A View on a Kill

Jim Lian, of Broke Ass Loser sent us his take on the Deneke situation, and digs a little deeper into the mindset that helped bring such a tragic situation to be.

My name is Jim Lian, and I am the lead singer/guitarist of a punk band
called Broke Ass Loser. Anyway, last night I read the article about that
kid in Amarillo who got killed, and I wrote this….

So, You Call Yourself a Punk
By Jim Lian

So, you call yourself a punk. Well, my only question is why? What makes
you a ?punk? anyway? Is it they way you dress? The music you like? Who
you hang out with? Fuck no. There are no punks. Calling yourself a punk
goes against everything the word (and the ideas it represents) stands for.
When you label yourself as a punk, you?re classifying , you are separating
yourself or your
group, and thus supporting and participating in the act of segregation.
People are people, and we don?t need to label them. That?s one of the
constant and unifying themes in punk rock. When you say, ?I?m a punk.? You
are conforming,
loosing your individuality, putting on a front, expressing an overwhelming
need to be accepted, selling out, being hypocritical, trying too hard to be
different, exploiting musicians and activists worldwide, and missing the
point of the music you claim to identify with. Just because you are a
little different from the masses, or listen to AFI and NOFX, or even say
?Fuck you!? to society on a daily basis,
doesn?t give you the right to call yourself a punk. Think about it.

I am in a punk band, I go to almost all the punk shows that come to
town, I express myself in unique and unusual ways, I have a lot of very
leftist political views, I am an agnostic (who is very against Christianity)
living in a very Christian small town and take a lot of shit for expressing
my views, and I say fuck all the time, to everybody. But I would never call
myself a punk. A punk rocker, maybe, but not a punk. A lot of my friends,
and kids at school probably use that word, but I have no desire to label
myself. I am who I am. You see what I am saying?
Be yourself, not a punk. That?s the only way you can become all you want to
be in life. Labels hold you down, group mentality inhibits your decisions,
trying to be a punk is just a waste of time. It?s dangerous too. Just a
few hours ago, I read on article about this kid from Texas, this fucking kid
who got killed in a fight between ?punks? and ?preps.? The kid?s fucking
dead, these assholes killed him because he was a ?punk.? Punks, preps,
skaters, jocks, nerds…….who fucking cares! This kid is dead, there is
so much he?ll never experience, and why? His life is over because of a
fucking label. Doesn?t that tell you something? Even as I read the article
about his death, I saw that the author himself had not learned from the
incident. The author opened by saying, ?He was a punk, just like anyone of
us.? and he kept referring to the two groups as ?punks? and ?preps.? Come
on, he wasn?t a punk, he was a kid. A kid who liked to dress different, dye
his
hair blue, and listen to punk rock. Those kids weren?t preps, they were
ignorant dicks. The only way to keep things like this from happening is to
forget all these
fucking labels. Dress how you want, do what you want, but don?t label
yourself or anyone else. Life is hard enough as it is, don?t make it harder
for yourself and everyone around you, don?t use labels, don?t classify
people. Talk to people, get to know people, don?t call them ?preps,? or
?jocks,? or ?punks.? Call them Jenny, or Steve, or Ryan.

All I am really trying to say is this: Nothing good will come from you
calling yourself a punk. Live your life they way you always have, listen to
punk rock, dye your hair green, get into the mosh pit and kick somebody?s
ass, but don?t call yourself a punk. That kid in Texas died because he was
labeled a punk. Kids are fighting, and dying every fucking day in the
United States, and around
the world because of what group they belong to. And you, you are sitting
there in your house, putting on your baggy pants, your wallet chain, and
spiking up your hair. Uncover your eyes and look at the world around you,
listen to the words of those punk rock songs, understand what the word punk
means. Be an individual, but fuck the label. You don't need it. None of
us needs it. So you call yourself a punk, huh? I'll just call you by your
name.