Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum

I'm serious--let's do something

<< < (3/3)

Antigen:
Well, the drug screening issue is just one (of many) side issues that I've looked into and found direct ties back to DFAF, Bobby DuPont and their So. Florida cronnies. I was only using that as an example. I'm trying to address your question about this issue seeming to come out of the blue or seeming to be unrelated to anything normally covered in the media.

You're absolutely right. If you want to get ink, you must illustrate the relationship between some current topic and your issue. Just look over some of the instructions offered by organizations like MAP, Inc (not to be confused w/ MAPS... different people, different kind of project)

MAP, Inc. started out as an occasional letter writing campaign out of a coffee shop in Washington or Oregon or some such. They really started to get the juice flowing when a couple of net geeks joined the efforts. They've just built a nifty information resource by which interested volunteers can keep abrest of the issues on which MAP, Inc. focuses, toss around ideas, organize responses, etc. But still, the most important and, in my view, most effective thing they do is to encourage people to write their own damned letters to editors accross the nation.

Now, I know a LOT of people in these forums would be put off by the fact that MAP, Inc. is primarily a legalization org. However, if ya'll can look past that and take a lesson from their techniques (and come to accept that the alleged link between cannabis and antimotivational syndrome is, very obviously, bullshit) you may save yourself making the same mistakes or having to reinvent the wheel here.

Way back in the late `90's, I tried to get Matt and the rest of them to open a set of lists and pages expressly to address DFAF and the Program. While they were well aware of the connections to their causes, they didn't want to alienate the 'treatment not incarceration' crowd. In fact, as it turned out, CASAM (w/ Bobby DuPont on it's board) wound up lending their endorsement to Prop 36 in California.

So I just sort of set up my own little pup tent, hopeing that something as good or better would eventually grow out of it. No hard feelings there. But I still think it's a good idea to follow their model, as it has been unarguably successful at accomplishing their goals.

That's the long answer. Short answer to your question? It's real simple, really. Get these 10 (or, I'm guessing, hundreds if you really make a good case for involvement) of people to keep an eye out for target issues that are already being addressed in the media but that lack the perspective that we can provide. Then we discuss the best words to use and the best publications to target to address those concerns. I suggest that we leave the final drafting to you or maybe Walter or Evan or Marshall cause ya'll are just so damned good at it.

But definitely, there are hooks, we just have to identify them and come up w/ a susinct, powerful way to illustrate them to the public.

How about the trend in reality tv focusing on teen boot camps? Did you watch Brat Camp? Notice any similarities?


Emotions rule the world; Is it any wonder that it's so mucked up?!
Bill Warbis
--- End quote ---

marcwordsmith:
Thank you Ginger, I will definitely look up Map, Inc. and have a look at their instructions this week some time.

I was feeling a little discouraged that I hadn't heard from more people regarding signing a letter or other proactive action against Seed-like programs in existence now, and then I realized that if anybody had tried to contact me via email, using the email address listed in my profile on this site, they'd have been frustrated 'cuz that's an old address. I have no idea if that actually happened, but if so, I apologize. My profile is updated now and my current email address is there.

I'm excited about the possibility of doing something together to keep other teens from suffering through what we did. I think it would be a healing thing. For myself, I'm sure it would be.

Antigen:
NP, Mark. Don't be discouraged. These things do take time to gain momentum. And, in my view, you're far better off taking your time and avoiding some of the problems that have torn appart other, well intended efforts.

We must create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, and not the other way around.
Frank Serpico
--- End quote ---

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page