Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: kpickle39 on September 04, 2003, 05:39:00 PM
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[Click here for story http://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/04/South ... s_la.shtml (http://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/04/Southpinellas/Sembler_agitator_s_la.shtml)
Edited by Antigen]
Here is the letter I sent today to the St. Pete Times letter's tot he editor: Flood 'em with letters y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Editor:
Richard Bradbury is telling the truth! I was a victim of Straight, Inc. for approximately 15 months from Dec 1978 to March of 1980. During my time at Straight, Inc. I endured and witnessed countless horrors and abuses on children. At Straight, basic human needs were regularly withheld from me, other children and young adults. This includes the denial of water, food, sleep and medication when I was sick. We were allowed 2 dixie riddle cups of liquid per day. Later we were allowed a little more liquid, but never enough. The only time I was able to hydrate myself was in the 2-3 minute shower I was allowed at night. I was beaten by children under the supervision and encouragement of adults and other children staff. When I had a fever of 102+, I was not allowed any medication to break the fever. When I had jock itch that covered my body from my waist to my knees, I was not allowed any medication. I soiled myself when I was sick, was told it was an attention game and was not allowed to change clothes or clean myself for almost 10 hours. I was imprisoned at Straight after I was 18 years of age without a court order. I was restrained, sat on and gang tackled by groups of boys when I tried to leave after my 18th birthday. I had to sleep on a terrazzo floor many days during the first phase of my program.
I personally witnessed countless other children being beaten, restrained, humiliated, denied medication, food, sleep and water. I remember seeing an 11 year old boy hogtied, hung upside down and beat with a broom. His crime? He wanted to go home to his parents.
The abuses at Straight were covered up for many many years and it's time the world, and especially the people in the Tampa Bay area know what went on. We are no longer children. We are now adults which is something the people that ran straight never thought would happen.
Mike Sherman, Straight Survivor
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Dear Editor,
This letter is in regards of the article about Mel Sembler and Richard Bradbury. I'm a 32 year old engineer living in Portland, Oregon and I was a victim of the excesses of Mel Sembler's organization, Straight Inc. when I was 17 years old. I can personally attest to dozens of people with full names, who were brutally beaten, starved, ridiculed, and sleep deprived and otherwise tortured at Straight Incorporated. As far as I'm concerned, Richard Bradbury is a hero. The truth about what happened behind the closed doors at Straight is well documented and needs to see the light of day even if it does take decades and some unorthodox methods. Please feel free to contact me with any questions concerning Straight Inc.
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GREAT Glider!!! lets have some more.
Here is the contact information
letters@sptimes.com
You must give your name, address, phone number for the letter to be published. Published letters are what we need. Keep it up!
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With 366 words, this is on the long side. They might (might) either edit it down :sad: or wave their policy if they think it's really good.
There are a lot of other points to be made here. Please, read the article and just let fly with what you think. The more viewpoints, the better!
Dear Ed,
Please consider for publication.
Re: Pump-Gate; Sembler vs. Bradbury
Thank you for covering this most interesting and important story.
Though I spent two years in Straight, Inc. and can attest to the abusive treatment that I received, metted out and witnessed every day of it, my primary interest in this story has nothing to do with anything that happened 20 years ago. Life's just too short.
I would not characterize Mr. Bradbury's actions as similar to the infamous blue dress stunt.
The Semblers, through their political organizations, have invested heavily and very profitably in public policy as a means of wealth building. According to Betty, addressing the 1998 Drug Summit (to which you and I chipped in to the tune of $64,000*), the drug screening industry takes in an estimated $6 Billion per year. Much, if not most, of that money is either mandated private spending or outright public funding required by legislation that the Semblers had a hand in getting passed into law.
The purpose of this shindig was to organize opposition to any grass-roots effort to change these laws that have made the Semblers and their associates among the wealthiest people in the country. Recent surveys among medical professionals show more than 70% of doctors and more than 90% of nurses are favorable toward some means of legalizing marijuana for medical use. People are dead, insane or in jail, not because of marijuana, but because of the Semblers and their political chums!
