Righteous
Indignation
“Righteous
anger is usually not about oneself. It is about those whom one sees being
harmed and whom one wants to help. In short, righteous anger is a tool of
justice, a scythe of compassion, more than a reactive emotion. Although it may
have its roots deep in our fight-or-flight desire to protect those in our
family or group who are threatened, it is a chosen response and not simply an
uncontrollable reaction. And it is not about one’s own besieged self-image, or
one’s feelings of separation, but of one’s collective responsibility, and one’s
feelings of deep, empowering connection.”
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu
I’ve
always had a bad temper. I’m not easy to anger, but when I get mad, it’s not
pretty. Once, when I was strolling my little sister, Missy, on a street in
Jefferson City, TN, a kid on a bicycle kept riding around us staring at Missy,
who had cerebral palsy. I was about nine years old at the time, and Missy was around
four. The boy was my age or perhaps a bit older. Finally, he drew up beside us
and asked, “What’s the matter with her—is she crazy or something?” Now, that
was a stupid question even for a ten-year-old boy, but it didn’t warrant the
beating I gave him. My daddy finally yanked me off the child and sent him and
his bicycle home.
When I remember this
incident, I try to parse out what my response should have been—it was a
teachable moment, as they say, and I botched it badly. For me, as a child, I am
certain I was embarrassed by Missy’s uncontrolled movements, and lack of
speech. When someone else pointed them out, I lashed out at them because I didn’t
know how to express what I was feeling. But as I grew up, that reactive anger
became righteous indignation that informed everything from my career choices to
my marriages, to the gym I choose to frequent now. I feel for people who are
wheelchair bound and have difficulty with self-expression. It would seem to make
an already difficult life even harder. I am able-bodied so I feel that
collective responsibility to be an advocate for them—although, having witnessed
the paralympic rugby team at Lakeshore, I realize that many of them do not need
an advocate any more than I do.
One problem affecting our
nation today is the lack of empathy for much of anyone outside our immediate
family and friends. We have hit critical mass when it comes to minority populations
being large enough to have an impact on day-to-day life and politics. Some of
us welcome this as a refreshing change from the culture of “old white men” who
have ruled the world for millennia. And change, God knows, has been slow and
gradual with many setbacks. Now there is an outsized reaction to this coming of
age of our minority populations. And the violence toward them has escalated.
Those of us who are
capable of empathy should now have enough righteous indignation to stand up and
stand with these populations to help them. We who have that “deep, empowering
connection,” of which Desmond Tutu spoke, need to speak ourselves clearly—no more
violence! No more senseless destruction, no more murder and mayhem. We must
remember the teaching impressed upon us as children—we must learn to share. The
planet belongs to all of us, not just a few. Let us take up our “scythe of compassion”
and strike a blow for collective responsibility.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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