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Messages - Stripe

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31
Just curious b/c I live in LW now.  I'm a Seed survivor, probably a bit older than most Life-ers.   I recall seeing an article in the local newspaper a couple of years back. Just wondering what's up and if the place is still ruining lives....

32
News Items / DRUG-FREE ZONES
« on: July 06, 2007, 01:05:31 PM »
Drug-free zones target blacks unfairly, critics say

By ANTIGONE BARTON, and CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 01, 2007


The 400 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, where four men stood on a recent Sunday beckoning passing cars, doesn't appear to enjoy special protection from drug crimes.
But with two signs warning that this city street is a "drug-free" zone, this neighborhood of modest homes and aged apartment complexes is one of the front lines of a quarter-century-old "war on drugs."
It is a war that has seen years of casualties with no end in sight; the number of people imprisoned for drug-related crimes has only climbed each year since 1982. And while police say the heightened penalties for selling drugs in drug-free zones fortify their position, critics say the size and number of these zones have only increased the toll with a disproportionate impact on black offenders.
"The crimes aren't being displaced because there's nowhere to displace them to. There's no incentive for drug dealers to move," said Ben Barlyn, a New Jersey deputy attorney general who heads a state commission that in 2004 examined the impact of drug-free zones in that state.
That study, followed by two more, concluded that drug-free zones cover densely populated urban corridors where black neighborhoods predominate. As a result, researchers said, zones have created two systems of justice, penalizing black offenders for where they live as well as for their crimes, while white offenders who tend to live and work out of the zone face lesser penalties.
Those examining the impact of drug laws have pointed to other factors leading to disproportionate numbers of blacks serving time for drug crimes, including higher penalties for crack cocaine than powder cocaine, and for street narcotics than unauthorized prescription drugs. Racial profiling also has been cited as contributing to racially disparate incarceration rates.
While policy analysts have found all of these factors have led to longer prison sentences for black offenders and distrust of law enforcement in black communities, they cite one more problem with 1,000-foot zones.
The zones, they say, have proven to be a losing strategy in the war on drugs.
Still, Florida lawmakers have continued to expand the zones and add more.
A Palm Beach Post study of the law's effects shows that the zones now blanket Palm Beach County's inner cities and:
• Of 440 people arrested in Palm Beach County last year on "selling within 1,000" charges, 406 - 92 percent - were black;
• Statewide, 80 percent of those charged with selling within 1,000 last year were black;
• Application of the law is inconsistent, with cases dismissed for 16 percent of white defendants and 6.6 percent of black defendants.
• The numbers of people sent to prison on selling within 1,000 charges have climbed steadily in the past 10 years, with black convicts outnumbering whites 12-1.
On Boynton Beach's Martin Luther King Boulevard, two signs warn that this is a "drug-free school zone," while the sign down the block states that this is a "drug-free park zone."
Alone, either sign means that people caught selling drugs here can face more serious charges and more prison time than drug sellers elsewhere. Together, the signs mean two sets of raised charges and penalties. And, although no sign says so, churches in the neighborhood and the convenience store across the street mean dealers could face four criminal charges for one drug transaction.
The same four crimes can also be charged to residents of this street caught with saleable amounts of drugs in their homes.
That is because people living on this street live within the overlapping circumferences of four invisible thousand-foot circles.
Across Florida, these circles also surround community centers, day-care facilities, colleges, housing projects, and, after a 2005 addition to state drug laws, nursing homes.
"Now they're protecting people who can't even leave the premises," said Anthony Calvello, a Palm Beach County public defender who appealed some of South Florida's first drug-free zone arrests to the state's Supreme Court. "What's the thinking behind all this?"
While lawmakers put them in all 50 states during the past 20 years, researchers have found the zones have not slowed drug selling.
"The premise was to protect certain places and drive drug dealing away from vulnerable people," said William Brownsberger, a former prosecutor and policy analyst, who in 2001 completed the first critical study of the law in Massachusetts. "But when every place is special, no place is special. What the laws do is lock people up for exorbitant periods of time for relatively low-level crimes."
Police, weary of arresting and rearresting drug dealers, say any law that keeps criminals off their streets for longer is valuable to them.
Opponents of the law say the money now spent on longer prison sentences could be better spent on drug treatment and entrepreneurial training.
'A nice fat round number'
Calvello calls the law establishing the zones "a draconian statute with no rationality."
To get an idea of how long 1,000 feet is, imagine standing at the corner of one city block and seeing what's happening three blocks away. A thousand feet is nearly a fifth of a mile, more than the span of three football fields and as long as the town of Briny Breezes.
Nobody seems to know how lawmakers concluded that 1,000 feet was the distance necessary to protect children from drug dealers.
"It was a nice fat round number," said Barlyn, of the New Jersey commission. "When push comes to shove, we find the law casts too broad a net."
In 1982, though, the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's proposal to add extra penalties to those caught selling within 1,000 feet of schools helped to set the stern tone for the "war on drugs" the Reagan administration had promised.
When Florida passed its own law in 1987, police in Fort Lauderdale set up stings within 1,000 feet of schools.
"There were about 50 of these cases," recalled Calvello, who appealed many of them. Judges threw out about 20 cases, saying that luring offenders into the zones was an unconstitutional application of the law. Prosecutors appealed those cases.
