Anger

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Collected Essays (1998)

  And now, in 196 3 , because we have never faced this fact, we arc in intolerable trouble. The Reconstruction, as I read the evidence, was a bargain between the North and South to this effect: "We've liberated them from the land-and delivered them to the bosses." When we left Mississippi to come North we did not come to fr cedotl}. We came to the bottom of the labor mark ct ,i11d we · are still there. Even the Depression of the 1930s failed to make a dent in Negroes' relationship to white workers in the labor unions. Even today, so brainwashed is this republic that peo ple seriously ask in what they suppose to be good faith, "What does the Negro want?" I've heard a great many asinine ques tions in my life, but that is perhaps the most asinine and per haps the most insulting. But the point here is that people who ask that question, thinking that they ask it in good faith, are really the victims of this conspiracy to make Negroes believe they are less than human. In order for me to live, I decided very early that some mis take had been made somewhere. _I was . . noL�gger" e'l(ffi rhough . . you called me. one�-Rut--if-1-was�nigger" in your eyes, there was something about_you-=!_!lere_ 1'iaLS.Qmething you needed., I h�g_t<� realiz� wben.Lwas �r:y .y.o.Wlg tRat I was n one of those things I was told I was. I W£1S _ not, for exam_ple, lpppy . .l never touched a watermelon for all kinds of reasons. I had been invented by white people, and I knew enough about life by this time to understand that whatever you invent, whatever you project, is you! So where we are now is that a whole country ofpcoplc believe I'm a "nigger," and I don)t, and the battle's on ! Because if I am not what I've been told I am, then it means that you ' re not what you thought you were either! And that is the crisis. It is not really a "Negro revolution" that is upsetting this A TALK TO TEACHERS country. Wbatis .. upsctting..th� co untcy .. .is ... ;Lscns e....aLits-GwR i_qcntity. If, t(>r example, one managed to change the curric ulum in all the schools so that Negroes learned more about themselves and their real contributions to this culture, you would be liberating not only Negroes, you'd be liberating white people who know nothing about their own history. And the reason is that ifyou arc compelled to lie about one aspect of anybody's-history, you must lic--aboutit all. If you have to lie about my real role here, if you have to pretend that I hoed all that cotton just because I loved you, then you have done something to yourself You arc mad. Now let's go back a minute.

• From Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014)

  I was working on several of these cases, including one in Gadsden, Alabama, where jail officials denied severely beating a thirty-nine-year-old black man after he was arrested for traffic violations. His family maintained that he was beaten by police and jail officials who then denied him his asthma inhaler and medication despite his begging for it. I met Lourida Ruffin after he was released and was immediately struck by what an affectionate father he was. At six feet tall and 250 pounds, he could seem a little intimidating, but as I spoke with him his small children joyfully jumped off and on his lap. He sadly recounted how people make assumptions about him but that he's teased more for being too sweet and gentle than being any kind of threat. Gadsden police had stopped Mr. Ruffin one night because they said his car was swerving. Police discovered that his license had expired a few weeks earlier, so he was taken into custody. When he arrived at the city jail badly bruised and bleeding, Mr. Ruffin told the other inmates that he had been beaten terribly and was desperately in need of his inhaler and asthma medication. When I started investigating the case, inmates at the jail told me they saw officers beating Mr. Ruffin before taking him to an isolation cell. I heard from other families about loved ones who had died or been killed at the jail. Despite the reforms of the 1970s and early 1980s, inmate death in jails and prisons was still a serious problem. Suicide, prisoner-on-prisoner violence, inadequate medical care, staff abuse, and guard violence claimed the lives of hundreds of prisoners every year. I soon received other complaints from people in the Gadsden community. The parents of a black teenager who had been shot and killed by police told me that their son had been stopped for a minor traffic violation after running a red light. Their young son had just started driving and became very nervous when the police officer approached him. His family maintained that he reached down to the floor where he kept his gym bag to retrieve his newly issued driver’s license. The police claimed he was reaching for a weapon—no weapon was ever found—and the teen was shot dead while he sat in his car. The officer who shot the boy said that the teen had been menacing and had moved quickly, in a threatening manner. The child’s parents told me their son was generally nervous and easily frightened but was also obedient and would never have hurt anyone. He was very religious and a good student, and he had the kind of reputation that allowed the family to persuade civil rights leaders to push for an investigation into his death. Their pleas reached our office, and I was looking into the case along with the jail and prison cases.

• From Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014)

