Skateboarding and the Presidential Debate

Dateline: 5 October 2000

Perhaps Skateboarding readers tuned into the presidential debate last night but my best guess is the majority did not. A vast majority of readers on this site are young and have been convinced via public education and other societal misconceptions that they are of an inability to act in favor of their own lives, for those lives have unquestionably been put on hold. They have been deluded by the notion that any action they take would consequently be in vain for they can not, should not make a difference. This is sad.

Should skateboarders be led to believe that presidential politics have nothing to do with them, I say be warned and think again.

Know this:

It is a simple issue of whether or not inherent rights should be protected or sold for cheap. The question is should our actions be dictated by the thickheaded powers that be or should our rights to participate in the defining of society and the wherewithal to test the boundaries of our respective urban environments be secured?

Some issues facing skateboarders are these:

• Legislation meant to obliterate the sport of skateboarding
• Treatment of skateboarders as that of the homeless
• Curfews for skateboarders
• The creative use of public space
• The right to do nothing in public
• The bannishment of skateboarding not only in urban areas but in public parks and promenades
• The building of skate parks as of baseball fields and basketball courts
• Education
• Youth rights
• Anarchism vs. Capitalism
• Your freedom to choose whatever it is that you choose

For those content to be outsiders on the basis of just bein' an outsider, the solution is clear. Do nothing, as freedoms, one by one, are razed rancorously to the ground. Be content to bitch and moan about the way society treats you, fixed firmly in the knowledge that your reward for this conduct is to be forever a social pariah. Be satisfied, as members of the collective subculture whose positions thrive not on principle at all, but that of the need to avoid fashionable conformity and social status at all costs and of that alone.

If, on the other hand, you actually want change, you must get involved. If you are old enough to vote, do so. You can register online via: Choosorlose.com or Election.com. If you are not old enough to vote, do something, for the love of god, about making your voice heard.