My Ode to Emo

Why look down on someone because they think differently and look a certain way? As adults, you’d think that we’d all grow out of the geek/jock setting of high school, but society as a whole has not. I was at a concert a few years back. Granted, it was supposed to be a hard-core rock show, but one band on the ticket brought out some of the younger “emo” crowd. I saw a grown man, professional musician, someone who is supposed to be a role model for the youth, stand on stage and announce his disgust for the emo youths, and quite honestly, I was rather amazed by the response from the crowd. They agreed with his words of hate. Now, I would expect this from a group of teenagers or uneducated bigots, but we are talking about a man at least 30 years old and an average age in the audience of, I’d say, 25. The audacity of the young adults and their fearless leader on the stage shocked me a bit. How can you claim to be the one to open anyone’s eyes with such a narrow point of view? I thought that when you grew, you matured accordingly. Apparently not that crowd. Why do we hate and fear change and different mind sets? Maybe it’s because society as a whole can’t accept what we do not understand. Talk to one of these so called emo kids. I’ll bet you’d be surprised at the intelligence and passion they possess. I know that I have turned a few deaf ears on to a new way of thinking when it comes to emo kids. I make sure to tell them not to forget that I was once and still am one of them.