  I walked toward the gate that led to the lobby of the visitation room, where I expected a routine pat-down before entering the visitation area. The officer stepped in front of me and blocked me from proceeding. “What are you doing?” he snarled. “I’m here for a legal visit,” I replied. “It was scheduled earlier this week. The people in the warden’s office have the papers.” I smiled and spoke as politely as I could to defuse the situation. “That’s fine, that’s fine, but you have to be searched first.” It was difficult to ignore his clearly hostile attitude, but I did my best. “Okay, do you need me to take my shoes off?” The hardcore officers would sometimes make me remove my shoes before going inside. “You’re going to go into that bathroom and take everything off if you expect to get into my prison.” I was shocked, but spoke as nicely as I could. “Oh, no, sir. I think you might be confused. I’m an attorney. Lawyers don’t have to get strip-searched to come in for legal visits.” Instead of calming him, this seemed to make him angrier. “Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but you’re not coming into my prison without complying with our security protocols. Now, you can get into that bathroom and strip, or you can go back to wherever you came from.” I’d had some difficult encounters with officers getting into prisons from time to time, mostly in small county jails or places where I’d never been before, but this was highly unusual. “I’ve been to this prison many times, and I’ve never been required to submit to a strip search. I don’t think this is the procedure,” I said more firmly. “Well, I don’t know and don’t care what other people do, but this is the protocol I use.” I thought about trying to find an assistant warden but realized that that might be difficult, and anyway, an assistant warden would be unlikely to tell an officer he was wrong in front of me. I had driven two hours for this visit and had a very tough schedule over the next three weeks; I wouldn’t be able to get back to the prison any time soon if I didn’t get in now. I went inside the bathroom and removed my clothes. The officer came in and gave me an unnecessarily aggressive search before mumbling that I was clear. I put my suit back on and walked out. “I’d like to get inside the visitation room now.” I tried to reclaim some dignity by speaking more forcefully. “Well, you have to go back and sign the book.”

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  Reply to Objection 3: He that bestows a favor must not at once act the part of a punisher of ingratitude, but rather that of a kindly physician, by healing the ingratitude with repeated favors. OF VENGEANCE (FOUR ARTICLES)We must now consider vengeance, under which head there are four points of inquiry: (1) Whether vengeance is lawful? (2) Whether it is a special virtue? (3) Of the manner of taking vengeance; (4) On whom should vengeance be taken? Whether vengeance is lawful?Objection 1: It seems that vengeance is not lawful. For whoever usurps what is God’s sins. But vengeance belongs to God, for it is written (Dt. 32:35, Rom. 12:19): “Revenge to Me, and I will repay.” Therefore all vengeance is unlawful. Objection 2: Further, he that takes vengeance on a man does not bear with him. But we ought to bear with the wicked, for a gloss on Cant 2:2, “As the lily among the thorns,” says: “He is not a good man that cannot bear with a wicked one.” Therefore we should not take vengeance on the wicked. Objection 3: Further, vengeance is taken by inflicting punishment, which is the cause of servile fear. But the New Law is not a law of fear, but of love, as Augustine states (Contra Adamant. xvii). Therefore at least in the New Testament all vengeance is unlawful. Objection 4: Further, a man is said to avenge himself when he takes revenge for wrongs inflicted on himself. But, seemingly, it is unlawful even for a judge to punish those who have wronged him: for Chrysostom [*Cf. Opus Imperfectum, Hom. v in Matth., falsely ascribed to St. Chrysostom] says: “Let us learn after Christ’s example to bear our own wrongs with magnanimity, yet not to suffer God’s wrongs, not even by listening to them.” Therefore vengeance seems to be unlawful. Objection 5: Further, the sin of a multitude is more harmful than the sin of only one: for it is written (Ecclus. 26:5–7): “Of three things my heart hath been afraid . . . the accusation of a city, and the gathering together of the people, and a false calumny.” But vengeance should not be taken on the sin of a multitude, for a gloss on Mat. 13:29,30, “Lest perhaps . . . you root up the wheat . . . suffer both to grow,” says that “a multitude should not be excommunicated, nor should the sovereign.” Neither therefore is any other vengeance lawful. On the contrary, We should look to God for nothing save what is good and lawful. But we are to look to God for vengeance on His enemies: for it is written (Lk. 18:7): “Will not God revenge His elect who cry to Him day and night?” as if to say: “He will indeed.” Therefore vengeance is not essentially evil and unlawful.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  AMBROSE. Or else, This brother is described so as to be said to come from the farm, that is, engaged in worldly occupations, so ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God, as at last to complain that a kid had never been slain for him. For not for envy, but for the pardon of the world, was the Lamb sacrificed. The envious seeks a kid, the innocent a lamb, to be sacrificed for it. Therefore also is he called the elder, because a man soon grows old through envy. Therefore too he stands without, because his malice excludes him; therefore could he not hear the dancing and music, that is, not the wanton fascinations of the stage, but the harmonious song of a people, resounding with the sweet pleasantness of joy for a sinner saved. For they who seem to themselves righteous are angry when pardon is granted to one confessing his sins. Who art thou that speakest against thy Lord, that he should not, for example, forgive a fault, when thou pardonest whom thou wilt? But we ought to favour forgiving sin after repentance, lest while grudging pardon to another, we ourselves obtain it not from our Lord. Let us not envy those who return from a distant country, seeing that we ourselves also were afar off. CHAPTER 16 16:1–71. And he said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. 2. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 6. And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 7. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. BEDE. Having rebuked in three parables those who murmured because He received penitents, our Saviour shortly after subjoins a fourth and a fifth on almsgiving and frugality, because it is also the fittest order in preaching that almsgiving should be added after repentance. Hence it follows, And he said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man.

