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Should Goth Kids Do Charity Work?



I'm not sure how many of you have heard about the shooting at a montreal, canada college recently. The man was a member of Vampirefreaks.com, a online goth community. Now, there have been two other similar incidents. In one, two boys plotted online to kill another boy. In the other, a 13yr old girl and her much older boyfriend met on the site, fell in love, and killed her parents so they could be together. Understandably, that's casted a shadow on gothic culture as a whole. Now, most of us, even those who are dark, disturbed and depressed, know that we are not ALL like that. Most of us, even those who feel are government is unfair, wouldn't try to blow up the white house. Most of us, even while feeling the police are prejudiced, wouldn't shoot a cop for harrassing us about something stupid like loitering around a 7-11.



The media has done a wonderful job of showing gothic culture is a negative light. But they went one step farther on sunday, and that was too far for me.



Jet, the webmaster for VF, is tired of getting negative publicity for such unfortunate incidents. It is almost impossible to monitor every single person on a site of 623,000 people. And yet, people are clamoring for the site to be shut down, and to actually be BANNED from Canada. Yes, banned. From a COUNTRY.



Understandably, he would like do do something restore a positive light to most of us who feel that the goth culture is a culture, and not a species.



Jet has proposed that in different cities across Canada, VF members interested in helping restore our image, to join in the Children's Wish Foundation parade this October 14th.



Jet's proposal left representatives of the Children's Wish Foundation speechless. But Toronto Sun writer Michelle Mandel was unfortunately not left in the same state by Jet's proposed participation.



"It's a match made in hell"



"Now vampirefreaks.com wants to improve their blood-soaked image -- by hooking up with sick children. "



"It's an offer that left the Children's Wish organization understandably speechless. As much as they need help raising money to grant the wishes of dying children, getting it from the website associated with a mad, demonic sniper is probably not what they had in mind. "



"they should stay home"



"If they still feel no responsibility to prevent another Dawson, they can spare us their pitiful whining of how misunderstood they are. "





"Let them slink back to their dark online world of blood and gore. And come next month's Children's Wish parade, let the vampirefreaks do us all a favour and stay away. "





those are some of the quote taken from her article, written this past sunday in the Toronto Sun. Now, is it just me, or is this utterly wrong? People, wanting to show that we can be an assett to the mainstream community, that we can make a difference in the world that has in fact, told us we are unwanted.



In my mind, goths are like every other perosn in this sense. A goth can have a blind brother, a deaf sister or have a cousin with Down's Syndrome. And yet based on the color of those clothes they wear and their association with VF, they are being told that they would be unwelcome.



I know a little boy who is nearly blind and severly autistic. If someone told me that I would be unwelcome joining into a parade for charity based on the color of my clothes and the music that I like, I would be appalled, horrified, and disgusted. I have been a member of VF for several years, and I am completely convinced that this is a VERY rare instance, and has only occured on this site because of the very large ammount of traffic the site has from all walks of like and locations.



I am ashamed of the attitudes the media has taken. In spite of the fact that it was a Canadian newspaper and not an American one, makes it no better. The newspaper is widely in circulation, not to mention is published online. So because of a woman's blatant slander, people will think that we as goth's shouldn't be allowed to make up a portion of the overall amount of people participating in charity parades, walks and other works each year.



Yea, I'm pissed. What happened was wrong, but it isn't any excuse for the media wildfire that comes from instances like this. If a cleancut preppy prettyboy type had killed someone, they wouldn't have mentioned that he shopped at Abercrombie and Fitch and listened to Justin Timberlake, and had a screen name like Heart_throb69, right? But let it be a goth, and immiediately they talk about the clothing, the hair, the music..... We're normal humans. Goth is a richly diverse subculture, and for the most part we are passive, and we are not heartless. And we are NOT a different species. So don't treat us like one.





-----If anyone else thinks this is unfair, PLEASE pass this on. In spite of the fact this is happening in Canada, it's still a wrong and disgusting occurance.-----