And this is just the tip of the iceburg. Interested readers should get on the net and search on Straight, Inc. and Sembler.
I think history will show that Mr. Bradbury is more on the level of Dan Ellsberg. If he has had to resort to an extreme maneuver to get the media to take a good close look at these people who control so much of our public policy and who seem so intensely interested in controling our private lives, God bless him! It's not asif he hasn't been trying every peaceful and legal means available to him for the last two decades.
Sincerely,
Ginger Warbis
American drug war P.O.W. 10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Administrator: http://fornits.com/wwf/ (http://fornits.com/wwf/)
P.O. Box 67
Monessen, PA, 15062
Where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.
Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798
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Dear Editor,
Straight, Inc. has plagued my life ever since the day I was admitted. I spent my first 8 hours there in a time out room being guarded by two other kids in the program. I've seen some of the worst abuse and neglect in that place. Tampons shoved in a girl's mouth while she was four point restrained on the concrete floor by her peers. A boy bit off his tongue after being held in a time out room for days. Tallies marking the walls of these rooms as well as blood stains. Girls told at 13-15 years old that they were ?druggie? whores. Rape confessions not handled properly, ignored or blamed on the child. I still suffer emotionally from the 'program training' and mental anguish Straight put me through. I am 32 now and have a 12-year-old daughter of my own. I wonder if I will ever stop being tortured by the aftermath that, so far, has lasted 17 years. Please contact me for any reason regarding this matter. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Sincerely,
Morli (Last name here)
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Fandamntastic!!! keep 'em coming.
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Dear Editor,
I'm writing in regard to the article about Mel Sembler and Richard Bradbury. I was a victim of the Straight Inc. program. The horrors that were endured day after day still haunt me to this day. The victims of Straight are asking for exposure and for The Semblers to be held accountable for the atrocities that occurred during our incarceration. We, the victims, will not be ignored.
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Oh! I love letter writing! Does it matter if I wasnt in the St. Pete program? I'd love to help in any way I can.
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Well, I wanted to send them a letter just telling how I felt about it all. I could'nt do it. Even after 3 different drafts the fuckin thing was still too violent for publication, so I chilled out and then remembered the Midnight Flight of The Fish Hawk, so I submitted that. It will probably get picked simply because it is so different the same way as I am "different." So for any people new to the boards here it is again.
The Midnight Flight of the Fish Hawk
The last of the midnite movie crowd stumbles, laughter bouncing off the walls and fading into the night as the parking lot rapidly empties.
High above the mall parking lot the Fish Hawk soars overhead in search of small rabbits. It turns north toward the old railroad overpass, silently past the traffic below. Gracefully, it banks sharply and dives. It glides silently less than 20 feet off the ground over the grassy field just to the left of the Pinellas Trail its eyes and ears straining for the sight and sound of it's furry dinner. The rabbits have not come to feed just yet, so the Fish Hawk sails silently underneath the structure that moans with each passing of an automobile overhead. The very tip of his wing brushes a support column. The column is very old, and from way up on high one can see the faded paint of a message left in 1973. It can only be seen at night due to the unique lighting conditions and the absence of the sun's glare. The message reads; "The Seed Sucks." The Fish Hawk now turns its attention to the grass lined sides of the Trail, and is rewarded with the sight of a young foolish rabbit feeding on clover in a pool of streetlight. It folds its wings and dives, puts on the brakes, talons extended and makes the kill. It begins its feed next to an old abandoned warehouse where weeds and vines do battle for purchase, clinging to the
weather beaten walls. The moon appears from a ghostly veil of clouds and reveals the details hidden by the harsh glare of daylight. Through a cobweb covered window are hundreds of imprints left on the dusty fiberglass covered floor. A mute reminder to the hundreds of chairs that held hundreds of teens timeless while their lives were put on hold. From out of the shadows a field mouse scampers up to the half eaten granola bar left by a worker from the previous week. Outside the moon once again slides under cover and the wind picks up enough to cause a slight buzzing hum to eminate from the metal roll up doors. For just one brief moment, it almost sounds like children singing. The mouse drops it's prize in fright, and runs back to the safety of the shadows, while outside the Fish Hawk has had its fill and leaps into the sky with a few mighty beats of its wings. It flies back to its nest in a tall pine tree that was planted in 1968 at a family picnic behind the Milton Roy Corporation off of Park Street. Some rare nights, when the wind is from the north, it sounds as if children are singing in this delapitated warehouse as well.
