On February 26th, 1994 we lost one of the most brilliant, thought provoking, controversial voices ever to grace this earthly world of ours, William Melvin Hicks. The word 'genius' gets thrown around a lot now a days. Everyone on the planet is called special or gifted or labeled a genius: it's hard to distinguish one person's thought from another's. But Bill, for better or worse, was as original as it came.

Rant In E-Minor
Rant In E-Minor
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Bill's ideas were so far out there (or close to the truth, depending on how you look at them), that the American public shunned him when he was alive. Here in the states, he played to dumpy little clubs in the middle of nowhere. But, over seas, where people were a little bit more...let's just say open to alternative thought, he flourished and became an icon.

American: The Bill Hicks Story
American: The Bill Hicks Story
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Looking back now, Bill was not only a trail blazer and hell raiser, but the man was to spoken word what Hunter S. Thompson was to the written. He was a man that used comedy to express his ideas and beliefs and distrust of all the bullsh*t the world tries to feed us. And even if you didn't agree with what he said, he challenged you think for yourself. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be doing what I do without the likes of Bill or George Carlin.

So, today, let's not mourn the loss of one of the greatest minds we have ever had the pleasure to see on our miserable little planet. Let's do what Bill would have wanted: To challenge each other to be better people and to remember that it's all just a ride.

It doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace

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