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)

  James Earl Grant was arrested in the more lib eral city of Ch arlotte, accused with two others of burning down the Lazy B riding stables in which fif teen horses died. He merited a mere 25. The other two men got a total of 30 years in the 197 2 trial-the fire was in 1968. In any event, some of the most pertinent details of the cases arc to be found in major newspapers and in the Congressional Record: Messrs. John Cony ers Jr., Ronald V. Dcllums and Ch arles B. Rangel speaking. And the mother of Ben Chavis, speaking from a church in Raleigh, N. C., has the most pertinent question, especially in light of the fact that her son is a Christian minister: "You in the Christian church, will you be diligent in keeping them from getting my son?" And the entire horror evolved from the manner in which a Wilmington judge decided to desegregate a Wil mington high school, and the tact that the black students wished to declare the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a day of mourning. I have said that it is not a new thing I have to tell you, and, indeed, most of it is not new for me. I might in my own mind, 766 OPEN LETTER TO MR. CAR TER 767 as I write, be speaking of the Scottsboro Boys: where I came in, so to speak. If I know, you must certainly know of the silent pact made between the North and the South, after Reconstruction, the purpose of which was-and is-to keep the nigger in his place . If I know, then you must certainly know, that keeping the nigger in his place was the most extraordinarily effective way of keeping the poor white in his place, and also, of keeping him poor: The situation of the Wilmington ro and of the Charlotte 3 is a matter of Federal collusion, and would not be possible without that collus ion. When those black children and white children and black men and white men and black women and white women were marching, behind Martin, up and down those dusty roads, trespassing, trespassing wherever they were, in the wrong waiting room, at the wrong coffee counter, in the wrong de partment store, in the wrong toilet, and were carried off to jail, they found themselves before federally appointed judges, who gave them the maximum sentence. Some people died beneath that sentence, some went mad, some girls will never become pregnant again. Some of us, fol lowing Martin, and, however we may sometimes have dis agreed with him, feeling his love, and believing I have a dream! could sometimes raise in an evening $3o,ooo or $4-o,ooo or $5o,ooo-y es: which was gone in bail-bond money in the morning. And, yes, my friend, that is called collusio n.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  The F.B.I. wishes to know if any one of us would like to sign an affidavit. I signed my affidavit in Korea says my brother, and turns away to watch the departing people. When we marched on Montgomery, the Conf ederate flag was flying from the dome of the Capitol: this gesture can be interpreted as insurrection. But when Muh ammad Ali decided to be true to his faith and refused to join the Army, the wrath of an entire Republic was visited on his head, he was stripped of his title, and was not all owed to work. In short, his coun trymen decided to break him, and it is not their virtue that thcv f. 'lil cd. It is his virtue. ( am not so much trying to bring to your mind the suffering OPEN LETTER TO MR. CAR TER 769 of a despised people-a very comforting notion, after all, for most Americans-as the state and the fate of a nation of which you are the elected leader. The situations of the Wilmington 10, and the Charlotte 3, are very small symptoms of the mon strous and continuing wrong for which you, as the elected leader, are now responsible. Too many of us arc in jail, my friend; too many of us arc starving, too many of us can find no door open. And I was in Charlotte, 20 years ago, three years afi:er the Supreme Court made segregation in education illegal, when it was decided that separate could not, by definition, be eqttal. Charlotte then begged for time, and time, indeed, has passed. I was in Boston a few months ago and Boston, now, is begging for time. Across the entire question of the education of our children all our chil dren-is dragged the entirely false issue of busing. A child's future does not change because he is bused into another neighborhood. Well, I dared to write you this letter out of the concrete necessity of bringing to your attention the situations of the Wilmington 10 and the Charlotte 3. I repeat, their situation is but a very small indication of the wretched in this country: the nonwhite, the Indian, the Puerto Rican, the Mexican, the Oriental. Consider that we may all have learned, by now, all that we can learn from you and may not want to become like you. At this hour of the world's history it may be that you, now, have something to learn trom us. I must add, in honor, that I write to you because I love our country: And you, in my lif etime, are the only president to whom I would have written. The New Ym·k Times, January 23, 1977 Last of the Great Masters THE WoRLD oF EARL HI NES B;• Staulcy Dance. Illustrated. 324 pp.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  In the film, on the southern road, Billie leaves the bus to go relieve herself in the bushes. Wan dering along the countryside, Billie suddenly sees, on the road just before her, grieving black people, and a black body hang ing from a tree. The best that one can say for this moment is that it is mistaken, and the worst that it is callously false and self -serving- which may be a rude way of saying the same thing: luckily, it is brief. The scene operates to resolve, at one stroke, several problems, and without in the least involving or intimidating the spectator. The lynch scene is as remote as an THE DE VIL FIND S WO RK Indian massacre, occurring in the same landscape, and eliciting the same response: a mixture of pious horror, and gratified reassurance. The ubiquitous Ku Klux Klan appears, marching beside the bus in which the band is riding. The band is white, and they attempt to hide Billie, making, meanwhile, friendly gestures to their marching countrymen. But Billie, because of the strange fruit she has just seen hanging, is now beside herself� and deliberately makes herself visible, cursing and weeping against the Klan: she, and the musicians, make a suf ficiently narrow, entirely cinematic escape. This scene is pure bullshit Hollywood-American fable, with the bad guys robed and the good guys casual: as a result, anyway, of all this unhealthy excitement, this understandable (and oddly reas suring) bitterness, Billie finally takes her first fix, and is im mediately hooked. This incident is not in the book: for the very good reason, certainly, that black people in this country are schooled in adversity long before white people are. Blacks perceive danger far more swiftly, and, however odd this may sound, then at tempt to protect their white comrade from his white brothers: they know their white comrade's brothers tar better than the comrade does. One of the necessities of being black, and knowing it, is to accept the hard discipline of learning to avoid useless anger, and needless loss of lif e: every mother and his mother's mother's mother's brother is needed. The off-screen Billie faced down white sheriffs, and laughed at them, to their faces, and faced down white managers, cops, and bartenders. She was much stronger than this film can have any interest in indicating, and, as a victim, infinitely more complex. Otherwise, she would never have been able to tell us, so simply, that she sang "Strange Fruit" for her father, and got hooked because she tell in love. The film cannot accept-because it cannot use-this sim plicity.