P.S. When you are done writing your peice, sit back and imagine yourself a stranger in another town reading your words at the breakfast table or on a coffee break at a job, that will help give the proper perspective. Let's see some more!!!
Thanks Mike, this is a really good idea, I have been so caught up in other things I never even thought of this. No ice cream for me tonight! Bob
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On 2003-09-05 05:31:00, LeeBunnys wrote:
"Does it matter if I wasnt in the St. Pete program? I'd love to help in any way I can.
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Of course not! Any and all viewpoints. Rampant talking out in group!!Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Mark Twain
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Oh cool! I sent one last night too. No doubt the Editor is going to know that he or she has a hot potato on their hands with this story! :lol:
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Send a copy of your letter to the author Richard Bockman at bockman@sptimes.com
Wes
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Im finally happy to find a place that tells me im not delusional ,I still have nightmares about straight. At 15 yrs old i was an oldcomer in charge of a newcomer,sher was extremely violent and suicidal one morning she asked me to pull up the blinds,after i did so she smashed the window with her fist and picked up shards of glass and slit her wrists along with cutting oldcomers.I dont ever remember seeing so much blood and this vision still haunts me. I was in the program in stoughton more than a year , throughout that time i wished and prayed for death.I escaped shortly after that bloody incident only to be brought back kicking and screaming by oldcomer parents as well as my own mother.I was restrained on several occasions for"rocking out" which at that time was the only escape i felt i had.Luckily there was a new staff member that came in and diagnosed me with psychiatric problems and suicidal tendencies and believed i needed treatment.I dont know where this woman is but i am in great debt to her if given half the chance i would have taken my life for i could not live in that hell any longer.God bless all straight survivors and those tearing that hell down.
internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
--John Gilmour
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[ This Message was edited by: kupala703 on 2003-09-05 16:14 ]
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I have a good friend that works for the FOX network, maybe he could help. I'll give him a call tonight.
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Dear Richard Bockman,
Silencing or punishing Richard Bradbury will not make the problem go away.
Giving a voice to victims of Straight and similar programs in our courtrooms
and in the media will.
This case illuminates the lack of justice for child, adolescent and teenage
victims of physical abuse, psychological battery, wrongful imprisonment,
kidnapping, harassment and intimidation.
It outlines our legal system which offers limitations to protect perpetrators of
crimes and denies victims hope or resolution.
It brings to question the reaches of power and privledge of the wealthy and
well connected.
The use of intimidation displayed by the Semblers is merely an old Straight
tactic and does not demonstrate the behavior or the diplomacy one might
expect from an Ambassador.
The church and Straight have both been praised for work they've done and they
have both silenced the truth. It is time to give ALL victims of child abuse a voice
before there are more suicides, and desperate measures. There are
thousands more voices to be heard.
The doors of Straight closed, but the horrors continued. See the recent victory of
Lulu Corter against Virgil Miller Newton, director of Straight who is now back in Florida:
Keeping 'Cult' Out of the Case, by Tim O'Brien New Jersey Law Journal 07-07-2003).
Turn a blind eye to the horror stories like a bishop, or be the one with the courage to
seek and expose the truth before there are more victims and more stories.
I challenge all journalists and politicians to get to the root of the problem.
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beautiful letter.
KEEP THEM COMMING!!!