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  Then the young man spake againe, saying, Masters, why goe wee not about to make our prayers unto Mars, touching this selling of the Maiden, and to seeke for other companions. But as farre as I see, here is no other manner of beast to make sacrifice withall, nor wine sufficient for us to drinke. Let me have (quoth hee) tenne more with me, and wee will goe to the next Castle, to provide for meat and other things necessary. So he and tenne more with him, went their way: In the meane season, the residue made a great fire and an Alter with greene turfes in the honour of Mars. By and by after they came againe, bringing with them bottles of wine, and a great number of beasts, amongst which there was a big Ram Goat, fat, old, and hairy, which they killed and offered unto Mars. Then supper was prepared sumptuously, and the new companion said unto the other, You ought to accompt me not onely your Captaine in robbery and fight, but also in pleasures and jolity, whereupon by and by with pleasant cheere he prepared meat, and trimming up the house he set all things in order, and brought the pottage and dainty dishes to the Table: but above all he plyed them wel with great pots and jugs of wine. Sometimes (seeming to fetch somewhat) hee would goe to the Maiden and give her pieces of meate, which he privily tooke away, and would drinke unto her, which she willingly tooke in good part. Moreover, hee kissed her twice or thrice whereof she was well pleased but I (not well contented thereat) thought in my selfe: O wretched Maid, thou hast forgotten thy marriage, and doest esteeme this stranger and bloudy theefe above thy husband which thy Parents ordained for thee, now perceive I well thou hast no remorse of conscience, but more delight to tarry and play the harlot heere amongst so many swords. What? knowest thou not how the other theeves if they knew thy demeanour would put thee to death as they had once appointed, and so worke my destruction likewise? Well now I perceive thou hast a pleasure in the dammage and hurt of other. While I did angerly devise with my selfe all these things, I perceived by certaine signes and tokens (not ignorant to so wise an Asse) that he was not the notable theefe Hemus, but rather Lepolemus her husband, for after much communication he beganne to speake more franckly, not fearing at all my presence, and said, Be of good cheere my sweete friend Charites, for thou shalt have by and by all these thy enemies captive unto thee. Then hee filled wine to the theeves more and more, and never ceased, till as they were all overcome with abundance of meat and drinke, when as hee himselfe abstained and bridled his owne appetite. And truely I did greatly suspect, least hee had mingled in their cups some deadly poyson, for incontinently they all fell downe asleepe on the ground one after an other, and lay as though they had beene dead. THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER How the Gentlewoman was carried home by her husband while the theeves were asleepe, and how much Apuleius was made of.

• From Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition (2004)