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

  Chapman had called in the state attorney general’s office to help defend Walter’s conviction, and they’d sent Assistant Attorney General Don Valeska, a longtime prosecutor with a reputation for being intense and combative. Valeska was a white man in his forties whose fit, medium frame suggested someone who stayed active; the glasses he wore added to his serious demeanor. His brother Doug was the district attorney in Houston County, and both men were aggressive and unapologetic in their prosecution of “bad guys.” Michael and I had reached out to Chapman once more before the hearing to see if we could persuade him to reopen the investigation and independently reexamine whether McMillian was guilty. But by now, Chapman and all of the law enforcement officers had grown tired of us. They seemed increasingly hostile whenever they had to deal with us. I had considered reporting to them the bomb threats and death threats we’d received, since they were likely coming from people in Monroe County, but I wasn’t sure anyone in the sheriff’s or D.A.’s office would care. The new judge on the case, Judge Thomas B. Norton Jr., had also grown weary of us. We’d had several pretrial hearings on different motions during which he would sometimes become frustrated because of the bickering between the lawyers. We kept insisting on obtaining all files and evidence the State had in its possession. We had uncovered so much exculpatory evidence that had not been disclosed previously that we were sure there was still more that had not been turned over. The judge finally told us that we were fishing after we’d made our ninth or tenth request for more police and prosecution files. I suspect that Judge Norton had scheduled the final Rule 32 hearing in part because he wanted to get this contentious, complicated case off his docket and out of his court. In the last pretrial appearance, the judge had asked, “How much time will you need to present your evidence, Mr. Stevenson?” “We’d like to reserve a week, your honor.” “A week? You’ve got to be joking. For a Rule 32 hearing? The trial in this case only lasted a day and a half.” “Yes, sir. We believe this is an extraordinary case and there are several witnesses and—” “Three days, Mr. Stevenson. If you can’t make your case in three days after all of this drama you’ve stirred up, you don’t really have anything.” “Judge, I—” “Adjourned.” —

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  I remember when the ex -Attorney General, Mr. Robert Kennedy, said it was conceivable that in 4-0 years in America we might have ·a: Negro President. T&at sounded like a very cmailcipatcd- - statcmcnt to white people. They were not in Harlem when this statement was first heard. They did not hear the laughter and bitterness and scorn with which this state ment was greeted. From the point of view of the man in the Harlem barber shop, Bobby Kennedy only got here yesterday and now he is already on his way to the Presidency. We were here for 4-00 years and now he tells us that maybe in 4-0 years, i(you arc good, we may let you become President. -� Perhaps I can be reasoned with, but I don't know-n either docs Martin Luther King-none of us knows how to deal with people whom the white world has so long ignored, who don't believe anything the white world says and don't entirely be lieve anything I or Martin say. You can't blame them. It seems to me that the City of New York has had, for example, Negroes in it for a very long time. The City of New York was able in the last 15 years to reconstruct itself , to tear down buildings and raise great new ones, and has done noth ing whatever except build housing projects, mainly in the ghettoes, for the Negroes. And of course the Negroes hate it. The children can't bear it. They want to move out of the ghettoes. If American pretensions were based on more honest assessments of lif e, it would not mean for Negroes that when someone says "urban renewal" some Negroes are going to be thrown out into the streets, which is what it means now. It is a terrible thing tor an entire people to surrender to the notion that one- ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, arc able. to ac cept the fact that my ancestors arc both black and white, that on that continent wc _arc trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country-until this moment comes there is AM ERIC AN DR EAM AND AM ERIC AN NEGR O 719 scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West. The New York Times Magazine, March 7, 1965 On the Painter Beauford Delaney I LEARNED about light from Beauford Delaney, the light contained in every thing, in every surface, in every face. Many years ago, in poverty and uncertainty, Beauford and I \\'ould walk together through the streets of New York City.