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On 2003-09-05 16:01:00, kupala703 wrote:
"Im finally happy to find a place that tells me im not delusional ,I still have nightmares about straight. At 15 yrs old i was an oldcomer in charge of a newcomer,sher was extremely violent and suicidal one morning she asked me to pull up the blinds,after i did so she smashed the window with her fist and picked up shards of glass and slit her wrists along with cutting oldcomers.I dont ever remember seeing so much blood and this vision still haunts me. I was in the program in stoughton more than a year , throughout that time i wished and prayed for death.I escaped shortly after that bloody incident only to be brought back kicking and screaming by oldcomer parents as well as my own mother.I was restrained on several occasions for"rocking out" which at that time was the only escape i felt i had.Luckily there was a new staff member that came in and diagnosed me with psychiatric problems and suicidal tendencies and believed i needed treatment.I dont know where this woman is but i am in great debt to her if given half the chance i would have taken my life for i could not live in that hell any longer.God bless all straight survivors and those tearing that hell down. internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
--John Gilmour
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[ This Message was edited by: kupala703 on 2003-09-05 16:14 ]"
Wow, I wish someone had done that for me! Welcome to this forum. Welcome from the bottom of my heart. It's so awesome to see more people finding comfort in the confirmation that we were not all alone. Very nice to meet you. :smile:
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Did you contact your friend at the FOX news network? What did he say?
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Yeah, I did call mt friend at FOX. He works for the sports side of the news, but has some contacts. I also emailed him the link to this site. As soon as I hear anything, I'll be sure to post it. I don't know about any of you, but when you tell people about Straight, and what went on while you were in there, they almost look at you like you have 3 heads. You just don't understand unless you went throught it yourself. It reminds me of a Frank Zappa quote. "I'm sick of trying to explain myself, either you get it, or you don't"
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That's why it's so damned ironic, and I'm not sure it's coincidence at all, that Melvin and Walter are so tightly affiliated with the Hollocaust Museum.
See, up until the end of WWII, most Germans simply did not believe all the stories about the death camps, medical experiments, wrongful imprisonments, etc. Those number tatoos on all the death-camp inmates? Those were given to all convicted criminals upon entry to prison. That's what most people though of the Jews and Gypsies and homosexuals and other folks who landed up in the camps. They thought they were just run of the mill criminals insisting they were innocent and that the big old bad old legal system had just been too cruel and unfair. No one believed them.
Cops plant drugs on innocent people, either for retribution or in order to confiscate their property. No one believes them. Thank Betty Sembler and her organizations for lobbying successfully for expanded property forfeiture powers to fight the drug war.
People go to prison for decades on nothing more than the uncorroborated testimony of a paid informant; often a convicted criminal who's getting a lighter sentence in exchange for his or her testimony. No one believes the convict, everyone believes the paid snitch. Thank Betty Sembler for her hard work in setting up Area Drug Taskforces which rely heavily on confidential informants to bust adults who voluntarily buy and sell certain unpatentable drugs.
Private prisons and prison industry services are two of three major, recession and drought proof growth industries in this country. The other is the black market in illicit drugs. Is it coincidence that, soon after Melvin took over as ambassador to Australia and then to Italy that private prison corporations were set up for the first time in those countries w/ major contracts going to his buddy Jim Wackenhut? Maybe. But I doubt it.
Unwealthy kids who get busted for posession are ineligable for federal education loans. This policy targets just exactly the people that Melvin and Betty are most interested in putting to work in their prison labour programs. They have few viable options without the funding, even though they've demonstrated their ability, willingness and determination to better their own circumstances by qualifying for entry to accredited colleges and universities. Without the education, they're extremely likely to land up in prison where they make ideal candidates for those .50/hr jobs. Thank Betty Sembler and DFAF for fighting so hard to pass into law and then to prevent voters from overturing the law which denies education funding to kids who have been busted smoking a joint outside the locker room.
Millions of children grow up with a parent or two in prison for nothing more (and often less) than the same infractions that got us placed on front row. No one believes them any more than most Germans believed in the facts of the Hollocaust.
