And Can I Get an Extra $25,000 for Cure Tickets?

Reader Clay Young points to this great instance of your tax dollars at work: In 2002, the Department of Education approved a $273,000 grant to Blue Springs, Missouri to study why kids there were "going Goth."

According to the KSHB Action News account, town officials ended up spending "only" $132,000, but even then the money was misspent:

What's more infuriating to some is that with all the money spent, Blue Springs still wasn't able to complete what it set out to do. The town hall meetings to educate people about Goth dangers didn't happen. They were replaced by a video documentary and website on Goth and counter cultures. The training sessions for 5,000 people reached 1,200. And as for those assessments and therapy for kids in need, not one child was referred.

Maybe some of the leftover $$$ can go to studying the the dread meance of the Hippy Hippy Shake, which we understand is every bit as popular among kids today as Goth rock.

Comments

[james ard]

I hadn't heard about the dreaded greeting card until now, but I saw the Satelites last year with about 50 others. Hopefully, the new craze will help them pay off their trailers.

[Patrick]

Goth peaked about ten years ago, and the Fed Govt is just now catching up to it? Oh man....

[Jon H]

One can only hope that the half-assed way in which that was done is because, as they went about it, more and more people started to realize it was a load of crap.

[Frank]

The goth menace needs to be taken seriously. Getting mascara in your eyes is no laughing matter.

[J]

I went to high school a couple years in Lee's Summit, MO, which is right next to Blue Springs (both are suburbs of Kansas City). At that time (1992-1993), which I gather was somewhere around the height of goth, there were probably a grand total of 5 goth-type kiddies out of the 2,500 or so at my school, and I'm sure Blue Springs was about the same. The biggest goth-related problem Blue Springs probably ever saw was that they kept getting their asses kicked by the corn-fed country boys who were deeply offended by their gloominess.

[thoreau]

I'm kind of glad that none of the therapy referrals happened, even though the funding was in place. Why should some kid be forced into therapy just because he/she likes goth fashion?

[Moz]

I wear black on the outside, 'cos black is how I feel on the inside. And every day is Halloween/like Sunday.

[J]

"Why should some kid be forced into therapy just because he/she likes goth fashion?"

I dunno, why should he have to ask his teacher if he can go take a piss? Clearly kids aren't qualified to know if they're hungry, if their bladders are full, or if their black lipstick and clunky boots truly reflect a deeper existential despair. The stupid little shits.

[J]

And don't get me started on the gawddamm Morrissey fans....

[Patrick]

don't get me started

The big mouth strikes again.

[Joe L.]

Gee "J",
colour me a fascist but I found some of your statement pretty absurd..."I dunno, why should he have to ask his teacher if he can go take a piss?"-'cuz otherwise he or she might be off skipping class, necking with the partner, you know any of a hundred things that the little over-sexed, under-mature tykes are prone to from the ages of 12-18. "Clearly kids aren't qualified to know if they're hungry, if their bladders are full, or if their black lipstick and clunky boots truly reflect a deeper existential despair. The stupid little shits."-Clearly, they are Adults-in-Training, not adults. Mayhap YOU are 18 or mayhap you have forgotten what you were like at 18, but luckily, my 16 year old niece and the teenie-boppers I shepherd each weekend keep me apprised as to why the lunatics can not be allowed to run the asylum. Again, teenagers are young adults, like models, "a cheap imitation of the real thing."

That having been said, I think it funny that the "goth" menace got money. Yes, I know I ought to be outraged, and OK I am, but still it makes me chuckle, too. In a light-hearted cynical way...

[kevrob]

If we catheritized the little perishers every day, right after they passed through the metal detectors, they could stay in their seats, take a whiz, and provide a drug test specimen all at the same time.

The Mann-Dewey model of schooling is all about efficiency.

As for Goths, sheesh, it has been about a quarter century since Ian Curtis broke up Joy Division. Now, that was real commitment to Goth.

Kevin

[Rick Barton]

Gosh, government sure comes up with silly ways to waste other peoples money!

Other than the mention of "The Cure", I know it's off topic but does anybody else here like New Wave music a lot? Missing Persons, Human League, Blondie, Devo, Kajagoogoo, Gogo's, Softsell, Oingo Boingo, Culture Club, Thompson Twins, Bananarama, A Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Berlin, Vapors, Wall of Voodoo, The Cars, Duran Duran, Modern English, Thomas Dolby, B52s, etc, etc, etc.

