SENSELESS RAGE (2)
INTRODUCTION
Eric Zorn writes in the Chicago Tribune of a tragic accident that shows the terrible power of anger.
According to Zorn, a man and woman were driving a van in the far left lane of Chicago’s Northwest Tollway in April 1994. In back were their two children. A white Cadillac driven by an ex-convict suddenly pulled up behind them, tailgating mere inches from their bumper. The man driving the van slowed down. The Cadillac driver pulled into the right lane, passed the van, and then swerved suddenly back in front of the van, so suddenly that the van driver felt he had to swerve to avoid a collision.
The white Cadillac sped away.
The van driver accelerated and gave chase. He eventually pulled alongside the white Cadillac and reportedly began yelling and screaming. According to a witness, the two men gestured angrily at each other.
The driver of the Cadillac then pulled a handgun and fired at the van. The bullet entered the side of the van and hit the baby girl, entering under her left ear and exiting above her right ear. The little girl lived, but she is blind in one eye, half-blind in the other, partially deaf, and suffers severe mental and physical disabilities.
The man who fired the bullet is in jail.
The parents of the little girl must now live with the terrible pain of regret.
Anger usually escalates—often in tragic, tragic ways.
The Destructiveness of Anger
What does it take to turn a person into a Judas? What motivates someone to betray deep-seated loyalties?
Unresolved anger and resentment, for one thing. Consider the story of Earl Pitts, FBI agent turned Soviet spy.
According to Evan Thomas in Newsweek, Pitts was raised on a farm in Missouri and was recognized as a Future Farmer of America. His parents said they disciplined him firmly but fairly. He was a captain in the army who regarded himself as a patriot. Even today he is described by his wife as a “good man.” So what happened?
After getting his law degree and serving as a military policeman for six years, in 1983 Pitts realized a lifelong ambition by going to work for the FBI. In 1987 he was assigned to the New York office, and there his troubles began. He did not see how he could afford to live in the Big Apple on his $25,000 salary.
Thomas writes, “Morale in the office was poor, and petty cheating on expense accounts was rampant. Burdened with debt from student loans, Pitts had to ask his father … for a loan. He felt humiliated. Pitts later told a psychiatrist that he was ‘overwhelmed’ by a sense of rage at the FBI.”
One morning he came up with the idea of spying for the KGB. That way he could kill two birds with one stone: he could solve his money problems and get back at his bosses. He later told a psychiatrist, “I was shoved by the bureaucracy, and I shoved back.”
Over the next seven years Pitts worked as a Soviet spy and for his services received $224,000. When he was finally caught and convicted, the judge sentenced him to twenty-seven years in prison. At his sentencing the judge asked him point-blank why he had become a traitor. Earl Pitts replied, “I gave in to an unreasonable anger.”
Never allow anger to fester. Deal with anger as God prescribes.
The Choice of Response
The Speech Research Unit of Kenyon College proved through tests that when a person is shouted at, he simply cannot help but shout back.… You can use this scientific knowledge to keep another person from becoming angry: control the other person’s tone of voice by your own voice. Psychology has proved that if you keep your voice soft you will not become angry. Psychology has accepted as scientific the old Biblical injunction, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”