Come in the evening, or come in the morning; Come when you 're looked for, or come without warning.
-- Thomas O. Davis (1814-1845): The Welcome.
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Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous
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For a long LONG time, I would never tell anyone about my colorful past or my "troubled teens" :roll:
I feared the reactions I would get. The disbelief. When I copped out, I remember telling my parents (the people I trusted most) of the abuse and begged them not to take me back. They didn't even believe me. My own parents didnt believe me!! That disbelief made a huge impact on me, and the resentment grew and grew. As far as I'm concerned, Straight cost me precious time with my family. I'm 32 now, and a single mom, and I'm just now starting the healing process with my parents. I'm so grateful I found this board, its a great support.
Love to you all!!
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This is what I wrote to the Times yesterday. Below is the response from the Times.
Good morning, My name is Michael Sherman and I
wrote a letter to the editor about the Richard Brad
bury/Melvin Sembler/medical device article. A num
ber of my friends also wrote letters to the editor. I can understand why the Times would not run all the letters, but I am wondering why the Times ran none of the letters? I have never written a letter to the editor before so I have no experience in how the Times or any other paper for that matter, makes a decision on what to run and not to run. The article seemed kind of one sided, with the Sembler attorney making Richard Bradbury out to be a nutcase. That is not true. Richard is a good man and definately not a nutcase. I guess my question to you is can you explain to me why none of our letters ran?
The child abuse that occured at Straight Inc is for real, many organizations and agencies were involved and culpable in the abuse. This includes the Pinellas,Hillsbourgh, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota county schools, Sheriffs depart's, the HRS, local Police departments and the state of Florida. But I'm rambling again. Sorry for that. Could some one answer my question? and also, I would appreciate it if the Times ran my letter.
Thanks so much, SIncerely, Michael Sherman,
Straight Survivor '78 - '80
This is his reply -
None of those letters were published because none of them seemed suitable for publication.
Most seemed to come from out of state and did
not include the required contact information. They may also have been the result of a Web site's asking people to write. Such orchestrated letter writing is not something we want to encour
age.
Those matters aside, the letters all wanted to
dredge up old issues about Straight and the abuses the writers and others suffered. I was not interested in revisiting those old issues. The news article allowed Richard Bradbury to air his grievances, and the letters simply wanted to add to what he said.
In addition, last year we ran a lengthy feature
article focusing on Straight survivors, including Mr. Bradbury. Following that article, we ran a letter from Mr. Bradbury in which he again had a chance to air his views.
Anger against Straight and the Semblers is under
standable, but we are not inclined to be running letters
about the matter repeatedly.
Sincerely,
Eric Lacker
letters editor,
St. Petersburg Times
letters@sptimes.com
(727) 893-8368
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Just wrote to the Peter Times.
Dear Editor:
Perhaps I have misread your reluctance to publish well deserved letters simply because of prior stories irregarding the crimes Mel Sembler has commited. You are aware that this presupposes that you and yours (Saint Petersburg Times) accepts blood money from the Semblers. In your heart and mind you factually know the crimes I write of, but just in case you have forgotten momentarily allow me to remind you what you know in humanity's and more importantly your own name to be true. Rape, murder, false imprisonment just to name a few. Starvation, truancy...shall I go on??? Medical malpractice, invasion of privacy, thousands of assaults on the misdemeanor and mostly felony levels, illegal seizure of property, denying of civil rights, perjury, tampering with evidence. I am entirely certain that I have left out more than ten times More than ten documented crimes that Mel Sembler and his lackies have intended.
I am one among thousands who are not waiting for the day to come when your boss, Mel Sembler, will pay for his crimes exacted upon mostly children. That day SHALL arrive when him and his can no longer hide behind the falsehoods of his government support. The Sembler's represent all that is evil in the eyes of the law of the United States of America. Mel and his wife Betty and their colleagues who created the cult Straight Incorporated and its likenesses have a new story for you to work on dear editor. It would be worth your time to investigate the downfall of Sembler and his reckless sickening deadly kind.
