WELL, I'VE RECEIVED a slew of responses recently. Many are from angry vets and friends who are just fed up with the way things are going in Iraq and America. The level of emotion is overwhelming—and, often, distorted by fiction and stereotypes. Through many of the complaints, I find, way too much whining and sniveling, then legitimate anger based on some facts, with more whining and sniveling.

Clearly, a lot of people are ventilating—but, do not know what to do with their emotions and feelings and thoughts. Too many expressed feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, a polarization (even within their own families) that has created a paralysis and crises of consciousness over what to do.

I know many of you, especially veterans and military family members are very angry about a number of current issues—I am also. In fact, "livid" probably is the best word to describe my fury. Anger can be destructive—if you don't control it—anger will eat you alive. So, what to do? We must first, push that anger down into the compost pile of our guts and turn it into passion—a passion that is purposeful and productive. We must use our passion to develop a plan. "We The People" do still hold the power!

There are times that I become so angry I literally bite my tongue to avoid making the mistake of speaking out of anger. I actually do it—I place just the tip of my tongue between my teeth and bite down. Then, I use a control technique we teach in the military—breath control. I slowly breathe in through my nose deeply, hold it, then slowly exhale and at the end of the cycle I try to gently, but firmly, push out all of the stale air that has been at the bottom lobes of my lungs. I repeat this however many times I need to temper my anger. The old standard of counting to 10, or, if necessary 100 also works well.

This technique works to dispel, both, anger and fear. It is not easy to do and takes character and a good degree of discipline—but, it does work. Remember, courage is not the absence of fear; it is the ability to push through fear, make the right decision and do the right thing—when you are scared and staring death in the face. I've had times when I was so very scared I was nearly paralyzed with fear. This technique saved my life more than once. With practice it becomes a good habit and a very valuable survival skill.

America has become politically polarized—and if we don't do something soon we will become paralyzed as a society and impotent to take the needed corrective action.

I think William A. Galston & Elaine C. Kamarak, said it best recently in The Politics of Polarization, I quote:

For the sake of all Americans, we cannot allow partisanship to dominate the debate around Iraq, Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism. We cannot let the same rancor color our policies regarding the welfare of our service members and Veterans.

The Bush administration must not be allowed to cow sensible Republicans and Democrats from offering critiques and alternatives to our current course of action at home and abroad with baseless accusations of anti-Americanism. At the same time, the Democratic Party cannot continue to evade a unified position on a success strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The young men and women returning from duty abroad, and their peers who have joined the political battle their deployment sparked, represent the best hope for America to transcend the destructive partisan rift that threatens to paralyze this great nation at a profound moment of truth.

We can shape a positive agenda that embraces the challenges that lay ahead, an agenda that reverses the alienation and impotence that so many Americans feel when presented with the reality that our politics is more polarized than the people themselves.