"It is time we decide who we are
Do we have to fight for the right to a night at the opera now? Have you asked of yourself, what's the price you might pay
Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play?
The colors of the world are changing day by day
Red...the blood of angry men
Black...the dark of ages past
Red...the world about to dawn
Black...the night that ends at last!"

Lord knows I can't change the world...I am only one person, but I'm using all the power I have to make a difference. Yes, I'm a supporter of "the old values"...but there are some ones we must change as well. Not wanting to turn this into a huge argument, but some of the things you say Kelida, I'm gonna have to disagree with.

The world is not hopeless. I am not an Albigensian, who believed the world is hopeless and evil--if you think so, why don't you just kill yourself if it' so hopeless? THINGS ARE NOT HOPELESS. I know I belong here, and I'm gonna do what I can, make at least my small part of the world a happier place. I'm no radical...no tattoos, no piercings, no black clothes, no angst and anger at the world. Because of these things, I call myself normal, but in this day and age, I'm probably considered a weirdo.

I am an artist, but I DO NOT have this bizarre attitude that most of the other artists have here at my school...I have no "deep internal struggles," I don't make strange art, like some of the slop I see on the walls here. I just make my happy little pieces. Is this weird? Probably. I want to please ME and be creative...I don't want to show the world what a horrible troubled person I am (which I ain't) or what terrile social injustices are happening. I can't do anything about some stuff, and changing my style to show killings in Uganda is NOT going to please me, even if it will give me a better "image" among other artists.

And then there's freedom. Freedom of religion "only if you're Christian" you say. Read the statistics. Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. Now even a respectable mention of Christianity is considered taboo, witness "Season's Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas", people on the news aren't supposed to mention "God", but yet we all are supposed to hoot and holler and learn all we can about Buddhism or Islam (not that I'm against any of them) and how wonderful it is, while we put down our own religion, cast IT aside to make other not feel offended, instead of putting all religions on equal standing.

Freedom of speech. Well, I could go on all day about this one. If you're saying that I can't stand on a soapbox on my college campus and rattle off the injustices to learn, then that's not freedom. But if you're one of these disgusting shock "artists" (an I use the term artist as loosley as possible) who ridicule other's beliefs with elephant dung, or do anything just to get attention is repulsive to me and invalidates the whole concept of art. I wrote 2 papers on this, and I do believe that people should have a right to express themselves as they wish, but using it as a loophole to insult, offend, or hurt others is a travesty. Websites for making bombs on the net is another loophole used in the name of freedom of speech. So is the reviling language that people use today, sure, just be a sporcaccone and spout whatever obscenities you want. Get the little ones hooked too while your at it. So in the future we can all have a common language all made up of profanity while the remnats of real intelligent speech are only a cloud on the edge of memory.

NOTE these are only my opinions. If you stop trying to be an Angry Young Man/Woman and be realistic. No one cares about your angst--everyone else does it so they pass you by. Do the duty you feel with commitment, passion, understanding, and happiness---not with anger and cynicism. All day long I hear people at school--they complain about EVERYTHING! They are SO stuck on the negative it's annoying. You just want to give them all a dopeslap and say JUST BLOODY SHUT UP AND STOP COMPLAINING!! Don't you have a POSITIVE thing to say about anything?! They don't seem to understand that by IMPROVING (acc-entu-ate) the positive, they can reduce the negative.

Man I'm rambling. I just need to get these things out. I am so tired of seeing this hopeless wasteland of depressed youth, who spend more time screaming about the bad and hopeless than actually getting off their can and doing something about it.

FAG AN BEALACH!!!!!

--Mbo (an try wearing something that shows your personality. All black clothes shows me a closeted, gloomy mind--advice--wear plaid!)