  36 Lecture 7: Homer—The Iliad sophistication and complexity of design must indicate careful structuring by a single poet working within the oral tradition. Thus, Parry’s work recast the Homeric Question in different terms rather than settling it. There is little consensus of opinion about how, when, and why the epics came to be written down. The mythic background of the Homeric epics is the story of the Trojan War. The Trojan War began because the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Menelaus’s elder brother Agamemnon raised a fl eet of 1,000 ships and an army to man it and sailed to Troy to retrieve Helen. The war lasted for 10 years and ended with the Greeks’ ruse of the Trojan Horse. Neither epic tells the entire story of the war. The Iliad focuses on events that happened during a short period in the last year of the war. The Odyssey deals with Odysseus’s adventures after the war. The Iliad’s basic subject is the wrath of Achilles, who is angry that Agamemnon took away his concubine Briseis. Achilles’s anger motivates him to withdraw from the fi ghting, leaving his fellow Greeks to suffer great losses. Starting with this particular episode allows the bard to focus on crucial themes that bear on the entire warrior ethos. To understand the nature of Achilles’s anger, we must examine the Homeric hero’s motivations for fi ghting. The Homeric warrior fi ghts for honor (timē) and glory or fame (kleos). Timē’s most basic In the Iliad, Achilles returns to battle after the death of his friend Patroclus. The Teaching Company Collection.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xxxvii. 2) Had he been inclined to deal treacherously, he might have said, If it is a crime, accuse Him Who commanded it, and I will lay down my bed. And he would have concealed his cure, knowing, as he did, that their real cause of offence was not the breaking of the Sabbath, but the miracle. But he neither concealed it, nor asked for pardon, but boldly confessed the cure. They then ask spitefully; What man is that who said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk. They do not say, Who is it, who made thee whole? but only mention the offence. It follows, And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in that place. This He had done first, because the man who had been made whole, was the best witness of the cure, and could give his testimony with less suspicion in our Lord’s absence; and secondly, that the fury of men might not be excited more than was necessary. For the mere sight of the object of envy, is no small incentive to envy. For these reasons He departed, and left them to examine the fact for themselves. Some are of opinion, that this is the same with the one who had the palsy, whom Matthew mentions. But he is not. For the latter had many to wait upon, and carry him, whereas this man had none. And the place where the miracle was performed, is different. AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xvii. c. 1) Judging on low and human notions of this miracle, it is not at all a striking display of power, and only a moderate one of goodness. Of so many, who lay sick, only one was healed; though, had He chosen, He could have restored them all by a single word. How must we account for this? By supposing that His power and goodness were asserted more for imparting a knowledge of eternal salvation to the soul, than working a temporal cure on the body. That which received the temporal cure was certain to decay at last, when death arrived: whereas the soul which believed passed into life eternal. The pool and the water seem to me to signify the Jewish people: for John in the Apocalypse obviously uses water to express people. (Rev. 17:15.) BEDE. (in v. cap. Joan.) It is fitly described as a sheep pool. By sheep are meant people, according to the passage, We are Thy people, and the sheep of Thy pasture. (Ps. 95:7) AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xvii. c. 2) The water then, i. e. the people, was enclosed within five porches, i. e. the five books of Moses. But those books only betrayed the impotent, and did not recover them; that is to say, the Law convicted the sinner, but did not absolve him.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  For the necessity, now, which I think nearly all black people see in different ways, is the creation and protection of a nucleus which will bring into existence a new people. The Black Panthers made themselves visible-made them selves targets, if you like-in order to hip the black community to the presence of a new force in its midst, a force working toward the health and liberation of the community. It was a force which set itself in opposition to that force which uses people as things and which grinds down men and women and children, not only in the ghetto, into an unrecognizable pow der. They announced themselves especially as a force for the rehabilitation of the young-the young who were simply per ishing, in and out of schools, on the needle, in the Army, or in prison. The black community recognized this energy almost at once and flowed toward it and supported it; a peopl e's most valuable asset is the well-being of their young. Nothing more thoroughly reveals the actual intentions of this country, do mestically and globally, than the ferocity of the repression, the storm of fire and blood which the Panthers have been forced to undergo merely for declaring themselves as men-men who want "land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace." The Panthers thus became the native Vietcong, the ghetto became the village in which the Vietcong were hidden, and in the ensuing search-and-d estroy operations, everyone in the village became suspect. Under such circumstances, the creation of a new people may seem as unlik ely as fashioning the proverbial bricks with out straw. On the other hand, though no one appears to learn very much from history, the rulers of empires assuredly learn the least. This unhappy failing will prove to be especially ag gravated in the case of the American rulers, who have never heard of history and who have never read it, who do not know what the passion of a people can withstand or what it can accomplish, or how fatal is the moment, for the kingdom, when the passion is driven underground. They do not, for that matter, yet realize that they have already been forced to TO BE BAPTI ZED 457 do two deadly things. They have been forced to reveal their motives, themselves, in all their unattractive nakedness; hence the reaction of the blacks, on every level, to the "Nixon Ad ministration," which is of a stunning, unprecedented unanim ity.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  I very shortly became notorious and children giggled behind me when I passed and their elders whispered or shouted-they really believed that I was mad. And it did begin to work on my mind, of course; I began to be afraid to go anywhere and to compensate fo r this I went places to which I really should not have gone and where, God knows, I had no desire to be. My reputation in town naturally enhanced my reputation at work and my work ing day became one long series of acrobatics designed to keep me out of trouble. I cannot say that these acrobatics suc ceeded. It began to seem that the machinery of the organi zation I worked fo r was turning over, day and night, with but one aim: to eject me. I was fired once, and contrived, with the aid of a friend from New York, to get back on the payroll; was fired again, and bounced back again. It took a while to fire me for the third time, but the third time took. There were no loopholes anywhere. There was not even any way of get ting back inside the gates. That year in New Jersey lives in my mind as though it were the year during which, having an unsuspected predilection fo r '70 NOTES OF A NATIVE SON it, I first contracted some dread, chronic disease, the unfa iling symptom of which is a kind of blind fe ver, a pounding in the skull and fire in the bowels. Once this disease is contracted, one can never be really carefree again, fo r the fe ver, without an instant's warning, can recur at any moment. It can wreck more important things than race relations. There is not a Ne gro alive who does not have this rage in his blood--one has the choice, merely, of living with it consciously or surrender ing to it. As fo r me, this fe ver has recurred in me, and does, and will until the day I die. My last night in New Jersey, a white fr iend from New York took me to the nearest big town, Trenton, to go to the movies and have a fe w drinks. As it turned out, he also saved me from, at the very least, a violent whipping. Almost every detail of that night stands out very clearly in my memory. I even re member the name of the movie we saw because its title im pressed me as being so patly ironical. It was a movie about the German occupation of France, starring Maureen O'Hara and Charles Laughton and called This Land Is Mine. I re member the name of the diner we walked into when the movie ended: it was the "American Diner."

• From The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25-Year Landmark Study (2000)

  Several of the young adults said they appreciated stepfathers who played quiet, protective roles in their lives and in the life of their mother—in effect taking good care of their moms. This they found comforting. “He was always there for me if I needed him,” a successful thirty-four-year-old businesswoman confided about her stepfather. “We’d go to Dad’s and it was like a big party. He’d buy us presents and let us do things that Mom and my step didn’t allow. We adored Dad. But I was always glad to come home to Mom and my step. He wasn’t as exciting as Dad but we needed something solid after chasing rainbows with Dad all weekend.” Obviously a happy, stable remarriage has enormous economic, social, and psychological advantages for the couple and the children. Children raised in good remarriages and who feel loved and protected are indeed fortunate. But they are not in a majority. National studies find no significant differences between the psychological and learning problems of children raised in single-parent or remarried families.4 It appears that the advantages of remarriage, including having more economic resources, are counterbalanced by the high potential for conflict and emotional difficulties seen in so many remarried families. Not everyone can achieve harmony in a newly formed quartet. Who Takes Responsibility?WHEN I CALLED Billy’s mother to arrange our ten-year follow-up visit, she told me that Billy had moved out. “I can give you his address and his phone number, but Judy, we haven’t seen him in over a year. He left when he was sixteen to live with his father. Well, that was a disaster. Billy ended up living alone in Fred’s new house in Palo Alto and trying to go to high school. I begged Billy to come back here for his senior year, but it didn’t help that the baby had moved into Billy’s room. After six months Billy moved into an apartment upstairs from the restaurant where he works. He’s lived there ever since. I honestly think he’s rejected us.” National reports tell us that children in remarriages leave home earlier than children in intact families.5 Many feel unloved, unwanted, and excluded from the new family orbit. Some are very angry at their mothers and stepfathers. One young man said, “I was a hindrance—the leftover from a marriage that died.” The angriest were boys in their teens who were bitter about what they regarded as harsh discipline imposed unfairly by their stepfathers and mothers. I was frankly surprised to find the anger alive among a group of these young men years later. One thirty-year-old man who left home at age sixteen told me, “I was arrested for drunk driving the day after my best friend was killed. It was my first arrest ever. My mom and stepfather came to court like vigilantes and told the judge to throw the book at me. That’s when I moved out.” He said chillingly, “I’ll never forgive her as long as I live.”