Defendants appealed the cases that weren't thrown out.
Calvello wrote the appeals brief for the State of Florida vs. Stacy Burch, representing Burch in an appeal of what was actually a group of cases, under the name of one of the first arrested under the law.
He argued that the law had a disparate impact on members of racial minorities of whom a greater number tend to live in the densely populated urban areas now decreed "drug free."
The 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach rejected that argument and the case went before the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the statute, saying it was not intended to be discriminatory but to protect children.
Many arrests, however, took place when schools were not in session.
"It could be midnight in the middle of July," Calvello said.
The Florida high court, along with other state supreme courts, also said it had seen no evidence that the law disproportionately affected black offenders.
That would have been impossible to prove in the early years of the law, Calvello said.
In the past 10 years, however, while the number of white offenders imprisoned on selling-within-1,000 convictions has tripled, the number of black offenders imprisoned on the charges increased tenfold.
"If these statistics are borne out, maybe the court should take another look at it," Calvello said.
The law's scope has only grown, with little investigation of its impact.
The Florida Legislature added a minimum sentence provision to the law, saying those convicted of selling drugs near a school would serve at least three years in prison. The provision had originally applied to drug buyers as well, but they, along with rapists, were exempted from mandatory sentences when the threat of explosive jail crowding became clear.
In addition to the 1,000-foot school zones, lawmakers added a number of smaller zones to the law, eliminating good behavior time-off for those convicted of selling controlled substances within 200 feet of public housing projects, vocational schools and public parks in 1990. In 1998, they tagged on day-care centers, places of worship and convenience stores.
In 2001, a research team in Boston headed by the former prosecutor and policy analyst Brownsberger found that dealers continued to sell drugs where they lived, with urban drug dealers simply paying stiffer penalties.
Those penalties, he added, didn't "serve anyone because when they eventually do come out, they're often unable to function in society."
Crime 'deserves ... special severity'
While Brownsberger's study had found that drug sellers seldom sold to minors, a Hialeah high school civics class was pushing for a law to expand drug-free zones, saying that would better protect children. In 2003, a bill based on their work and sponsored by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, passed, turning previously 200-foot zones into 1,000-foot zones.
Aronberg keeps a photo on his wall of then-Gov. Jeb Bush signing the bill into law.
His intent, he says now, was to make sure that the law was consistent.
"If that means that drug deals are treated more seriously throughout the city, then so be it," he said recently. "I think this is a crime that is so destructive that it deserves to be treated with special severity."
Police in cities now consisting of almost uninterrupted "drug-free" zones agree.
"Obviously when we arrest drug dealers, we want them to get the highest penalty they can," said Sgt. Rick Ponce, spokesman for the Lake Worth Police Department, "because then they won't be committing crimes in the city."
West Palm Beach Lt. Thomas Wills said, "if it's within 1,000 feet, we will charge it 100 percent of the time."
The charge makes getting bond more difficult as well, helping slow the revolving door effect of drug sellers immediately re-offending after their arrests.
Called a distortion of due process
Gabriel Sayeth, of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit organization that examines the effects of drug laws, said that clout comes at a cost.
"The idea of due process is distorted beyond recognition under these laws. The people who live in school zones face something that people living elsewhere never have to face - a very strong reason to plea out," Sayeth said.
The Drug Policy Alliance commissioned the study "Disparity by Design" that examined laws across the country in 2006, finding them to have been ineffective in reducing drug crimes, inconsistently enforced, and, with a record now of 20 years, indefensibly discriminatory.
In addition, researchers concluded that money spent on longer prison sentences would be better spent on drug addiction treatment.
Florida now spends an average of $49.61 a day - $18,108 yearly - to imprison each of its inmates, while the average cost for a person completing addiction treatment through Palm Beach County's drug court is $2,250 a year.
While it costs $90 a day to keep an inmate in the Palm Beach County Jail, the average cost of an inpatient treatment bed is $36 day, said Marty Epstein, assistant state attorney for the Palm Beach County Drug Court.
Recidivism for drug court graduates is about 12 percent, as opposed to close to 50 percent for those sentenced to incarceration.
"Show us the data that these drug-free school zones have accomplished what they were intended to do," Sayeth said.
Aronberg concedes he does not know what prompted lawmakers to surround schools with 1,000-foot zones.
"It's the first time I've heard there's a great racial disparity," said Aronberg, a former prosecutor. "It clearly had no racial bias in the intent. It had the unanimous support of the black legislative members. If the effects of the law show racial bias, I'll be willing to review that."
At least four other states had by 2005 begun to consider changes to their laws that would reduce drug-free zones from 1,000 feet to 200 feet.
In Florida however, legislators voted in 2005 to add 1,000-foot drug-free zones around nursing homes.
"I'd like to say I'm surprised, but I'm not. Florida tends to be weird," Sayeth said.
While 1,000-foot zones remain politically popular for state legislatures, Sayeth said, candidates for municipal offices have begun to make the law's effect on their communities a campaign issue.
And former Massachusetts prosecutor Brownsberger, who wrote the first critical study of the laws, is optimistic, especially now that he is a member of the legislature.
"There's a lot of sentiment that we've gone too far."


