04-27-2014, 08:16 AM
When I was sixteen years old
I got a ticket for being found at an R-rated movie.
My friend, who was thirteen, was in the movie
is why I was there to see it.
There was a nude scene in the movie
where a man was briefly shown on the verge of urinating.
For that reason, the movie was rated R,
there was no other reason:
Something I'd been doing all my life
and actually going through with the urination
had cost my parents over a hundred dollars:
I had broken the law,
and nothing was going to change that.
My friend, who was a background character in the movie
and who had gotten both of us free tickets from the film-makers
because of the use of his image in the movie
was not given a ticket like I was,
since I was sixteen and legally, in my state, obligated
to not corrupt a youth, at the same time as being obligated not to allow myself to be corrupted,
and was given a ticket not because I was an underage person in a rated R movie
but because I brought an underage person to a rated R movie;
a movie he was in,
but still.
And since I didn't have the money myself to pay off the ticket
and my parents were made to pay it,
my parents, having felt the brunt of having to afford the penalty,
were seen by the parents of my friend who was in the movie
as not only bad and irresponsible parents but as bad people in general,
and my friend was never allowed to see me again.
He has a website where people come on and say:
"Hey, I saw you in that movie, that was one of my favorite movies when I was little."
And after the one time I posted a message asking if he remembered me from back in the day,
I was sent a restraining order and registered as a sex offender
because of something he posted on his weblog.
I got a ticket for being found at an R-rated movie.
My friend, who was thirteen, was in the movie
is why I was there to see it.
There was a nude scene in the movie
where a man was briefly shown on the verge of urinating.
For that reason, the movie was rated R,
there was no other reason:
Something I'd been doing all my life
and actually going through with the urination
had cost my parents over a hundred dollars:
I had broken the law,
and nothing was going to change that.
My friend, who was a background character in the movie
and who had gotten both of us free tickets from the film-makers
because of the use of his image in the movie
was not given a ticket like I was,
since I was sixteen and legally, in my state, obligated
to not corrupt a youth, at the same time as being obligated not to allow myself to be corrupted,
and was given a ticket not because I was an underage person in a rated R movie
but because I brought an underage person to a rated R movie;
a movie he was in,
but still.
And since I didn't have the money myself to pay off the ticket
and my parents were made to pay it,
my parents, having felt the brunt of having to afford the penalty,
were seen by the parents of my friend who was in the movie
as not only bad and irresponsible parents but as bad people in general,
and my friend was never allowed to see me again.
He has a website where people come on and say:
"Hey, I saw you in that movie, that was one of my favorite movies when I was little."
And after the one time I posted a message asking if he remembered me from back in the day,
I was sent a restraining order and registered as a sex offender
because of something he posted on his weblog.