Thoughts From The Looking Glass and Other Whispers in the Dark...

Okay, guys...get ready for a vent like you've RARELY seen.

I was on YouTube today (like 48% of the world...) and clicked on one of my favorite videos (the official music video to "Pain" by Three Days Grace). Well, I looked down at the comments (not unusual for me) and got really pissed at what I saw. So, people have decided to tackle the "emo problem" again? I thought this ended years ago...Time to give the same talk I did then.



Problem with the stereotypes: Just not true.



Okay, in some situations, they might be true. Hell, they might be true for most. But hear me out. Not all emos cut. That is absolute bullshit. People had started doing it last year to get attention. Wow. Not a good idea. They made it public and would do it in the courtyard at school to get as many spectators as possible. That pissed me off. I was a "cutter" then, and knew what it would mean for me. Teachers may not be paid enough to deal with the kid at the back of the classroom who looks like they haven't eaten in ten years, or the kid who looks like he's been hit by a truck, but they aren't BLIND. AND they are required by law to keep us "safe" (as much as possible), and this brought the heat down on everyone. So little guys like me got the bad end. Strip searches went on daily, in massive amounts. Scars were your mortal enemy. Even if they came from a cat or a biking accident, you were TOAST. No excuses--you were called to the office, they'd do the search, and then your parents were called and told they had found cuts on your person, without any further discussion. Well, you can guess how well that went over with mom and pop.



You were stuck up a shit creek without a paddle, and no hope, quite honestly. Your parents would receive a recommendation from the school that you be "sent away" for "treatment." In simpler terms, your ass was about to wind up in a "loony bin" and having "happy pills" shoved down your throat for the rest of your life. Well, emo kids didn't like this. As a protest, we decided to all wear solid black for a straight week. One teacher commented to the class, "Look at these black-clothed posers. They're all followers, and will get nowhere in life with their depressed demeanor." This got an outcry in our class, and an officer was pulled in.



Surprisingly, we snatched up the "preps" (the "mean girls" and "jocks") to join us. They had parents in all the right places, and some nasty letters and petitions started circulating. Excellent! Or so we thought. Teachers would demand on random occassions that people "flash their wrists," being ignorant to the thought that many would cut on their upper legs and chests and stomachs. Eventually, we all gathered under the "emo pavillion" (just a pavillion that the "emo kids" gathered under) and started singing "Peace Is Free" by Black Stone Cherry (an amazing song, really--you should check it out!) Most of us got sent to the office with officers behind us. The rest of us, myself included, just volunteered to go with them, ready to strike at any moment. No one was sent to jail that day, but we had a riot planned for the following week.



The school snitch spilled to his "master" (one of the teachers who idolized him) and we were busted. We knew it, too. The school officers were wearing bulletproof vests under their clothes that day. It was easy to see, too, as both officers were quite then, and were suddenly bulky. We ended with a treaty with the principal. We would stop the "antics" and tell the inquiring "public" (parents) that no, nothing was happening at school, and the teachers would be called back on defensive. The torrent ended, but not without some blood, sweat, and a whole Hell of a lot of tears.



The moral of the story? Don't trust teachers--they've got their "sticky spots where they are required to turn you in." Not all emos cut, and even those that didn't got shit for a few months while this went on. To the school, if you wore black, you were a target.



And they held the gun.



People persecute us too damn much. If you don't like us, don't pay attention. Another thing--Parents are bitches. The whole lot of them (except maybe my mom and those like her--she's one of us) are in it for nothing but ensuring that you look so prim and proper and they're gonna SHRED your dreams of shredding the neck of a guitar. If you're a non-conformist, you're shit out of luck until you're eighteen, kill yourself, or run away. Whichever comes first. Please note that killing yourself may not come into play at all. Okay, done with disclaimers. But I don't see what the point of being against us is. Its like that with sexual orientation. America is the land of the free, right? Yeah; if you're white, Christian/Catholic, and a straight adult who didn't have sex before marriage, and if you DID mess up that last one, no one found out. If you fit that description, you're probably living the American dream. But you're also a hollow-hearted bastard who needs to blow their fucking brains out. Sorry, I've got a temper today. :/

Not all emos want to be a rockstar, although I would kill to be. For me, nothing completes a (relatively) quiet evening better than shredding on a Gibson ES335 Standard double-neck with antique finish! (Ha, I'm calling for an AMEN on that one!) So if I want to be a rocker, does that mean I listen to death metal (I do, by the way) and exclusively sing about death? Hell no! While, yes, I do listen to death metal, its not all I listen to. I don't mind sitting down and listening to some Hendrix and Eagles and Beatles and Pink Floyd and CCR and Van Morrison! In fact, my mp3 has at least 4 songs from every year from 1954-2009. So if you can say I have to listen to death metal to be emo, then 1) You're wrong, and 2) shove the Hell off and quit making an ass of yourself.

Also, depression seems to fill the dreams of every emo, according to stereotype. That. Is. BULLSHIT! And it just plain pisses me off. There are those, (okay, I can occassionally include myself in here) that get a little curious and play with the idea of death. But "To the well-organized mind, Death is but the next great adventure." Okay, guys, yeah; I write about death, suicide, homicide, and general depressed shit. But that isn't what makes me emo. Emo is a fucking stereotype. Its not a style, its not a phase, its not a fad, and it sure as Hell isn't a way of life. So cut that shit. Right the fuck now. I don't do shit to get attention. In the words of Avenged Sevenfold (a wonderful punk-rock band,) "Can't you help me as I'm starting to burn (all alone), too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction. My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone), no one can save me and you know I DON'T WANT THE ATTENTION." That's exactly fitting with the "emo" state of mind.

One comment that pissed me off: "All emos are rich pussy bastards that use 'depression' to make their parents worry and are all fags and deserve to go to Hell." I punched a hole in my desk (literally) after reading that. I am a dirt-poor son-of-a-bitch and I'm fucking "emo". I don't use depression for SHIT. I have been diagnosed with manic depression (bipolar disorder) and some other shit, and I don't try to make my parentals worry. I try to make them proud whenever I can (even when it makes me look like a dumbass or a bastard.) I am bisexual. I find the term 'fag' degrading and stupid. Any person who can sit there and hate someone simply because of their sexual preference is a horrible person and is only searching for some sadistic pleasure in tormenting others and hoping it will fill some awful hole in their lives. Go to Hell? Seriously? Wow, I'm saved and I've been a follower of Christ since I was 11 years old, but you are going to sit back and tell me I'm the one going to Hell? Who are you to damn me? God is the only one damning my soul, if anyone does. And I apologize, my language is not usually this foul, but when I get set off, I go off with supernova force, and leave a huge mark when I'm through.

And, by the way, for all of you who use G.D. as a swear, God's last name isn't Damn. Thank you very much. :)

Let me review. If you can sit back and tell someone they're a "poser", "fake", or "attention-seeker" without an inch of guilt in your heart; without knowing the situation they have with their family, their friends, or with themselves, and not know the silent Hell they might be living, then you've just become a reason that every 18 minutes, someone commits suicide, and every 19 minutes, someone is left to sit and wonder why.

People, stop being the reasons...Stop making people feel worse than they may already, whether you mean to or not. Posers, stop pretending, because we all see you for what you are.