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...who had gone down to Alabama to help : give him a street fighter, a spirited person, someone who has the courage and nerve to fight, and can see reasons to fight for something, even a criminal, and he or she can easily learn non-violence, for it is a spirited thing, but it is much harder for people to learn non-violence who can never make up their minds, who are wishy-washy and shrink from conflict.
From my own experience, I know that if you do not feel anxiety, fear and other forms of stage fright before performing--as aggravating as it is to feel stage fright--your performance will be limp and lifeless. This has always proven true in my experience. That nervy passionate energy that can make your knees shake and your head spin, that can give you cold sweats and can make you vomit, is the SAME energy that inspires a great performance--or helps put you out there, to be tested, in a non-violent confrontation.
It is the SAME, or perhaps better put, it is like two sides of one coin. Can't have one without the other.
I sometimes see a distinction between pure anger at injustice, and a more self-serving anger at not being heard, not being heeded, being ignored. The latter can descend into selfishness, and has often enough been the downfall of activist groups, which can become ego contests about who can talk the loudest and most often. It's good to be quiet sometimes and ask yourself: Do I really know anything? The things that you really, really know--that are your fundamental knowledge and beliefs--will remain and float to the surface, and everything else (often the things that make unnecessary conflict between people) will melt away.
The goal isn't to succeed at being heard (like baby birds who just want to be fed). The goal is for everyone together to achieve wisdom and right action, in a group working for the common good, or in all of a nation or humanity.
It is a thrill to watch good ideas be born in someone else. To watch and to listen. And then to see an idea move around among people, change and grow and solidify, and become everyone's idea.
A lot of us election fraud activists get very anxious that everyone doesn't know what we know--partly because we see such devastating consequences from election fraud--and we want to fill everybody's heads with words and argue with them. And we should, of course. (Who else will do it but us?) But also, we should allow ideas to get around, let them sink in, provide enticing tidbits, and be patient.
Democracy is a very attractive and good idea. People will be drawn to it quite naturally.
Anyway, cherish your anger. It is a good thing. But don't let it wear you out--and don't harm anyone with it. Transform it.
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