Punk in a non-Punk world, have you ever heard of Bluefield? Probably not, I don’t think anyone has except for the couple of thousand people who crammed themselves between two mountains and called it home. It’s a legitimate, full-scale not to isolation and obscurity. If you’re in Virginia life doesn’t exist past Roanoke on this side of the hill. Plus to further isolate, and/single out people, this remote little retirement village like town is divided into sections like we’re some kind of high society. You have West Graham where most of your drug dealers, and users live onward toward Tazewell, the “wrong side of the tracks” if you will. Then you have your “proper” people, the doctors, the women married to them, their children, and their pretty friends who bundle up in cozy little “suburbs” like Sedgewood, Pine Hill Park, and Fincastle. Now you have all these former little “teenie bopper” kids running around high schools thinking their Punk Rock because they were so many wrist bands, and because they got the cool vintage Rock t-shirt at Hot Topic with mommy or daddy’s money. They go to local shows because of the social scene, not for the music. They hang out with people who play guitar because it’s cool. They don't understand the ethics or the values behind it. They think Punk is a look, a fashion, an over priced, exploited fad. Punk Rock is an attitude, it’s a lifestyle in rebellion against people like that. The posers who catch wind of the trend to soak up its benefits and then drop it when the new market comes in, and here I am stuck in the middle of it all. Am I the only on that gets it, it feels like I’m the only one in a hundred mile radius in either direction that knows that Kurt Cobain wrote at least twenty better songs than “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, you just love it because that’s what they wanted to sell you at the time. The Ramones weren’t rock stars because of their leather jackets, and sunglasses. The Sex Pistols weren’t the greatest band ever because they made safety pins and bondage chains fashion accessories. There is so much more to it than that, and I want you to know that none of you little kiddies are Punk, your hair dye and Chucks can’t hide who you really are underneath all that make up and eye liner, guys and girls. I’m punk because of who I am, the way I live, and for what I believe in and fight for, not because of what I wear, who I hang out with, or where I go. I’m Punk because I understand the concept.