Hello my name is Geoff Hajian I am in my mid 20s I am a History major who graduated recently from Umass Dartmouth. The first time I heard Rage Against The Machine was when my friend and I were driving back to school back in 93. It blew me away musically and lyrically I had never heard anything like this before I was amazed at the fact that all sounds were made by guitar, bass, drums, and vocals I though most of those sounds were done electronically either through� a computer or a keyboard synthesizer. At first, I was really into the music and sort of had an idea as to what Zack was saying . At the time I was ignorant and complacent academically in college, I really didn't know where I was going career wise. I changed majors more times than I can remember. Years passed and I wondered why the hell doesn't Rage put out a new record???? . Finally I saw on the Higher Learning Movie commercial Rage Against The Machine. Yes I went to that movie to just hear Rage ( as pathetic as that sounds) but that is how much I was into their music. Then I kept hearing " They are coming out with a new record. Finally Evil Empire came out and I was blown away again. I took a look at the books inside the CD jacket and was interested but never bothered to read any of the books. I finally changed my major to History and started reading websites that explained what the Rage lyrics meant and I was intrigued that there were quite a few historical references such as in People of The Sun " The spirit of Chuemetech alive and untamed." I started reading The Communist Manifesto and started to develop my own critical thinking such as in my philosophy class. I found renewed faith and love of my heritage ( I am 100% Armenian) and I started to learn on my own about the Armenian genocide the first mass murder of a race in the 20th century . In Darkness of Greed I know what Zack is talking about but that song has a special place in my heart� which reminds me of what my people had to go through. Today the Turkish government denies that the Armenian genocide ever occured ( Bury the past rob us blind and leave nothing of the Armenians behind) But I have spread the message of the genocide in my sociology classes where I played an interview my granfather did which he recalled the horrors which the Turks perpetrated against 1.5 million Armenians. When you are Armenian living in WASP America there is� so much history to be proud of that is hidden from you. Men like Arshaviar Siragian and Soghoman Telarian ( the Armenian who killed Talatt Pasha and was acquitted.) proved that militance and love of one's nation can bring justice when the system fails. Rage Against The Machine has also influenced my political thought I agree with Zack that the Demorats ( no that's not spelled wrong Lance) and the Republicans both feed from the same trough of money and retain the status quo. I have taken my political thought to a higher level I am neither a liberal nor a conservative but rather an independent realist. Being an independent realist means that I� independently do what I feel is right for the good of all people. ( Of course some people will say I am an impure liberal or an impure conservative but screw em. I disagree with Rage on Mumia� because the guy admitted to it and secondly how can you defend someone who killed a man ( regardless if he's a cop) However I do agree with Rage on The Zapatista's and Leonard Peltier. Leonard is innocent in my opinion and there is an excellent documentary ( which I saw in my Native American History class.) called : Incident at Ogala. The Zapatista's are similar to the plight of the Armenians in that the Turks and the PRI� dicatatorship use the political machine i.e. reversing� political articles to gain more land and blocking the indigineous farmers of Chiapas and Armenians from getting a n equal piece of the economic pie. I still continue to spread Rage's word and with controversy myself I posted Tom's letter to Clinton� asking to grant Leonard clemency at my work's break room. My manager threw it away� and said" we don't want that kind of stuff� here." I laughed because I could see Tom saying to her� " Maybe the problem's you."� Rage Against the Machine is controversial but that's what makes them form their own identity. Being a true Rage fan in my opinion means that you should understand what each song means but also appreciate it's musical creativity and integrity as Tom, Tim, Brad, and Zack take music to another level . Brad says it best " We don't shove half ass music down people's throats every 8 months.