Growing up in the Pacific Northwest for most of my childhood undeniably had its benefits, which I don’t feel inclined or required to include, and indeed, most of its shortcomings were intentional and only viewed as shortcomings by me and several of my morally corrupt peers. One such deficiency was the inherent lack of crime, or at least exciting crime, especially in the northern islands of the sound, which are quiet like slippers and lack the thrill of western bandits, cops and robbers. So when I heard about Colton Harris Moore, some free-spirited kid from Camano Island who apparently broke into summer homes and lived there, stole boats and planes, and basically lived off of other peoples’ expense all while unexplainably barefoot, I was understandably excited. I wasn’t particularly impressed by his balls, the large testicles required to become a full-time, committed criminal, but mainly I was intrigued by the genre of crime he perpetrated when he lived in others’ summer homes. I imagined him stealing planes or boats and taking to the air or to the sky and jealously tried to picture, to feel, the emotion Colton Harris Moore must have experienced every time he succeeded. With that accomplished, I prepared a bold statement specifically intended as a loose thesis for this prose: Colton Harris Moore, the Barefoot Burglar, is a hero criminal of our generation and his actions should not be undervalued as immature mischief, but as crimes indicative of the nature of this nation’s youth and actions that hypothetically, hopefully help shape the development of the country.
The beauty and meaning in Colton’s crimes lie in the nature and message of his actions, not in his intent or the arbitrary definition of crime. With that said, it should be understood that I do not know Colton Harris Moore or why he chose to become the northwest’s infamous criminal, and I am not interested in crime because it is a transgression of the law, but because it is a comment about human nature. So while Colton could have stolen boats and camped out in those summer homes for the most pathetic, infantile reasons (which I doubt), his logic, whatever it may be, cannot undermine the inherent statement of his crimes.
In particular, mooching off of some rich fucks’ underused, un-needed summer house is a beautiful act, as Colton Harris Moore gained his personal necessities: food, water, etc., with only a minute expense of effort. In a country that undeniably has too much wealth and other shit, without even a slightly comfortable disparity between wealth and poverty, the ability to provide for oneself is an excellent talent to have. Now while an obvious argument is that stealing is wrong, even irresponsible, I would contend that as long Colton realizes the gravity of his action, and is willing to accept the emotional and physical consequences of his crimes, whenever they manifest themselves, then he is acting in a controlled, responsible manner. This is where he should inspire our generation. First, as a country, we need to realize the impact of the economic crisis and how capitalism is to blame and we need to find unique, intelligent ways to solve the problem; but that’s not what Colton Harris Moore is worried, or even thinking, about, just something he should hopefully inspire a few eyes to see. More importantly, as a youth, as a generation, we need to take Colton Harris Moore’s manifestation of existentialism and apply it to our lives. As the children of the hippies, our generation has been yielded a somewhat outrageous amount of freedom, which we have managed to do little with so far. We need to begin to act completely disregarding what we feel we are supposed to do according to society or what the law says we should do, and we should make decisions based on what we personally feel is necessary for ourselves and the world. Jack Kerouac and his lovely friends, the hippies, and everybody in between allowed us the unique experience of individualism, in a time when the country wanted everybody to conform; because of them, now would be a good time for the youth of the country not to conform, but to unite in a sense. I don’t want to list out what needs to happen over the next sixty years, mainly because I don’t really know, but the world needs, and expects, a lot from the youth of America during our lifetime. It’s time we recognize that, but without losing the unique, liberated perspective that we have been granted. We probably can’t accomplish everything this world needs from us, but we have the responsibility and ability to do quite a bit. So we probably should, just saying.
The beauty and meaning in Colton’s crimes lie in the nature and message of his actions, not in his intent or the arbitrary definition of crime. With that said, it should be understood that I do not know Colton Harris Moore or why he chose to become the northwest’s infamous criminal, and I am not interested in crime because it is a transgression of the law, but because it is a comment about human nature. So while Colton could have stolen boats and camped out in those summer homes for the most pathetic, infantile reasons (which I doubt), his logic, whatever it may be, cannot undermine the inherent statement of his crimes.
In particular, mooching off of some rich fucks’ underused, un-needed summer house is a beautiful act, as Colton Harris Moore gained his personal necessities: food, water, etc., with only a minute expense of effort. In a country that undeniably has too much wealth and other shit, without even a slightly comfortable disparity between wealth and poverty, the ability to provide for oneself is an excellent talent to have. Now while an obvious argument is that stealing is wrong, even irresponsible, I would contend that as long Colton realizes the gravity of his action, and is willing to accept the emotional and physical consequences of his crimes, whenever they manifest themselves, then he is acting in a controlled, responsible manner. This is where he should inspire our generation. First, as a country, we need to realize the impact of the economic crisis and how capitalism is to blame and we need to find unique, intelligent ways to solve the problem; but that’s not what Colton Harris Moore is worried, or even thinking, about, just something he should hopefully inspire a few eyes to see. More importantly, as a youth, as a generation, we need to take Colton Harris Moore’s manifestation of existentialism and apply it to our lives. As the children of the hippies, our generation has been yielded a somewhat outrageous amount of freedom, which we have managed to do little with so far. We need to begin to act completely disregarding what we feel we are supposed to do according to society or what the law says we should do, and we should make decisions based on what we personally feel is necessary for ourselves and the world. Jack Kerouac and his lovely friends, the hippies, and everybody in between allowed us the unique experience of individualism, in a time when the country wanted everybody to conform; because of them, now would be a good time for the youth of the country not to conform, but to unite in a sense. I don’t want to list out what needs to happen over the next sixty years, mainly because I don’t really know, but the world needs, and expects, a lot from the youth of America during our lifetime. It’s time we recognize that, but without losing the unique, liberated perspective that we have been granted. We probably can’t accomplish everything this world needs from us, but we have the responsibility and ability to do quite a bit. So we probably should, just saying.
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