Preston
12-30-08, 12:45 am
This one goes out to those who refuse to be defined, who look at government forms as a challenge, who see the safe little boxes next to Caucasian and Asian and black and Hispanic and make their own little box labeled all of the above, who scratch out the question entirely and write their own names in large capital letters, who, when forced to choose between male and female write instead " see attached 27-page document detailing why my gender and sexuality will never fit within the confines of your stifling need to define me."
This one goes out to those who fight every day for the simple right to exist: for every gay kid ever beaten up for being gay; for every straight kid ever beaten up for being gay; for every girl who looks into the hungry eyes of magazine models and shouts, " I don't need the body of a skinny 12-year-old-boy to be beautiful! Gaze at my thick thighs with envy! You can't handle the truth!"
For every boy who winces when his friends measure their masculinity by how many girls they screw over and are man enough to call them out for it. For every girl who has screamed "enough!" and marched with her sisters to take back the night from monsters who would rather they stay at home afraid.
For every band geek who picked up a guitar or drumsticks or a French horn instead of a bong, for every poet who picked up a pen instead of a gun and expressed their angers with word and not blood, for every jock who refused to see those physically weaker than them as less than them, and for every teacher who risked their jobs by simply being there when no one else would...
This one goes out to you.
To those who refuse to define themselves by their GPA, by the size of their parents' bank accounts, by the clothes they wear or the music they listen to, to those who demand to be defined by their actions not by their fashions, who can't wait to turn 18 so they can finally vote those idiots out of office, who refuse to be passive consumers in this self-centered nation and throw away their TV's and make their own movies, who throw out their PlayStations and make their own videogames, who teach themselves to play their own music and write their own novels and create their own art.
And most of all...this one goes out to the kid listening right now who thinks I cannot possibly be talking about them, the quiet kid, the one who never speaks, who never raises his voice - or his hand, the one with no friends, who's never been on a date, the one ignored by parents, by teachers, by other kids, yes, this one goes out to you most of all.
Know this...
I understand.
I hear you.
I used to be you.
Don't you let anyone say your voice has no value.
Raise your voice, kid, and don't ever stop.
"Propers - Big Poppa E"
This one goes out to those who fight every day for the simple right to exist: for every gay kid ever beaten up for being gay; for every straight kid ever beaten up for being gay; for every girl who looks into the hungry eyes of magazine models and shouts, " I don't need the body of a skinny 12-year-old-boy to be beautiful! Gaze at my thick thighs with envy! You can't handle the truth!"
For every boy who winces when his friends measure their masculinity by how many girls they screw over and are man enough to call them out for it. For every girl who has screamed "enough!" and marched with her sisters to take back the night from monsters who would rather they stay at home afraid.
For every band geek who picked up a guitar or drumsticks or a French horn instead of a bong, for every poet who picked up a pen instead of a gun and expressed their angers with word and not blood, for every jock who refused to see those physically weaker than them as less than them, and for every teacher who risked their jobs by simply being there when no one else would...
This one goes out to you.
To those who refuse to define themselves by their GPA, by the size of their parents' bank accounts, by the clothes they wear or the music they listen to, to those who demand to be defined by their actions not by their fashions, who can't wait to turn 18 so they can finally vote those idiots out of office, who refuse to be passive consumers in this self-centered nation and throw away their TV's and make their own movies, who throw out their PlayStations and make their own videogames, who teach themselves to play their own music and write their own novels and create their own art.
And most of all...this one goes out to the kid listening right now who thinks I cannot possibly be talking about them, the quiet kid, the one who never speaks, who never raises his voice - or his hand, the one with no friends, who's never been on a date, the one ignored by parents, by teachers, by other kids, yes, this one goes out to you most of all.
Know this...
I understand.
I hear you.
I used to be you.
Don't you let anyone say your voice has no value.
Raise your voice, kid, and don't ever stop.
"Propers - Big Poppa E"