Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2003
Source: Clifton Record, The (TX)
Copyright: 1997-2003 The Clifton Record
Contact:  http://www.cliftonrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3018
Author: David Anderson

NUGENT CHALLENGES CLIFTON STUDENTS TO TAKE BACK AMERICAN DREAM, FIGHT 
SUBSTANCE ABUSE

CLIFTON -Rocker/hunter/conservationist/patriot Ted Nugent stormed to 
mid-court of the Clifton High School gymnasium Thursday afternoon to a 
rousing greeting from Clifton students in grades six through 12, then 
quickly stopped the youths.

He then took one of his favorite weapons - an electric guitar, cocked, 
locked, and ready to fire - and belted out his unique version of the Star 
Spangled Banner, to begin a Red Ribbon Week anti-substance-abuse 
presentation unlike any the school district has ever witnessed. While many 
of the students were not totally sure who Ted Nugent was when he arrived, 
they likely will never forget his visit the day before Halloween.

"I bring you greetings, word, intensity from the most important people in 
this country - the men and women of the United States Army, Navy, Air 
Force, Marines, Coast Guard. They're taking bullets right now, for one 
thing. For you to live the American Dream. They're dying so we can have the 
American Dream. They're fighting to preserve the only awesome, amazing 
example of perfection in the history of the world, America," Nugent began.

He quickly and emphatically smashed the perceptions that to have fun, 
drugs, alcohol and other substances abusive to the human body have to be 
involved. "If you take drugs, if you drink and drive, if you smoke, if you 
have a dip in your lip, you are telling the men and women of the Armed 
Forces, 'Thanks for dying for me, but I dig the poison thing. Did you know 
it was that serious? Parents, teachers... did you know it was that serious?

"The American Dream is to be the best that you can be, have a great time, 
live healthy, rock out, partying without the puke. But you're saying, 'No, 
thanks, I'll poison myself and die. If you do that, you're retarded,'" 
Nugent roared.

Nugent told the students that they have the privilege to live in a country, 
and a state, that is the envy of the rest of the world, a country and state 
where the quality of life has no equal.

"This is a sacred place... Texas, home of the American Dream. "There is 
only one place with the dream. There is only one United States of America, 
and there is only one dream. Is there a French Dream? No! Is there a German 
Dream? No! Is there a Mexican Dream? The Mexican Dream is 'Let's get the 
hell out of Mexico and head to America!'"

But the laughter quickly went silent as the bombastic 55-year-old told the 
gathering that the American Dream is dying, being threatened with 
extinction, not from the terrorists in the Middle East, but from within.

"I'd never seen so many retarded people in my life when I got to Texas. You 
have a huge dope problem here, right here, in Clifton, Texas. You have a 
methamphetamine epidemic. You have kids going to the funeral of a dead 
classmate, dead from drinking and driving, and after the funeral, they 
drink and drive! This isn't Texas... it's the Planet of the Apes.

"These warriors in the Armed Forces do not want to die so Americans can 
make drugs, sell drugs, use drugs, for Americans to keep killing themselves 
every day. You all have to work for the American Dream here, because this 
is Clifton, this is a special place. This isn't Philadelphia. If you take 
drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or fast foods, you'll smile less, you'll laugh 
less, and you'll die early. That is truth."

Nugent continued to hammer on the drug problems in the area, and, although 
he's seen it all throughout his career in the rock-and-roll industry, to 
see it achieve the levels it has in rural Texas dumbfounds him.

"A methamphetamine problem, here in Clifton? You have the best spirit of 
the wild barbecue in the world, and you're still killing each other? Whoa! 
Am I making any sense here? Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and fast foods kill 
more Americans every day than were killed on 9-11. That's a fact, and 
that's pathetic," he lamented.

Nugent said the time for Clifton's youth to act is now if they are going to 
regain their dignity, their self-respect, their God-given healthy 
life-style opportunities.

"You've got to take back the American Dream, but you can't have it all for 
yourself. If you know somebody puking, with boogers coming out of their 
nose, stumbling around, making Ozzy noises, show your patriotism and help 
them stop. Help them change. If they don't... I know I'm just a guitar 
player, and I'm really cocky by saying this... turn them in," he screamed. 
"Put them in a cage. Are you with me? This is serious stuff.

"If they don't quit, if they don't stop, turn them in! Mr. law enforcement, 
can they come to you? Teachers, principals, parents, can they come to you 
and turn them in?" he asked, to nods of approval from all those present.

But he did not stop at blaming the abusers for the country's ills.

"Those of you who know people who are doing this stuff, it's absolutely 
unforgivable that you haven't spoken up about it. How many people in here 
have fought a decent fight to stop substance abuse?" he queried. Only about 
a half-dozen hands went up. Nugent surveyed the students' reply with a look 
of disgust. "You know that National Anthem I played? Maybe I should have 
sung the Texas Anthem - Baaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaa," Nugent shot, making sheep noises.

