03/31/10
I am still on my voluntary break from posting to this site and I am avoiding as much blog reading as I can. I found and copied Mister Gannon's article here because it described my thoughts and feelings so well; the one exception being the reason I am currently not stirring up my mind with reading and posting. - My anger is not quiet, I am a military-trained marksman, and I am willing to die to protect America. I'm currently "chilling-out", I'll be back to posting sometime soon, and we'll all patiently wait for November to vote...
America's Quiet Anger
By James P. Gannon on 3.30.10 @ 6:07AM
There is a quiet anger boiling in America.
It is the anger of millions of hard-working citizens who pay their bills, send
in their income taxes, maintain their homes and repay their mortgage loans --
and see their government reward those who do not.
It is the anger of small town and Middle American folks who have never been to
Manhattan, who put their savings in a community bank and borrow from a local
credit union, who watch Washington lawmakers and presidents of both parties hand
billions in taxpayer bailouts to the reckless Wall Street titans who brought
down the economy in 2008.
It is the fury of the voiceless, the powerless, the ordinary nobodies of Flyover
Country who are ridiculed, preached to, satirized and insulted by the Celebrity
Loudmouths of the two Left Coasts, the Jon Stewarts and Keith Olbermanns, the
Paul Krugmans and their ilk.
It is the salted wound of the millions who see that ruling Democrats in Congress
are not listening to them but are willfully ignoring public opinion and the
verdict of recent elections in passing a huge new health care entitlement when
the existing entitlements of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already
going broke.
It is the frustrating helplessness of citizens who revere the Founding Fathers
and the genius of the Constitution that they wrote, who actually believe the
words of the Constitution mean what they say, not more and not less. They who
watch politicians and the courts stretch and bend that Constitution -- finding
"rights" not enumerated, powers never granted, meanings unimagined -- believe
that their country is being redefined without their consent.
Most of the angry are not out marching in the streets, waving signs or shouting
into bullhorns. And they are not smashing windows or phoning death threats to
politicians. They are simply waking up angry in the morning, and going to bed
angry at night. And their resentment is multiplied by the media's efforts to
portray them all as dangerous, crazy people, and by the effort of certain
Democrats to tar them with brush of violent intent.
They are embittered, too, by the rhetoric of a triumphant president who turns on
its head Winston Churchill's heroic attitude promising defiance in defeat but
magnanimity in victory. For a president of a deeply divided country, defiance in
victory is not an endearing posture. It has all the persuasive charm of a Chad
Ochocinco victory dance in the end zone of the opponent's stadium.
These quietly angry people gather in their churches while their religions are
called divisive and their beliefs are labeled as bigotry, and they pray for a
better day. They talk among themselves in their Main Street cafes, at the Rotary
club or at their kids' softball games, seeking others who understand their
frustration and will not respond with arrogant dismissal.
They are tired of being told they are too stupid to understand the country's
complex problems, too rooted in the past to find solutions, too selfish to share
what they have worked for with everyone else who wants it.
They are not reaching for guns or for pitchforks. They are holding their anger
within, waiting for their time, watching those in power over-reach and
over-indulge.
Their wound is deep, and it will not be salved by more presidential speeches,
Congressional hand-outs, or promises of wonderful things to come. They no longer
believe any of that. Their quiet rage abides, waiting till it can be expressed
in that silent place behind the curtain where the ballot lists the names that
they have now committed to an angry memory.
James P. Gannon is a retired former Wall Street Journal reporter
and newspaper editor. He lives in Virginia.