• From Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014)

  From what I could see, there simply was no commitment to the rule of law, no accountability, and little shame. Arresting someone for coming forward with credible evidence that challenged the reliability of a capital murder conviction? The more I thought about it, the more disoriented and provoked I became. It was also sobering. If they arrested people who said things that were inconvenient, how would they react if I challenged them even harder? As I left town, I watched the sun set and darkness descend across the county landscape as it had for centuries. People would be heading home now, some to very comfortable houses where they could relax easily, secure and proud of their community. Others, people like Darnell and Walter’s family, would be returning to less comfortable homes. They would not rest as easily, nor would there be much thought of community pride. For them the darkness brought a familiar unease, an uncertainty weighted with a wary, lingering fear as old as the settlement of the county itself; discomfort too longstanding and constant to merit discussion but too burdensome to ever forget. I drove away as quickly as I could. “H Chapter Six Surely Doomed e’s just a little boy.” It was late, and I had picked up the phone after hours because no one else was in the building; it was becoming a bad habit. The older woman on the other end of the line was pleading with me after offering a heartfelt description of her grandson, who had just been jailed for murder. “He’s already been in the jail for two nights, and I can’t get to him. I’m in Virginia, and my health is not good. Please tell me you’ll do something.” I hesitated before answering her. Only a handful of countries permitted the death penalty for children—and the United States was one of them. Many of my Alabama clients were on death row for crimes they were accused of committing when they were sixteen- or seventeen-year- old children. Many states had changed their laws to make it easier to prosecute children as adults, and my clients were getting younger and younger. Alabama had more juveniles sentenced to death per capita than any other state—or any other country in the world. I was determined to manage the growing demand for our services by taking on new cases only if the client was facing execution or formally condemned to death row. This woman had told me that her grandson was only fourteen. While the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty for juveniles in a 1989 ruling, a year earlier the Court had barred the death penalty for children under the age of fifteen. Whatever perils this child faced, he was not going to be sent to death row.

• From Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014)

  He stood there silently. Finally, I added, “I’m the defense attorney. I think I have to be able to go inside the courtroom.” He looked at me closely and was clearly perplexed. “Um, I don’t know. I’ll have to go and check.” He disappeared inside the courtroom. He came back a few moments later and grinned at me tentatively. “Um, you can come in.” I pushed by the deputy, opened the door, and saw that the entire courtroom had been altered. Inside the courtroom door they had placed a large metal detector, on the other side of which was an enormous German shepherd held back by a police officer. The courtroom was already half filled. The benches that had been filled by Walter’s supporters the previous day were now mostly occupied by older white people. Clearly the people here were supporting the Morrisons and the prosecution. Chapman and Valeska were already sitting at the prosecutor’s table, acting as if nothing was going on. I was livid. I walked over to Chapman, “Who told the deputies not to let the folks outside come into the courtroom?” I asked. They looked at me as if they didn’t know what I was talking about. “I’m going to speak to the judge about this.” I spun on my heel and went directly to the judge’s chambers, and the prosecutors followed me. When I explained to Judge Norton that McMillian’s family and supporters had been told that they couldn’t come into the courtroom, even though the State’s supporters had been let in, the judge rolled his eyes and looked annoyed. “Mr. Stevenson, your people will just have to get here earlier,” he said dismissively. “Judge, the problem isn’t that they weren’t here early. The problem is they were told they couldn’t come into the courtroom.” “No one is being denied entrance to the courtroom, Mr. Stevenson.” He turned to his bailiff, who left the room. I followed the bailiff and saw him whisper something to the deputy outside the courtroom. McMillian’s supporters would be let into the courtroom—now that half the courtroom was already filled. I walked over to where two ministers had assembled all of Walter’s supporters and tried to explain the situation. “I’m sorry, everyone,” I said. “They’ve done something really inappropriate today. They’ll let you in now, but the courtroom is already half filled with people here to support the State. There won’t be enough seats for everyone.” One of the ministers, a heavyset African American man dressed in a dark suit with a large cross around his neck, walked over to me. “Mr. Stevenson, it’s okay. Please don’t worry about us. We’ll have a few people be our representatives today and we will be here even earlier tomorrow. We won’t let nobody turn us around, sir.”

