Some people think anger a bad emotion to be avoided at all costs. I don’t. To be slow to anger is certainly a virtue, however, an even greater virtue to channel righteous anger into activities that drive positive social changes. As a follower of Jesus, I see His example of turning over the tables of immoral money changes in the temple, calling them “thieves” as a call to action in the face of social injustice. In this moment, there are so many things to be angry about. This week, after yet another school shooting and Margarie Taylor Green’s false claim on 60 Minutes that democrats are the Party of pedophiles, I pulled out my laptop while students in Tennessee crowded their State House to protest.
While we may have a 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the Constitution does not specify which arms. It is left up to our representatives who make the laws to decide this question. We must take seriously that lawmakers represent us and that we have the right to vote them into office and to petition them regarding our desires. And so, I sent the following letter to the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy.
April 6, 2023
Dear Speaker McCarthy,
Once again, I must write a letter to you to express my disappointment with our legislative body. The Constitution guarantees us the right to keep and bear arms, however, it does not specify what kind of arms a reasonable person should be able to keep and bear. Can I keep a nuclear bomb or a rocket launcher? Arms that have no value except to kill as many people as quickly as possible have shown themselves to be contrary to the public health and welfare of the American people.
Isn’t it the job of Congress to pass laws in service to our safety, liberty, and welfare? I call upon you and the Republican Party to ban these high powered semi-automatic weapons. It is not enough that they are fun to shoot or that they make for great family Christmas photos. Americans are being killed daily and our children have become targets. Registration of guns is a necessary first step. But an outright ban of these particularly dangerous weapons is what is really called for. Please do your job! Your legislative failures will have consequences. I predict that this upcoming generation will vote all of you out of office the first chance they get. They are the actual “pro-lifers”. They care about the climate and the lives of women and about transgender youth.
The answer to a bad person with a gun is not a good person with a gun. Law enforcement will not know who the good person is. And Uvalde taught us that the courage of good people with guns cannot be relied upon to protect anyone.
On another note, you really need to chastise Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Allowing her to call the President of the United States and all democrats pedophiles deserves a strong reprimand if not expulsion. Her rhetoric is reckless and dangerous and has no place in our Congress.
Sincerely,
Dr. Juanita Hall
Voting citizen of the United States
My hope in sharing this letter with readers is to inspire action motivated by righteous anger. It’s not enough to punch a wall, go for a run, or to seethe in silence. That may consume the energy of anger by displacing it, but it does nothing to drive the changes we need in our society. As I was writing this letter, my daughter called me on the telephone and asked what I was doing. I explained the contents of my letter and I was shocked that she wasn’t really aware of the shooting nor of the comments by the congresswoman. I realized that there are plenty of people who are avoiding the news because they don’t want to be angered. Ignorance is bliss until all hell breaks out and you wake up to find yourself without rights and subject to legalized discrimination.
Our representative democracy is under attack by a white Christian nationalist movement and that should anger any decent human being. The key is to allow that righteous anger to motivate us to raise our voices in protest, utilize our talents, cast our votes, donate to frontline fighters, and use our creative tools to demand change. If we are quiet in this moment, we will soon find ourselves living under the rule of fascists.
It’s going to take all of us working together to improve our quality of life and to defend our Constitutional freedoms. In addition to writing letters or protesting and voting, we can fight by financially supporting organizations like the Florida NAACP Legal Defense Fund who are fighting a plethora of civil rights lawsuits in Florida, including the fascist “anti-woke” laws Ron DeSantis is passing through the state legislature. We can fight by donating to organizations like Sandi Hook Promise and March for our Lives as they continue fighting for much needed gun control.
Anger is truly a virtue when it drives us to do something positive with it.