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Posted by Ginger (199.227.5.211) on April 24, 2000 at 07:26:34:

[Dear ED, this is far to long for mainstream publication, I kow. This is a heads up. You'd be doing your community and your country a great service by investigating this a little bit. I believe it was Javier in Archives who recently provided me the Herald coverage of Miami's brief and rocky romance with Art Barker and The Seed.]

I just watched one George Fowler in New Orleans try to explain what's wrong with sending Elian back to Cuba. He offered, by way of example, the fact that Castro owns all of the businesses. If you want to establish a hotel, you make a deal with Castro, pay $10/hr for your help and your help receives $20/mo of that. He was abrubptly cut off by Mr Jackson.

In the U.S. today, if you want to establish a hotel, you must first get past the code and zoning board with your plan, then there are standards and regulations from agencies like OSHA and EOEC. Dues must be paid for health inspections, Social security and federal withholding, Workers' comp, mandatory insurance and so on and so forth. And it doesn't hurt to be on friendly terms with local politicians while walking that gauntlet. Doesn't this explain what ever happened to 8 Days Inn? Used to be $8/night, back when families could afford to travel together.

This reminds me of that brain teaser about the two towns; one where it costs $100 and a bunch of running around to get a all the needed permits to build a fence and the other where you need only bribe a single city employee $100 to receive the same permit. Which town is more corrupt?

Is it true that the local police intended to stand by their refusal to carry out this action? If a police action is not supportable by the local police, then isn't it foolish to discount the possibility that it is not supportable? Don't Federal agencies need the authorization of local authorities in order to carry out action in their jurisdiction? I understand that, under friendly normal circumstances, this is pretty routinely assumed and granted by default. But this is not a normal friendly situation. The Federal authorities intentionally sidestepped the requirement of local authorization.

My heart goes out to those people swept up into this but I'm glad it happened here and now. It's about time the Cuban American Exile Community got a reality adjustment wrt just where they've landed up.

Right now in OpaLaca, another Federal agency is acting in local jurisdiction. This time, though, the high powered fully automatic weapons employed are the media, politics and money. On Thursday the 20th, Gen. Barry McCaffrey held a press conference at the infamous Triangle.(1) In it, he explained that there IS no drug war. It's a whole lot of community drug epidemics. His recomended course of action to cure these epidemics is to identify drug addicts in your neighborhood and force them into treatment. Your City Manager, Anthony Robinson, is all a glow over the prospect of a $500,000 grant to meet this objective. What is Castro's drug policy?

Just the other day, though, on Tuesday the 18th, this same Drug Czar was published in the Arizona Republic(2) on the topic of why the U.S. can't afford to abandon the drug war in Colombia. He goes on for around a thousand words to defend his proposed $1.6 Billion assistance package. Pastrana says it'll take at least $3.6 Billion this year and $7.5 Billion over the next three years.

If General McCaffrey were even remotly interested in the welfare of OpaLaca, why would he be escallating the Civil war in Colombia? Don't get me wrong, I like Colombians. Some of my neighbors hail from Colombia. And their love of it makes me wish it were as safe for me to visit as some of other major drug supplying nations like Germany (Becks, Heinekin, et al), France or Italy (wine).

If there's a better way to elevate the rate of addiction and gang activity in Miami than to drive a bunch of desperate, homeless, impoverished and shell shocked war refugees from Colombia I can't imagine what it might be. How does Castro deal with disent?

General McCaffrey is interested in garnering political currency with a very important person related to a certain candidate for president; namely, Brother Jeb. Last Summer, Jeb bush unveiled his New and Improved strategy in the War On Drugs, Now with _more_ forced treatment.

Everyone knows that old joke, "How many psycologists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but the lightbulb has to _want_ to change." Well that's not really a perfect anology for psych treatment. It is possible to change the behavior of a patient who does not have the will to change. We simply break their will. Psychiatrists employ the use of drugs and, sometimes, even Electro Convulsive 'Therapy', where severe seizures are induced to erradicate recent memory and higher brain function, leaving the patient docile and suggestible. Drug free coercive 'therapy' is no less brutal. It relies upon psychological means to crush the will of the patient. Whatever means are employed, chemical, mechanical or psychological, the objective is the same; to break the will of the subject so that it can be more easily manipulated by the 'therapist'. Sound familiar?

And how do we go about identifying addicts? Some policy makers advocate mandatory urin and/or hair tests. But they only identify the presence of a substance in the body. 70% of US adults surveyed by the DOJ will admit to having used illicit drugs. Gary Johnson, current Governor of New Mexico, is one of these. So are Algore, Newt Geingrich and even Robert DuPont! Are 70% of adults in the US addicts in need of treatment? In criminal law there is a long-standing tradition known as the Writt of Hebeus Corpus; litterally Show Me The Body. Before one can be prosecuted for murder, it must at least be proved that someone has died. Should anyone be subjected to invasive and dangerous drugs and procedures against their will on the strenght of such evidence as drug use? Even if one _is_ a disfunctional addict, most addicts are no threat to anyone but themselves. And the best rehab in the world for these folks is Grandma, not some quack hired by the State.

29 years ago, Miami gave the bumbs rush to Art Barker and The Seed because of the abusive, coercive methods employed in his program. I've always admired Miami for that.
But The Seed didn't go away. They just pulled in their horns a little and went back to Broward. They're still there at 1313 So. Andrews Ave (the old haunted house from the late `70's).

What's more, they have expanded. After The Seed was shut down in St. Pete, the same people set up shop there under the name Straight Incorporated. Soon after, then drug czar Robert DuPont advocated replication of the Synanon Church's Punk Squad program throughout the nation. And he made it so when he became a paid consultant to Straight Incorporated, which eventually had branches in operation in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey and several other states and was named by Geo. Bush Sr. as one of his famous Thousand Points of Light. Some of these programs are still in operation today, funded in part by Federal grant money. And the individuals behind them hold high advisory positions to the ONDCP and other positions with heavy influence on public policy. The current vice president of Dare America International is none other than Betty Sembler, cofounder of Straight Incorporated. (AKA Straight Foundation, AKA Drug Free America Foundation). Just exactly what do you _think_ she intends to do with those anonymous tips?

And the real kicker? Some of the biggest players in the Republican party are associated in one way or another with these very organizations that employ the most brutally effective methods of breaking the will of their clients. They are making millions on these kids even now. And the Democrats are feeding the frenzy with their cry of "Treatment, not incarceration". If there's a worse idea going than locking up drug users, it might well be locking them up in close proximity to some shrink who's not making it in the private sector.

Well, friends, having spent 2 years of my life on the receiving end of some of that 'treatment' I know from whence I speak. This is something that only a mind like Castro's could dream up! (3)

Yes, I am sorry for Elian and all of his kin on both sides of the staits. Couldn't happen to nicer people. But I'm glad that it happened. The Cuban American Exile Community has had pause to reflect on just where they have landed up. And they understand the implications better than most. When you first see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's wise to cock an ear for train a whistle. They are overall a solid, decent and passionate component of the community in the land of the free. But the price of freedom is, indeed, vigilance and we sure could use the informed support of the Cuban community in the coming elections and beyond.

(1) US FL: Drug Czar's Visit Sparks Shot At $500,000 Grant
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n539/a09.html?111771

(2) US: OPED: U.S. Can't Afford To Abandon Drug Wars In Colombia
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n522/a11.html?111773

(3) Anonymity Anonymous - Jump page on coercive rehab
http://fornits.com/anonanon/




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