May 25, 2008 14:23
"I don't have to tell you things are bad; everyone knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everyone is out of work or scared of losing their job. Dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeep must keep a gun under the counter. Hounds are running wild in the street and nobody anywhere seems to know what to do; there's no end to it. Now, the air is unfit to breathe, the food is unit to eat. We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
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 our house and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is 'Please, please leave us alone in our living room. Let me have my toaster, my TV, my steel belted radio, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest, I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression, the inflation and the Russians and crime 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 god DAMNIT. I'm a human being, my life has VALUE.'
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 mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'" 