Anger

In an odd yet understandable marketing strategy, the folks behind E!'s new reality show "Mrs. Eastwood & Company" have spent a lot of pre-premiere publicity time explaining what the show isn't. Which is to say, Clint Eastwood. The legendary actor and director will appear in but a few episodes and then only briefly. He will not, for instance, be slamming doors or engaging in filmed therapy sessions with his wife, Dina, around whom the show revolves (see title.) That doesn't mean the show is not about Clint Eastwood; it is. If the principal characters -- Dina, her 15-year-old daughter Morgan and 19-year old stepdaughter Francesca -- were not related to him, there would be Absolutely No Reason to watch this, which, by reality show standards, promises to be tame to the point of sedation.

Teachers who were removed from Miramonte Elementary School recounted their experiences for the first time Thursday, telling of public humiliation, lost sleep and questioning the pride they once had in the teaching profession. At least 40 teachers and other displaced staff members took part in a rally outside Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles, the unopened campus where they have reported for three months. Their removal followed the January arrest of former teacher Mark Berndt, who has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of lewd conduct.

Twenty years ago, they came to Dr. Man Chul Cho suffering from symptoms of hwa-byung, the "anger sickness" of Korean folklore: They couldn't sleep, felt anxious and depressed, had muscle aches and stomach pains. They had survived the riots, but couldn't forget. Some were considered fierce defenders -- they'd battled looters in public shootouts. Others had been all but invisible, pleading vainly for help from police while their shops burned. They were so angry, bewildered and frightened that they were willing to buck custom and culture and trust a stranger for therapy.

Twenty years ago, they came to Dr. Man Chul Cho suffering from symptoms of hwa-byung, the "anger sickness" of Korean folklore: They couldn't sleep, felt anxious and depressed, had muscle aches and stomach pains. They had survived the riots, but couldn't forget. Some were considered fierce defenders -- they'd battled looters in public shootouts. Others had been all but invisible, pleading vainly for help from police while their shops burned. They were so angry, bewildered and frightened that they were willing to buck custom and culture and trust a stranger for therapy.

The definition of anger in most dictionaries begins with: "A strong feeling of displeasure." Generally that's toward ourselves, only blamed on someone or something else. In " 'Venting Anger' Only Invites More" (Commentary, Nov. 23), the social behavioristic approach is only one piece of a complex puzzle. Some may find Debra Zeifman's views dispassionate, while she finds others to be void of perspective. But while professionals debate, and the whys and wherefores pile up, my belief from recent study is to sum up anger as things not going my way. Not only does that simplify things by covering all bases, it gives us a point of departure that avoids the pitfall of exclusion.

Iused to think it was odd that anger was the operating principle of politics in America, a country that elevates the "pursuit of happiness" to a self-evident right. But then I realized it's happiness itself -- the ill-defined, carrot-on-a-stick nature of it -- that makes us so mad. If our collective goal weren't so lofty (and vague), and if we didn't believe we were entitled to our heart's desire, maybe we could calm down, leave well enough alone and count our blessings. But that's not how we roll.

The Bobbitt and Menendez brothers cases have a common denominator, anger. None of them knew how to properly deal with their anger. Anger is a reaction to feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, not being heard, being discounted, used, abused, etc. If one is verbally attacked, it is better to say, "I feel that I am being attacked by you," rather than "you dumb S.O.B., you can't talk to me that way." The latter cuts off communication in a hostile fashion, the former opens the door for discussion.

According to "Learning Anger at Mother's Knee" (UPI, Dec. 2), men and women respond to anger in different ways. Specifically: "Men tend to blame others when they get angry, while women blame themselves and feel guilty about their anger." And why the difference? According to the story's headline and lead paragraphs, mothers cause the difference by encouraging little boys to take action when angry while advising little girls to ignore and forget their feelings. Now, I recall being told by my mother and my father to ignore irritating behavior rather than encourage it with an angry reply; they told the same thing to my brother.

There's nothing like a children's sporting event to rile people up. Confined to the sidelines, parents and coaches routinely scream at one another, at the referees and sometimes even at the kids. This last spring, I experienced firsthand just how bad behavior on the field could get. My 9-year-old son's flag football team advanced to the quarterfinals of the park league he was playing in, and it quickly became apparent that the opposing team's coach was set on winning at all costs.

