Anger

First off, I'm not going to say much about the Virginia Tech incident, since most everyone else has already mentioned it, and I think it's clear that it had the same effect on everyone, from college students who remember their own dorm lives, to American citizens in general. There is, however, one thing to be said. In all the news reports I've seen over the past couple of days, only one anchor has expressed the same feelings I have had over the past little bit. Glenn Beck showed how superficial the media is being about the whole thing, how they try to make you emotional over the thing, only so you can watch more, so that the people who are making money off of advertisements can continue making money. He talked about the real emotions that all of us felt after Columbine, and 9/11, but now not so much after this, since we've all become desensitized to violence over the years. It doesn't shock us anymore. Not much shocks me, anymore.

But one thing I do want to talk about is the individual emotion that caused all this. Anger. Anger is plaque that forms around the heart and slowly eats away at it, until there's nothing left but anger beating blood through the body. The killer was dead long before he killed himself. It's the worse emotion that you can feel, because it only feeds on the injustices in this world, but at the same time, making you incapable of doing anything about them. You suppress it down and it festers there, like some cancer, until there's nothing left but that anger. I had that, many years ago, but unlike many people, I have worked it free and dissolved it, because the only way of getting rid of it is by becoming friends with people, by caring about others, and by loving them. And so many people nowadays, even ones with relationships and whatnot, aren't truly letting go of that anger.

The reason I chose to write about this is that I see way too much anger as I go through my life. At work, in the people my brother deals with everyday, in the people that create the songs and the TV shows that influence everyone. Anger is there. And it doesn't have to. Sure, everyone can be frustrated. I'm frustrated everyday, about something I can't get done, or because of the differences of opinions between me and my co-workers, or whatever. But frustration is simply the liquid form of anger. It's dissoluble, it's easy to get rid of. And you dissolve it by caring, by feeling love and being around people you care about. Negativity is neutralized by Positive emotions. And all this sounds so self-helpish and superficial. But it's not, since it's validated by the philosophies I ascribe to. From Christianity to Aristotle's ideas, from William Blake to Henry David Thoreau, the path through anger, cynicism, and frustration is shown by "loving your neighbors as yourself." Frankly, it's hard to do, because the only way to get through an Anger-affected heart is to try and become their friend, through understanding and forgiveness, and it's so hard to do. But we have to try. It's what we're all here for. If we can't do something positive to affect the lives of the people around us, then we have no purpose. Anyway, my opinion on all this is that we have to take the hateful words that spew out of the killer's anger-hardened heart, and irradiate the same feelings in our own bodies. We don't want to become like him. I hope that this situation is a cathartic one for all of us. I hope so, I really do.