From the start, HATE
has always been a parody of the typical hate page. I would point out the evils of
the world, Sex, Violence, and Language, in a humurous way. The page started on Geocities,
but I quickly grew tired of their pop-up banner ads, and their water mark they later
came up with. I quickly left them, in search for a happier home. That home came
in the form of Internet Trash. I'd still be on Internet Trash today, but I unfortunately
outgrew their 5 meg space limit.
It was sometime in the middle of 1998
now. Soon after I moved into Internet Trash, I expanded HATE.
Branching out into Jokes, Parody, and Cartoons. I believe my parodies to be some
of my best work. My original parodies were Incest, the O.J. Dream Kife Kit, and
Sim's That Never Made It.
HATE
continued to grow, adding more parodies, adding more jokes, cartoons, more and more
content. But growth is not met without opposition. In 1999, I had become more popular
in school, no longer was a picked on. So popular in fact that a friend of mine on
the yearbook staff asked me for information about me, so they could do an article
about me. "Not Your Average Teen" they were going to call it. So I wrote
down some info about me, at the end of the note saying "Oh, by the way, check
out my page, it may be of some use to the article." and giving the URL.
Soon everyone in the yearbook class knew
of my web page, and they told their friends, and in turn their friends told their
friends. You get the idea. At the same time, I was counting down the days to my
16th birthday. I would say to my friends "Hey, XX more days." and they
would nod in understanding, because they were my friends, and they knew my birthday
was in XX days.
But there were those that were not my
friends, they heard the countdown, and they asked themselves, 'what is this countdown
all about?' Being "Not Your Average Teen," rumors soon began to spread
that the countdown was to a bomb threat. Like a game of 'Telephone' the rumors quickly
grew out of porportion.
"Did you hear about Matt, he's going
to blow up the school"
"Yeah, I heard the bomb is going
to be in the third row of lockers on the 2nd floor to the left."
"Yeah, I heard about how Matt's gonna
blow up the school, and that he's gay."
So all this got to the principal, the
'bomb threat', the homosexuality, and most importantly, the web page. Taking one
look at the web page, seeing the word HATE
in bold red letters, Keokuk High School Principal Dr. Wemette had sealed my fate.
First he called in my father, telling him "Your son has broke the law!"
and breaking down my dad's sprits. Then I was pulled into the fray.
On November 18th, a Thursday, on that
day my only worry was giving a speech about penguins. My worries were about to get
alot more serious then that. I was pulled out of speech class, and escorted down
to the Principal's Office. Immediately steriotyped as I walked in the door, the
Vice Principal remarked on how I was dressed in black. I was then further steriotyped,
asked if I was a member of any hate groups. Never once was I asked if the 'bomb
threat' was true however. Then I was told that the matter of the 'bomb threat' had
been turned over to the Keokuk Police Department, and that I was suspended for 5
days.
Upon getting home, my father told me that
it would be in my best interest to take down the page until this all died down.
I agreed, and HATE was dead.
But this isn't the end of our story, oh
no, not by far.
On Monday, November 22nd, 1999, my biggest
worry was playing Sim City 3000, that I had just gotten as an early birthday present.
Again, my worries were about to get a whole hell of alot more serious then that.
Arround 4pm, our good friends from the Keokuk Police Department, and the Lee County
Sherrif's office literally surrounded my house with four or five squad cars. I was
served some papers, a court order stating I was, and I quote, "seriously mentally
imparied, and a possible harm to himself or others." Reason why: See attached.
Attached: Incomplete and misrepresented copies of my web page.
This court order also stated that I was
to be placed in a mental ward for evaluation. I then, on my front porch, infront
of all my neighbors, I was handcuffed like a common criminal, stuffed itno the back
of a car, and taken away.
I love the cops, I really do.
I was then taken to Iowa City, and placed
in the loving care of the Univercity of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, in their mental
ward. My first night there, I was given cheese, they took a blood sample, a urine
sample, and they gave me a room. An all white room, a 10x10 foot cell, just a bed,
and a locked cabinet that I couldn't get into.
The next day, Tuesday, November 23rd,
1999. My birthday. Sweet 16 my ass. No presents, no family, no friends, just the
unforgiving chill of being locked in a mental ward. The psychological dammage of
feeling like a reject from society, feeling like a god damn lunatic. For the first
time in my life, I begin to question my own sanity.
I meet with my psychiatrists that day.
I walk into their office and say "You
know, today is my birthday, I hope I get cake."
One Dr. Responds, "Oh, and what will happen
if you don't get cake?"
He was hoping I'd say: "Well, I guess
I'll have to kill every fucker in this building until I do. AND IT BETTER BE CHOCLATE
CAKE YOU BASTARD MOTHER FUCKERS!!"