"To allow this type of criminalistic, cannibalistic, inbreeding 
insanity.... I don't even know what to say about that. If you know what's 
going on, if you tolerate it, if you look the other way, you're no better 
than the substance abusers.

"When you have friends who are absolutely eating at the soul of America by 
making drugs, buying drugs, using drugs, selling drugs, drinking and 
driving, give them a shot to stop and 'American Up,' so that some American 
soldier doesn't come back from Afghanistan in a bag, dying for nothing." 
Midway through his address, the bell to change classes rang out throughout 
the gymnasium.

"Does that mean I have to leave?" Nugent asked.

The gym thundered with the students' answer: "Nooooooooooooo!"

"Clifton, Texas is the heart of the American Dream, but everybody's house 
needs cleaning. Clifton, Texas is the American Dream - celebrate it, fight 
for it, live the good, identify the bad and the ugly and fight to get rid 
of it. This is the epicenter of whitetail deer, hog, turkey, and 
dove-hunting barbecue. For people to be making methamphetamine here... 
they've got to be droolers, they've gotta be sick. These idiots are putting 
this stuff in their bodies. I don't understand it. It makes as much sense 
as eating a glass sandwich. What's that stuff made out of - battery acid? 
Dog poop? HIV-positive goat urine?"

"That there's methamphetamine labs and dope deals here every day is 
absolutely mind-boggling. It's like picking up a guitar and playing 
Country-and-Western. That just ain't right. Methamphetamine labs in 
Clifton? Did I take a bad turn? Am I in Philadelphia? This is not funny," 
he said, stopping the loud laughter of the students dead in its tracks.

Nugent challenged those students in the stands who use drugs to raise their 
hands.

"Who smokes dope here? Be man enough to admit it. Nobody? Yeah, right. Who 
does meth? Come on, admit it," he challenged. No one accepted his challenge.

"You drug users up there who won't admit it - you know who you are. Your 
friends know who you are... you've got no spine! You think it's cool? I'll 
get Jerry Garcia in here to tell you how cool it is. Whoops, I forgot, he's 
dead!"

Nugent said he has jammed with the best of the rock-and-roll world, 
including Keith Moon of the Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Bon Scott of AC/DC, to 
name just a few. He said all of them laughed at him when he refused their 
dope and booze.

"Jimi got high. Jimi's dead. I went hunting, and I'm still Ted!" he told 
the students.

"Bon Scott, the world's greatest rock-and-roll singer ever, laughed at me 
because I wouldn't drink his whiskey. I told him he had to quit the poison, 
but he laughed at me. Four weeks later, Bon Scott was dead - something 
about alcohol poisoning. Duhhhhh!"

"Who came up with the obnoxious, brain-dead idea that partying is puking 
and dying, anyway? I have news for you. The experiment with drugs is over, 
and Victoria has no secrets. You do drugs, you puke and die." But he 
quickly gave them a way out.

"Conversely, if you are living to be the best that you can be, you must 
also demand that everyone in your family, in your life, in your class, at 
your church, at parties, at your hunting camp... demand that they be the 
best they can be, too. I've been told you guys are smart, that you're 
athletic. I've heard the word 'warriors' used. I've been told that the 
future of Clifton, that the future of our country is in pretty good hands, 
but quickly added that just being "pretty good" is not near good enough.

Nugent said his family's recent move to Central Texas from Michigan was 
predicated by the quality of life opportunities he sees in the area.

"This is it. I travel all over the world. This is it, this is where I want 
to be. This is the best. See the best, hear the best, eat the best, 
celebrate the best, and become saviors and protectors of the American 
dream. With so much good here, let's get rid of the bag and the ugly. It's 
so simple, it's stupid.

"I'm 55 years old, and I am having a riot. I want to live to be 100-plus. 
Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But the quality of my life, every day of my 
life, is determined by the quality time I spend with my family. A close 
second is the very spiritual time I spend in the great outdoors.

"You live in the most wonderful region in the world, the most exciting, 
challenging, scintillating, fun opportunities. Hunting, fishing, enjoying 
the outdoors," he continued. "But many of you have become spoiled, taken it 
for granted.

"Get a simple bow and arrow, learn how the flight of the arrow is your 
soul," Nugent challenged. "Your senses, your sense of awareness, your 
spiritual gifts will be nurtured, cultivated."

In thanking the school's administration for allowing him to speak, Nugent 
acknowledged that his is not the usual Red Ribbon Week speech.

"This isn't your typical three-piece suit presentation that you're used to, 
where in-breeders and cannibals are placated and thereby encouraged to 
continue with their destruction of America within. But I haven't given you 
any opinions here. It's all facts, all truth.

"The upgrade quality of life is available to you before you leave this 
room. Take this attitude. Be cocky and defiant, be tough against the stupid 
people working for the death and destruction of your American Dream," he 
concluded.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens