Clever Magazine, Winter '08-09 " Manifesto " (www.clevermag.com)

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Manifesto of a Militant:
my name is Crystal

by Lori Hicks

Lori has written a collection of short stories, essays, and poetry. She recently completed her first screenplay and is now working on a novel. She is a member of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers. A Realtor by trade for the past 16 years. Undaunted by any subject, Lori has a sense of social responsibility and devotion to community that is expressed in her writing. Lori was born in New Mexico, moved to Phoenix twenty-seven years ago, where she lives with her partner of twenty-five years. Lori can be contacted at Lori@LoriHicks.com.

Because you don’t hear Praise be to Allah, or see explosives strapped to me when I enter a room doesn’t make me any less dangerous. Rather than being the oppressed, I am the oppressor. I am creating a destabilized society, making life unfulfilling. I subject human beings to indignities that have lead to widespread suffering in America. Peace will never be upon he who follows me. The consequences of my creation have been a disaster for the human race.

My name is Crystal. I’m the leader of an enormous militant group known now as Methamphetamine. This manifesto is meant to be a public declaration of my intentions.

I am a soul stealer… I haven’t only one face, but the face of many. One side of my family originated in 1887 Germany, better known then as The Amphetamine’s. The Methamphetamine’s came from Japan in 1893. As a family we started out to have great potential, maybe some noble cure for a disease. But that didn’t work out so well, so we were locked away, imprisoned, put on a shelf until the 1900s. t wasn’t until the 1930’s that people began to recognize my families star quality. During World War II, we were used to keep the fighting men going. Hitler himself was a soldier for our Militant Army, a user; he was a friend to The Methamphetamines in 1942-1945 until his death.

In the 1950s, The Methamphetamine family was suddenly a celebrity, set free to roam the streets of America available by prescription of Amphetamine. One of our family aliases back then was Benzedrine or Bennie for friends. We also went by the names of Dexedrine and Methedrine, but most people knew us as Speed, Black beauties or Pep pills amongst other nicknames. That’s when it began…that’s when we were able to creep into society under the pretense of curing Depression, Narcolepsy, Parkinson’s, Obesity, Alcoholism and Asthma. We saw this as our jumping off point; we were able to set in motion building our army against humanity.

We’d remained sleeper cells hiding as over-the-counter inhalers and prescription medicines for years before gaining our true power. As a family we worked our way up the ranks until finally finding a way to our real disciples. They just started coming, all of them, the college students, the truck drivers, the athletes, and of course the party goers. As people got to know us, they couldn’t get enough of us. Our popularity as a family grew by leaps and bounds. The 1960s saw the start of a significant increase in our popularity. Illicit Methamphetamine’s were popping up in homes everywhere. It was perfect. Now everyone could get their hands on us. No prescription was necessary. We had become a household name, made out of household products. We are no longer dependent on good intentions.

Our family organization changed drastically in the 1960s once we were able to get into the veins of our users. We knew at that point that we had ‘em, we had their hearts and their minds, and it is just a matter of time before having their souls. Once we shortened our name to Meth, trafficking people and recruiting abusers skyrocketed. We really fought through the 70s and 80s transforming yet again, and a smokable crystal Meth was created. With my popularity on the rise, Crystal Meth is the name I prefer.

I should be considered the greatest terrorist movement among the United States today. My followers of tweakers, druggies, users and thieves; who are your loved ones, your friends and your neighbors are having a devastating impact in many communities across the nation. promise I will not discriminate based on color, I will not separate the classes, and I will unite the religions. My soldiers can be Catholic, they can be Jews, and they can be Muslims. I will not differentiate. Age is no issue, I will take your babies from the womb of my followers and I will lie to rest your elderly. I offer my people numbness from their pain, time away from their loved ones and a life on the dark lonely streets of hell. I reach out to the friendless, the depressed, the overworked and the fatigued. I give time to the needy and the disabled, hoping to create a shame they have yet to experience. I want everyone to have the chance to experience me, it doesn’t take much…And I GOT YOU. My new rock form makes me easy to distribute, making my job of stealing souls easier and easier. As a Meth Family Organization we are dependent on one thing, we are dependent on the addict. As long as we remain irresistible and without enemies, we will keep the upper hand.

We are not a terrorist sleeper cell. We are a conglomerate that is wide awake and we are going to take over America while you sleep. My soldiers have infiltrated your country, we are everyone…everywhere. f you don’t know one of my people by now, I promise that you will. It’s a new millennium when the country I want to destroy sees Osama Bin Laden as a larger threat than me, Crystal Meth. America has crossed an invisible and intangible line if they don’t soon recognize the damage I’m going to cause.

The influence of my voice is enormous. I am the voice of addiction. The voice that anyone at anytime could hear whispering in their ear. The same voice that could be signaling you to steal from your loved ones, abandon all you know and love, and give up on your existence. I will influence America’s sons with fun and adventure even as they will experience agitation and decreased appetites. Your fathers will hope to increase physical activity, but will instead abandon their families to steal and cheat for me. Your brothers will help with my distribution even while suffering intense paranoia and episodes of violent behavior. Your daughters will sell themselves just to be near me, only to become toothless beggars. Your mothers will give their own children away just to follow me into hell, suffering the everlasting guilt, the hallucinations, and the bouts of insomnia. I not only support mistreatment, I encourage domestic violence and child abuse.

If you don’t believe that I…, Crystal Meth, have affected you then you better lock your doors, put plastic, and duct tape, on your windows, and pull your gas mask down over your head. I am not just around the corner. I am on the corner, on every corner, everywhere. Even if you never become a Meth Soldier, you are about to be burglarized, car jacked, home invaded, raped, mugged, or even worse, murdered…, by someone who only wanted to spend a little more time with me, their leader...Crystal Meth. If I have yet taken hold of someone in your family, then notice the obsessive skin-picking person sitting next to you at the office, or the tense appearance of the person with dilated pupils waiting on you at the grocery store. My people persist through their depression, their paranoia and their psychosis, just to have a little more of me. My armies of druggies are on the streets, living with their emotional scars, their open sores, and their inability to sleep or eat, uncompromising in their search to find me, to have me. They are stuck in the vicious dwindling spiral of Crystal Meth addiction.

I will not tell you to have courage to face me. If the Americans were to unite in making the world a more secure place for their children it would devastate the Meth Family. If the Americans really began to care, really wanted to know what went wrong and began to refuse to be victims any longer, things would change. If the United States government made an adjustment in the national threat level on Crystal Meth, changing it to reflect the most Critical or Highest alert level ever implemented, all combined would possibly destroy our Meth Organization.

Over the years my family of drugs has proved its resiliency and its willingness to be there for its devotees, something Americas have not yet done. The Meth Family is counting on today’s children becoming tomorrow’s drug addicts. Today’s drug addicts will become tomorrow’s thieves, and possibly killers.If Americans do not grow up as a culture NOW, you will never mature as a civilization. You must see the need to face your responsibility to Each Other.

Until then…?

That is how I win…

Crystal Meth