If you have seen the film Network, you will recognize this. If you haven't, I recommend going to your local video store and renting it. I altered it a bit to make it more relevant to current events.
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's an economic recession and an unjust war; poverty's rampant in our inner cities, we're destroying the environment. Many are out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, airlines are going bust, while corporations' bankrolls keep getting fatter. Politicians cut wages for the working class and give their corporate cronies no-bid contracts ultimately worth millions. Troops are dying overseas and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. People are more concerned about two individuals of the same gender expressing their love for one another than they are about unemployment or illegal immigration. We're spending billions of dollars on the space program and the war on terrorism while we still can't dedicate enough resources to establish health care for all or eradicate poverty. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We had to watch more than a thousand people die as our government's incompetence was exposed. We have politicians spewing racist comments disguised as 'thought experiments.' Our leaders are being investigated for white collar crimes. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my DVD player and my Tivo and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I want you to write to your congressman though I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the recession and the oil crisis and the terrorists and the crime and poverty in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the war and the economy and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I have two videos I think everyone needs to see; I blogged about them. The first, The Battle for America, was submitted to Current TV. It's powerful, reassuring, and uplifting. It definitely helps to know that there are other people out there who care and who are not blinded by misguided or pseudo-patriotism.
The second is titled, "The victor is not asked if he tells the truth" addresses the media, terrorism, and our conceptions of them.
Peace,
Chris
P.S. If you like either of the videos or the rant, please recommend this diary! Thanks.
I'm 19, but I care.