A very quiet board....

[Scott Bowers]

Straight Inc-Springfield,Va 1984-86 i still have the nightmares, and worse, I know i was the cause of others nightmares on many occaisions, so I feel very awkward on this forum. But I need help. I need to make it all go away or something. I need to stop hating. I was a good kid before I went there. Yeh I got in some trouble, but it was from me and my folks battling, I was a chronic runaway, not much more. I did tell some big stories in the warehouse though.  

[Scott Bowers]

Re: Straight Inc-Springfield,Va 1984-86 I am also willing to speak for myself and others on this, write letters, talk to lawyers, etc. We all know what happened, and I believe all of us and our families deserve a formal apology and compensation for this type of terrorism. I don't give a @#%$ about money though, I want justice.

[Scott Bowers]

Re: Straight Inc-Springfield,Va 1984-86 LoL! If anyone talks to Scott Prophet, tell him I'm still looking to kick his ass for slamming my head against the corner of the wall in the bathroom while he was on Sr. staff. I have no intention on ever forgetting or forgiving. And how about that smart ass Ted Leo?

[Chris]

Re: Straight Inc-Springfield,Va 1984-86 Scott I remember you from Straight.Send me an e-mail chrispoole@starpower.net    Sincerely, "A Clockwork Orange Chris"

[jeff belflower]

Straight Sucks Newton Dick I was in the hellhole for three and a half shitty years. I got in there in Feb. of 1981, and didn't get out until sometime in 1984. I think I remember you before ya'll left for Virginia, but I am not sure. Were you in St. Pete for a little while. Your name sounds relatively formiliar. I still get reminded by my parents all the time that they tried to help me, and they love me. Why can't I be a straight robot they think. All those years trying to help you and look what you've done for yourself. After getting out of straight, so many years ago, I eventually started to be normal and hang out with old friends and get back to my life. My parents still to this day will search my room if I stay the night at their house. They still use straight tactics and as a result have made me crazy. Some 15 years ago finally they booted me out of their lives by getting a court order for me to move. I had been going to college and began to smoke a little weed here and there. Well, to me I was the devil, they booted me out with no money, and I was forced to live and sleep in my little V.W. beetle. I learned to hate my family even more than the Straight bullshit. Well, I guess I'm kind of carrying on a little. Sorry, I hold in alot of anger and resentment towards Straight. Even the name gives me the jitters. My best friend as a child went into a coma for three months while I was in Straight and I wasn't even notified until after he was dead. For some reason, a day doesn't go by that I don't feel as if Straight Staff is looking over my shouder. Some of my friends sued, but I didn't want to stir any waves at the time. I guess getting older and still having reaccuring nightmares has made me readjust my old stance. I feel like starting war against those fuckers that stole my life.    P.S. sorry for carrying on a little, I just hate the thought of Straight.

[Cheeky54]

Re: Dead Friends Jeff, it's amazing how similar people past experiences in treatment are.  I was in a Straight based facility in Canada about 10 years after you, but it was the same bulls#*%#.


I too worry about staff looking over my shoulder, I worry about running into someone on the street, feeling that somehow they could make me go back or do something to me even though I am 27 years old.  It's crazy.


I too had a friend that I knew was dying of AIDS and I wasn't aloud to call and see how he was.  Only months later did I convince someone to let me call and see how it was.  I had to listen on speaker phone, how my friend died months earlier.  They needed to listen on the speaker phone because they did'nt believe me.  Not aloud to grieve "let it go", the words I will never forget, that are burned into my head.

[Michael Kirsch]

Springfield '84-'86 Scott.  Sorry to hear things are going so badly for you.  I guess I do not have the hard feelings about 5515 Backlick Road that most everyone else here seem to, as I really feel I got a hell of a lot out of the place.  I am a pretty happy person right now, with a wife, two kids, and an excellent career in international business.  I am very, very sure that I would not have acheived what I have had I NOT been through Straight.  I feel sorry that you are in such a seemingly bad situation.  We had some good times together;  remember riding your motorcycle out in the woods?


Sure Straight was far from perfect, and was certainly the wrong choice of treatment for many of the people in there.  But it was just was I needed, and I am grateful for what I learned there.

[Charlt123456789]

can't believe it I can't believe I stumbled on this board.  I remember Mike Sabota, Kathy Barry, Steve Brown, Tara Webb, Scott Prophet, Paula Proghet, Nathan Bright, Matt Something, a staff guy who was really funny, Big Dean Mistretta, I have to laugh when I start reeling off names... No real bad memories, some embarassment over my behavior during and for a while after Straight for which I am truly sorry.  It seems like a lifetime ago.  I told my wife about it and she was in shock.  It is hard to believe what people will do.  I am going to motivate later and have  a song.

[Kathy]

Re: can't believe it so, Who are you?  Is it Matt?  

Kathy

[jetandra30]

A very quiet board.... This board has been very quiet since 9-11 and it?s very understandable.  Suddenly a new issue is on our plates; indeed on the entire worlds plate that overshadows our grievances and makes them look small and indeed they are in comparison to what has happened in NYC and elsewhere.

Virtually every group has compared our current crisis to their personal politics and struggles and ours is no exception. Al Qaida is a cult and we?ve seen the effects of this cult.  To be fair, we also supported the Egyptians in a ruthless attack of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. My point is that the issue goes way beyond who is right and who is wrong but what is fair and what is unfair in expressing your beliefs and playing the game of politics and religion. The terrorists obviously grossly crossed that line and inflamed the entire world, both west and east, with their ruthlessness.  I just think that its important that we play fairly and respect the rules of politics, the rules of warfare and the rules of religion, et al.

The important difference between the Straights and us is not merely our beliefs, but how we address our beliefs. We are fighting for our beliefs under fair rules, they never did. They fought for their beliefs under the rules of a cult, which supercedes all rules and is completely above and beyond the law. Al Qaida and Bin Laden also function this way.

I?m reading ?Jihad vs. McWorld? written in 1996 which I highly recommend.  Perhaps even more interesting, is a special that PBS did on Frontline called ?Looking for Answers? which will be replayed many times and is incredible and attempts to give a history to our current crisis

I could talk about this forever but I just want everybody to know that my focus has readjusted to America?s crisis which has affected all of us greatly.  I know that some of you may have lost somebody dear to you and I wish I had some answers but I think all of us have learned to look beneath the surface and that is a gift.  I pray for us all in the uncertain times ahead.