Author Topic: Te: Miami Herald re: Bay County Boot Camp  (Read 2210 times)

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Offline Antigen

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Te: Miami Herald re: Bay County Boot Camp
« on: April 09, 2006, 10:25:00 AM »
Dear Ed,
Please consider for publication:

Thank you for your continued coverage of the Bay County Boot Camp Scandal. I've been following it closely, and so often hearing the question, "Why isn't this a national scandal?"

I think I can make a relatively well informed answer to that question. Ready? Ok, here goes.

This isn't a national scandal on the order of OJ or Monica Lewinsky's Blue Dress because America approves of this sort of thing. Oh, they don't think they do. Of course not! But they do. Ever read Mark Twain's "War Prayer"? Same basic idea. We cheer for Zero Tolerance, elect anyone takes a 'tough on drugs', regardless of how intemperate their behavior or ideas.

But nobody's looking under the hood. Just go and look at the histories and affiliations of the people involved in this story. One of the core characters, Guy Tunnell, holds a seat on the advisory board of Drug Free America Foundation. I know those people. They literally held me captive and tortured me, for my own good of course, for two years when I was placed in their program, Straight, Incorporated. My parents, not the courts, placed me there. I had never been in any kind of trouble with the law!

They used essentially the same methods and philosophy there as we're now hearing about places like Bay County. It was maybe a little less physical and a little more emotional and mental abuse than Bay County Boot Camp.

THIS WAS OVER 20 YEARS AGO!!!

There were investigations; legal, civil, regulatory and journalistic. Christ on a crutch! Arnold Trebach devoted an entire chapter of his `85 book, The Great Drug War to that horrific program. The story got out, again and again. America yawned, scratched, and waited impatiently for their football scores or latest celebrity gossip.

The difference between national media and those particular journalists and publications who are so well investigating this story is that those journalists remember The Seed and Straight, Inc. and the people and organizations involved. And they know, by that, that we're in some deep doo doo.

Close and likely improper affiliations w/ DFAF and FDLE go all the way to the top of all three branches; LE (obviously), legislative (they actually signed a bill declaring Betty Sembler's birthday a state holiday, among other things) and the Governor and his wife also hold seats on that same board of advisors.

If the case ever gets to Charlie Crist, the Florida State Atty Gen., well his dad was on the St Petersburg Seed Advisory council, which brought the Seed to St Pete. If Mr. Christ was not drawn from the Seed parent group, I think he would be the only one who wasn't.

There is no legal or moral authority to stop this because the general public doesn't have, or care to know, the inside definitions of terms like TOUGHLOVE, Zero Tolerance, Safe and Drug Free this or that. Unless and until that changes, we'll just see round after round of consent orders, name changes, chinese fire drills among the officers of various corporations; the same old charade, in other words.

Please wake up! Under current law, your kid could land up on a slab for inadvertantly breaking any number of our new and improved and ever growing Zero Tolerance policies.

Sincerely,
Ginger Warbis
[snipped contact info]

I'm a Florida native, current refugee to Pennsylvania. My family became involved w/ the Seed in around `70. By the time I escaped Straight in `80, most of my large family had scattered to other states. It was a long hard road w/ orphanhood at the end. And I know a lot of people w/ similar stories. These people who make these policies are patently evil.

Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.
--Rep. Robert L. Henry, TX December 22, 1914 (quoting Lincoln)

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Anonymous

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Te: Miami Herald re: Bay County Boot Camp
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2006, 11:22:00 AM »
Man, this is intense - good job laying all the facts out Ginger.  You are one helluva writer and make a strong case against the anti-youth gestapo that has been shoving their self-righteous crap down America's throats for 40 plus years.

The sad part is, almost every state in America has enacted laws making it easier to try kids as adults.  Kids as young as 12, waiving their Miranda Rights when they can not even spell the words much less comprehend what they mean.  How are they competent to stand trial as an ADULT?

And people wonder why so many parents are home-schooling their kids rather than turning them over to the state's compulsatory zero-tolerance for being a kid warehouses.

Please keep us posted and let us know if your letter gets in the paper.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Antigen

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Te: Miami Herald re: Bay County Boot Camp
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2006, 01:54:00 PM »
Thanks!

I honestly doubt they'll publish this as a letter. While they don't state a word limit in their guidelines, anything over 250 - 300 words is considered petty long winded. This one is 546. They'd either have to hack it up beyond recognition or they'd have to ru it as an OpEd. I'm hoping against hope that I get an OpEd. The herald published one other piece of my writing that, just like this one, I sent it out of frustration and just to get the ideas before the editorial board, no real hope that they'd run it.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1718/a02.html?3611 That one was 276 words, and they did cut it down a little bit from the original. I've only ever scored an OpEd one time, right here http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n1193/a02.html?3614 and even that came in under 400 words.

But here's the thing, even if your letter doesn't get published, it sill counts! They really do read every one, sort them by topic and general slant on that topic, and then try to select one that is brief, well written and representative of a position shared by at least a few writers.

Even if you're a lousey writer. Even if you have no experience at it. If you read something in a paper and you have an opinion or response; whether it be along the lines of "thanks for saying that!" or "here's something you don't know about that" or anything else, go ahead and write it. Here's a handy, dandy resource for finding contact info for amost any newspaper in the country along w/ a good many international sources. http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm It's usually quicker to use that than to poke through the publication's site looking for contact info and guidelines.

Write on!

What is a committee?  A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.    
-- Richard Harkness, The New York Times, 1960

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
~ Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes