I’ve always been a fairly independently minded soul, as anyone who has seen me dress myself will tell you. I have my own thoughts about a lot of things: relationships, race and politics and religion, the arts… you name it. I consider myself very fortunate in these respects: while I won’t automatically discount something because it finds favor with the masses, I do try very hard to root out my opinions independently of other people. I’ve never found satisfaction in the thoughts and trends dictated to me by the people that surround me.

Our tastes and opinions and ideals are natural outgrowths of our backgrounds and upbringing. We are shaped by the things around us as we grow, and we should never be ashamed or embarrassed by the things that seem natural to us. Whether talking about your CD or DVD collection or your political or religious convictions, each and every one of us should be comfortable and secure in standing strong in support of what we believe and enjoy.

The past few years as an American have scared me, more than I’m willing to admit or discuss. On many levels, I’m not a political person, and it’s not just because of the obnoxious and ineffective two-party system that our country suffers underneath daily (seriously: if you don’t toe the party line, who out there really represents you? What if you count yourself a social conservative but a fiscal liberal, or a liberatarian? Sorry, but like me, you’re probably shit out of luck in the way of ‘taxation by representation’).

I’m fully aware that opinions, by and large, are just that: not facts, not scientifically verifiable theories, nothing but the beliefs of one person that stand equal in all aspects to that of another. Don’t confuse this with a weakness in my beliefs; I will fight more passionately and with more resolve than most people that I know to protect those things that I feel strongly about, just as I would expect anyone else to do. But I am the first in the room to admit that, yeah, I might be wrong. Perhaps exposing kids to sex and violence is psychologically damaging. Perhaps drivers should be forced by law to wear seatbelts, and adults should be kept from marijuana for their own health, and God exists. But you know, you might be wrong, too. And just because you refuse to admit that fact doesn’t make your beliefs stronger or more valid; it just makes you more of an asshole.

This country was founded 230 years ago on the basis that all of its citizens should have an equally loud voice in the governance and representation of the nation. There should be no rule by dictatorship, passed on through bloodlines, government by families and birth orders. And as much as I don’t consider myself a patriotic person, blindly saluting my flag, I believe in our government system, at least as an ideal. Majority rules; that’s a good way to run things. It allows for shifts in the status quo and the changing hearts and souls of its citizens. It ostensibly prevents (capitalism aside) a consolidation of power and the pushing of the interests of a small group of people from becoming the guiding force behind the attitudes of the people.

But I feel sad when the majority would back a group as strongly and seemingly blindly as it does the current administration. This is a gathering of politicians in the worst and foulest sense of the word, people who seek the power of the office for personal gain rather than the betterment of the people that they represent. There is no evident concern or care for the minority, for future generations, for even those that live outside of the inner circle that hold the scepter of power; and yet, the religious right and the small-minded bigots and those with money would have us believe that the nation has never been stronger, that we have never in over two centuries been headed in a better direction as a whole.

Janis Joplin’s rather famous for singing that “freedom’s just another word / for nothing left to lose.” I don’t agree with that, in statement or sentiment. At this point in my life, I’ve got more to lose than most: a comfortable lifestyle supported by two jobs, one that I love and one that pays me quite well. I have a beautiful and intelligent woman at my side. I have a band that allows me a strong freedom of expression. And in all of these areas, I am blessed with the comfort of being truly and unabashedly myself, with no apologies or shame.

And I am free, and a fortunate person to have been born in a place and time that allows me to not only feel contrary in many ways to the common man, but to feel what I do regardless of what any and everyone else feels. Freedom is not having nothing left to lose; freedom is having the voice to proclaim that you agree or disagree with the majority, that you feel the same as or differently than most, and using that voice without fear.

Whatever words you feel, celebrate today by using your voice, just in case it is taken from you tomorrow. Don’t ever think it couldn’t happen; the headlines of the past years tell us all otherwise.

I believe in love at first sight. I believe in true and hopeless romanticism, in treating women like friends instead of sexual objects.

I believe that metal and punk are just as valid in the world of musical expression as classical and jazz.

I believe that popcorn thrillers with Will Smith and Colin Farrell are just as valid as anything by Stanley Kubrick.

I believe that the religious right is the absolute worst thing to ever happen to our country — even worse than terrorists like Al-Qaeda and the American militias behind the Oklahoma City bombing.

I believe that we are infinitely beneath the universe’s notice, and that to think otherwise is awfully egotistical.

I believe that Bush and his cronies are criminals who should not only be removed from office but should be punished according to the will of the people.

I believe the war in Iraq is a travesty based on American self-importance, but that those men and women who fight overseas should be treated with the utmost repsect and dignity for doing their job with honor and civility.

I believe that most of you are sad and hopeless in your lazy and blind devotion to truths that you were taught, instead of those that you sought out on your own. I also believe in your right to think that I’m wrong, because I might very well be.

America: fuck yeah.