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

  I found the new race and poverty work extremely energizing. It closely connected to our work on criminal justice issues; I believe that so much of our worst thinking about justice is steeped in the myths of racial difference that still plague us. I believe that there are four institutions in American history that have shaped our approach to race and justice but remain poorly understood. The first, of course, is slavery. This was followed by the reign of terror that shaped the lives of people of color following the collapse of Reconstruction until World War II. Older people of color in the South would occasionally come up to me after speeches to complain about how antagonized they feel when they hear news commentators talking about how we were dealing with domestic terrorism for the first time in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. An older African American man once said to me, “You make them stop saying that! We grew up with terrorism all the time. The police, the Klan, anybody who was white could terrorize you. We had to worry about bombings and lynchings, racial violence of all kinds.” The racial terrorism of lynching in many ways created the modern death penalty. America’s embrace of speedy executions was, in part, an attempt to redirect the violent energies of lynching while assuring white southerners that black men would still pay the ultimate price. Convict leasing was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century to criminalize former slaves and convict them of nonsensical offenses so that freed men, women, and children could be “leased” to businesses and effectively forced back into slave labor. Private industries throughout the country made millions of dollars with free convict labor, while thousands of African Americans died in horrific work conditions. The practice of re-enslavement was so widespread in some states that it was characterized in a Pulitzer Prize–winning book by Douglas Blackmon as Slavery by Another Name. But the practice is not well known to most Americans. During the terror era there were hundreds of ways in which people of color could commit a social transgression or offend someone that might cost them their lives. Racial terror and the constant threat created by violently enforced racial hierarchy were profoundly traumatizing for African Americans. Absorbing these psychosocial realities created all kinds of distortions and difficulties that manifest themselves today in multiple ways.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  He then went away to his own room, where he found one trusty servant awaiting him by his orders. " Is thy heart bold enough," he said to him, " to follow me to a place where I have to revenge myself on the greatest of my enemies ? " " Yes, my lord," replied the man, who knew nothing of the matter in hand, " though it were upon the duke himself." Thereupon, without giving the man time for reflection, the gentleman hurried him away so abruptly that he had not time to take any other weapon than a poniard with which he was already armed. The duke, hearing his favourite's footsteps at the door, believed that he was bringing him the object of his passion, and threw open the curtains to behold and welcome her ; but instead of her he saw her brother ad- vance upon him with a drawn sword. Unarmed, but undaunted, the duke started up, seized the gentleman round the middle, saying, " Is this the way you keep your word } " and for want of other weapons used his nails and his teeth, bit His antagonist in the thumb, and defended himself so well that they fell together beside Second day.\ QUEEN OF NA VARRE. 1 , 7 the bed. The gentleman, not feeling confident in his own strength, called his man, who, seeing his master and the duke grappling each other so desperately that he could not well distinguish which was which in that dark spot, dragged them both out by the heels into the middle of the room, and then set about cutting the duke's throat with his poniard. The duke defended himself to the last, until he was exhausted by loss of blood. Then the gentleman and his man laid him on the bed, finished him with their poniards, drew the cur- tains upon the body, and left the room, locking the door behind them.

