IT'S TIME TO TAKE IT BACK TO THEM!

[wesfager]

IT?S TIME TO TAKE IT BACK TO THEM!



Gentle people,



Hello.  I?m Wesley Fager, Straight-Springfield class of 1989.  My boy Bill got pretty banged up in there.  I?ve written a book on theStraights at http://thestraights.com .  Recently we found more evidence of association between officials in the state of Florida and the Straight program.  Please go to my on-line newspaper and read my recent editorial titled  ?The case for a claaims suit against the state of Florida? at



   http://thestraights.com/news/index-page ... vil-rights .  



A claims bill is a bill the state legislature can pass if the state of Florida was in any way connected to aiding Straigth in its practice to deny human rights and civil liberties and to abuse children.  The collusion between Florida state officials and Straight, Inc. and /or its officers is very well documented in A Clockwork Straight.  There may be grounds for a class action civil suit against the state of Florida since teh judicial system was pro-Straight, there was no reaslistic expectation a person could have that he would get his day in court.  Also since the police frequently took clients back to Straight when they had escaped,  there was no reasonable expectation that law enforcement officials would be responsive to plaintifs in law suits.  And so many other reasons.  

As you probably know we are having the

Second International Conference on Juvenile Treatment Abuse and Straight, Inc. / Kids Reunion

on June 8 - 9 in Saint Petersburg, Florida where the virus started.  Arnold S. Trebach, J.D., Ph.D. of  The Trebach Institute of Washington, DC,  Professor Emeritus of Law and Justice at American University, author, and formerly Chief, Administration of Justice Section, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an agency within the Executive Office of the President of the United States will chair this event.  Rest assured that one item that will be presented to the legal panel at this year?s conference is whether there is grounds for a claims bill / law suit against the state of Florida.  For those of you who feel you were abused in a Straight or Straight-descendent program in Maryland,  Michigan or Ohio, or even Canada or Norway,   you probably wouldn?t be feeling that way had Florida state authorities  done their job and closed Straight for child abuse in 1978 or 1979 or 1980 . . .  



The Conference Problem.  Recently the conference planning committee had to turn down an intent to serve on the conference legal panel by a very prominent California attorney,  well versed in cult issues,  because it simply did not have funds to fly him in, house him and feed him.  If a person speaks at a conference for our mutual benefit, it is not unreasonable that that person is at least reimbursed for his expenses.  When you throw a conference did you know that somebody has to make a deposit for the hotel conference room and has to guarantee the final bill will be paid?  Did you know we have a mailing list and could use $500 to send a flier to those survivors who do not use the Internet and do not know about the conference?  As a minimum we should at least provide rooms for guest speakers.  And then there are advertising costs and other costs. We are in desperate need of funds to make this thing happen this summer.  A few people have devoted their time and energy, and some,  their money, for your behalf.  Yet none of you has said anything to us.  Do you care?



Go to this page:



http://www.greatlakesconference.org/200 ... health.htm  .



Do you see where last September Tim Youngblood of Pathways Family Center attended the ?16th  Annual Great Lakes Conference on Addictions??   Over 300 people attended.  Did you know that Straight official Helen Gowanny helped open Pathways when Straight-Detroit closed?   How come Pathways can participate in a conference,  but we can?t?



Go to this page:



  http://www.ideas-canada.org/  .  



Do you see where next month Straight Foundation, Inc. (which now calls itself the Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.) is helping to put on a drug policy conference in Canada. Calvina Fay of DFAF will be a guest speaker.  



Gentle people, we need a commitment from you, right now, in the next few days.  You don?t have to send any money in the next few days, though that would be nice.  What we need from you RIGHT NOW is to send an eMail to conference co-sponsor Rhonda Sherman to let her know of your intent to attend the conference and pay the $100 registration fee, or of your intent to send in a donation.  (Of course you may send both).   If you want to go ahead and register now, that?s fine too. The actual money needs to be in as soon as possible so that we can invite high quality speakers and attorneys.  THE SERIOUS SIDE TO ALL THIS IS IF YOU DO NOT HELP US OUT SOON,  THERE MAY NOT BE A CONFERENCE.  



With over 24 million hits, FACTNET ( http://www.factnet.org ) is the biggest name out there in the cult awareness movement. Did you know that they have heard our plea and advertise our conference on their front page?  



Here are the addresses you need.  PLEASE ACT NOW:



Rhonda?s eMail:  http://trebach.org/abuse/

 

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PAGE 2.  If you?ve already made up your mind to help, you don?t have to read any further.  Go away and spend the evening with your kids.