LINK TO PALM BEACH POST ARTICLE:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/con ... _0701.html


LINK TO A RELATED PALM BEACH POST ARTICLE
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/con ... hside.html

33
Feed Your Head / Look around
« on: July 05, 2007, 12:45:26 PM »
Next time you travel through your home town, look around and see where the Drug-Free Zones are.  Chances are if you are not in a predominalty non-white section of town, you probably won't see any "drug-free" zones.

34
Feed Your Head / DRUG-FREE ZONES
« on: July 05, 2007, 11:42:13 AM »
Drug-free zones target blacks unfairly, critics say

By ANTIGONE BARTON, and CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 01, 2007


The 400 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, where four men stood on a recent Sunday beckoning passing cars, doesn't appear to enjoy special protection from drug crimes.
But with two signs warning that this city street is a "drug-free" zone, this neighborhood of modest homes and aged apartment complexes is one of the front lines of a quarter-century-old "war on drugs."
It is a war that has seen years of casualties with no end in sight; the number of people imprisoned for drug-related crimes has only climbed each year since 1982. And while police say the heightened penalties for selling drugs in drug-free zones fortify their position, critics say the size and number of these zones have only increased the toll with a disproportionate impact on black offenders.
"The crimes aren't being displaced because there's nowhere to displace them to. There's no incentive for drug dealers to move," said Ben Barlyn, a New Jersey deputy attorney general who heads a state commission that in 2004 examined the impact of drug-free zones in that state.
That study, followed by two more, concluded that drug-free zones cover densely populated urban corridors where black neighborhoods predominate. As a result, researchers said, zones have created two systems of justice, penalizing black offenders for where they live as well as for their crimes, while white offenders who tend to live and work out of the zone face lesser penalties.
Those examining the impact of drug laws have pointed to other factors leading to disproportionate numbers of blacks serving time for drug crimes, including higher penalties for crack cocaine than powder cocaine, and for street narcotics than unauthorized prescription drugs. Racial profiling also has been cited as contributing to racially disparate incarceration rates.
While policy analysts have found all of these factors have led to longer prison sentences for black offenders and distrust of law enforcement in black communities, they cite one more problem with 1,000-foot zones.
The zones, they say, have proven to be a losing strategy in the war on drugs.
Still, Florida lawmakers have continued to expand the zones and add more.
A Palm Beach Post study of the law's effects shows that the zones now blanket Palm Beach County's inner cities and:
• Of 440 people arrested in Palm Beach County last year on "selling within 1,000" charges, 406 - 92 percent - were black;
• Statewide, 80 percent of those charged with selling within 1,000 last year were black;
• Application of the law is inconsistent, with cases dismissed for 16 percent of white defendants and 6.6 percent of black defendants.
• The numbers of people sent to prison on selling within 1,000 charges have climbed steadily in the past 10 years, with black convicts outnumbering whites 12-1.
On Boynton Beach's Martin Luther King Boulevard, two signs warn that this is a "drug-free school zone," while the sign down the block states that this is a "drug-free park zone."
Alone, either sign means that people caught selling drugs here can face more serious charges and more prison time than drug sellers elsewhere. Together, the signs mean two sets of raised charges and penalties. And, although no sign says so, churches in the neighborhood and the convenience store across the street mean dealers could face four criminal charges for one drug transaction.
The same four crimes can also be charged to residents of this street caught with saleable amounts of drugs in their homes.
That is because people living on this street live within the overlapping circumferences of four invisible thousand-foot circles.
Across Florida, these circles also surround community centers, day-care facilities, colleges, housing projects, and, after a 2005 addition to state drug laws, nursing homes.
