On 2004-04-12 07:15:00, Anonymous wrote:
Good morning Ginger! You sound much better today! Why is what goes on down there so important to you? Do you have a vested interest in it? I know from your previous postings that you did not send your child there.
Well, there are a lot of differen definitions for the term "vested interest". Here are a few
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:Vested+InterestTo which one do you refer?
Why people respond to you the way that they do, I cannot say. I can only be accountable to God for myself.
Uh... thanks, but I didn't ask. You asked me how
I would respond to personal attacks and hostility. I was answering that. Generally, I turn the other cheek and keep on pursuing my interest.
I can tell you, in spite of the negative things that have been posted by the numerous individuals who have never been there, it is really a beautiful place.
What negative things? Please cite at least one example. There's no doubt that ALA takes kids brought involuntarily by "teen escort"; that at least two kids tried to escape last month; that an ALA search team was sent out to recapture them; that at least one of those girls is not allowed contact w/ anyone but ALA people and her parents; that the kids are shipped out of the country for the first phase. Add to these all of the information available in the student manual, to which ALA proponants, oddly, rarely refer.
All of these things have been confirmed or introduced to the dialog by ALA advocates. If some people take a dim view of the organization in light of these confirmed facts, what's that got to do w/ me?
So, you have a choice to make, do you believe the negative rantings of someone concerning something they have only 4th and 5th hand information on, or do you consider the words of someone with first hand, personal experience on the subject?
Like I said, I base my conclusions on the answers I get to my questions. Nothing more, nothing less. I still have more questions, though, if you feel like answering any. For example, how can a ten minute phone call home twice per week provide an opportunity to "do something stupid"? And, if you happen to know, are those calls monitored? Both sides of the conversation?
I think that is something that a lot of those responding have not thought of.
There you go trying to think for others. Don't worry about what other people might think. We're all adults here.
Also, just a thought Ginger, as I detect you are a person who takes time to consider, the issue that has been brought up about the 4:00 a.m. tactic of taking the child down there, think this through.
In order to arrive down there and clear customs at a reasonable hour, the child would have had to get to the airport early. I know ...
When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras, unless you're near an oasis in the Sahara.
Under normal circumstances, like a regular Bible camp or boarding school where kids are encouraged to write lots of letters and exhert some independance, most people would assume something like your scenareo. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about an organization that accepts involuntary "students" and holds them more-or-less incommunicado.
We are, indeed, standing near an oasis in the Sahara (figuratively speaking)
Ginger, you do a good thing to provide this forum for others to make their comments. People need to vent. Unfortuantely, too many people are jumping on a bandwagon that they don't know where it is headed.
Take care. Have a blessed day. :smile: "
That's what I'm trying to tell you, friend! A good many people seem to be thoroughly convinced that this kind of forced treatment is safe and beneficial to teenagers. Even the US Federal government and some presumed addiction treatment professionals endorse this view.
But, having been the unwilling recipient of a type of treatment extremely similar to that outlined in the ALA student manual, I would urge people to look before they leap on that bandwagon, or at least do so afterward if it's too late. Seems that a lot of us, certainly a majority, feel the same way.
What's your frame of reference? And, while we're at it, what's your interest? Are you a member of the old ladies club or the parent group?
Whenever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
http://laissezfairebooks.com/product.cfm?op=view&pid=FF7485&aid=10247' target='_new'>Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798
