This podcast is a departure from my usual Sesame Street vibes. This morning’s news of political assassinations has me angry. Be forewarned that my tone would make the ghost of Rush Limbaugh blush. Unlike Rush, my anger is actually justified.
As I have said many times before: It is important for us to be able to access our authentic anger. Organic, slow-to-build anger is a holy emotion. It is information that grows into an embodied awareness that a boundary must be established.
There is a reason rich white men are the first to claim someone has “anger issues,” while they themselves traffic in projected rage and disgusting cruelty wrapped in their gaslit brand of “victim politics.”
Shaming someone’s authentic anger isn’t just emotional manipulation— it has another sinister motive: If they make you ashamed of your anger, you will pretend not to feel it, silence yourself for experiencing it, and bury it so deep that it never finds the right target, or instead surfaces as cruelty to people over whom you hold some kind of power (a child, a spouse, a dog, your students, your parishioners, your marginalized neighbors, your employees). Rich white men have trafficked this politics of victimhood for decades— abusing others and then engaging in a massive cultural gaslighting campaign to frame righteous anger as some kind of moral failure when it’s the exact opposite.
The kind of political violence happening around us at this moment requires our fury so that we can channel it into conviction, courage, and the will to push for political change. It is especially important to access this anger so that we establish political boundaries that keep our communities from descending into barbarism. And that’s an important point to dwell on, because Donald Trump isn’t just grievance politics personified: he is the manifestation of a well-funded campaign to push our culture into political barbarism.
Neighbor, I need you to have “anger issues” right now— because we all need to have an issue with this descent into barbarism Trump is unleashing on our country.
Some of our neighbors just got assassinated, because Donald Trump is encouraging violence and death upon his political enemies. He is not only inciting violence but he is inciting a moral collapse that descends into full-blown fascism.
I need you to love yourself and your neighbors enough to access your anger, and use it to occupy every single elected officials office until Trump and his administration are removed. Trump and his cronies’ behavior has no place in civil society— and “civil society” (that’s you and me) need to access our anger and set this necessary societal boundary.
Enough gaslighting.
Enough political double speak.
We must exercise our first amendment rights and occupy our legislators’ offices— from the city and state to federal levels— until this vile man and his coconspirators are removed from office.
You and I have a responsibility to each other.
We must refuse to fall into helplessness in the face of barbarism, particularly when we outnumber the forces of cruelty and they make a living on our dime.
This must end now.
We are not waiting for the general election, nor are we waiting for midterms.
This must end, right fucking now.
Experience your anger. Honor it for awakening your integrity. Thank your anger by channeling it into a resolve to set a civil boundary. Communicate that boundary by occupying our elected officials’ offices to get these criminals and brutal avatars of fascism out of our government.
Remember: we are paying for this thuggery and corruption.
We are their bosses.
Our Constitution compels us to abolish a tyrannical government. And this is tyranny.
Patriotism isn’t a feeling, neighbor. Patriotism means paying attention to what’s going on in the world, recognizing you are part of that world, and loving your community enough to set fucking boundaries when cruel people encourage brutality.
Enough!
Occupy.
Remove.
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