Andy Johnson works in the locally-owned clean energy transition, and farms with his wife and three daughters in rural Winneshiek County, northeast Iowa.

Is Kamala Harris angry? I sure as hell hope so, and I wish she’d say so.

The angry American right does its darnedest to paint her as an angry Black woman. This angry white male Iowa farmer wishes she’d get mad, in a good way.

Here is what I imagine she might say.

“Fellow Americans, I’m angry!

“I’m angry that so many of us blindly picture our two candidates for national leadership as either an angry white man or an angry black woman. We’re better than that.

“I’m angry that the fundamental goodness in every American is being overwhelmed – as John Prine put it so well – by “people putting people down”. We’re better than that.

“I’m angry that so many of our politicians and judges can’t keep their hands off of women’s bodies and lives! We’re better than that.

“I’m angry that so much of our national media and culture has treated rural people and communities so condescendingly for so long. We’re better than that.

“I’m angry that there’s so much violence and despair around the world that millions of people are fleeing their homes, communities and countries in search of better lives … and that too often they’re welcomed not in the spirit of Matthew 25, but the spirit of Lord of the Flies. We’re better than that.

“I’m angry that our economy and society have failed so many American workers, and communities, and peoples … and that champions of economic justice and social justice seem as angry at each other as they are at injustice … and that we still have not learned that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere! We are better than that.

“I’m angry that self-interested captains of industry and politics – like the Oncler in the Lorax – have put a liveable climate at risk for our kids, and for all the amazing diversity of life on this wonderful planet we call home. We’re better than that.

“And you know what? As a daughter, I even admit I’m still angry at my father for leaving my mother so long ago … I need to be better than that.

“Our anger does not define us. What we do with our anger does.

“If we agree with Lincoln that ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ we must rise up and put our anger to good use: say no the destroyers of decency and dignity, activate our better angels, and be the better that we know we must be.”

What might an angry Kamala say if free to speak her mind? Maybe none of the above, but I’m confident she would encourage us to put good anger to useful ends, to restore respect and dignity, to build rather than divide community.

So I close with a poem about community that I wrote for my daughters eight years ago. I’m sad – and yes, angry – that it’s still just as relevant:

Great Community?

Are we a great community? I cannot see if we want to be
I mean truly be more than superficially
I want to believe we can be more than the hypocrisy
we see around the world but also here in you and me
cause in community is unity but where is unity in you and me
I hope and want but only see

trouble in the fields of society
see who am I and who are we is fire of life in humanity
cause tribes and tribes and tribes will be the best and worst of we
cause tribes are our identity but also give the license to deny
another’s dignity

and when I see a tribe or friend of you or me deny another’s dignity
will I run or let it be see I can be the change I seek
but that is always incomplete because the change must be
much more than me when you or I see slight or fright or fight
we must not run or let it be

for if we fail to stay awake alive
succumb to incumbent complacency we will not even see
the slight or fright or quiet fight
and be complicit in the failing of community

to stay awake alive to build a great community
we speak and live the dignity of all humanity
yes you and me and those we do not know or see (I mean really see)
cause unity does not include both you and me without the courage of an active dignity
to be in great community is active living never slowing always growing dignity

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Top photo of Kamala Harris with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and stepchildren Ella and Cole was published on the Harris campaign’s website.