The joggers returned Wednesday morning to the winding trails around Lake Hodges, along with the bird-watchers and the hikers swinging their long walking sticks. They came for the same reason as always, to enjoy a rural retreat amid the bustle of suburbia. But the park had changed. Down a worn path and around a bend was where Chelsea King, a high school senior from nearby Poway, was believed to have been attacked, killed and buried in a shallow grave. Her presumed death -- the coroner has yet to positively identify the body -- has shaken people in a place where many felt sheltered against the grimmer side of life.

MINGO JUNCTION, Ohio - Hope has been absent for so long from Appalachian Ohio that many people have forgotten what it's like. Idle steel mills run the length of several city blocks, empty and rusting on the thickly wooded banks of the Ohio River, like hulking tombstones for a past that died and the promise that died along with it. What optimism exists has little, if any, connection to the presidential campaign, which for all its import...

In at least three cases nationwide, attackers have invoked the name of Trayvon Martin in the beating of white victims, with one alleged attacker saying anger over the case was the motivating factor for the assault. In the latest incident, Alton L. Hayes, an 18-year-old African American in suburban Chicago, told police that he jumped a white 19-year-old because he was upset about the Sanford, Fla., case, police told the Chicago Tribune . Hayes and a 15-year-old from Chicago attacked the victim about 1 a.m. April 17 in Oak Park, west of Chicago, police said.

In 1992, the acquittal of four police officers accused of beating Rodney King was the match that ignited a city, setting off a wave of violence that left 53 dead, thousands injured and hundreds of businesses destroyed. There was a lot of accumulated tinder to burn. Los Angeles was struggling with a faltering and de-industrialized economy that left too many without good jobs, a wave of demographic transition that caused ethnic and generational tensions, and a widening gap between rich and poor that was just beginning to emerge into public view - a bit like the U.S. today.

Tempers flared at Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday when a councilman said he was tempted to "clock" a speaker who called out "Heil Hitler" during a public comment period. The spat began when political gadfly Michael Carreon stood up during the City Council meeting to talk about problems in the 14th Council District, where he lives. When Carreon turned his attention to several council members who he said weren't paying attention, Councilman Tom LaBonge, who was chairing the meeting, stopped him. LaBonge instructed Carreon not to address his comments to specific members, as per city rules.

Los Angeles' top budget official raised the specter of bankruptcy Friday in a sweeping report that calls for new taxes, possible layoffs and the privatization of some city services. Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said rising employee costs combined with flat-lining revenues have left the city in a precarious position. Even after reducing its workforce by 4,900 positions in recent years, the city faces a $222-million budget shortfall, he said, a figure that is expected to rise to $427 million by 2014-15.

When Martin A. Gordon talks to his 19-year-old son about the history of race relations in America, he invokes the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr.and the watershed moments of the civil rights era. It's a story of hard-won rights that fills the '60s-era activist with pride. Then the conversation turns urgently personal, survival its theme: On the wrong street, at the wrong time of day, he tells his son, pride might be his undoing. "I know my son can be a moment away from being killed if he acts the wrong way, if he's arrogant," Gordon said.

John Goodman isn't the kind of actor who revels in the media spotlight. His default conversation is self-deprecating, his words tumbling forth in a low grumble that makes him all at once difficult to hear and curmudgeonly charming. But mention one of his most beloved topics and his voice booms with clarity. "For so many reasons, it has just never been an overachiever," he says. He's speaking of New Orleans, the adopted city he's called home for more than a decade. "Or even an achiever," he adds.

OAKLAND - The police dispatcher's voice is calm and measured. The reporting party, she says, "is advising shots are coming from inside the building. People are running out screaming.... There's a female, bleeding, she's down on the ground, face-down on the concrete and bleeding. " When it was over, six students and a secretary at a small Christian college were shot to death, allegedly at the hands of a 43-year-old South Korean national who had once been a nursing student there.

Inside Wayne Lensing's auto museum, down a remote road from a body shop, visitors can see Elvis Presley's 1972 Lincoln, the Mayberry squad car from "The Andy Griffith Show" and three Batmobiles. A few steps from a Cadillac that has been covered in 120,000 coins, the curious also can view a decidedly different artifact: Lee Harvey Oswald's tombstone. That's right. The 130-pound gray granite slab that marked the final resting place of one of U.S. history's more notorious figures is about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, on the outskirts of Roscoe, Ill., best known perhaps as the hometown of race car driver Danica Patrick.