Caution: Different-Looking People Crossing

I often feel moved to take up the cause of the younger people of our society, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of them wouldn't know good taste if it bit them in the... well, anyway, I still stick up for them. There is a certain segment of the young population that is getting a bad rap here in the Syracuse area despite the fact that they would appear to be more well-behaved and well-meaning than most of their peers. Why is this, you might ask? Purely based on the way they look and the music they like.

See, contrary to popular belief, most of the people who listen to the current rap-metal trend don't want to rip your head off and "Break Stuff". They got a bad rap, pardon the pun, after Woodstock 99 when a bunch of upper middle class frat-boy types decided that the best way to deal with excessive food and drink prices was to try to have their own version of the burning of Rome, complete with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the role of the fiddling Nero. And so, any time anyone tries to set up a hardcore music festival, people immediately fear another Woodstock 99. It goes deeper than that with these people, however.

Organizer Keith Allen and his ilk are what is known as "straight-edge". This means they don't drink, don't do drugs, and pledge celibacy until marriage. The same admirable attributes you would want in your local church's youth group. They started their annual music festival a few years back, and it is now arguably the largest of its kind in the country, if not the world. Doesn't sound like a problem, right? Well, there's only one thing about these "straight-edge" types. Many of them sport tattoos, different colored hair (green, purple, etc.), have multiple piercings, including some in places you'd just assume they never told you about. It gets better...

They decided to call their little musical get-together "Hellfest" because the heat around here is so bad that time of year, it reminds you of, well, hell. Only the locals don't see it that away. Nope, they heard "Hellfest" and instantly assumed devil-worshippers. Their excuse? "Well, geez, just look at how they're dressed, and they have piercings and tattoos!!!" And so, the town of Salina tossed them out of their planned site for the concert and basically said, "Don't let the door hit your tattooed rear end on the way out!" This despite repeated promises that the organizers would clean up any messes left and tried to jump through numerous bureaucratic and other hoops.

Are we that antiquated in our thinking that somebody having tattoos or piercings automatically equals evil? The war spread to the letters page of the Sub-Standard, oops, Post-Standard, where one Mattydale denizen actually dared to back the organizers up and say that people were wrong to assume these people were bad because of the name of the concert and the way they looked. Naturally, somebody responded with a letter saying basically, "No, they are evil, because they have tattoos and piercings, and they named the thing Hellfest!"

And so, the organizers left Salina, and turned their eyes to Liquids, a nightclub in East Syracuse where they held their little Hellfest last year, without a hitch, they will be quick to tell you. Sure, there was some garbage strewn around afterward, but they went to the extraordinary (these days) step of coming back the next day and cleaning up the surrounding neighborhood, which incidentally is what they had pledged to the denizens of the town of Salina before being told basically that it wouldn't be enough. So, they re-up with Liquids, set up a press conference to announce that the problems were finally over, and they barely get the thing underway when the town of DeWitt Police show up to inform them that they don't have the necessary permits to hold the festival and therefore it's going to be up to another planning board to let them hold it. Am I alone in thinking that there's going to be a repeat of the whole Salina circus again next week when this goes before the town board? They'll have the hearing, more crotchety old people will show up to protest, and they'll get blackballed again. One can only hope this will not be the case, but it won't surprise me if it happens.

It's no secret that too many people prejudge other people too easily and too quickly these days. There are still those who believe that homosexuality is immoral and biologically deviant, that it is learned behavior and not the way you were made. They rail on about how "there is a war going on to define the culture that we bring up our children in." This is NOT a war, and I beg those who see it that way to not call it a war. See, in war, people die. People who want to wage war often-times want to kill people. Note I said "often-times", I did not make the mistake of jumping to conclusions. However, to call this a "culture war" is inappropriate. We don't need to include people with tattoos and piercings as the enemy in this "war".

I cannot understand how you can dismiss the most well-meaning of people over their looks. And to send the police to the press conference on top of it, no, that's not intimidation. You wouldn't have done this for a church youth group that wanted to have a Christian rock festival. I mean, you certainly can't arrest the kids just for looking different, so they did the next best thing and took the wind out of their sales. Look, I remember when I was in high school and kids who were "straight edge" were seen as the ENEMY. The stoners were becoming a force at good ol' West Genny and they harassed "straight edge" kids. While I'm for the legalization of pot, you have to respect people's decision to not touch the stuff. So you see, It's hard enough sticking to your personal beliefs without being harassed over the way you look.

I am wholeheartedly in support of these people, and I hope their concert not only is allowed to go on, but it goes off without a hitch. I've spoken with Keith Allen, he seems like a very committed person, passionate about his desires to just have a harmless way for youth to enjoy what they think is good music (I, of course, differ on that, but that doesn't matter here). This is without seeing him, mind you, I don't know what he looks like. I DON'T CARE what he looks like, and that is my point. Nobody should care what he looks like, and nobody should care that he's calling the thing "Hellfest". Trust is something that is earned, and I believe he has earned our trust. I hope the same may be true someday with the rest of the community.