We Were Talking About The Anger Wars (1985)

In 1985, I heard a man describe himself as a "veteran of the anger wars," referring ruefully to his difficulties in dealing with his anger. 

Today I typed those words into Google and came up with no matches. Then I typed in "the anger wars" and came up with three matches, two in 2003 (in a political context) and one in 2005 (in a personal context). 

For a good part of my life, I didn't understand anger and was unable to understand why some people couldn't control their anger. That has changed. As I began to recover from the eating disorder, I was astonished at how angry I felt much of the time. I have become a veteran of the anger wars. Although I wasn't trying for likenesses, focusing instead on the physical gestures, this drawing was derived from a photograph of Country Joe McDonald and Janis Joplin, taken during the years when the United States was still involved in Vietnam. 

In the last days of the last century, I had a dream where Janis Joplin said to us all who are still alive, "Please kiss the 21st century for me." I have taken that to heart.