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Opinion: I Know You’re All Pissed That I Gambled Away the Entire Band Fund, but It Also Started a Conversation and That Matters

Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room. Yes, I took the $3,000 we had saved over the past 4 years to record our new album and blew it all at the casino. I admit, it was wrong to do that and I’m frustrated with myself and my choices. But there’s a silver lining here that I also think is just as important to recognize: we’re having a conversation. A real, honest, and necessary conversation. And that wouldn’t have happened without me stealing the band fund.

Looking back, I will admit that what I did was reckless and pretty foolish. But I can also see how much good it could have done too. After the first fifteen minutes at the casino, I was up $23. That could have gotten two of us sandwiches during the first day of recording, which would leave out the other three of us so I had to keep going. It just sucks I lost it all in the next ten minutes.

So do you see what I’m saying? I’m bringing ideas to the table. Yes, I hear you when you say I’m a giant piece of shit who thinks less about the future than a goldfish with a lobotomy. I am listening and I see you. And that’s what it means to have a dialogue. You share an idea, I share an idea, and eventually we arrive at a place of healing and move forward without threatening anyone with violence over a couple of dollars.

What is money anyways? It’s not even real!

If you really think about it, this is a great opportunity to shape the discourse into something productive. Let’s move on from suddenly accusing people of stealing the catalytic converter out of the tour van to sell for scrap metal when no one made that connection a year ago when it happened. Let’s think about how to move forward outside of the carceral logic where you demand I pay you back.

In the long run, I think it’s pretty hard to argue against the fact that what happened will actually be a good thing for us. We’re really talking to each other in ways that we’ve never done and I think we all would have paid twice as much to do that if we had known it was an option.

Plus you guys know my parents will give us another three grand so calm down.