THE subway train screeched as it slowed to enter the station. Two male riders exchanged words in a brief argument. Another man, of foreign extraction, interrupted, saying, “Shut up.” One of the arguers retorted: “Go back to your own country.” “You want me to make you [shut up]?” was the intimidating response from the 21-year-old foreign visitor. Now enraged, the man retorted: “You go right ahead​—you’re a chump.” These were his last words, as the visitor whipped out a gun and, before the horrified eyes of dozens of subway riders, fired four shots into the man, killing him instantly. “Now you’ll shut up,” the young man said as he stepped out of the car and was arrested.

This incident illustrates one way of responding when one is angered. But what tragic results for both men!

Have there not been times when you were faced with biting remarks, perhaps even a verbal barrage delivered in a burst of anger? How did you respond? What is the best way to deal with such a situation? Is it, “Fight fire with fire”? There are those who feel as one editorial declared, “Why It’s Good to Get Good and Mad.”

‘But that was over 3,000 years ago,’ some will contend. ‘Times are different now. Be aggressive or people will walk on you. To answer mildly sounds nice, but it won’t help you today.’

However, this is not what knowledgeable people say. Note the following advice:

“If selfish people try to take advantage of you, cross them off your list, but don’t try to get even. When you try to get even, you hurt yourself more than you hurt the other fellow.”​—Bulletin in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police station. [Italics ours.]

“The expression ‘I was so mad I could have died’ has a serious literal meaning, in the view of [a] psychiatrist [who] thinks ‘anger’ might well be listed as the cause of death in many cases, particularly among younger people.”​—Family Health. [Italics ours.]

“Cardiologists have known for years that anger is one of the most lethal of all emotions. Heart attacks and strokes have often been preceded by an episode of severe emotional stress.”​—New York Sunday News. [Italics ours.]