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Times of Wayne County
P.O. Box 608 • Macedon, NY 14502
Phone: (315) 986-4300
Columns

Rage vs enraged

April 6, 2024
/ by Ron Holdraker

Rage is a type of intense, uncontrolled anger that may be linked to mental health issues or violence.

According to psychologists, rage is an in-born behavior that every person exhibits in some form. Rage is often used to denote hostile/affective/reactive aggression. Rage tends to be expressed when a person faces a threat to their pride, position, ability to deceive others, self-deceptive beliefs, or socioeconomic status.

Ahh, that human emotion, when quick thought and actions replace real humanity and planned out response.

Unfortunately rage, in both actions and personal knee-jerk words, make some too normal in today’s raging world.

Mind Rage: Imagine there is a school shooting, a sidewalk attack, rape...whatever. Too often cynics readily attempt to assign a race, economic status and the "facts" that claim the   offender is a migrant, legal, or not,  to the crime.

Republican strategists love when an illegal migrant commits a crime. They immediate cast the entire migrant population to the incident. Never mind that numbers have proven that migrants do not cause more crime than average citizens, it is a crying point against all.

When a  shooting death surfaces on the news, it immediately is assigned in many minds to a Black perpetrator. In fact, many are aghast when the crime and victim are sometimes not Black, or Hispanic. 

Here is a perfect example. In a press release this past week the headline read: ASSEMBLY, SENATE REPUBLICANS CALL ON GOV. HOCHUL TO PRIORITIZE PUBLIC SAFETY IN STATE BUDGET FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF NYPD OFFICER JONATHAN DILLER.

This announcement was followed by a press conference and re-reading of the press release. 

Guy Rivera, (You just knew he had to be either Black, or Hispanic) a man with 21 prior arrests, committed the crime following a traffic stop according to police.

Yes, according to the Republicans, those Democrats and the governor surely revel in the death of a policeman.

The school shooter defies all logic, especially if he/she came from a seemingly good home. It is easier to assign rage if they don’t defy logic.

President Biden said he was “outraged” by the killing of aid workers in Gaza. What? It took this long before we became disgusted? Before we took real notice - because now the seven people killed were World Central Kitchen workers, including a U.S./Canadian dual citizen  involved? 

A 30 minute follow-up phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly harsh, but not enraged enough to stop the violence, or the sale of munitions to Israel.

Former President Donald Trump has made immigration central to his presidential campaign, often using violent or dehumanizing language. He called the border a “bloodbath” in  a speech last week. Again the real numbers do not come close to the rhetoric.

Trump claimed he spoke to the family of Ruby Garcia, who officials say was killed by a man who entered the country illegally. Her sister said that conversation didn’t happen.

It really didn’t matter that Trump was talking out his ass again, it enraged his rabid followers.

Meanwhile, enraged Republican leadership seems to be taking the Israeli side against Biden’s rage.

In a very sad and disturbing video released last week deputies unleash rage when a 15-year-old girl was fatally shot by Southern California deputies in 2022 after reportedly being kidnapped. 

Deputies killed Savannah Graziano on Sept. 27, 2022, on the side of a highway in Hesperia, California, The Guardian reported. The teen had been the subject of an Amber Alert after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said she was abducted by her father, Anthony Graziano, age 45. Prior to the reported abduction, Anthony Graziano had killed his ex-wife, Savannah Graziano’s mother.

Believe it, or not,  Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters at the time, the pursuit continued for miles until the car drove off the road. Someone in “tactical gear” came out of the vehicle and ran toward the officers, who then opened fire, according to Dicus. 

In a separate announcement following the shoot-out, Dicus said the reportedly innocent kidnapped teen was a “participant in shooting at” the deputies.

Yeah, that didn’t really happen. But newly released aerial footage of the incident obtained by the Riverside Press-Enterprise shows someone identified by deputies as a “female juvie” come out of the car’s passenger side. Savannah Graziano can be seen crouching down and staying still before approaching deputies. Then the multiple shots rang out, killing the girl.

The Press-Enterprise also obtained an audio recording by the deputy closest to Savannah. In the audio, he can be heard instructing the 15-year-old to get out of the vehicle, saying, “Come here! Come to me!” 

Once again human rage and pure adrenaline and stupidity ruled the day and ended a 15 year-old girl’s life. 

We hear, but don’t really listen to reports of mass murders, starvation of millions at the hands of rage. Our only hint that something may be amiss is the reporters pre-announcement that some of the pictures and video you may see come with the warning that they may be disturbing.

Oh, don’t get them wrong, they are still going to show you carnage, but at least they warned you. In actuality the pictures and video are rarely disturbing as we have become numb by all the rage.

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by Ron Holdraker
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Times of Wayne County

Phone: (315) 986-4300 • Fax: (315) 986-7271
P.O. Box 608 • Macedon, NY 14502
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© 2025 Times of Wayne County | Portions are © 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed. Stock images by DepositPhotos.