Re: Another slant

Subject:

Comments:
: : Well said Ginger. : : When you're in a cult like I was, you don't know it. When I was in the cult my days were spent taking phasors here and there. On Wednesday night we had home rap. All other nights we spent taking care of the five foster kids in our house. Of course my daughter had to drop out of the fine, private Catholic high school she was attending because I could no longer afford it, and because my wife and I had no time to help her anymore with her studies. Education is no longer important when you're stamping out drug addiction. My daughter was spending time at the sibling Raps, I did not know then that the first month we were in that the reason she had not been allowed to attend the sibling Raps was because Straight had felt she needed treatment too. Penny (that's my little girl) was desperately trying to join GROUP because she felt left out. Besides selling candy and cookies and Christmas wreathes for Mel, I was out in 9 degree weather selling Christmas trees for him. One time we had this car raffle. From my high school days I knew where to raise money for charity. When I was in the Key Club in high school they had me stand outside a liquor store with my canister asking for donations. Our sponsor realized that liquor loaded people are good for donations. I remember one old timer telling me that everybody criticizes them for drinking, but "we're the first targets when people want a donation,", he had said, and then he gave me some money. Now I'm not advocating Girl Scouts to sell their cookies outside liquor stores, but I'll tell you what I did for Melvin. I remember going into a bar selling these tickets and one guy asking me if I realized it was a bar that I was in hawking raffle tickets for a drug rehab program--he bought some. (I did not drink alcohol after Andy Gimmi's assault.) One time I remember even going into was a topless bar. I asked the proprietor if I could sell tickets for Straight and he said he prefer I not bother his patrons, but asked how many tickets I had on me. I told him 23. You know what, he bought all 23 at a buck apiece. Mel would have been proud of me, and no I did not look. (Well maybe just one or two quick peeks. But that's it.) It turns out I raised more money for Mel's Kids than anyone else at the compound. I hawked cookies and wreaths for them at work. My entire life after work was wrapped in helping the cult. They hugged me and kissed me and told me that they loved me. We said the pledge allegiance to the flag. We sang songs--God Bless America, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Three Blind Mice. They stood me up at the Game and criticized me, but everyone finished each indictment with "I love you." And then the most powerful magic of all--when they had me reverting back to my childhood at Parent Weekend and reduced me to sobbing. : : Straight used the 12 steps�the second step referring to your Higher Power. One denied-of-formal-education kid trainer who lead us through the Miller Newton developed Six New parent Raps (his PhD thesis is based on these six raps) told us that our Higher Power could be anything we wanted it to be--"it could be God as you know him, this chair (facetiously), or Straight." Now Straight had not become my God, but Straight had certainly become my church. As a matter of fact a minister I knew from druggie past (life before Straight) had once asked me if he could come over sometime to minister to the kids, but I had to decline as he had not been certified by Straight. They were afraid he might bring drugs to the kids.(In fact my mother whom I had known from my druggie past was not allowed around my phasor house guest without clearance from Straight. They were afraid she might sell them drugs. [Actually I do remember in 1964 mom eating a piece of fruit cake laced with rum.] Nor could I even visit her without Straight's permission as she lived out of town. There is one father whose familty was excommunicated from Straight, I beleive, because he went out of town to attend a realitive's funeral without Straight's permission. During Parent Weekend we were allowed to make no phone calls. Someone ratted on this one dad [he may have ratted on himself] and we took turns in a synanon blasting him for not following the rules. We finally collapsed him into sobbing tears. His crime? His brother had died and he called and spoke to a relative about it!) Once during a parent rap our clinical director had asked this father to leave because he thought he had detected alcohol on the man's breath. The father told the clinical director that he wanted to speak to him outside. Out of 75 fathers there that night, I was the only father who walked out behind my director. I thought there might be a fight, and I was even ready to fight for Straight. At the time we left Straight upon learning that our son was being abused in there, I was making arrangements to make speaking engagements at local high school PTA's to spread the Straight message. Personally, I wanted to recruit all kids into this new grass roots, American program, where kids had neat hair cuts, wore button down sports shirts, and the girls wore no makeup, and where people were still saying the Pledge of Allegiance. No Straight had not become my God, but it had become my church. : : After we left Straight, it was my wife and son who sought an attorney to sue them for intentionally abusing my son. I was against it. My attitude was that Straight is still helping some kids. Only some kids had gone astray and it had not worked out for us. It took me a year to come to my senses. And now, well you pretty much know "The Rest of the Story." So Ginger, in my opinion, you're exactly right. Most of the people in the Straight cult are entirely convinced that what they are doing is right. That they are saving American kids from themselves. They were not bad people. They were just good people in a bad cult. : : Wes : : "No I'm not a bad man, I'm a very good man. It's just that I'm a bad wizard." The Wizard, from The Wizard of Oz. : : : I want to thank you all for the oportunity to gain some insights from your points of view. And I wanted to also offer mine. : : : Although I'm becomeing more inclined to believe that some of the people behind these programs are quite complicitly evil, I'm still not 100% convinced that every last one is not acting on what they view as high ideals. Himler, in a note to a collegue, described the Final Solution in clowing terms. He said something along the lines that it was an heroic act to complete this task and still remain decent and that it was one of Germany's greatest moments that history would probably never record. There's no telling his motive behind these words. He might have been being candid or manipulative. : : : But we're not dealing directly with the Himlers in this scenario. We're dealing with faithful devotees to a cause. And we were all among them, to one degree or another, at one time. My mother still is. : : : I make it my business _not_ to know the particulars of her involvement, but I know that she went from Straight Sarasota into a militant anti abortion organization. I don't know what happened next, only that she's still devoted to the cause. Knowing her as well as I do, I guess I'll always be a little angry with her for her cowardice and how it has effected our family. The Seed was not the beginning of her madness, it was just an ideal growth medium. : : : Haveing been on both sides of the wire, I find it much easier to walk in my skin knowing some of my errors than it was trying to justify outrageous acts. Far, far more than anger, I feel sympathy and empathy for the whole lot of them. : : : If there is one bit of pragmatic advice that I could give, it would be to draw attention to the successes outside the cult rather than the horrors inside. The program relies heavily on maintaining a very negative image of outsiders but that doesn't stand the light of day. : : : "Speak gently! 't is a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, that it may bring Eternity shall tell." -- G. W. Langford: Speak gently. : It took me a long time Wes to finally figure it out too. They took my son away from me. Dec 98 I told him I thought maybe SAFE wasn't right for him. I told him there were so many treatment programs out there, surely I could find the right one for him. He ratted on me the next day. All contact with his family and the outside world ceased. I only saw him once in 99. He told me he was very depressed and dissasociated from reality. He told me he was only allowed to sleep 3 hrs. a night. I told him he needed to leave. They told him "Your mom is not supportive of your recovery". They worked really hard to turn him against me. The degree of their sucess remains to be seen. At least he still wants to talk to me. : It was only when i started studying Cults that I finally understood. They are not afraid your mother or minister will sell the children drugs. No the reality is far sadder. They are afraid the children will hear the TRUTH about the program and thus they will lose their hold. : I am not a criminal, drug addict, child molester or unsuitable as a parent in any way. I love my son deeply and I know he knows it. My real crime in SAFE is/was I am a free thinker, well educated, verbal and would not submit.

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: