THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

...My friend Matthew got arrested because he called one of the policemen a prick, and then later on, when they could arrest people, they just grabbed him...

...People use God as an excuse for a lot of problems," she says...

...Fred and Matthew often break in on each other's thoughts, not to contradict but to complement what the other says...

...Oh, man, it's like 'nigger' is the common word for black person," says seventeen-year-old Jonah, describing his suburban school...

...If it'd really make a difference—I don't know...

...Just like Nicaragua...

...Because— in order to evolve, right...

...By now Roxanne has become an organizer, involved in starting a group "for communication within the punk scene" and forming a peace club at school...

...It's something I'm really torn about...

...Matthew, with blond hair and the pug-nosed face of an ail-American kid, was one of those taken away...

...Then I think of bombs, then I think of a young soldier holding a big bomb with a sweet expression on his face, then I think of Reagan, then I think of Ken dolls again, you know with molded hair and Devo wigs...

...Gabriel: " 'Peace with anarchy' is what she wrote in a letter to me when we—I used to really hate her—" Samantha: "We've gone through many stages...

...This failure, along with disillusionment with the 1984 Presidential election, led Maria to entertain the question of pacifism versus violence in political life...

...They give you an idea of what's actually happening in the world 'n' stuff—what's actually going on behind the curtain...

...With virtually no college students or persons in their twenties participating, it seemed as if a generation had been skipped...

...And then I read on and it said like 'chaos,' 'cause if you have no government then that means there's no one to control the people, and then people'd be going off and bombing buildings, with no police to stop them, you know, without the government...

...And most death-rockers are peace punks...

...They were divorced and they were both real active during the '60s and the early '70s 'n' stuff, and I sort of used that against them...

...Police are like that...

...Resistance to religion runs high...

...They're totally against it...

...I was probably going through a stage of rebelling against that kind of stuff and so I was really conservative and preppie and strange and loved America...

...And for a while, well, they'd always tell me, 'When I was a teen-ager, we were demonstrating against the war,' and I thought that was really strange...

...I mean, it'll motivate you to do something, so that's when I started doing things...

...The last year is when I really noticed high school students doing something politically...

...Jessica: "Or like 'I'm an American.' " Chuck: "Oh no, not at all...

...Her hair is bleached blonde in places, otherwise reddish, and flopped to one side of her face...

...I mean I could never see fighting for my country...

...Other kids call her a hippie, and the three of them are more or less outcasts at their school...

...And then they give all the credit to God...

...And then nothing'd be changed...

...Roxanne wears boots, a black leather jacket, and peace-sign jewelry...

...He really wanted to...

...But it was this religious education in high school that really made me question it, 'cause we had world religions, you know—it was just, like all the world's different religions, with the least emphasis on Christianity...

...And that's stupid, you know...

...anymore, because we don't like the way you're handling things—you can't say that...

...For a while, she like made me go to church still, and I would like say I'd go to church but I wouldn't go...

...Along with hostility to religion, these "rads" express a strong brand of anti-Americanism...

...And I think of people walking around on their tippy toes—those Barbie dolls...

...Everybody's trying to be political...

...Till I tried to think of another way to rebel and went to the opposite extreme—anarchy...

...I remember one time, when I first heard the Dead Kennedys, I called my friend and we were talking about them and then I mentioned that—I said something like, 'I didn't know there was a nigger in the band,' and all of a sudden the guy I was talking to goes 'What?!' and just then I realized that I was sayin' stuff, and just then, from there, pretty much changed...

...I used to feel guilty and I used to feel depressed, but then that doesn't change anything...

...It's just commonplace," adds Jessica, seventeen...

...Some of my best friends are peace punks...

...Racism pervades the social world of these kids...

...She began going to demonstrations and other political events with people she met at punk concerts...

...And it was like I was really believing in God strongly, and people would discuss—for days, you know—the existence of God...

...You have to change all society...

...I said, 'Don't worry, you're still the prick.' Luckily, he didn't hit me...

...But my friends who're Nazis say no...

...Jessica: "Yeah, that's basically what I think, but if you have to classify it, like I'm an American and it'll say that on my passport...

...And I have no valid arguments, but I just broke out, you know, he has to exist—how can you say this...

...Immediately...

...You don't have to be political to be punk...

...RESTLESS "The cop asked me who the prick was now," Matthew interjects, referring to his experience at the police station...

...The police were aggressive, grabbing demonstrators on the slightest pretext and arresting about forty by day's end...

...Samantha tells of how she picked South Africa as a research topic last year in seventh grade, and the way that affected her political development...

...That's a nice gun, ever killed anybody with it...

...They don't like peace punks at all...

...People should have more faith in themselves...

...Jonah: "Because they take it so seriously and you don't take it seriously at all...

...We pretty much all don't believe in God," says Jessica, who talked about it with her friends at Jonah's house...

...And then immediately after that I think of plastic—things made of plastic-artificial things...