• From The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) (2)

  There was an old man somewhat bald, with long and gray haire, one of the number of those that go from door to door, throughout all the villages, bearing the Image of the goddesse Syria, and playing with Cimbals to get the almes of good and charitable folks, this old man came hastely towards the cryer, and demanded where I was bred: Marry (quoth he) in Cappadocia: Then he enquired what age I was of, the cryer answered as a Mathematician, which disposed to me my Planets, that I was five yeares old, and willed the old man to looke in my mouth: For I would not willingly (quoth he) incur the penalty of the law Cornelia, in selling a free Citizen for a servile slave, buy a Gods name this faire beast to ride home on, and about in the countrey: But this curious buier did never stint to question of my qualities, and at length he demanded whether I were gentle or no: Gentle (quoth the crier) as gentle as a Lambe, tractable to all use, he will never bite, he will never kicke, but you would rather thinke that under the shape of an Asse there were some well advised man, which verely you may easily conject, for if you would thrust your nose in his taile you shall perceive how patient he is: Thus the cryer mocked the old man, but he perceiving his taunts and jests, waxed very angry saying, Away doting cryer, I pray the omnipotent and omniparent goddesse Syria, Saint Sabod, Bellona, with her mother Idea, and Venus, with Adonis, to strike out both thine eies, that with taunting mocks hast scoffed me in this sort: Dost thou thinke that I will put a goddesse upon the backe of any fierce beast, whereby her divine Image should be throwne downe on the ground, and so I poore miser should be compelled (tearing my haire) to looke for some Physition to helpe her? When I heard him speake thus, I thought with my selfe sodainly to leap upon him like a mad Asse, to the intent he should not buy me, but incontinently there came another Marchant that prevented my thought, and offered 17 Pence for me, then my Master was glad and received the money, and delivered me to my new Master who was called Phelibus, and he caried his new servant home, and before he came to his house, he called out his daughters saying, Behold my daughters, what a gentle servant I have bought for you: then they were marvailous glad, and comming out pratling and shouting for joy, thought verely that he had brought home a fit and conveniable servant for their purpose, but when they perceived that it was an Asse, they began to provoke him, saying that he had not bought a servant for his Maidens, but rather an Asse for himselfe.

• From Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition (2004)

  37 meaning is the tangible expression of honor in the form of gifts, spoils, or a particular prize (or geras). Kleos, usually translated “glory” or “fame,” means what is spoken aloud about one. Agamemnon dishonors Achilles because of a loss of timē he himself suffered when he had to return his concubine Chryseis to her father. Agamemnon thus tries to restore his own lost timē by taking Achilles’s geras, Briseis. Achilles responds by declaring that he will no longer fi ght and threatening to return home. Given the assumptions of Achilles’s culture, his reaction is not excessive; Agamemnon has removed Achilles’s motivation for fi ghting. In Homeric society, a warrior’s sense of worth is largely determined by how others perceive him. Agamemnon has done more than dishonor Achilles; he has called Achilles’s whole worth into question. These concepts— timē, kleos , and the warrior’s motivation for fi ghting— resonate throughout the rest of the epic. From Books II through XVIII, Achilles refrains from battle; the Greeks are ever harder pressed by the Trojans, led by their greatest warrior, Hector. The Greek leaders realize that they must do something to change their situation. Agamemnon selects three men to ask Achilles to accept Agamemnon’s apology and lavish gifts and to return to battle. The three go to Achilles’s tent, but he rejects their pleas forcefully. Achilles’s mother, Thetis, a goddess, has informed him he has two possible fates: to win kleos by dying at Troy or to return home and live a long, inglorious life. Achilles says that he will sail home and counsels others to do so. He fi nally agrees not to leave but says that he will not fi ght until the Trojans reach the Greeks’ ships. In Book XVI, Achilles’s dearest friend, Patroclus, goes into battle in Achilles’s place. Patroclus goes into battle wearing Achilles’s armor and is slain by Hector. His death is the crucial turning point of the Iliad. After Patroclus’s death in Book XVI and the fi ght over his body in Book XVII, the focus of the narrative and of Achilles’s character both change. The question of whether the Iliad and the Odyssey are unifi ed wholes created by one supreme poetic genius is often called the Homeric Question.

• From Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition (2004)

