Who are you to say you know me?
Who are you to say I'm wrong?
Who are you to judge me?
Who are you to throw the first stone?

Where's your badge? where's your gun?
You label me, what right have you?
But who is having all the fun?
Leave me be unless you're inside my mind!

What right have you to criticize me?
What right have you to deny me?
What right have you to defy me?
What right have you to be casting any stones?

You say I'm just like everyone else . . .
Perhaps I am, but who are you to say?
You never knew me, never cared to . . .
What right have you to put me in "my place?"

What right have you to tell me who to be?
What right have you to tell me who I am?
What right have you to change what you don't understand?
What right have you?


I do not act because of the way I dress. I do not change my views because of the way I appear. I change my views because I have a mind. I am not a part of the collective, despite any longings to fit in. I am not "EVIL," I am simply not you. I have my own beliefs, standards, concepts. That which you do not comprehend is called "different," not necessarily "wrong" or "immoral."

There is suffering in this world, the likes of which are unfathomable to me, but you cannot tell me that I do not know pain. In my few years I have seen more than I can simply relate to you. I know as much as you, but we know of different worlds. I am who and what I am, as are you. I do not ask you to change because I know that you won't . . . So I ask the same respect fromyou.

I am not different because of the music I find appealing. It is not Marilyn Manson or Metallica or Pantera who tell American youths to be outcasts. It is the outcasts that tell Marilyn Manson to continue his career. Those who who have had certain experiences in their lives chose to listen to songs containing feelings that they have felt about these experiences . . . music which they can relate to . . . Someone who seems to identify with their position.

As humans, we seek knowledge. It is both a conscious and subconscious quest begun at birth. Knowledge is what keeps man alive. The fire burns. High waters drown if you cannot swim. If a story is told, we listen . . . Not necessarily because we really want to hear it, but because it tells us something new. We listen to the stories to expand our horizons, knowledge, and humor. We know, all too well, tales of angels, not fallen, but dragged from heaven into dark alley ways. When will we hear the tales of endlessly warm summers? When are we allowed live and experience these times?

As all men, we seek what we can understand and someone to help us better understand ourselves. How can we do this when we are surrounded by lies. We are told that mankind is evil. So we torture ourselves and harden ourselves because we think it will make us better people. Looking "selflessly" to help others, we put ourselves aside . . . We forget who we are without others. We ignore our own needs and suffer because of it. That makes us resent helping. Then we regret resentment because that is "wrong." It spirals into an abyss, an endless chain of hating both ourselves and others because they make us hate ourselves. That is what causes man to become evil. Cycling downward with no hope for a guiltless moment of personal focus.

You ask me to be perfect by impossible standards. What is perfection if it cannot be achieved? Man is perfect in himself. It is not man's ability to separate himself from his animalistic nature that puts him above others. The lack of carnal desires is not characteristic to any mammal. Man is merely a two legged creature of the earth. What sets him apart from other species? What makes man perfect? The ability to adapt, expand, grow, change . . . Survival of the fittest and man is the fittest of all. Not all men are perfect, but those who strive to be perfect assume the essence of this supposedly unattainable feature.

You hate me because I do not believe in your God. You do not believe in mine, should I hate you as well? God was created by man . . . to control others through fear. Through self consciousness. Tell a man he is not good enough and he tries to make himself worthy. Christianity tells all men that they are not good enough. But good enough for what? Heaven? "An undiscovered country from whose bourne which no traveler returns . . ." What is known of this place? An imaginary utopia created by an imaginary God? If a child tells you of an invisible friend, do you believe him? No. And yet you devoutly worship an invisible deity? A figure represented without true solid evidence? A deity who has never spoken directly to you in any form except as conscious? One must weigh this question solidly:
Is the power of prayer a power to call to ourselves and our own personal ability?

All religious ceremonies call for prayer or chanting. Is this prayer just to cause us to meditate and draw out the power within our own bodies and minds?

I do not desire to become one of the rats running in this maze where all the hallways look the same. For this I am a "sinner!?"

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