Please Agitate Here

It’s hard to think of a single person in history who made a marked improvement in the lives of the common person who did so without irritating the living bejeesus out of the people in power at the time.

From Frederick Douglass: “It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

Personally, when I march in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement (or women’s rights or the importance of science in policy-making), it just feels good to be on the right side of an important social issue.

As Benjamin Franklin put it, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

I recently told my son, “Neither you nor I are affected by the horrors being inflicted by the Trump administration in any major or direct way.  Neither of us is gay, poor, uneducated, uninsured, female, Muslim, black or brown, an immigrant (especially a child), or Native Americans.  The problem, if you can call it that, is that we both care about the well-being of others.  That’s what makes this so damn aggravating.”