Punks

As a kid around the age of 15, I was lost and confused. I knew that I didn't have it all together, and

everywhere I looked people acted as if they did. My thoughts and ideas would change day to day as

I talked to one person and then the next. I needed a concrete feeling. I tried going to church and

finding a release through God, but I was unable to believe. I tried looking at all my friends, but they

were all naive, so I turned to music. Music has become my religion, it clearly defines the questions I

have no answers to. I found that everything that irritated me also irritated the people in the bands I

started listening to. People label this type of music as "punk." "Punk" is defined in Webster's New

World Dictionary as "a loud, fast, and deliberately offensive style of rock music," and it defines "a

punk" as "a) a young hoodlum b) a young person regarded as inexperienced, insignificant, etc.

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Ch...

English: Graham Burnett (aka quercus robur) lying ...

English: Propagandhi performing at Galpon Victor J...

1[slang] poor; inferior." That is the worst misinterpretation I have ever come across. The members

of many punk bands have gone to college and are quite intellectual. Intellect is the basis of a punk

attitude. Punk is about change, and as defined by the band, Propagandhi, "The basis of change:

educate!/Derived from discussion, not hate, not myth, not muscle, not etiquette./ Intellect, not

're-elect!' Status symbols yield to respect between sex, species, environment...yup!" (Propagandhi,

"Hate, Myth, Muscle, Etiquette"). Punk songs aren't about going out and doing drugs, breaking

things, and harassing people, they are about life, life as a kid. And since I'm "not really understanding

what it takes to be a man, I think I'll stay a kid while I can" (Assorted Jelly Beans, "Plain Life"). It...