...Or are they gonna take up arms and fight for their rights...

...She sports a lot of Madonna-like jewelry, heavy exaggerated makeup, and a black leather jacket...

...Lucille, seventeen, identifies herself as a "death-rock" punk...

...He finds information and expresses feelings through punk music...

...I even had the theory, I think I'd like anarchy with peace...

...America...

...he says he asked a police officer...

...Later, "listening to punk music opened, you know, different ideas up to me...

...But I would never fight for my country...

...Samantha's transformation began in early 1985...

...That's the first picture...

...And then something—I guess something came over me, and I thought, What am I doing...

...I think of cake where the frosting tastes like it's sort of made of rubber or something, where you can taste the artificial ingredients, and then I think of tires, and trucks, trucks carrying ammunition and stuff, ammunition, guns, army...

...The person who wins is not right, you know, but the one who kills more people...

...She became a close friend of Gabriel and Emily...

...who just do it to be cool...

...The Nazi-punks now number more than a dozen hard-core participants who have made contact with the Aryan Brotherhood and other racist groups...

...Jonah: "Either agnostic or actually deny the existence of God...

...Short and stocky, he dresses in preppie style...

...They refer to themselves as "the peace people" and try to formulate an outlook on politics and the world...

...She's required to stand up but just looks around, sits on her desk, or writes...

...I suppose I was—I was really angry at my parents...

...They don't beat around the bush...

...I used to get depressed about nuclear weapons, and also about what was going on in the world, and I always felt that having a good time was wrong...

...And I was saying, well this is wrong...

...He is small, wiry, his blond hair trimmed into a mo-hawk...

...Veterans of the 1960s showed up, but many protesters looked awfully young: punks, high-schoolers, even kids in grammar school...

...Scary," she says...

...They're both fourteen years old...

...Fred chimes in with his own encounter...

...I don't think they should classify everybody...

...I used to get depressed about the bomb a couple of years ago," says Roxanne...

...My mom, she's like really hurt...

...It forms a twelve-inch mohawk "when it's up," but she explains she doesn't wear it up too often any more...

...I mean, I don't know how much further it can go, but still they have to keep the poor people poor and the rich people rich, and pay these corporations to build these weapons for them...

...My mom says she's not racist, but then she says they're niggers...

...Imitating] 'Hey...

...I never saw a cop actually beating up somebody like that...

...Roxanne has encountered the Nazi-punks...

...I guess if it's a way to refer to 'Oh, the Americans,'—people who live in the United States of America...

...I get along with all of them...

...Gabriel: "I saw that on the letter she wrote, and I said, 'What the heck is anarchy?' and then my mother said—she looked at that letter and she was ready to tear it up, 'cause it had 'anarchy' on it, and she said you shouldn't be sending stuff like that through the mail, 'cause just the thought of anarchy for her—this is my stepmother—" Samantha: "Is that why you—" Gabriel: "No...

...And most people can't handle that at all...

...Nazis have become an obtrusive presence on the Chicago punk scene...

...The people—just a lot of people's ideas scare me...

...I was thinking that if governments are like this, like the one in South Africa, then why have governments...

...This article is based on material that appeared in the Chicago Reader of January 31, 1986...

...Fred: "This may come up as an ignorant generalization, but it seems a lot of the punkers are more militant than people who are just being political...

...Well, you can't sit down and talk with Reagan...

...I'm rad [pronounced more like rod...

...A lot of bands will just come out and like tell it how it is," he says...

...I think it's good...

...You look at it, and you say, OK, I'm gonna be for nonviolence, I don't believe in killing people, but I want to change things," she explains...

...Otherwise, Samantha said firmly, "somebody would get control of nuclear bombs and blow up the world...

...Matthew: "I knew most of them were in it for the badge, that they didn't always support law and justice, but—not that—" Fred: "Extreme...

...It said no government...

...Jonah: "But you can really hurt people, ripping them up—" Chuck: "Yeah...

...And finally I realized my arguments were like really silly...

...Roxanne began to attend political events—"mostly demonstrations and speeches, like that"—with people she met at punk concerts...

...Not at all—I mean, what's an American...

...Once in a while I have Nazi outlooks," says Jeff, a friend of Lucille...

...But I know—" Jonah: "Don't you consider yourself a citizen of the world...

...It's just so hard, because it's something I go back and forth...

...I knew cops were pricky before, but I never saw it this vividly...

...They just say it...

...Matthew and Fred: "You don't have to be punk to be political...

...Because for so long society was just like white-white, yellow-yellow, black-black...

...It was mostly social—you know, how people were so phony, and all they cared about was 'Is my hair beautiful?', 'Do I look great?', you know...

...It's like who cares about the poor people, we need more nuclear weapons, when they have more than enough to blow up the world a million times...

...I'm one of the only death-rockers who actually get along with the Nazis," she says...