"Now they're protecting people who can't even leave the premises," said Anthony Calvello, a Palm Beach County public defender who appealed some of South Florida's first drug-free zone arrests to the state's Supreme Court. "What's the thinking behind all this?"
While lawmakers put them in all 50 states during the past 20 years, researchers have found the zones have not slowed drug selling.
"The premise was to protect certain places and drive drug dealing away from vulnerable people," said William Brownsberger, a former prosecutor and policy analyst, who in 2001 completed the first critical study of the law in Massachusetts. "But when every place is special, no place is special. What the laws do is lock people up for exorbitant periods of time for relatively low-level crimes."
Police, weary of arresting and rearresting drug dealers, say any law that keeps criminals off their streets for longer is valuable to them.
Opponents of the law say the money now spent on longer prison sentences could be better spent on drug treatment and entrepreneurial training.
'A nice fat round number'
Calvello calls the law establishing the zones "a draconian statute with no rationality."
To get an idea of how long 1,000 feet is, imagine standing at the corner of one city block and seeing what's happening three blocks away. A thousand feet is nearly a fifth of a mile, more than the span of three football fields and as long as the town of Briny Breezes.
Nobody seems to know how lawmakers concluded that 1,000 feet was the distance necessary to protect children from drug dealers.
"It was a nice fat round number," said Barlyn, of the New Jersey commission. "When push comes to shove, we find the law casts too broad a net."
In 1982, though, the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's proposal to add extra penalties to those caught selling within 1,000 feet of schools helped to set the stern tone for the "war on drugs" the Reagan administration had promised.
When Florida passed its own law in 1987, police in Fort Lauderdale set up stings within 1,000 feet of schools.
"There were about 50 of these cases," recalled Calvello, who appealed many of them. Judges threw out about 20 cases, saying that luring offenders into the zones was an unconstitutional application of the law. Prosecutors appealed those cases.
Defendants appealed the cases that weren't thrown out.
Calvello wrote the appeals brief for the State of Florida vs. Stacy Burch, representing Burch in an appeal of what was actually a group of cases, under the name of one of the first arrested under the law.
He argued that the law had a disparate impact on members of racial minorities of whom a greater number tend to live in the densely populated urban areas now decreed "drug free."
The 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach rejected that argument and the case went before the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the statute, saying it was not intended to be discriminatory but to protect children.
Many arrests, however, took place when schools were not in session.
"It could be midnight in the middle of July," Calvello said.
The Florida high court, along with other state supreme courts, also said it had seen no evidence that the law disproportionately affected black offenders.
That would have been impossible to prove in the early years of the law, Calvello said.
In the past 10 years, however, while the number of white offenders imprisoned on selling-within-1,000 convictions has tripled, the number of black offenders imprisoned on the charges increased tenfold.
"If these statistics are borne out, maybe the court should take another look at it," Calvello said.
The law's scope has only grown, with little investigation of its impact.
The Florida Legislature added a minimum sentence provision to the law, saying those convicted of selling drugs near a school would serve at least three years in prison. The provision had originally applied to drug buyers as well, but they, along with rapists, were exempted from mandatory sentences when the threat of explosive jail crowding became clear.
In addition to the 1,000-foot school zones, lawmakers added a number of smaller zones to the law, eliminating good behavior time-off for those convicted of selling controlled substances within 200 feet of public housing projects, vocational schools and public parks in 1990. In 1998, they tagged on day-care centers, places of worship and convenience stores.
