Why Are Americans so Angry?
Americans are angry and growing more (1)_____________, but the reasons are mixed. At shopping day sales, they fight over who gets the (2)____________. At their children’s soccer games, they (3)________________ if their team is not winning.
Political candidates use language (4)_____________ America’s friends and neighbors. And in the extreme, some become so angry over (5)____________, politics and power that they commit (6)_______________ on strangers. Or threaten people with religions they do not like.
“I just received a (7)______________ in my own office,” Representative Andrew Carson, a Democrat from Indiana told CNN Tuesday. “And it is largely (due) to the environment, this toxic environment.”
Carson is one of two Muslim-Americans in Congress. He says the death threat came one day after Republican Donald Trump (8)_________________ ban Muslims from traveling to the U.S., if he is elected president.
But Americans are also angry and divided about continued (9)______________. Also fueling the anger are divisions over such issues as immigration, same-sex marriage, (10)_______________, gun control, police treatment of African-Americans and climate change.
Just in the last week:
- - Angry (11)______________ blocked traffic in Chicago, Illinois to protest the delayed release of a video showing a white police officer (12)______________ a 17-year-old African-American.
- - At a town council meeting in a small Indiana town, a fight (13)___________ after a vote to replace the town’s marshal.
- - (14)__________ over gun control grew even angrier. Supporters of gun control asked why opponents are not even willing to stop terrorists from getting guns. Gun rights supporters (15)_____________ some want to take away their rights to own guns.
Robert Thompson is director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. He says no one (16)_____________ Americans have a lot to be angry about.
But it does not mean the anger (17)____________ historic levels, Thompson says. It used to be that angry Americans had (18)_______________ to express their anger.You could write a letter to your local newspaper, but by the time it was published, you had time to cool off. Those were times before (19)________________ news and the Internet.
Says Thompson: “Now, we all get to show how angry we are. We can go on the Internet and proclaim our anger to the (20)____________. It is not like we have not been angry before. Settlers to America were angry enough at the British to begin (21)___________.”
The reasons people say they are unhappy include: a shrinking (22)___________, young people worried about debt and job prospects, a (23)_____________ about terrorism and a belief the political system favors the wealthy,according to polls by the Wall Street Journal/NBC and the Pew Research Center.
Despite 62 straight months of job growth, many Americans worry about their ability to meet (24)________________.
Twenty seven percent of (25)_____________ expect to run out of savings before they die, according to a June survey by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Baby boomers are people born between (26)_____________.
And Generation Xers – people born between 1965 and 1980 – are also nervous. Thirty seven percent do not “at all feel (27)_____________,” and 20 percent expect to outlive their savings, the Northwestern Mutual survey found.
Russell Jones is director of the Stress and Coping Lab and a (28)____________ at Virginia Tech University. He said recent terror attacks and mass shootings (29)________________.
“The increase in trauma we are hearing, watching and reading about and, in some cases, experiencing, is making the anger and stress (30)______________,” Jones says.
He is referring not only to the San Bernardino shootings, but also (31)______________: the Paris terror attacks, which killed 130 people and the shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, which killed three. On Monday,(32)____________________ the third anniversary of the attack that killed 20 first graders and six educators at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school.
Mary Niall Mitchell, a (33)__________________ at the University of New Orleans,says this is an important time for the United States. There are (34)______________ in social norms, for example, legalization of same-sex marriage, a growing immigrant population and (35)____________________ to pressure police departments and colleges to treat African-Americans fairly.
Some are (36)_________________ those changes, but others do not think change is happening fast enough, she says.
Says Mitchell: “From the historian’s perspective, angry societies are (37)______________: anger can result in bigotry, oppression and violence, but can also be a (38)____________ and over time, produce more equitable societies.”
For some, the (39)_________________ is becoming too much. Kat Goldman, a singer-songwriter who lives in Boston, posted on her Facebook page that recent events in America are prompting a return to her native Canada.
“The U.S. truly is the land where (40)___________________, and I made some of my own dreams come true while I was here,” Goldman says.
But she (41)__________________ some reasons to leave: “out-of-control gun violence,” Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslim visitors and “this group of people (terrorists) who want to (42)____________________.”
Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.
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Words in This Story
frustrated – adj. very angry, discouraged, or upset because of beingunable to do or complete something
assault – v. the crime of trying or threatening to hurt someone physically
coach – n. a person who teaches and trains an athlete or performer
commit – v. to do something that is illegal or harmful
stranger – n. someone who you have not met before or do not know
toxic – adj. very unpleasant
prevalent – adj. happening often or over a large area
proclaim – v. to declare or announce something
shrinking – adj. to become smaller in amount, size, or value
prospects – n. the possibility that something will happen in the future
psychology – n. the science or study of the mind and behavior
stressed – v. a state of mental tension
trauma – n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someoneto have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time
uncomfortable -- adj. causing a feeling of physical discomfort
perspective – n. a way of thinking about and understanding something
bigotry – n. bigoted acts or beliefs
oppression -- n. unjust treatment
equitable – adj. dealing fairly and equally with everyone
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