But instead I said: "Oh, well... I guess
I won't get cake."
And for the record, yes, yes I did get
cake, and yes, yes it was choclate.
Meanwhile, back at the Bat Cave. Never
mind that I'm gone, the Principal continued to hype up the 'bomb threat', making
a big announcement about it over the morning announcements on Monday. On Tuesday,
over 200 students see the opportunity to take a day off of school, at my expense.
The few that showed up started a Save the Matt movement. Wearing yellow ribbons
that say Matt on them, and dressing all in black. Nice to know I have support.
In the ward, one of the staff, his name
was Matt. Matt was cool, durring the morning he'd let me listen to KRNA on the radio.
KRNA is a heavy metal station out of Cedar Rapids. Let me tell you, life takes on
new meaning when you're in a mental ward, listening to More Human Than Human by
White Zombie. I got to talking to Matt, found out that he knows Eric, the drummer
in brother Bill's band BEG. He also used work as a telemarketer, and sat next to
one of Bill's friends, Kyle, at the same place where Bill worked tech support. I
also met Jesus in the mental ward.. well, you know, he wasn't really Jesus, but
he thought was. Go outside for rec time, walk accross a puddle, suddenly you're
the Lord and can heal lepers. You know, it's funny who you'll meet when you're in
a mental ward.
Monday, November 29th was my court date.
After a week of listening to god damn Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, and other pop
music on the radio when Matt wasn't arround, after a week of being treated like
a lunatic, after spending my 16th birthday, and Thanksgiving away from my friends
and family, after a week of pure unimaginable HELL!
I was escorted back to Keokuk, IA. The court date was short, but oh so sweet. The
findings from the doctors were clear, I was a perfectly normal and healthy teenage
boy. Case dismissed. I was sent home. I was sent home with a paper signed by three
doctors that I am not mentally ill.
However, the school was not done. They
wanted to break me. While in the mental ward, my suspension was extended 5 more
days, bringing the grand total to 10 days suspension. They also said that a hearing
would be held to expel me. Not to hear if they would expel me, but to expel me.
We show up at 7pm, on Monday, December
6th. By the time we've left, it's 1:30am Tuesday. Wasting all that time to determine
a fate of a boy, which had already been decided before I got there. The shortest
straw has been pulled for me. And several other straws just to make sure it was
infact, the shortest.
Nevermind their case was lies and hearsay.
Nevermind the testimony from five of my friends and from my mother, and the over
twenty friends who showed up to support me. Nevermind the document stating I am
not mentally ill. Neverming my page not having a thing to with anything. Nevermind
me never saying anything about a bomb threat. We're facing the school board here,
and to not expel me would be saying they were wrong. And a school is not about to
admit that they were wrong are they?
On December 16th, HATE
was reborn. The earlier versions of HATE
were dark and gloomy, with a woodgrain image map. The Second Coming of HATE
was brighter, and happier. It almost cannont be described, you have to see it for
yourself. Click here
for the image map. The page found home on my isp's ftp server.
Oh, remember the All Expenses Paid Trip
To Iowa City I got for my birthday? Well, the bill came. Lee County, Iowa had a
court order to have me committed to a mental ward. I was taken out of my parent's
custody, and spent a week in a place where I didn't belong. Now they want me to
pay the bill. From a logical stand point, this dosen't seem remotely fair.
Urinalysis without microscope... $13.50
Drugs of abuse screen, Urine... $64.00
Diagnostic Interview... $275.00
Spending a week in a mental ward... $7,849.80
Being declared sane... priceless.
Despite being robbed of all my baisc civil
rights, and being drop kicked out of school, I can honestly say, my life is great.
I don't have to wake up early anymore, I don't worry about the bullshit run arround
of school, and I'm free. They gave me two years of my life back, two years that
my friends will spend rotting away in school.
Eating candy and sandwiches and other
snack food, drinking 2 liter bottles of cafenated carbonated beverages, and watching
Comedy Central and surfing porn all day. I've got my GED, I can get a job if I want.
I've got my friends, my family, and my life. Life dosen't get better. Infact, I
encoruage you to coutndown to your birthday, and break free from the bondage of
the school system.
HATE
went through a third transformation, called Untitled 3. The core of the design is
in the background I made, which I named Untitled 3, because it was the third doccument
I had open that I didn't save. Just messing around in Ulead Photo Impact one day
with a picture of myself, and out it did come. At this time, I also moved it to
the faster and more reliable server that Desolation is running on, with the permission
of Squid. Tho I no longer work for Deso, Squid and I are still friends, and so the
page remains.
HATE
will continue to grow and prosper, forevermore. Amen.