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

  On the other hand, as to the inordinateness which regards the mode of being angry, anger would seem to have a certain pre-eminence on account of the strength and quickness of its movement, according to Prov. 27:4, “Anger hath no mercy, nor fury when it breaketh forth: and who can bear the violence of one provoked?” Hence Gregory says (Moral. v, 45): “The heart goaded by the pricks of anger is convulsed, the body trembles, the tongue entangles itself, the face is inflamed, the eyes are enraged and fail utterly to recognize those whom we know: the tongue makes sounds indeed, but there is no sense in its utterance.” Reply to Objection 1: Chrysostom is alluding to the repulsiveness of the outward gestures which result from the impetuousness of anger. Reply to Objection 2: This argument considers the inordinate movement of anger, that results from its impetuousness, as stated above. Reply to Objection 3: Murder results from hatred and envy no less than from anger: yet anger is less grievous, inasmuch as it considers the aspect of justice, as stated above. Whether the Philosopher suitably assigns the species of anger?Objection 1: It would seem that the species of anger are unsuitably assigned by the Philosopher (Ethic. iv, 5) where he says that some angry persons are “choleric,” some “sullen,” and some “ill-tempered” or “stern.” According to him, a person is said to be “sullen” whose anger “is appeased with difficulty and endures a long time.” But this apparently pertains to the circumstance of time. Therefore it seems that anger can be differentiated specifically in respect also of the other circumstances. Objection 2: Further, he says (Ethic. iv, 5) that “ill-tempered” or “stern” persons “are those whose anger is not appeased without revenge, or punishment.” Now this also pertains to the unquenchableness of anger. Therefore seemingly the ill-tempered is the same as bitterness. Objection 3: Further, our Lord mentions three degrees of anger, when He says (Mat. 5:22): “Whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council, and whosoever shall say” to his brother, “Thou fool.” But these degrees are not referable to the aforesaid species. Therefore it seems that the above division of anger is not fitting.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  They did this without any recognition of the cultur al validity of these peoples and thus aroused their resistance. In the case of Africa, where culture was fluid and largely unwritten, resistance had been most difficult. "Which is why," he said, "we are here. We are the most characteristic products of this crisis." And then a rage seemed to shake him, and he continued in a voice thick with fury, "Nothing will ever make us believe that our belief s . . . are merely frivolous superstitions. No power will ever cause us to admit that we are lower than any other peop le." He then made a reference to the present Arab struggle against the French which I did not understand, and ended, "What we are doing is holding on to what is ours. Little," he added, sardonically, "but it belongs to us." Aime Cesaire, to whom the question had been addressed, was finally able to answer it. He pointed out, with a deliberate, mocking logic, that the rejection by a European of European culture was of the utmost unimport ance. "Reject it or not, he is still a European, even his rejection is a European rej ection. We do not choose our cultur es, we belong to them." As to the speaker's implied idea of cultur al relativity, and the pro gressive role this idea can sometimes play, he cited the French objection to this idea. It is an idea which, by making all cul tures, as such, equal, undermines French justification for its presence in Africa. He also suggested that the speaker had implied that this conference was primarily interested in an ide alistic reconstruction of the past. "But our attitude," said Cesaire, "toward colonialism and racial discrimination is very concrete. Our aims cannot be realized without this concrete ness." And as fo r the question of race : "No one is suggesting that there is such a thing as a pure race, or that culture i� a racial prod uct. We are not Negroes by our own desire, but, PRINCES AND POWER S in effect, because of Europe. What unites all Negroes is the injustices they have suffered at European hands ." The moment Cesair e finished, Cheik Anta Diop passion ately demanded if it were a heresy from a Marxist point of view to try to hang onto a national culture. "Wher e," he asked, "is the European nation which, in order to progress, surrende red its past?" Ther e was no answer to this question, nor were ther e any further questions from the audience. Richard Wright spoke briefly, saying that this conference marked a turning point in the history of Eur o-African re lations: it marked, in fact, the beginning of the end of the European domination.

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

  I. On the first head it is to be noted, that there are four classes of men with whom God will be angry in the judgment. (1) Against those who despise the law of God: “Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel, therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand against them and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets,” Isa. 5:24, 25. (2) He will be wroth against those who remain, or persist, in their sins unto the end: “Behold, Thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved,” Isa. 64:5. (3) Against those who abuse temporal riches: “I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease,” Zach. 1:15. (4) Against those who have no compassion on their neighbours: “For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment,” S. James 2:13. This can be applied to that servant who was unwilling to have compassion on his fellow-servant. II. On the second head it is to be noted, that the sinner will be tormented by four different tormentors. (1) By God: “And when He was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes there met Him two possessed with devils.… And when they were come out they went into the herd of swine: and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place to the sea and perished in the waters,” S. Matt. 8:28–33. (2) By conscience: S. Augustine says, “Thou hast commanded, O Lord, and so it is, that every inordinate mind should be a punishment to itself.” (3) By eternal death; whilst it is said of the saints, that their souls “are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them,” Wisd. 3:1. “I pray thee, therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment,” S. Luke 16:27, 28. (4) From every creature: “For the creature that serveth Thee, Who art the Maker, increaseth his strength against the unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth his strength for the benefit of such as put their trust in Thee,” Wisd. 16:24.

• From Collected Essays (1998)

  The Oakland Police force was outraged, naturally, and I think they threatened to sue him, probably for defamation of character. The Grand Jury had judged their shooting of an unarmed, black adoles cent as "justifiable homicide": the names of these jurors, many of whom can claim as their intimates eminent judges and lawyers, could scarcely have been found on the Master Panel if it were supposed that they were capable of bringing in any other verdict. (I went to Oakland to visit the house where Hu tton was killed, and Cleaver wounded. The house where the Panthers were is wedged between two houses just like it. There are windows on either side of the house, facing the alley; facing TO BE BAPTI ZED 4-35 the street, there is only an enormous garage door, from which, needless to say, no one could hope to shoot, and live. The house, particularly the basement, where the people were, looks like something from a search-and-destroy operation. The warehouse across the street, where the cops were, doesn't have a scratch on it: so much tor the official concept of a shoot-out. When I was there, there were flowers on a rock, marking the spot where Bobby fell: the people of the neigh borhood had made of the place a shrine.) I think it was in March, but it may have been somewhat earlier, that Martin Luther King came to town, to speak in a private dwelling in the Hol lywood hills to raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conf erence. I had not seen Martin in quite some time, and I looked forward to seeing him in a setting where we might be able to talk a little bit before he had to dash otT and grab some sleep bef ore catching the next plane. For years, most of us had seen each other only at airports, or, wearily, marching, marching. It always seems-unf airly enough, perhaps, in many cases incongruous and suspect when relatively wealthy and certainly very wordly people come together for the express purpose of declaring their allegiance to a worthy cause and with the in tention of parting with some of their money. I think that someone like myself can scarcely avoid a certain ambivalence before such a spectacle-someone like myself being someone significantly and crucially removed from the world which pro duced these people .

