency. In my community, our yearly dues kept going up and up and no one seemed to be inclined to vote the board out of office. No outrage and the expenses growing from year to year. Our elections were a farce with little of the homeowners even bothering to vote. This year, perhaps due to the economy, people came out in droves and their anger was visible and the vote was for less spending and more action by the board to follow through on working with the community keeping expenses down. Anger does work and sitting back and saying nothing is giving up.

It's far better to be angry even if ineffective than to be silent and docile and allow evil to prevail which is precisely what has been going on in this country for many years. Rise up!

Righteous outrage and dogged determination are what is needed at this point -IMHO. We need to push and keep pushing, and not think we've "won" with little gimmes to shut us up. I'm sick to death with the success of the people being bought off with bones that are then taken away, and palatable lies that people let put them to sleep. Want examples?

Global warming, oil scarcity, pollution, a woman's right to her body, equal rights amendment, civil rights, addressing institutionalized inequality, healthcare, campaign finance reform, FCC protecting local voice, and on and on.

Thank you for your anger dear bwak!

Personally, I'm just not that angry right now. Should I find some anger button somewhere? Where is it located?

After eight years of George Bush, I think I've fried and blown out all my anger circuits. I'm looking forward to spending some time being mostly happy, which is more pleasant.