  23 it. David grows angry and says the rich man deserves death; Nathan responds “You are the man,” and predicts evils to come in David’s family. David admits his guilt, and Nathan predicts that the baby Bathsheba is carrying will die. What are we to make of this story about Israel’s most famous king? There are several obvious possibilities. Perhaps because David’s crimes were remembered by the tradition, the author “had” to include them. However, the author could have tried to explain these traditional details away. Instead, the author stresses the cruelty and deceit of David’s actions. Perhaps the author is concerned to remind us that the legitimacy of the king does not depend on his own ethical behavior. David is God’s anointed, but he is fallible and even, at times, evil. Perhaps such stories serve as reminders of the dangers inherent in even a good king’s rule. The only fully obvious conclusion is that the Deuteronomistic History presents a multifaceted view of kingship. It is worth remembering that the books of the Deuteronomistic History were written ex post facto, to explain not what went right in the monarchy so much as what went wrong. The idea that God rewards good behavior and punishes bad underlies a conception of the nature of good and bad fortune, often called the Deuteronomistic Theology . In this worldview, good fortune is evidence of righteousness, while bad fortune is evidence that one did wrong. Therefore, when the conquest of Judah imposed calamity on the whole people, the question arose, what have we done wrong to deserve this? The Deuteronomistic History’s presentation of the development of the monarchy attempts to answer this question. According to the Deuteronomistic History, what did go wrong? Most important, the people tended to fall into idolatry and to worship other gods. One fascinating point here is that the other gods are not denied or seen as meaningless. Even in the Ten Commandments, the prohibition on having any other god before God does not necessarily imply monotheism. Turning to other gods is seen as breaking the treaty’s requirement of loyalty to one’s overlord/suzerain. ■ 24 Lecture 4: The Deuteronomistic History 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings. Alter, Art of Biblical Narrative, especially chapters 4–6. ———, World of Biblical Literature, chapter 3 (“The Literary Character of the Bible”). Gottwald, Hebrew Bible. 1. Why do you think the writer(s) of the Deuteronomistic History chose to include stories that showed their own cultural heroes (such as David) in a bad light? 2. Can you think of any modern works of literature (or fi lm) that adhere to the Deuteronomistic Theology by implying that good fortune is evidence of righteousness and bad fortune, of wickedness? Essential Reading Supplementary Reading Questions to Consider

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  I fe lt that if that was the way Norman fe lt about me, he should have told me so. He had said that I was inca pable of saying "F--you" to the reader. My first temptation was to send him a cablegram which would disabuse him of that notion, at least insofar as one reader was concerned. But then I thought, No, I would be cool about it, and fa il to react as he so clearly wanted me to. Also, I must say, his judgment of myself seemed so wide of the mark and so childish that it was hard to stay angry. I wondered what in the world was going on in his mind. Did he really suppose that he had now become the builder and destroyer of reputations, And of my reputation? We met in the Actors' Studio one afternoon, after a per fo rmance of The Deer Pa rk-which I deliberately arrived too late to see, since I really did not know how I was going to react to Norman, and didn't want to betray myself by clob bering his play. When the discussion ended, I stood, again on the edge of the crowd around him, waiting. Over someone's shoulder, our eyes met, and Norman smiled. "We've got something to talk about," I told him. "I figured that," he said, smiling. We went to a bar, and sat opposite each other. I was relieved to discover that I was not angry, not even (as fa r as I could tell ) at the bottom of my heart. But, "Why did you write those things about me?" "Well, I'll tell you about that," he said-Norman has sev eral accents, and I think this was his Texas one-"1 sort of figured you had it coming to you." "Why?" "Well, I think there's some truth in it." "Well, if you fe lt that way, why didn't you ever say so-to me?" 282 NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME "Well, I figured if this was going to break up our friendship, something else would come along to break it up just as fa st." I couldn't disagree with that. "You're the only one I kind of regret hitting so hard," he said, with a gr in. "I think I-probably-wouldn't say it quite that way now." With this, I had to be content. We sat fo r perhaps an hour, talking of other things and, again, I was struck by his stance: leaning on the table, shoulders hunched, seeming, really, to roll like a boxer's, and his hands moving as though he were dealing with a sparring partner. And we were talking of phys ical courage, and the necessity of never letting another guy get the better of you. I laughed. "Norman, I can't go through the world the way you do because I haven't got your shoulders."

