COLUMN: The power of anger
Editor's note: McDonnell is the co-chair of Central Michigan University's ACLU chapter.
Maya Angelou once penned the phrase, “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire, it burns it all clean.”
I do not think many will understand the depth of Angelou’s testimony until they have found themselves in such rage that they feel a wave of wrath overcome them.
But once rage festers inside, it is a feeling that cannot be forgotten and must be managed with care.
When I personally experienced the violence of today’s rape culture for the first time this summer, I found myself feeling sad and defeated; perfectly normal human emotions.
It felt as though the world’s events were going on around me but instead of being a player in the field, I felt left on the sidelines, waiting for an absolution.
But after my time in mourning, I returned to what I once loved with new vigor.
What once was a hobby was now my life. I would listen to the stories of those like Malcolm X, who used anger as a tool in the battle against injustice. I soon found myself thinking back to one of Malcolm’s famous moments when he proclaimed, “Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.”
With this anger, I feel as though as I am equipped to take on a culture of ignorance, power and greed.
With this anger, I am on the front lines of the battlefront against a homophobic, whitewashed, patriarchal society that we have been forced to endure for too long.
Anger, when used correctly in an artful fashion, is one of the most powerful dances in this movement against malice and cruelty.
To feel anger is nothing to be ashamed of. To accept it and to act in its name with precise regulation and discipline – well, that is power.
And so I say, find something that makes you sad and let it fill you with rage. Through sadness comes stagnant waters; through anger, raging waves.
