On 2005-04-08 23:56:00, Barton wrote:
"
Dear Readers,
I recently had a niece put in this academy.She is now into her next facilitated program.She is involved in Drugs,sex and Rebelion against her Mother and Father.They are very conservative Christian people. Fire and brimstone for the sinners of the world.
After giving you people a little background check,can any one tell me any thing about this place she was in? The things she told me troubled me.The things I have read on this Forum about that place trouble me more than ever!
I have made a few calls and inquired concerning the facilaty.I have recieved a few E-mails stating that they have terminated several of the scholls in mexico.Is this true? I have allso been talking with a young girl named AKA "viva" a past student.I would appriciate it if anyone could give me a heads up on what she is saying to be true!!
Thank you,
Barton "
Viva is being slandered by the other poster. This "runaway" is 18 years old and has simply moved out, rented her own place, gotten a job, and is pursuing school.
If she's a bit wild, it's an understandable rebound after what she went through, which would unsettle anyone.
She's 18. If she wants to cut loose for a bit, it ain't nobody's business if she does.
If *I* had been through what she's been through *I* certainly would be using my newfound majority to thumb my nose at the idiots who had had me shipped to Mexico and incarcerated me in a private prison run by jesus freaks.
Genuine people of faith get a tremendous amount of my respect, no matter the religion or sect. The people at ALA are, in my opinion, more than a bit over the edge from "sincere" into downright weird.
I base this on the rantings posted on Fornits by Craig of ALA, who was the head honcho running the place. You can't diagnose over the internet, and I'm not saying he necessarily *is*---but he *sounded* way past eccentric and flat out into delusional city. Not in the 'burbs of the metro area, but right downtown across from city hall.
Maybe he isn't. Maybe he lost it and wasn't being himself. Maybe his rantings weren't representative of who he really is. I don't know if you can search Fornits on the screen name "Word of Wisdom," but that was him.
His apparent loopiness is why I believe Viva. I've also talked to Viva's grandmother. Viva may not be a perfect little angel, but she's not a lot more screwed up than I was at 18, and I turned out a responsible, married for ten years, been living in our own house--same one--for six years, mom of a 9 year old daughter, published author, middle-aged suburban "soccer mom" housewife.
I'm not perfect, and I've got my problems, but I get by in life.
I don't think it's quite fair to judge an 18 year old who's had as much turmoil in her life as Viva has (a fair bit of the story has come out on Fornits now and again) by the standards of those of us who are in our thirties or forties and have settled in as frumpy, stodgy, happy, old marrieds.
If I wasn't as discombobulated as Viva at 18--and in many ways I was more confused and wild and dangerous, I was just good at hiding it---I *also* hadn't been uprooted out of high school and shipped out of the country and spent way too long among some people who seem to me to be really, really bizarre, and then had to be rescued by my grandmother.
Yes, she left her grandmother's house and moved out slightly before--coupla months--her 18th birthday. Big fat hairy deal.
Viva is a nice young lady who is recovering from a very bad experience in an entirely normal and typical way. When she gets a little more time between her and what happened to her, she's probably going to be fine.
But the jesus freaks will never admit she's fine because she won't be a jesus freak clone of them. They'll always see her as a "rebellious runaway" no matter how old she gets because that's how they are. Or at least, that's my perception from what I've seen of them---and we have, unfortunately, seen the various anti-Viva jesus freaks posting quite a lot over the time since she got sent away.
Timoclea
...it is worth discussing radical changes, not in the expectation that they will be adopted promptly but for two other reasons. One is to construct an ideal goal, so that incremental changes can be judged by whether they move the institutional structure toward or away from that ideal. The other reason is very different. It is so that if a crisis requiring or facilitating radical change does arise, alternatives will be available that have been carefully developed and fully explored."
http://laissezfairebooks.com/index.cfm?eid=103&aid=10247' target='_new'>Milton Friedman