Mom, You Might Want to Avert Your Eyes For This One
Art Think by Nik Kieboom for Howies
Ok, truth time: I spend most, if not all, of the day pissed off.
When I walk to the PATH station to take the train in the morning, and I see smashed plastic water bottles on the street beside the curb (along with cigarette butts and used AA batteries), I get pissed off.
When I walk to my office building and see plastic bags hanging off the naked branches of trees along the sidewalk, I get pissed off.
When I get into work and see someone getting water from the cooler with a tiny disposable paper cup, I get pissed off.
When I walk by the paper-recycling bin and find that someone has tossed in whole books, CDs (NOT PAPER), and software packages, I get pissed off and fantasize about a landfill collapsing on top of the perpetrator.
When I take my tupperware to the organic deli to get lunch and I see people carrying plastic bags full of styrofoam food containers and plastic clamshells, I get pissed off.
When I walk by one of the conference rooms and see that the lights are on but no one’s inside, I get pissed off. (After turning off the lights, of course.)
When I use the women’s bathroom and I see an empty plastic water bottle in the trash, instead of in the recycling bin where it belongs, I get REALLY pissed off.
When I head off into midtown after work and I see billboards plastered with writhing, nubile bodies beckoning you to buy their products because you wouldn’t be happy otherwise, I get pissed off.
When I’m on the PATH back to Jersey and I see a heavily made-up woman cosseted in a fur coat, carrying bags of brand-name shopping and petting her pink Razr phone, I get pissed off.
When I’m walking home from the train station and I see abandoned computer monitors left out on the curb, instead of being properly disposed of, I get pissed off.
When I’m at home reading about how politicians want to decide whom we should marry or what women should do with their reproductive organs, I get pissed off. Same thing when I track the rising cost of war.
When I think of the preponderance of ignorance, stupidity, greed, and sheer egocentricity in the world, I get pissed off.
If you’re ever in Manhattan or Jersey City, and you spy a short, angry Asian girl stomping down the street and looking like she’s going to rip everyone a new one, chances are, you’ve found me.
I’m pissed off. Really, REALLY, ROYALLY PISSED OFF. And my question is, why aren’t more people, too?
Postscript: Watch John Carpenter’s They Live if you haven’t already. The movie itself is crap, but the message is an important one.
kyrie said,
March 6, 2006 at 2:38 pm
i just love you for writing a post like this. if you’re ever in portland and you spy an angry Asian girl with red clogs- you’d be looking at me. :) thanks for reminding me that it really does matter what i do.
Jason Li said,
March 6, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Sounds like my typical day. Stay away from Chinatown, the plastic bags and styrofoam are the worst there.
Michelin L. W. Y. said,
March 6, 2006 at 4:58 pm
After reading your post I have realized, besides my reusable grocery bag and everyday recycling, how much more I can do to help the environment.
ingrid said,
March 7, 2006 at 7:47 am
I just watched a documentary called ‘blue vinyl’…I have a new horror of plastic (well PVC). Unfortunately the previous owners of our house covered the wood finish with blah beige vinyl…their idea of an investment. I hate it and want to rip it off but now I know there is no real way to dispose of it so actually it is better for the environment that it stays on the house (unless we have a fire in which case it will probably kill us before the flames do). This pisses me off…
KathyB said,
March 7, 2006 at 9:36 am
I’m pissed off too.
Anna said,
March 7, 2006 at 10:03 am
right ON! my sentiments exactly. where on earth is the outrage? sometimes it takes a good dose of pissed off-ness to cut through the collective apathy and make some damn changes.
your post is an excellent call to arms, i’m about to post it on my own plastics’ tirade blog. great to know you’re out there.
Melissa said,
March 7, 2006 at 2:39 pm
Wow - when you break down your day like that, I realize - I’m pissed off most of the time too! And, like you, I often feel alone in my anger.
Some reasons I often don’t show it:
It alienates people.
People don’t like angry “girls”.
People don’t like angry feminists.
(Then I get angry about giving a shit about what people think or like about me.)
I vent to my boyfriend and best girl friend.
Anger in itself, by itself, makes me feel sad and hopeless.
I’m trying to be more “centered” through yoga, meditation, etc. so I can feel angry, but not be angry, and use that feeling in a positive way. (This is often a struggle, but I find that I’m happier and more influential and persuasive when I feel centered and secure about my principles, but not enraged.)
But - some level of outrage is useful, as Anna said, to get us all off our asses to do something! So, just for the hell of it, can I cheesily quote Ani di Franco re: anger? ;)
“Cuz if you’re not angry… you’re just stupid, you don’t care.
How else can you react when you know something’s so unfair?
When the man of the hour can kill half the world in war,
make them slaves to a superpower and then let them die poor.”
(~~Out of Range)
We’re right to feel pissed off. Let’s use it to combine forces and create positive change.
Living Green in LA » Anger as inspiration said,
March 7, 2006 at 4:28 pm
[...] Her post, “Mom, You Might Want to Avert Your Eyes for This”, chronicles the day in a life (her life) of one pissed-off activist. She did an excellent job delineating the little things she consciously and subconsciously picks up on ALL day long, that just, well, piss her off. [...]
Jean said,
March 8, 2006 at 4:19 am
OK I’m going to piss more than one person off with this, but honestly I don’t see why one should be angry at the things you’ve mentioned - apart from fur. I’m a realist and I think there are happier ways to spend one’s days than to be angry at things one for the most part cannot change. But that’s just me.
The Worsted Witch » Don’t Look Back in Anger said,
March 9, 2006 at 3:05 pm
[...] Remember my impassioned post about how I found reasons to seethe with fury every which way I looked? Sure you do, because I bet the paroxysms of rage I unleashed onto the universe caused your dog to dive his head under the couch and lose all bladder control. (Though he had the presence of mind to scarf down the two fossilized Cheetos he found there. Plus a rubber band. And the vacuum hose.) [...]