Screaming at the sky

Editorial By Mike Bibb

In case you don’t have anything better to do Nov. 8, or the kids are driving you crazy, you can go outside, look heavenward, and scream your troubles at the sky.
Not sure the sky will care, but maybe you’ll feel better.

Coincidentally, this is exactly what thousands of anti-Trump protesters plan to do to commemorate the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s election victory. 

No, I’m not making this up.

Apparently, there is a Facebook page entitled “Scream helplessly at the sky on the anniversary of the election.” I don’t really know if there is such a posting, but I suppose there is. Also, scream events are scheduled to take place in several communities across the country.

Nathan Wahl, the event coordinator in New York City, compared the scream rally to shopping at an Ikea furniture store. “It’s a collective expression of frustration,” Wahl said in Medium, an online news service. “It’s like the feeling you have when you’ve been building Ikea furniture for three hours, and it’s late, and you feel like you’re getting nowhere, and you were almost done, but then you realized you put a piece on backwards and you have to take almost the entire thing apart and you just wanna (expletive) scream.”

“That’s what it feels like living in America right now – building Ikea furniture,” he lamented.

Well, I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but if Wahl wants to compare living in the United States with putting pieces of furniture together, then maybe he should consider buying furniture that is already assembled. Since, obviously, he doesn’t have the skill or patience to fabricate it himself.

A few miles away in Boston, MA, another scream party is scheduled to take place at Boston Common, the oldest city park in the country. According to Newsweek magazine, Johanna Schulman, a certified financial planner in Cambridge and also an event organizer complained, “This administration has attacked everything about what it means to be an American. Who wouldn’t feel helpless every day? Coming together reminds us that we are not alone, that we are part of an enormous community of activists who are motivated and angry, whose actions can make a difference.”

After making her pitch a glitch developed; the Facebook posting in Boston was taken down for “circumstances beyond our control” Schulman announced. Not an encouraging sign for enthusiastic scream supporters.

Residing in Safford, Arizona places me at a disadvantage when attempting to fathom the thought processes of certain city folks. We reside in two different worlds – possibly living under two different skies. What may seem to me to be out of the ordinary is apparently perfectly logical to urban dwellers.

I mean, I’ve never considered running outside to vent my emotions to the sun, moon, Neptune or any other celestial object circling my personal space, especially to screech unhappiness with the presidential election defeat of the favored candidate  – a year later. If the occasion involved something a little more important – like the Dodgers losing to the Astros in the World Series – then I might be more sympathetic. After all, politicians come and go like the flu, but a good baseball game is an inspiring thing to see.  

Not being a clinical practitioner – or even remotely trained in deciphering unusual behavioral or mental disorders – I can’t say with any degree of certainty that “scream therapy” actually produces beneficial results. While such activities may temporarily induce a group euphoric feeling – assuming these feelings are the product of screaming and not influenced by some kind of inhaled or vein injected hallucinogen – then yelling into the atmosphere simply appears to be another way of releasing pent-up disappointments. Kind of like verbally complaining to Dr. Phil and seriously expecting him to heal you in a 42-minute segment of his show. 

However, the theme of the events, “Scream Helplessly,” sounds counterproductive. Seriously, what is the purpose of shouting at the sky if a person already believes it is useless to do so? Other than causing an elevated noise level, or possibly injuring the vocal chords, or aggravating the neighbors, who really cares?

Hot-dog vendors and T-shirt hucksters will be enthused, but not the sky. If there’s a crowd of people congregating for one reason or another, you can be sure someone is going to be making a few dollars from it. 

Besides, all this hollering nonsense is just one more item to add to the growing list of things to blame President Trump. In addition to encouraging feelings of being “helpless every day,” who suspected Ikea furniture assembly difficulties were also his fault?  

Maybe the Democrats and Russians, and possibly the loony-tunes who thought Trump intentionally conjured the recent outbreak of hurricanes, but, for most, the notion of screaming helplessly at the sky in order to purge themselves of various imagined Trump-phobias seems a bit unusual and probably not an American Psychiatric Association approved procedure. 

Of course, there is always the possibility sky screaming is a required course of study at Cambridge and other influential colleges. Likewise, not sure if the Ikea furniture company recommends scream treatments to relieve assembly frustrations. Perhaps they should attach a warning label to their merchandise advising the customer: “Caution, prior to assembling this product, it is advised a psychiatric evaluation first be completed. Hillary voters should definitely not attempt the procedure. Serious side-effects could result. Failure to do so voids the warranty.”  

However, I’m reasonably confident President Trump will have no difficulty tweeting his objections to their objections.

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