Dear friends,
I have just published my report on the St Petersburg conference. If anyone has any pictures they would like to share, please let me know.
There is something about the conference that I want to share with you that is only hinted at in my report. For 17 years Straight, Inc. was the biggest juvenile synanon in the world, and one of the most destructive. Many of you feel you were damaged by Straight or know others who were. Some feel that Straight, its principals, and the government officials who helped it along, and the state of Florida and the United States government should make some sort fo restitution to those who were harmed. Others feel that those responsible should be punished by the American justice system for what they did. Still others just want the story to be told.
Regardless, we must make every effort to get this story told by web reports, discussion forums, court cases, newspaper reports, protests . . . whatever. One important way is hold a yearly conference. Nothing should be done to hamper any of these efforts, more especially the conference. The conference is not about Wes Fager, ISAC, or SAFETY. It is about Straight, Inc. and destructive programs like it. There were 37 or 38 people at this year's conference. There should have been 100 - 200. An anonymous donor donated $1,000 to the conference but asked for it back due to the in-fighting amongst the Straight crowd. Fortunately I was able to persuade this donor to keep the money for the conference. There were other donors too. For those of you who were less than supportive of the conference to those of you who were down right overt in efforts to harm the conference, I want to tell you that your biggest supporters in those endeavors were Mel and Betty Sembler.
Next year there will be another conference. I hope Mike and Rhonda will stay at it. They did an outstanding job as usual. But under the circumstances I could not fault them for stepping away. Next year I will again seek funds to support this worthy cause, and next year no potential donor will be distracted by infighting within our own crowd. I am very distraught and disappointed at what has happened here, but I will get over it by next Tuesday. I will continue to supply information, as I always have, to any and all parties who are willing to help keep this important story aloft.
Thank you,
Wes Fager
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-06 14:44 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-06 14:57 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-07 19:36 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-09 18:09 ]
