Get mad!

Thirty years ago:



I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows they're bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work, or scared of losing their job. A dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild on the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do and there's no end to it!

We know the air is unfit the breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And 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 the house and suddenly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my TV, and my toaster oven, and my steel belted radials 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 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 and the inflation and the Russians and the crime on 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. 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 GONNA TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!"

Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil prices. But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out and yell, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!"