the state of skate address

The State of Skate Address!

this is the text of a speeck that the we was paid to give to a group of youths on the "free skate park tour", hosted by t. quam, whose poesies are featured elsewhere on this site.

the state of skate address
delivered 6.26.2003
proplist:g.w.bush mask. ask for a skateplank from the audience. monopoly money carelessly stuffed in pocket. podium.

gentlemen, thank you for gathering for the first state of skate address. i have called you here for the express purpose of an emergency effort to staunch the flow of blood from the body of skate, the revolution in excess with nowhere to go. advertising has wounded us, stolen our power, made us cliche before our time. i am not a cliche! and neither are you. you are the youth, you are the future. are you going to sell you dearest thoughts and feelings for a chance at control? over your life, for protection, over your fellow man? for more money? who invented money? not me! and i have a much better idea! but it's not for sale. do you know, if we stopped using those dirty bills, in the space of a generation they would be worth no more than these scraps of paper? keep a stack of bills by the toilet for personal use!

how much did you pay for those skateboards? and to who? why fulfill the dreams of the already rich and powerful? you sold your rebellion to the highest bidder, but he never paid! you float his yacht in the pristine blue waters of a coral cove by slaving away at his fried beef franchise to pay for a shiny plank of advertising mind-control! what dream of freedom did they sell you that you became their slave for the most intense years of your life? your circulation has not yet slowed, your brains grab onto every new idea like it's a tootsie pop and you have to reach the center. their trick? to get you to believe that every new idea you come across is old, that to be cool you have to forever kill that child like curiosity that picks up rocks to see the vermin underneath! you've been programmed to believe that there's nothing there to find! you've been programmed by every television show and lukewarm skywalker summer blockbuster you've ever seen to forget your childhood and replace it with the shared memories of the working class, forever striving to recreate your innocence with one more plastic figurine to add to your flea-ridden collection! that is not who you are! there are ten thousand pristine sets of whatever rotten cartoon characters you idolized in your youth sealed away in dust free vaults at absolute zero waiting to outlast the nuclear annihilation of all you love and hold dear!

how many of your parents supported the war on the other side of the world? who needs leaders who placate the christian masses with token presentations of moralegal victories so he can use our funding to build Robust NooQler Earth Penetrators? when i think of church, i think of dogs being put to sleep! did christ die so we could grow old peacefully in a pile of our own filth? how many good people do you know who placate their voyeuristic murder-desire with RRR-rated movies every night? you are of an age where you are beginning to think for yourselves: don't fall for the lie that says disobedience is thinking for yourself. don't fall for the lie that says the word of the church is law. don't parrot someone elses views; dedicate yourself to finding the truth, no matter what it turns out to be! speak in your heart to the highest being, the One who created you and everyone around you! trust that He can hear you, and pray this prayer: "God, show me the truth, and give me the strength to see it!"

there is no hope for people who work and slave to make sure the clothes they wear express their individuality only to run after every trend because of their secret lust for acceptance above all else. new paint does not a new building make! you will be personally held responsible if you lose your ability to distinguish truth from mediocrity: avoid the standardization of society at all costs! some things are better than others; trust yourself enough to know! does the moviemusicmedia you listen to you cater to your particular cultural, societal, religious bias? congratulations, you are a target market! do not accept the hypnosis that takes truth and turns it into the cult of consumer training! prize your freedom above all else! dedicate your energy to stepping over the obvious traps! kredit kards and hot rod kars are just hooks to get you into debt and under their thumb! how much did you pay for your particular plank of mind-control?

my friends, look at the state of skate: once a joyful flight across any stretch of smooth pavement long enough to outrun the cops, it has become a filthy slave market in which men are bought and sold. what part of skate is truly free? they herd you into concentration parks where they can sell you poisonous concessions and overpriced gear while they conveniently monitor your behavior ; instead of breaking loose you turn your anger and frustration inward upon your brothers in the hateful criticism of the cool. you memorize mumbo-jumbo names for tricks you'll never learn! you fantasize to images of tony hawk , glorious and inverted, rotating in slow mo with a mouthful of hot bites, while at the same time you spit on your little brother because he is willing to spill his blood night after night trying to learn the same impossible trick, just because he wants to be like you! our enduring image is a 14 year old boy, naked and in flight, no longer chained to a hard-earned stick of popular culture, but free; nirvana's album cover but old enough to know that instead of drowning ourselves in a pool of drunken hollywood dissipation, we breathe the fresh air of a freed slave!

my friends, swear the anticreed of the state of skate with me:

1. i think for myself.
2: i rebel against the popularebellion.
3: i make it my business to refuse to do business.
4. i will stop listening to the safety-seat chant of the pop-punk brainwash advertising campaign.
5: i perform the freestyle of the mind for an audience of one.
6. i will abolish mediocrity whenever it's obscene form takes shape.
7: i will respond to truth, and nothing else!