In 2001, a research team in Boston headed by the former prosecutor and policy analyst Brownsberger found that dealers continued to sell drugs where they lived, with urban drug dealers simply paying stiffer penalties.
Those penalties, he added, didn't "serve anyone because when they eventually do come out, they're often unable to function in society."
Crime 'deserves ... special severity'
While Brownsberger's study had found that drug sellers seldom sold to minors, a Hialeah high school civics class was pushing for a law to expand drug-free zones, saying that would better protect children. In 2003, a bill based on their work and sponsored by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, passed, turning previously 200-foot zones into 1,000-foot zones.
Aronberg keeps a photo on his wall of then-Gov. Jeb Bush signing the bill into law.
His intent, he says now, was to make sure that the law was consistent.
"If that means that drug deals are treated more seriously throughout the city, then so be it," he said recently. "I think this is a crime that is so destructive that it deserves to be treated with special severity."
Police in cities now consisting of almost uninterrupted "drug-free" zones agree.
"Obviously when we arrest drug dealers, we want them to get the highest penalty they can," said Sgt. Rick Ponce, spokesman for the Lake Worth Police Department, "because then they won't be committing crimes in the city."
West Palm Beach Lt. Thomas Wills said, "if it's within 1,000 feet, we will charge it 100 percent of the time."
The charge makes getting bond more difficult as well, helping slow the revolving door effect of drug sellers immediately re-offending after their arrests.
Called a distortion of due process
Gabriel Sayeth, of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit organization that examines the effects of drug laws, said that clout comes at a cost.
"The idea of due process is distorted beyond recognition under these laws. The people who live in school zones face something that people living elsewhere never have to face - a very strong reason to plea out," Sayeth said.
The Drug Policy Alliance commissioned the study "Disparity by Design" that examined laws across the country in 2006, finding them to have been ineffective in reducing drug crimes, inconsistently enforced, and, with a record now of 20 years, indefensibly discriminatory.
In addition, researchers concluded that money spent on longer prison sentences would be better spent on drug addiction treatment.
Florida now spends an average of $49.61 a day - $18,108 yearly - to imprison each of its inmates, while the average cost for a person completing addiction treatment through Palm Beach County's drug court is $2,250 a year.
While it costs $90 a day to keep an inmate in the Palm Beach County Jail, the average cost of an inpatient treatment bed is $36 day, said Marty Epstein, assistant state attorney for the Palm Beach County Drug Court.
Recidivism for drug court graduates is about 12 percent, as opposed to close to 50 percent for those sentenced to incarceration.
"Show us the data that these drug-free school zones have accomplished what they were intended to do," Sayeth said.
Aronberg concedes he does not know what prompted lawmakers to surround schools with 1,000-foot zones.
"It's the first time I've heard there's a great racial disparity," said Aronberg, a former prosecutor. "It clearly had no racial bias in the intent. It had the unanimous support of the black legislative members. If the effects of the law show racial bias, I'll be willing to review that."
At least four other states had by 2005 begun to consider changes to their laws that would reduce drug-free zones from 1,000 feet to 200 feet.
In Florida however, legislators voted in 2005 to add 1,000-foot drug-free zones around nursing homes.
"I'd like to say I'm surprised, but I'm not. Florida tends to be weird," Sayeth said.
While 1,000-foot zones remain politically popular for state legislatures, Sayeth said, candidates for municipal offices have begun to make the law's effect on their communities a campaign issue.
And former Massachusetts prosecutor Brownsberger, who wrote the first critical study of the laws, is optimistic, especially now that he is a member of the legislature.
"There's a lot of sentiment that we've gone too far."