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  CHRYSOSTOM. This, it was said by them of old time, shews that it was long ago that they had received this precept. He says this that He might rouse His sluggish hearers to proceed to more sublime precepts, as a teacher might say to an indolent boy, Know you not how long time you have spent already in merely learning to spell? In that, I say unto you, mark the authority of the legislator, none of the old Prophets spoke thus; but rather, Thus saith the Lord. They as servants repeated the commands of their Lord; He as a Son declared the will of His Father, which was also His own. They preached to their fellow servants; Ha as master ordained a law for his slaves. AUGUSTINE. (de Civ. Dei, ix. 4.) There are two different opinions among philosophers concerning the passions of the mind: the Stoics do not allow that any passion is incident to the wise man; the Peripatetics affirm that they are incident to the wise man but in a moderate degree and subject to reason; as, for example, when mercy is shewn in such a manner that justice is preserved. But in the Christian rule we do not enquire whether the mind is first affected with anger or with sorrow, but whence. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. He who is angry without cause shall be judged; but he who is angry with cause shall not be judged. For if there were no anger, neither teaching would profit, nor judgments hold, nor crimes be controlled. So that he who on just cause is not angry, is in sin; for an unreasonable patience sows vices, breeds carelessness, and invites the good as well as the bad to do evil. JEROME. Some copies add here the words, without cause; but by the true readingc the precept is made unconditional, and anger altogether forbidden. For when we are told to pray for them that persecute us, all occasion of anger is taken away. The words without cause then must be erased, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Yet that anger which arises from just cause is indeed not anger, but a sentence of judgment. For anger properly means a feeling of passion; but he whose anger arises from just cause does not suffer any passion, and is rightly said to sentence, not to be angry with. AUGUSTINE. (Retract. i. 19.) This also we affirm should be taken into consideration, what is being angry with a brother; for he is not angry with a brother who is angry at his offence. He then it is who is angry without cause, who is angry with his brother, and not with the offence.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  It is that moment when no other human being is real tor you, nor are you real tor yourself. This devil has no need of any dogma-though he can use them all-nor does he need any historical justification, history being so largely his invention. He docs not levitate beds, or t()ol around with little girls: JVe do. The mindless and hysterical banality of the evil presented in The Exorcist is the most terrifying thing about the film. The Americans should certainly know more about evil than that; if they pretend otherwise, they are lying, and any black man, and not only blacks-many, many others, including white children-can call them on this lie; he who has been treated as the devil recognizes the devil when they meet. At the end of The Exorcist, the demon-racked little girl murderess kisses the Holy Father, and she remembers nothing: she is departi ng 57 2 THE DEVIL FINDS WORK with her mother, who will, presumably, soon make another film. The grapes of wrath are stored in the cotton fields and migrant shacks and ghettoes of this nation, and in the schools and prisons, and in the eyes and hearts and perceptions of the wretched everywhere, and in the ruined earth ofVietnam, and in the orphans and the widows, and in the old men, seeing visions, and in the young men, dreaming dreams: these have already kissed the bloody cross and will not bow down before it again: and have tl xgotten nothing. St. Paul de Vence July 29 , 1975 OTHER ESSAYS Contents Smaller Than Life (Review: Th ere Wa s Once a Slave: The Heroic Story of Frederick Dozt._qlass, by Shirley Graham; July 19, 1947) . 577 History as Nightmare (Review: Lonc(y Cmsndc, by Chester Himes; October 25, 1947) 579 The Image of the Negro (Review: Albert Sears, by Millen Brand; Kingsblood Royal, by Sinclair Lewis; The Pat!J of Thunder, by Peter Abrahams; God is fo r White Follls, by Will Thomas; QJttJlity, by Cid Ricketts Sumner; April 1948) . 582 Lockridge: 'The American Myth' (Review: Raimrce County, by Ross Lockridge, Jr.; April 10, 1948) . 588 Preservation of Innocence (Summer 1949). 594 The Negro at Home and Abroad (Review: No Grew Pastztres, by Roi Ottley; November 27, 1951) 601 The Crusade of Indignation (Review: N(qroes 1m the March, by Daniel Guerin; Goodbye to Uncle To m, by J. C. furnas; July 7, 1956). 6o6 Sermons and Blues (Review: Selected Po ems of Ln n.qston Hughes; March 29, 1959). 614 On Catfish Row: Pm;gy and Bess in the Movies (September 1959) . 616 They Can't Turn Back (August 1960) . 622 The Dangerous Road Before Martin Luther King (February 1961) 638 The New Lost Generation (July 1961) 659 The Creative Process (1962) 669 Color (December 1962). 673 A Talk to Teachers (December 21, 1963) 678 "This Nettle, Danger ... " (February 1964) 687 Nothing Personal (1964) 692 Words of a Native Son (December 1964) .

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  Y ct, I have reason to reflect-one always does, when forced to take a long look back. I remember many people who helped me in indescribable ways, all those years ago, when I was the pop eyed, tongue-tied kid, in my memory sitting in a corner, on the floor. I was having a rough time in the Village, where the bulk of the populace, egged on by the cops, thought it was great fun to bounce tables and chairs off my head, and I soon stopped talking about my "constitutional" rights. I am, I sup pose, a surv1vor. A survivor of what? In those years, I was told, when I be came terrified, vehement, or lachrymose: It takes time, Jimmy. INTRODUCTION TO "NOTES .. 8I3 It takes time. I agree: I still agree: though it certainly didn't take much time for some of the people I knew then-in the Fifties-to turn tail, to decide to make it, and drape them selves in the American fl ag. A wretched and despicable band of cowards, whom I once trusted with my life-friends like these! But we will discuss all that another day. When I was told, it takes time, when I was young, I was being told it will take time before a Black person can be treated as a human being here, but it will happen. We will help to make it happen. We promise you. Sixty years of one man's life is a long time to deliver on a promise, especially considering all the lives preceding and sur rounding my own. What has happened, in the time of my time, is the record of my ancestors. No promise was kept with them, no promise was kept with me, nor can I counsel those coming after me, nor my global kinsmen, to believe a word uttered by my mor ally bankrupt and desperately dishonest countrymen. aAnd, ''says Doris Lessing, in her preface to African Stories, awhile the cruelties of the white man toward the black man are among the heaviest counts in the indictment against humanity, colour prejudice is not our original fault, but only one aspect of the atrophy of the imagination that prevents us from seeing our selves in every creature that breathes under the sun." Amen. En avant. I8 April 1984 Amherst, Massachusetts Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood T o BE ANDROGYNOUS, Webster's informs us, is to have both male and female characteristics. This means that there is a man in eve!)' woman and a woman in eve!)' man. Sometimes this is recognized only when the chips are, bru tally, down-when there is no longer any way to avoid this recognition. But love between a man and a woman, or love benveen any t\Vo human beings, would not be possible did we not have available to us the spiritual resources of both sexes. To be androgynous does not imply both male and female sexual equipment, which is the state, uncommon, of the her maphrodite.