From the December 20, 1997 edition of Barely Legal Magazine (or Ask Ken!, whichever gives you a funnier feeling “down there”)
| Dear Ken!, i’m doing a speech on someone i think influcened me and choice you because u realyy have so can u send sonn as possible info about your youth, sucess, basically anything about you my email is xxxxx@yyy.zzz until jan 1 thanks nate |
| Dear Nate, I’m flattered. Although I suppose influencing someone can be as dubious as it can be good. Like George Bush trying to influence Saddam Hussein to get out of Kuwait. But enough subtle political commentary. Here’s my life story in a nutshell.I was born to a very poor family in the rural south. Myself and my six brothers and sisters lived with my parents in a small shack with no running water or electricity. My father worked many long, dusty hours in the coal mines to support us but there was never enough. It was that lack of extravagance in our lives which helped shape me into the person I am today. With no television or radio in the house our family would spend our evenings singing and talking about life and our problems. It was from that I developed a love for singing and helping solve people’s problems. It was a tough beginning but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.When I was fifteen my father died from black lung disease. My mother, no longer able to financially support the entire family, desperately sought a solution. Some of the older children, including myself, were given the chance to work and live with other members of the family. I chose to work with my uncle and his wife on a farm in the Midwest. It was a very difficult change for me. Life as a farmer in the Midwest at that time was a lonely existence. And I missed my brothers and sisters, especially a younger sister of mine who I’d grown especially close to, Lea Anne. I had a nickname for her. Princess. She’d always dreamt of being a princess. I suppose it was it was escapism more than a real aspiration. I lived and worked on my uncle’s farm throughout my teenage years and discovered I had a real knack for repairing farm equipment. I soon found myself responsible for maintaining the machinery on the farm. But as I got into my early twenties, I began to yearn for something new, different, adventurous. Deep down I knew that farm life wasn’t for me. One fateful day my future was decided for me when, after returning from a visit at a friend’s house a couple counties over, I found both my uncle and aunt dead. They’d been caught in a fire which claimed them and the farmhouse. I struck out on my own seeking greater knowledge about myself and the world around me. I studied many eastern religions, especially Zen, which influenced my life greatly. During my travels I met a German, Hans Von Eins, who quickly became my best friend. We spent many years rambling around America in his rusty old Falcon railing against the establishment. It was the darkest years of the Reagan administration and it seemed that at every turn was Reagan’s moral stormtroopers seeking to take away one freedom or another. Hans, being a man of action more than words, encouraged me to join many activist groups opposing nukes, the wholesale destruction of our ancient forests for profit, the secret war in Nicaragua. We fought the conservative administration at every turn, sometimes struggling against insurmountable odds, making alliances with some of the most unlikely people you could imagine. During an act of civil disobedience at a Nevada nuclear test site Hans told me there was a woman handcuffed to a gate a couple hundred yards away that I should probably meet. As soon as I saw her I recognized her; it was my sister Lea Anne. And then it struck me: all that traveling and activism hadn’t brought any greater insight to the universe and social change seemed to be slow in coming. I realized I had to get back to my roots and with the help of Lea Anne and the support of my friend Hans I decided to try to change society by helping rather than protesting. It was only four years ago when the world wide web started making news. I’d worked as an underpaid reporter when it struck me: the web could be used to help people and make this world a better, more peaceful place. And thus, Ask Ken! was born. The rest can be read in the Ken! archives. It’s all there. Ken! |