LINK TO PALM BEACH POST ARTICLE:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/con ... _0701.html


LINK TO A RELATED PALM BEACH POST ARTICLE
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/con ... hside.html

35
The Seed Discussion Forum / Being a good post-seed skeptic
« on: June 12, 2007, 12:26:56 PM »
Greg,

You know, I tried to go into it with an open mind and I seriously thought about what it could do for me in light of my business development budget.  I really did.  But my cult-dar kept going off.  :wink: I think the underlying message was the same as all the other programmes - if you don't buy the message then you must not:  

care enough about yourself;
care enough about your family;
care enough about your financial well-being;
care enough about your sobriety;
care enough about your salvation; or
care enough about your mental health

....to make a commiment.  Seems like the old mind game of trying to make you feel bad about who/what you are followed by the solid offer of truth for the floundering- for cash, of course.  Thursday will come and go - I won't be there and I'm sure no one will miss me.  I pretty much decided to bag it just based on how the contact made me feel.  After conferring with my numerous, trusted advisors I believe my initial impression was correct. Cults come in many shapes and sizes.

Stripe

36
The Seed Discussion Forum / Being a good post-seed skeptic
« on: June 07, 2007, 03:39:49 PM »
I attended a business/networking meeting this morning put on by an organization called Le Tip.  Is anyone familiar with it? I checked on the web and every site for any local chapter reports the same basic information.  That's one hint...

My initial reaction a couple hours later was that it is somewhat "Amway-esque" in the requirement to contact 10 people during the first week of membership and then attend a marketing seminar in the first 60 days.  But instead of soap it's legitmate business leads passed from one member to another. The draw is making money in one's own profession rather than selling soap, etc.    

That being the case, and acknowledging that my nature is to be highly skeptical of any group that requires alliegence to a higher cause, conforming to rules, and mandatory attendance, I wonder if anyone else has any experience with the company and what results, if any?

Thanks in advance for any input.  
Stripe

37
The Seed Discussion Forum / seed loosing it's power over me!
« on: January 24, 2007, 03:33:47 PM »
It sure is nice to see yourself healing from experience now instead of reliving it when you are supposed to be resting isn't it?  There's lots to be said for the value of working out in the dreamscape.  

I had weirdo dreams over the years, too.  Full of violence and fear,  that's about all I remember.  I never thought to look at the symoblisim of my seed dreams in one of those dream-meaning books.  It might make some entertaining reading.

Not12, I'm so glad to read that you are doing so well.  It's amazing what happens to us when the devil of the experience is finally let go. Personally, for me, even as painful as it was, it's a much better "feeling" than any feeling I ever got from the creepy place.

And by the way, sweet dreams tonight and everynight.  To all of you.

Stripe

38
The Seed Discussion Forum / Seed article to be published/Help needed!
« on: November 27, 2006, 03:56:45 PM »
Marc,

I don't know anything about this 18 and over requirement.  If you need some help wading through the official Florida records for documentation, let me know. I'd be glad to do what I can to track down documents, etc. for you.  I know you are on a deadline, but I'd be glad to assist. I've got some stuff already I can send you on the corporate demise and and asset transfers if you want it.

Stripe

39
The Seed Discussion Forum / Narco-non
« on: October 17, 2006, 01:40:37 PM »
I really did not know that the Narco program was a spin-off from the Chruch of Scientology.  I've heard of Narco for years.  But based on the name alone, I assumed it would be just like AA but for narcotics addicts. Modeled with the 12 steps and such.  

I looked at that web site you provided and I could not see any direct mention of the Church of Scientolgy.  Maybe once you get futher into the ownership of an independnet clinic you might find out.

40
The Seed Discussion Forum / Cult weirdness and speculation abounds
« on: October 16, 2006, 03:21:23 PM »
Friday night evening news  10/13 (had to either be CBS or NBC )had a story regarding where Mark Foley has gone for rehab. Like it really matters in the grand scheme of things....

Cult specialist Rick Ross was on, voice only, speculating as to Mr. Foley's whereabouts.  Ross said maybe, based on Mr. Foley's love of Hollywood stars and his donation/support records, that Mr. Foley is in a rehab at the Scientology Center in Clearwater, FL.  Did anybody else catch this, or was I in a Friday the Thirteenth warp?

Really now, does the crutch of scientology have an actual durg and alcohol rehab center there? All this time I thought it was just a straigh-ahead cult.. I mean church.  I did not know it was a full service operation.

