Join With Others

Become a Member/Participant

An essential response in dealing with most things that have already or may go wrong (causing justified anger and outrage) is to join with others. That may prevent a problem from even occurring. To cite a personal example again: I belong to and was active in a number of professional disciplinary groups—state, regional, national—because they, like research, are essential to moving my discipline forward. As part of the professoriate, the day I was granted tenure I became a member of the AAUP, becoming active in the chapter, conference and nationally and drew upon the famed Red Book in faculty governance activity. Beyond active participation, the simple act of donating money—however little—thus adding to the membership numbers gives causes we support additional power and impact. We cannot fight most battles individuals but through organizations. Such groups give us eyes, ears, and knowledge we otherwise do not and could not have. Organizations are tools of anger management even as some of them cause us to become angry. As participants in different organizations and communities—local, state, national or international—we make a difference. Rather than becoming a cynic, better than dropping out or acting out, join up!

We are and should be angry about many things but anger fades if we are take reasonable, constructive efforts to do something about them. We won't save the whole world but we can help save a piece of it.