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

  Walter suddenly recognized the man. At the end of the trial when the jury had found Walter guilty, his family and several of the black people who had attended the trial were in shocked disbelief. Sheriff Tate claimed that Walter’s twenty-four-year-old son, Johnny, said, “Somebody’s going to pay for what they’ve done to my father.” Tate asked deputies to arrest Johnny, and there was a scuffle. Walter saw the officers wrestle his child to the ground and place him in handcuffs. The more he looked at the two deputies driving him back to death row, the more convinced he became that one of them had tackled his son. The van began to move. They wouldn’t tell Walter where he was going, but as soon as they got on the road it was clear that they were taking him back to death row. He had been upset and distraught on the day of his arrest, but he was so sure he’d be released soon. He got frustrated when the days turned into weeks at the county jail. He was depressed and terrified when they took him to death row before trial before being convicted of any crime, and the weeks became months. But when the nearly all-white jury pronounced him guilty, after fifteen months of waiting for vindication, he was shocked, paralyzed. Now he felt himself coming back to life—but all he could feel was seething anger. The deputies were driving him back to death row and talking about a gun show they were planning to attend. Walter realized that he had been foolish to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. He knew Tate was vicious and no good, but he assumed that the others were just doing what they had been told. Now he was feeling something that could only be described as rage. “Hey, I’m going to sue all of y’all!” He knew he was screaming and that it wasn’t going to make any difference. “I’m going to sue all of y’all!” he repeated. The officers paid him no attention. “Loose these chains. Loose these chains.”

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

  Both Lindsey and Dunkins had volunteer lawyers who had reached out to me for help because they were overwhelmed. Lindsey’s lawyer, David Bagwell, was a respected civil attorney from Mobile; he had worked on the case of Wayne Ritter, who’d been executed a year earlier. That experience left Bagwell disillusioned and angry. He wrote a scathing letter published in the state bar association’s journal in which he vowed “never to take another death penalty case, even if they disbar me for my refusal” and urged other civil lawyers not to take death penalty cases. Bagwell’s public complaints made it hard for courts to appoint other civil lawyers for last-stage appeals in a death penalty case, not that they were particularly inclined to do so. But it had another effect as well. Prisoners got word of the letter and talked about it among themselves, especially about a chilling comment buried in Bagwell’s jeremiad: “I generally favor the death penalty because mad dogs ought to die.” The prisoners became even more distrustful of lawyers, even the ones who claimed they would help. After further pleading by our other clients, we decided to do what we could for Michael Lindsey, whose execution date was fast approaching. We tried to make arguments about an interesting twist in that case: His jury had never decided that Michael Lindsey should be executed at all. Lindsey received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole from his jury, but the judge had “overridden” it and imposed a death sentence on his own. Death sentences resulting from “judge override” were an anomaly, even back in 1989. In almost every state, juries made the decision to impose the death penalty or life in prison without parole. If the jury imposed or rejected death, that was the final judgment. Only Florida and Alabama allowed the jury’s decision to be overridden by a judge—and Florida later put restrictions on the practice that severely curtailed it. It remains the law in Alabama, where judges almost exclusively use this power to turn life sentences into death sentences, although they’re also authorized to reduce death verdicts to life if they so choose. Since 1976, judges in Alabama have overridden jury sentencing verdicts in capital cases 111 times. In 91 percent of these cases, judges replaced life verdicts from juries with death sentences.

• From Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out (2014)