41
The Seed Discussion Forum / The Seven Steps
« on: October 04, 2006, 05:37:01 PM »
Hey Not 12,

Aren't you glad you have finally figured out where all that   weirdness came from?  I had experiences very similar to what you describe.  For so many years I really believed what happened to me there was "right" and I searched and search trying to understand why I just wasn't able to live "the seed life."  That's the fallicy of this whole addiction model: if you are not an addict, it's a lifestyle choice that'll make you crazy.  I mean who in their right mind would choose to act like a crazy-person if they didn't have to?  

I hope that in the interim, between 12 and now, you have had some happy times where you were free of the negative aspects of theseed.  The Seed program(ming) really can mess up a persons psyche.  And personally, I think the effects are even worse for kids who were essentially trouble-free to begin with.

Our culture is becoming harsh and cruel and it seems like most folks beat each other out of the way to get on the current bandwagon.  Right now, it's the drug war and breaking the spirits of kids - or WMDs, or some other lie-du-jour.  Our best defense against all this insanity is to tell the truth. It's not easy or comfortable, but that is what is required.  Truth.

42
The Seed Discussion Forum / The Seven Steps
« on: September 27, 2006, 07:15:08 PM »
I feel so much better now, more aware and stuff... Thank you.

43
The Seed Discussion Forum / The Seven Steps
« on: September 27, 2006, 02:19:18 PM »
Quote from: ""Bad Trip""
Thus spake the great and terrible FSM. All hail the FSM! Praise be, Lordy come take me home, praise be!
 :nworthy:



Rejecting the signs and having wandered aimlessly for the past 35 years, and further reflecting upon my rush to judgment above ( ::both:: ) I find that I feel left out again.  Left Behind, as it were (la hehehehe) and I want to hail the FSM, too. But I don't know what that is.  

Can anyone give me some awareness?  Because right now, I'm feeling like I could end up deadinsaneorinjail if I don't get what I need from this group.    :wink:

Seriously, what's FSM?  What did I miss?

44
The Seed Discussion Forum / The Seven Steps
« on: September 20, 2006, 02:15:43 PM »
True that, parody of Dr. Miller Newton.  True that.

However, now that I am an uncontrollable adult and am no longer susceptible to the bastardized lies concerning the existence of any alleged higher powers, I find that I am unable to refrain from telling them all to focus on this:

                                ::both::

45
The Seed Discussion Forum / Make direct amends to those we hurt ....
« on: September 19, 2006, 10:53:09 AM »
I especially like the way this "step" was twisted and manipulated so that we could cut away all those persons from our lives who, in the Seed's twisted philosophy, had somehow managed to lead us down the path where we end up at the seed.  I serously doubt anyone was physically held down and forced to consume drugs or adopt the fearsome druggie attitude.  Perhaps that are some who were victims of abuse, but by and large, that was not the general experience.  Meanwhile, at the Seed, people  actually were held down and forced to adopt the seed attitude.  

I just think it's really weird how we could all stand up and recite this shit and yet be such hurtful, vengeful people to everyone we knew BEFORE The Seed.  That was perfectly okay and was reinforced by the group.  God, I was such an asshole when I was in the Seed.      

Who out there EVER went back an apologized to their old friends for anything you ever did to them before you were in The Seed while you were on the program?  I never did.  I'll bet there's very few who did - afterall, that would mean, god forbid, having to actually speak to your old friends.  

I remember having this dilemma very well and I believe I was able to convice myself not to make the amends - I think I knew that would be too dangerous, not in terms of my "sobriety" but in terms of being stoodup and yelled at for having contact with druggies.  

Yeah, as if you would NOT have been stood up in group for going back to your old friends and saying "I'm sorry I was an asshole to you when I did ....  "  I can see that (c)rap running over the poor innocent kid who made that admission like a big fucking tank.  

Does anyone ever recall someone actually making a public admission about making amends to old friends during one of these rule raps? What was the result?  What was the group response?  Rap leader response?

What I recall most about this "STEP" was the emphasis on NOT making amends because it would be hurtful or would not be safe for my "straightness," and (continuing the justifications) I had to put myself first and be selfish and do the right thing for myself and then the right things would happen and the world would be better because my old druggie friends would see I was living a better life and then they would want a better life, too and they would come to The Seed and blah, blah, blah.  

We told each other in the rap lingo that it would be hurtful to "them" and ourselves, but in reality, I think it would have been much more hurtful to my psyche to experience the rage of the group for making the contact in the first place.  That's what guided me when I was navigating the steps.  What a fucking mental mine field.

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