"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Anger can be power if you know how to use it by The Canadian Saturday, July 26, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Re The storm of pent-up anger by Herb Ruhs, MD Personal anecdotes: I remember as a boy of 11 or so I read a lot of Eric Blair's (George Orwell) work. I can't say I fully appreciated it at that age, but intuitively, I was drawn to his writing. I also read Mahatma Gandhi's
2 real life examples: • I was travelling to work one morning on the commuter train as I usually do, and this smelly guy reeking of stale booze was behind me. If you have commuter trains in your city, you know that personal space does not exist. I kept a wary eye around me, but this guy took me completely by surprise when he punched me hard between my shoulder blades (from behind of course) without cause and knocked me temporarily off-balance when the train pulled into the next stop. What surprised me was how fast my previous training kicked-in. I had no fear, countered his in-step as he walked by me (seemingly happy that he proved a pointless point) and landed my right hand palm heel strike directly into his exposed lower right rib cage. As he twisted in pain towards me, my left hand struck the nerve node center under his right ear. At this time he is off balance and dazed. I picked him up by his collar and belt and threw him off the train with my only words being, "You f**king asshole!". The look of morbid fear and confusion on his face immediately told me he had not expected me to fight back. My only regret was that I threw him into the people waiting to get on the train. Only one guy on the train asked me if I was all right, everyone else pretended as though nothing had happened. The sheep relax; happy that the wolf was busy with someone else. No-one would have helped me if I did not help myself. What really spooked me was how fast I could have killed the guy, my senses were aflame with rage and power... and I thought I'd left all that behind. • Train again. I was taking my children back home on the commuter train after attending a parade. They are young and not used to crowded trains with so many differing people. The train was quite crowded, so when the doors opened a few stops down the line, there was no space for new passengers (think Japan). This guy, with a large gut, decides he is going to make space for himself and decides to start pushing people back while yelling, "make room, I know there is more room". I politely informed him there is no room as it was not exactly my choice to be standing next to the door to begin with. He shot a quick look at me and started to push, which caused my youngest child to yelp as she was being squished between me and another large adult. At this point, I reacted by slamming my right arm across his upper chest, just below his neck and stated, "If you do not stop fucking pushing me, I will push your f**king ass right off this train!". He replied (oddly enough) that I should stop pushing him. I stated, "there are young children on this crowed train and you can't see them, but they need space." At this point, he stopped but did not apologize. I explained the lesson to my children that it is OK to protect yourself and others you care about in a measured manner, but to not seek conflict. I am absolutely surprised at the shit people take. For example, whenever I call an office, the receptionist asks whether I would mind holding, I say, " yes I do mind holding. You answered my call first, so let the others who called after me wait their turn". They always take my call first and the other calls wait I do not consider myself a bully, nor do I look for conflict, but I refuse to give up my personal presence and dignity. Existentially speaking, I am my own history and no-one will take it away without losing a piece of themselves in the process... period. The Province of Alberta is responsible for producing the vast majority of Canada's beef products. The BSE crisis was initiated by a responsible rancher who reported the initial outbreak of MadCow Disease (aka "Mother-in-law Flu") rather than "shoot, shovel, and shut up". What most people do not realize is that our herd regularly commingles with the herds of the State of Montana, which is directly south of the Province, and that our industries are closely intertwined regarding feed, etc.. So if our herds commingle over each other's borders, and we mutually share supply services for the beef industry, how is it that only Canadian cattle have BSE and not in Montana? Perhaps the brand of Montana cattle should be the "Triple S"? — shoot, shovel and shut-up. Personally, I'd rather eat Albertan beef as I know their producers are honest. Oh by the way, BSE infected cows are not permitted into the human food chain, but it can go to other animals e.g. dog food. The Canadian I wasn't aware of the wandering herds, but the intermingling of feed supply shouldn't surprise anyone. The only noteworthy distinction I see between US and Canadian beef is that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is cognizant that there's a problem and seem to be addressing it, while the US Department of Agriculture isn't and isn't. According to my notes from 2006, the last time I looked into this, the US was supposedly spot-testing about 20,000 animals annually for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a laughably small number among the millions of cattle slaughtered every year in America. Canada, which presumably has a much smaller population of cattle, was testing 65,000 every year at that time, or so it says here in my two-year-old handwriting... Helen & Harry
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