NAME: Richard Charles Walbert II aka xCHIPxSEM

Straight Edge for 14 years

Growing up I never tried anything. My parents spoke to me at a young age about drugs and alcohol, I listened to what they said and took it very seriously. I was always very athletic and didn’t want to ruin what I had whether it was playing football after school or soccer at school. I met Roy Ugarte in high school and we discovered punk rock and hardcore in 1995. After attending a few shows, we saw Morning Again and Earth Crisis and that was it for me. From that point forth, I found out that there was a group of people who felt the same things I felt and understood what I was going through. Now, after turning 30 a few months ago, straight edge is as important to me now as it was when I was a 16 year old kid discovering this wide world of hardcore. Not much has changed honestly. I still X up for shows, I still buy music, I still support the local and touring bands, and I try to present myself as a role model for the new generation who may not have that older figure to show them that they don’t need to follow the masses. I never look down on them for making their own choices, whether it is to be straight edge or not. I just want them to see that they have a brain and are free to make their own choices, not mimic the people they see on TV or the kids in their school. We are a positive force in a world that functions on glamorizing a lifestyle of sex, drugs, and money. This is the true alternative…til the day I die, I am straight edge. XXX