The genera seems like a very special phenomenon to me; very individualistic, hyper-creative with lots of appealing style and verve; very fun and the girls were really cute as well!

Of course, the 60's flower power, summer of love stuff was groovy too! We would do well to take to heart the message of freedom and peace.

[severin]

I could have told the government all they wanted to know about goths, for free! if they had only asked. They might not have liked my answers, but they would have been pretty accurate. Or they could have spent 10 minutes on the internet looking at goth sites. What's next, government grants to investigate why kids wear pants that are too big for them? Tax dollars to find out why white kids want to be like black rap stars?

libertarian goths rule!

[Beck]

Good god Nick, did you actually just make a Hippy Hippy Shake reference? Now there's a memory that hasn't been triggered in well over a decade.

[james ard]

Everybody knows school is designed to instill a healthy anti-authoritarian mind-set on our youth. With zero tolerance, drug testing and numerous other stupid rules, our kiddies will be even more suspicious of THE MAN than we are. And that's a good thing, even if they insist on looking like death with useless holes punched all over them. Also, 1972 was the pinnacle of rock.

[Lisa Simpson]

No need for alarm -- Goth tendencies don't necessarily condemn a kid to an early death by suicide or OD. You could point to Anne Rice, Tim Burton, and, of course, Robert Smith as fairly stable, long-lived Goth success stories/role models.

[Lisa Simpson]

No need for alarm -- Goth tendencies don't necessarily condemn a kid to an early death by suicide or OD. You could point to Anne Rice, Tim Burton, and, of course, Robert Smith as fairly stable, long-lived Goth success stories/role models.

[Lisa Simpson]

D'oh! and ay caramba. That last one was the result of refreshing the page -- text deleted, I might add.

[dhex]

forgive me, as i was born around the time joy division recorded their first album, but what the living breathing fuck is the hippy hippy shake?

[Lee]

Can we now get some deprogramming funds for the rednecks?

[Dave Potts]

James, I think you meant to say 1978.

[J]

Joe L.,

I never said they were adults (in fact I explicitly called them kids); having said that, maybe I?m overly optimistic here but it seems to me that even a 16-year-old should be trusted to decide when he or she needs to go to the bathroom (to continue with that example), at least until they abuse that trust. That hardly qualifies as ?running the asylum.?

I?m 29 now, and more or less beyond my juvenile disrespect for all authority ? a disrespect that high school administration and staff did an excellent job of instilling in me with their capricious, condescending, and poorly thought out rules. The only significant trouble I ever got into in middle school and high school was a result of my breaking some of these particularly insulting rules just because they were there, and I know there were many others who were the same way. God knows there are kids who will get in serious trouble regardless of how respectful the rules are, but they almost seem to be designed to create problems now (or they were 12-14 years ago at the high schools I attended). Maybe we should give a large grant to investigate why so many ?adults? put in charge of running high schools suddenly suffer dramatic IQ declines.

[J]

"The big mouth strikes again."

Why won't you change, change and be _nice_?

[Liberty Lover]

Another wonderful use of our taxes. My congressional Rep., Carolyn Maloney (D-NY14), used to send out a survey and map of her district. One of the questions it asked was if there was something you thought the federal government should be doing or funding.

That survey must be a form available for all politicians to use.

The map has all the organizations in her district that received the magical "federal funding", numbering over 200 such organizations like libraries and museums.

Her district covers most of Manhattan, part of Queens, NY, and contains the highest wealth concentration and political giving in the country.

[Will]

I have to take issue with the headline... I don't so much consider Cure a goth band. Okay, I guess you could label them as Goth Rock, but they are much more New Wave and Post-Punk than Goth.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not any sort of Cure fan. (However, their Fascination Street set at Wembley in '91 is simply one of the best tracks ever...)

[Mr. Nice Guy]

I for one am a big Cure fan and am looking forward to their festival this Saturday. There will be more modern bands opening: Blink 182 Lincoln Park limp bizkit bullshit. I'm hoping that these kids will realize that pretty much any band after the early 90s suck (daggummit).

I'm thinking this whole Goth study is in response to the Columbine shooting, since those two freaks wore black trenchcoats. I remember reading a column by some whiner: "Who are these "goths"? Why are they so violent? We need to stop them!". Fucking ignorant. The goths I knew were much more dangerous to themselves then to anyone else(I witnessed a "dancing on the cliffs" party once.. I couldn't fucking believe it).

Anyway, I MUST get a copy of the documentary. I'm sure it's up there with "Reefer Madness", and worth the $237,000!!