  The screenwriter discussed in some detail Scientology’s policy of “disconnection,” which encourages members to cut off family, friends, and associates who have been declared suppressive persons or SPs. An SP is often someone who in some way has expressed criticism of the organization. In a CNN interview an official spokesperson for Scientology, Tommy Davis, was asked about the disconnection policy. He answered, “There’s no such thing as disconnection as you’re characterizing it.” However, Haggis publicly took issue with Davis. “We all know this policy exists. I didn’t have to search for verification—I didn’t have to look any further than my own home.” Haggis was referring to his wife who was told to disconnect from her parents when they left the church. He then concluded, “To see [Tommy Davis] lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else [is Tommy Davis] lying about?” Haggis later lamented, “What kind of organization are we involved in where people just disappear?”906 Lawrence Wright, the reporter who wrote the article in the New Yorker about Haggis, later expanded the story into a sensational book about Scientology.907 Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of David Miscavige, wrote a book about her own odyssey in Scientology.908 She told the press, “My experience in growing up in Scientology is that it is both mentally and at times physically abusive.” Ms. Hill claimed, “We got a lousy education from unqualified teachers, forced labor, long hours, forced confessions, being held in rooms not to mention the mental anguish of trying to figure out all of the conflicting information they force upon you as a young child.”909 Like other defectors, Hill says she has been branded an SP.910 2012—Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise Divorce In 2012 when actress Katie Holmes filed for divorce against movie star Tom Cruise, all the historically troubling issues surrounding Scientology seemed to congeal and become fodder for the press. And the issue of disconnection in particular—and its potential for parental alienation—was discussed in some depth. It appears the famous couple was preparing for a contentious court battle over the custody of their six-year-old daughter, Suri Cruise. Holmes reportedly was unhappy about Scientology and didn’t want her child to be indoctrinated. The divorce became a magnet drawing increasingly bad press for Scientology. Former Scientologists were interviewed, and details about their allegations of abuse in the organization were reported about and broadcast globally. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch even weighed in, calling Scientology “a very weird cult” and Scientologists “creepy, maybe even evil.” Josh Forman, a matrimonial attorney and partner at Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert in New York, opined, “I don’t think it would be very good for Tom’s career if he is seen as having a huge, dragged-out custody battle with Katie. I think they should really settle, and I see this as settling.”911 Less than two weeks after the divorce filing, that is exactly what happened.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  Meanwhile Arriguccio betook himself in all haste to the house of his wife's brothers and there knocked so long and so loudly that he was heard and it was opened to him. The lady's three brothers and her mother, hearing that it was Arriguccio, rose all and letting kindle lights, came to him and asked what he went seeking at that hour and alone. Whereupon, beginning from the twine he had found tied to wife's toe, he recounted to them all that he had discovered and done, and to give them entire proof of the truth of his story, he put into their hands the hair he thought to have cut from his wife's head, ending by requiring them to come for her and do with her that which they should judge pertinent to their honour, for that he meant to keep her no longer in his house. The lady's brothers, hearing this and holding it for certain, were sore incensed against her and letting kindle torches, set out to accompany Arriguccio to his house, meaning to do her a mischief; which their mother seeing, she followed after them, weeping and entreating now the one, now the other not to be in such haste to believe these things of their sister, without seeing or knowing more of the matter, for that her husband might have been angered with her for some other cause and have maltreated her and might now allege this in his own excuse, adding that she marvelled exceedingly how this [whereof he accused her] could have happened, for that she knew her daughter well, as having reared her from a little child, with many other words to the like purpose. When they came to Arriguccio's house, they entered and proceeded to mount the stair, whereupon Madam Sismonda, hearing them come, said, 'Who is there?' To which one of her brothers answered, 'Thou shalt soon know who it is, vile woman that thou art!' 'God aid us!' cried she. 'What meaneth this?' Then, rising to her feet, 'Brothers mine,' quoth she, 'you are welcome; but what go you all three seeking at this hour?' The brothers,--seeing her seated sewing, with no sign of beating on her face, whereas Arriguccio avouched that he had beaten her to a mummy,--began to marvel and curbing the violence of their anger, demanded of her how that had been whereof Arriguccio accused her, threatening her sore, and she told them not all. Quoth she, 'I know not what you would have me say nor of what Arriguccio can have complained to you of me.' Arriguccio, seeing her thus, eyed her as if he had lost his wits, remembering that he had dealt her belike a thousand buffets on the face and scratched her and done her all the ill in the world, and now he beheld her as if nothing of all this had been.

• From Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)

  Leany replied angrily that “God shall bear me witness that I am clean of all of which they accuse me & they guilty of all that I accuse them & much more.” What Leany accused his fellow Saints of, the letter revealed, was “thieving whoredom murder and Suicide & like abominations.” He reminded Steele, moreover, that “you are far from ignorant of these deeds of blood from the day the picket fence was broke on my head to the day those three were murdered in our ward & the murderer killed to stop the shedding of more blood.” Five paragraphs later, Leany made another allusion to “the killing the three in one room of our own ward.” Baffled and intrigued by these provocative references to murder, Wesley Larsen deduced from historical records that the killings alluded to by Leany had occurred in 1869. Then he determined that only three men had been murdered that year in southern Utah: William Dunn and the Howland brothers. But why would the good Saints of Toquerville want to take the lives of three wayward explorers? Toquerville was founded in 1858, a year after the Mountain Meadows massacre, and most of the first families to settle there were headed by men who had participated in the slaughter. Many of these same men were living in Toquerville in 1869 when Powell floated down the Grand Canyon. The year prior to Powell’s expedition, Ulysses S. Grant had been elected president, and his administration had made it a priority to capture the perpetrators of the massacre and bring them to justice. Even before this new dragnet, moreover, a $5,000 bounty had been placed on the heads of Isaac Haight, John Higbee, and John D. Lee. By the time Dunn and the Howlands decided to abandon Powell’s expedition and walk to the Mormon settlements, many of Toquerville’s leading citizens were living in constant fear of arrest. The climate of paranoia that pervaded the region was at a particularly high pitch in the summer of 1869 thanks to Brigham Young, who had made a trip through southern Utah that season stoking hatred for the Gentiles. Cautioning that federal troops were about to launch a new invasion of Deseret, Brigham ordered sentries to stand watch at strategic points along the territory’s southern border. This was the volatile atmosphere that awaited Dunn and the Howlands as they walked north from Mount Dellenbaugh toward the Mormon settlements. Larsen speculates that somewhere on the Shivwits Plateau they encountered one or more Mountain Meadows fugitives, who assumed that Powell’s men must be federal agents or bounty hunters; their preposterous claim to be harmless explorers who had just completed the first descent of the Grand Canyon—which was known by everyone in Utah to be completely impassable—would only have confirmed their treacherous intentions in the eyes of the Saints. So (according to this scenario) the Mormons hauled Dunn and the Howlands into Toquerville, where they were tried by a kangaroo court and summarily executed.

• From Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women (Erotic Fiction) (2006)

  Title : Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women (Erotic Fiction) Author: Madore, Nancy NANCY MADOREEnchantedErotic Bedtime Stories for Women [image file=image_rsrc1HY.jpg] I dedicate this book to you. ContentsForeword Beauty and the Beast Bluebeard Cat and Mouse Cinderella East of the Sun and West of the Moon Goldilocks and the Three Barons Mirror on the Wall Mrs. Fox Snow White in the Woods The Empress’ New Clothes The Goose Girl The Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing The Ugly Duckling ForewordIt is amazing how confused everyone seems to be about women’s sexuality, including women. Women’s magazines are constantly giving advice about how women can better please their men (and where to find the products to help them do it), while women’s TV bombards us with horror stories about how terrible men are—and thrown in the middle of all this we have myriads of dazzling female sex symbols supposedly forging a path for our total sexual empowerment. So why are increasing numbers of women reporting an overwhelming uninterest in sex? Why isn’t sex fun for women anymore? In my opinion, these self-proclaimed representatives of female sexuality in the media are alienating women sexually, by exploiting them, tearing down their self-esteem and raising their expectations of themselves to unattainable highs while lowering their expectations of men to ridiculous lows. When a popular female icon starves herself, alters herself, misrepresents herself, sells herself, exploits herself, etc., she is contributing to the overall standards that influence how women are viewed by men and how they view themselves. It is my belief that to really empower women sexually (or in any other part of their life, for that matter) we need to stop trying to control or change them. We must accept them exactly as they are. When women feel good about themselves they feel better about sex. Sex is not a market that is cornered by a select few. All women have it within them to be sexual, although it lies dormant in many of us because of the damage done by our culture and media. It can be reawakened, but only through total acceptance of who we are. We need to feel safe being sexual without the fear of being exploited, changed, categorized, punished, shamed or degraded. I thought erotic stories written especially for and about women might help, and the results of my efforts are the stories you find here. They are based on the real fantasies of women, as they are, without censure. Do not be alarmed if you find a fantasy or two that is not quite “correct” from every point of view. Bear in mind that I have carefully selected these fantasies from the most popular according to my research. Accepting these fantasies will not harm the movement for women’s equality, since equality can be achieved only through acceptance.

• From Post Office (1971)

  “I want you to get off your ass and find out why these water fountains are being removed.” “All right, I’ll see you tomorrow.” “See that you do. Twelve years worth of union dues is $312.” The next day I had to look for Parker. He didn’t have the answer. Or the next or the next. I told Parker that I was tired of waiting. He had one more day. The next day he came up to me in the coffee break area. “All right, Chinaski, I found out.” “Yes?” “In 1912 when this building was built ...” “In 1912? That’s over a half century ago! No wonder this place looks like the Kaiser’s whorehouse!” “All right, stop it. Now, in 1912 when this place was built, the contract called for a certain number of water fountains. In checking, the p.o. found that there had been twice as many water fountains installed as were called for in the original contract.” “Well, O.K.,” I said, “what harm can twice as many water fountains do? The clerks will only drink so much water.” “Right. But the water fountains happen to jut out a bit. They get in the way.” “So?” “All right. Supposing a clerk with a sharp lawyer was injured against a water fountain? Say he was pinned against that fountain by a handtruck loaded with heavy sacks of magazines?” “I see it now. The fountain isn’t supposed to be there. The post office is sued for negligence.” “Right!” “All right. Thanks, Parker.” “My service.” If he had made up the story, it was damn near worth $312. I’d seen a lot worse printed in Playboy. 5 I found that the only way I could keep from dizzy-spelling into my case was to get up and take a walk now and then. Fazzio, a supervisor who had the station at the time, saw me walking up to one of the rare water fountains. “Look, Chinaski, everytime I see you, you’re walking!” “That’s nothing,” I said, “everytime I see you, you’re walking.” “But that’s part of my job. Walking is part of my job. I have to do it.” “Look,” I said, “it’s part of my job too. I have to do it. If I stay on that stool much longer I am going to leap up on top of those tin cases and start running around whistling Dixie from my asshole and Mammy’s Little Children Love Shortnin’ Bread through the frontal orifice.” “All right, Chinaski, forget it.”

• From Post Office (1971)

  I thought you bitches were always screaming for equal rights?” “I know what’s going on with little butterball in back, walking around in front of you with her tits hanging out …” “Her tits hanging out?” “Yes, her TITS! Those big white cow-tits!” “Hmmm … They are big at that.” “There! You see!” “Now what the hell?” “I’ve got friends around here. They see what’s going on!” “Those aren’t friends. Those are just mealy-mouthed gossips.” “And that whore up front who poses as a dancer.” “She’s a whore?” “She’ll screw anything with a cock.” “You’ve gone crazy.” “I just don’t want all these people thinking I am supporting you. All the neighbors …” “God damn the neighbors! What do we care what they think? We never did before. Besides, I’m paying the rent. I’m buying the food! I’m making it at the track. Your money is yours. You never had it so good.” “No, Hank, it’s over. I can’t stand it!” I got up and walked over to her. “Now, come on, baby, you’re just a little upset tonight.” I tried to grab her. She pushed me away. “All right, god damn it!” I said. I walked back to my chair, finished my drink, had another. “It’s over,” she said, “I’m not sleeping with you another night.” “All right. Keep your pussy. It’s not that great.” “Do you want to keep the house or do you want to move out?” she asked. “You keep the house.” “How about the dog?” “You keep the dog,” I said. “He’s going to miss you.” “I’m glad somebody is going to miss me.” I got up, walked to the car and I rented the first place I saw with a sign. I moved in that night. I had just lost three women and a dog. 2The next thing I knew, I had a young girl from Texas on my lap. I won’t go into details of how I met her. Anyway, there it was. She was 23. I was 36. She had long blonde hair and was good solid meat. I didn’t know, at the time, that she also had plenty of money. She didn’t drink but I did. We laughed a lot at first. And went to the racetrack together. She was a looker, and everytime I got back to my seat there would be some jerkoff sliding closer and closer to her. There were dozens of them. They just kept moving closer and closer. Joyce would just sit. I had to handle them all one of two ways. Either take Joyce and move off or tell the guy: “Look, buddy, this one’s taken! Now move off!” But fighting the wolves and the horses at the same time was too much for me. I kept losing. A pro goes to the track alone. I knew that. But I thought maybe I was exceptional. I found out that I wasn’t exceptional at all I could lose my money as fast as anybody.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  Now Bruno and Buffalmacco were come to join Filippo and all three heard and saw all this. As Calandrino was now offering to kiss Niccolosa perforce, up came Nello with Dame Tessa and said, as soon as he reached the place, 'I vow to God they are together.' Then, coming up to the door of the barn, the lady, who was all a-fume with rage, dealt it such a push with her hands that she sent it flying, and entering, saw Niccolosa astride of Calandrino. The former, seeing the lady, started up in haste and taking to flight, made off to join Filippo, whilst Dame Tessa fell tooth and nail upon Calandrino, who was still on his back, and clawed all his face; then, clutching him by the hair and haling him hither and thither, 'Thou sorry shitten cur,' quoth she, 'dost thou then use me thus? Besotted dotard that thou art, accursed be the weal I have willed thee! Marry, seemeth it to thee thou hast not enough to do at home, that thou must go wantoning it in other folk's preserves? A fine gallant, i'faith! Dost thou not know thyself, losel that thou art? Dost thou not know thyself, good for nought? Wert thou to be squeezed dry, there would not come as much juice from thee as might suffice for a sauce. Cock's faith, thou canst not say it was Tessa that was presently in act to get thee with child, God make her sorry, who ever she is, for a scurvy trull as she must be to have a mind to so fine a jewel as thou!' Calandrino, seeing his wife come, abode neither dead nor alive and had not the hardihood to make any defence against her; but, rising, all scratched and flayed and baffled as he was, and picking up his bonnet, he fell to humbly beseeching her leave crying out, an she would not have him cut in pieces, for that she who had been with him was the wife of the master of the house; whereupon quoth she, 'So be it, God give her an ill year.' At this moment, Bruno and Buffalmacco, having laughed their fill at all this, in company with Filippo and Niccolosa, came up, feigning to be attracted by the clamour, and having with no little ado appeased the lady, counselled Calandrino betake himself to Florence and return thither no more, lest Filippo should get wind of the matter and do him a mischief. Accordingly he returned to Florence, chapfallen and woebegone, all flayed and scratched, and never ventured to go thither again; but, being plagued and harassed night and day with his wife's reproaches, he made an end of his fervent love, having given much cause for laughter to his companions, no less than to Niccolosa and Filippo." THE SIXTH STORY [Day the Ninth]