...My mom was a really strict Catholic, and so's my dad...

...I just think that war, when you really think of it, is just a child's game," says Maria, a high-school junior...

...Maria attended the big nuclear-freeze rally in New York City when she was in eighth grade...

...And it's just—I don't know, maybe that was a bad example, but these sorts of things just go through my head all the time...

...Fred wears a button with the album-cover picture from Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home...

...But I guess if it came to it—maybe...

...Even smaller than her companions, Emily has long hair and wears peace-sign jewelry and flower pants...

...So I've got to be political.' It's like punk...

...Roxanne, the punk-rock organizer, has similar thoughts on the United States...

...These things go through my head all the time, and I don't know—I don't know...

...Race mixing...

...It just seems like some of the games you play when you were six and seven...

...Everybody laughs.] I mean—I think we'd have a much more stable world if all the people'd just believe in themselves more instead of believing in something that they've never seen—that they don't even know exists...

...They had worked out the idea of something like a world government as the means to achieve peace...

...I mean like they're really—" "You can have lots of fun with it," adds Chuck, a member of the group...

...You have to do that...

...He's been trying to cause trouble and stuff...

...Some of them are Nazis...

...Recently there's been this guy who proclaims himself to be a Nazi and he's been, well, at two shows," she says...

...Fred: "Yeah, there are just some people —1 John Stevenson is a free-lance writer in Chicago...

...His friend Fred was also arrested...

...I have no patriotism whatsoever...

...You have these guys and they're allowed to carry around guns and sticks, and they have the ability to arrest you and all that kind of stuff...

...I was into peace and anarchy," says Samantha, "and I thought, hmmm, of course these two go together...

...No, see—then I looked it up and then I said aahhh...

...Vivid images run through her mind when she hears the word "America": "I think of Barbie dolls...

...And I really value human life, and I think it's just a dumb thing to do, really idiotic...

...I think of tan-skinned, tall, blond Ken with his pink shirt and his perfect posture—you know, green corduroy pants and penny loafers...

...They used to spend much of their time attacking and harassing peace punks, but now they have announced their intention to form a skinhead band to hold a "Rock Against Communism" concert...

...That's pretty much it...

...And then I started to come out of it and I thought, That's really neat,' you know...

...It was mostly not political," says Roxanne, speaking of her reasons for looking into the punk scene...

...Samantha doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance in her eighth-grade classroom...

...Not that many people were punk until it became rad...

...The police were beating people up," Fred recalls...

...I don't know, I think it's pretty—I think it's really bad...

...Being rad is in...

...Opposition to war—and especially nuclear war—is common...

...They're just so power- and money-hungry that it just scares me...

...They didn't want Somoza anymore, Somoza's puppet dictatorship for the U.S., they didn't want it anymore...

...For Lloyd, racism is one thing that stands behind the curtain...

...But I feel that it's good, y'know...

...There is quite a bit of racism in my school that I've noticed," he says...

...So what were they supposed to do...

...Smash the state.' 'Anarchy now.'" My parents were really into all that in the 1960s," says Samantha, who has bright dark eyes, short hair with one braid dangling, and braces...

...No race mixing...

...But when they're talking to God, all they're really doing is talking to themselves and figuring things out for themselves...

...you know, it's scary...

...I put up a show for a peace benefit, and he showed up with some friends and there was a nice riot in the street...

...Jessica: "I think it's revolting when somebody's like 'I'm an American.' Well, I consider myself an American because I was born here, and I'm still being raised here...

...She was impressed by its size—and by the fact that nothing seemed to come of it...

...He wears a jeans jacket—the torn look...

...Lloyd is skinny and slight, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, his sandy hair punkish though not distinctive...

...Radicalism among youth is on the upswing, the two claim...

...Chuck: "And I think it puts forward indoctrination, and instills fears that aren't needed in lots of people...

...And it's not—it doesn't give me a good feeling...

...She is tall, large, with hair dyed black, all wild on one side, shaved on the other...

...But what surprised me was not how the officers behaved but who was in the crowd...

...They're not even saying it because they're trying to be racist or anything...

...Go talk with Somoza and be killed...

...I mean it really seems dumb to me that people are gonna go out and kill each other for menial things that could be worked out...

...And now—it's not really that much of a touchy subject with her, 'cause she's pretty critical of the Catholic Church, but she really believes in God—" Martha, who just graduated from high school, joins the conversation...

...You can't say look, uh, the state of Texas doesn't want to be a part of the U.S...

...She just turned seventeen...

...You can't do that if you don't have weapons pointing at Reagan: 'If you don't let us do this, we're gonna blow you up,' and then having the power of doing it...

...Our government is just so into power...

...Chuck: "Do I classify myself by race or being an American...

...Now everybody's trying to be punk...

...The number of people getting involved politically has risen recently," says Matthew...

...Instead, they just—they tell all their problems to God and they think God solves all their problems...

...Matthew: "Right...