I don't know what to say except that you will be missed...

You touched so many lives.

Here, Gangbangers are a real threat. They carry guns and knives. They use them. They damage property as well. There are drive by shootings EVERY night in one neighborhood or another. Kids get beat up for wearing the wrong color shoes, or walking on the wrong street. The gangbangers are usually kids who think nothing can ever happen to them. Sometimes their families have no idea that hanging out with friends means stealing, vandalizing and violence, but in a lot of cases, gangbangers are children of OGs. A mom sends her son to visit an uncle not realizing that they are stealing a car for the night and painting the neighborhood. Kids go to visit their dad in prison, and know that he is a gangbanger... so they do what dad did. Gangbanging is all about territory and belonging.

Goth is a form of expression. A Goth is more likely to hurt themself than another person. People look at art because it is an expression as well. The power of a work of art is in the ability it has t evoke a feeling from others. A lot of kids (here the goth thing starts around 13) go goth to express powerful inner feelings. Whenever an expression is that powerful, it is impossible NOT to notice. I guess it makes some people feel odd because most of us feel like we have been invisible all our lives in one way or another. Feelings that are often difficult to express in words are sometimes more easily expressed by creating a mood with color, shape, and movement. Some kids don't know what to do with the attention they get by having black lipstick or black clothes. I probably wouldn't matter if the lipstick was black, or red, or purple or green, people look because they are curious about anything that is different. Different is not a personal threat. It is just different.

The Goths here are not a threat, they are just not mainstream. We have night time block parties in the underground areas and tons of people are out in mass enjoying the people watching..... goth, grunge, alternative, fetish..... all wandering around with the more commonly accepted standards. It's like one of those Sunday parties in the park without the park, and at night.