TIME TO CONTROL ANGER?

We have lived now for two years in a hateful Pandemic; we have been constantly lured by talk of it all ending and by disappointment as another unexpected complication arises to dash our hopes of meeting, talking and celebrating again with our families. A further complication is the spread of false facts and some will always believe a contrarian view.

We all feel pity and give support to those carers on the frontline who see the casualties and the deaths and deep down we know that if we remove our guard and our basic defences that those carers will reap a further whirlwind.

Of note, however is the degree of anger we now hear on the airwaves. People are pilloried for not knowing facts there were unknown at the start of this plaque, and media types are quick to lambaste and criticize those that are doing their best and those who never suggested that they were omnipotent. This finger pointing is easy to do from the comfort and security of highly paid jobs on the side-lines of what matters.

We have a plethora of politicians, to be fair mostly Independent representatives, who are cultivating their constituencies by a noisy expression of what some of us feel is feigned anger. These are often the never happy deniers; these are the ones who don't care a fig for climate action unless it will help their particular schemes or businesses, for instance. Of course they know it all because they make it up as they go along, the noise itself is what they want.

Many of us grew up in an Ireland peppered with historical bitterness and differences but our abiding memories are debate with respect and manners and an attempt to find a common ground or at least a respectful attempt to change opinion by reasonable discussion. Of course there were major exceptions but mostly we knew what separated us was much less than what united us. We want a caring economy with housing, health and employment for all. We now want to exit the Pandemic with the least damage to the nation's health.

Some of us are now so tired of rambling discussions with anger and loudness on TV and Radio that we avoid the news. Anger and short tempers make people make outlandish claims and often the disadvantaged are blamed for conditions they had nothing to do with.

Anger was one of the seven deadly sins of old and is now doing more harm than the other six, bad and all as they may be. We are unsettled under its cloud and its furore.

It is probably too much to ask when all are hurting but we could bear it a little longer if the tone, the rhetoric, and the awful blame game were toned down somewhat so we can all breath again.

Tony Feeney