Maybe I misread, but please don't brush this letter, or any other letters made to support all who have been under the wake of a known terrorist off as merely casual additions to prior stories you've already accumulated for your repetoire. That war on drugs, your uninformative stories about the criminal Mel Sembler, are just cover ups for the lies that make human's lives impossible to live out daily without some grudge or stain upon the sun.
When your son or daughter breathes today, when they breathe a healthy breathe of mentally stable air; remember that you and your kind are lucky to be on the laundered money end of Mel Sembler and his Third Reich.
Perhaps I have misread your intentions when you said that you couldn't publish the stories to help Bradbury continue to heal himself against the travesties Sembler is continuing to cause.
If I misread that you are somehow in cohorts with the known terrorist Mel Sembler and my eyes deceived me, then I know that my heart and your heart are similar in that you will find a way to publish these letters not in aiding prior stories but because it is the good thing and the right thing to do for a more certainty of purpose in the faltering breed of true journalism.
Publish under the obvious topic 'Semblers prey to their own justice', or something just like this.
Very truly yours, Anonymous. Survivor of Straight Saint Petersburg '85 to '89.
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Just wrote to the Peter Times.
Dear Editor:
Perhaps I have misread your reluctance to publish well deserved letters simply because of prior stories irregarding the crimes Mel Sembler has commited. You are aware that this presupposes that you and yours (Saint Petersburg Times) accepts blood money from the Semblers. In your heart and mind you factually know the crimes I write of, but just in case you have forgotten momentarily allow me to remind you what you know in humanity's and more importantly your own name to be true. Rape, murder, false imprisonment just to name a few. Starvation, truancy...shall I go on??? Medical malpractice, invasion of privacy, thousands of assaults on the misdemeanor and mostly felony levels, illegal seizure of property, denying of civil rights, perjury, tampering with evidence. I am entirely certain that I have left out more than ten times More than ten documented crimes that Mel Sembler and his lackies have intended.
I am one among thousands who are not waiting for the day to come when your boss, Mel Sembler, will pay for his crimes exacted upon mostly children. That day SHALL arrive when him and his can no longer hide behind the falsehoods of his government support. The Sembler's represent all that is evil in the eyes of the law of the United States of America. Mel and his wife Betty and their colleagues who created the cult Straight Incorporated and its likenesses have a new story for you to work on dear editor. It would be worth your time to investigate the downfall of Sembler and his reckless sickening deadly kind.
Maybe I misread, but please don't brush this letter, or any other letters made to support all who have been under the wake of a known terrorist off as merely casual additions to prior stories you've already accumulated for your repetoire. That war on drugs, your uninformative stories about the criminal Mel Sembler, are just cover ups for the lies that make human's lives impossible to live out daily without some grudge or stain upon the sun.
When your son or daughter breathes today, when they breathe a healthy breathe of mentally stable air; remember that you and your kind are lucky to be on the laundered money end of Mel Sembler and his Third Reich.
Perhaps I have misread your intentions when you said that you couldn't publish the stories to help Bradbury continue to heal himself against the travesties Sembler is continuing to cause.
If I misread that you are somehow in cohorts with the known terrorist Mel Sembler and my eyes deceived me, then I know that my heart and your heart are similar in that you will find a way to publish these letters not in aiding prior stories but because it is the good thing and the right thing to do for a more certainty of purpose in the faltering breed of true journalism.
Publish under the obvious topic 'Semblers prey to their own justice', or something just like this.
Very truly yours, Anonymous. Survivor of Straight Saint Petersburg '85 to '89.
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ok, if the Times won't run 'em, let's send letters to the Tampa Trib. Here it the link.
http://tampatrib.com/opinion/lettertotheeditor.htm (http://tampatrib.com/opinion/lettertotheeditor.htm)
I'm sending mine today.