A few years ago Straight co-founder Betty Sembler, representing Straight Foundation, Inc. which now calls itself DFAF, attended an international drug summit in Sweden.  Who paid her way?  If DFAF paid it, did the funds come from money your moms and dads paid Straight years ago?  DFAF was behind a conference in Orlando and one in Michigan.  Can Straight have conferences but we can not?



Betty is flying off to Sweden;  her husband Mel Sembler is now our ambassador to Italy. Listen to what he told the Senate recently when they were considering his nomination.



For the last quarter century, along with my wife, I have fought vigorously against the plague of drug abuse. In 1976 Betty and I helped found STRAIGHT, a non-profit, adolescent drug treatment and rehabilitation program with branches across the U.S., which successfully treated and graduated more than 12,000 young people nationwide. For 17 years, I served as chairman of the board of STRAIGHT. Other than our children, nothing was more rewarding than this effort. Betty and I initially agreed that if we helped one child it would be worth all the effort. With 12,000 successful graduates . . . It was a gratifying accomplishment.



Everybody knows that kids can be physically assaulted, emotionally scarred and sexually abused on playgrounds, at shopping malls and theaters, schools and churches.  Straight, Inc. is no exception.  Straight counselor Arthur Nichol got seven years for sexually abusing a 15 year-old client and his friend. There has never been a  Straight, Inc. facility, not one, that was not accused of child abuse.  TV newscasts and newspaper stories, jury verdicts, state investigations, and especially your own eye-witness accounts have shown that many of these accusations have substance to them.  And yet we fear that many Straight-descendent programs continue to operate with two cardinal rules:  (1)  Parents can not have unscheduled and confidential visits (at appropriately allowed times like 8 ? 9 on Wednesday nights and 1 ? 2 on Sunday afternoons) with their own children.  Nor, we fear at some of these programs, can their child call home.  (2) In some Straight descendent programs people are still not allowed to talk about incidences that occurred in the program,  e.g. ?talking behind backs?.  



If any program is still doing this, then that is not acceptable.  You know. You were there.  You know what can happen when kids play psychiatrist.  No one was there for you.  Now you must be there for them.   Straight is not the only program which is being accused of child abuse.  Straight survivors will be key players in the Saint Petersburg conference,  but, having been there,  we need to look at the wisdom in shipping our kids off to remote Islands or into desert programs or wilderness programs where access to the outside world may be tightly restricted or even sometimes forbidden.  It is our duty to these kids,  we who have been through one bad program and know the potential dangers, to keep an eye on controversial programs of all sorts.  And survivors of all sorts of controversial programs will be represented at this summer?s conference. That is why we must have this conference.  We started a ball rolling last year and we must continue it.



Personally, I would like to have a social on Saturday night of the conference, maybe with a DJ.  I think we all are due for it. That?s your call. But please let Rhonda know of your intent to help out with this conference just as soon as you can.



I hope to see you in Florida.  



Thank you,



Wesley Fager

Author,  A Clockwork Straight at http://www.thestraights.com

EMail: [email protected]



[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-20 05:51 ]

[Anonymous]

Wesley,
  I just began reading all the info you have put on your post.There is a lot of good info
there,for someone like me to read.{a former Kids member}.

Thank You.

[aillecat2112]

Wes,
   I'd also like to bring attention to several things (not so much for my benefit, as others possibly, since I will not be making the conference (again) due to financial situations).
   As you may know, or may not, I've worked with several different conference committees for queer areas of life (mostly transgendered people), and some may have money to get to the conference, but not stay on the premises. Has the conference committee thought about a "housing" committee that also rents hotel rooms for these types of people. Of course, they would generally have to prove they could not afford a hotel room... but you see what I'm getting at?

I feel like conference planning happens too late in our case, in the case of other conferences I've been involved with, the next conference was being planned at the one before, including dates, possible venues, and committees fopr the conference (ie. programming, housing, accessability, health (with a conference of this nature, it is good to have volunteer counselors on hand to help with possible panic, etc), etc)

I'm not sure if any of this has been done, but it feels like much of this conference stuff is done "seat of the pants", last I remember, it was January, almost Feb and people were just getting started. Thats not enough time to plan a real quality conference that can raise funds to pay for speakers, have quality programming for the next time, and help support a foundation (one of the orgs I belong to, the yearly conference is *the* fundraiser for the org.)

-Trish

[Anonymous]

No Trish,  we haven't thought of a housing committe but that's not a bad idea.  The planning committee is spread too thin to take that task on now,  but if somebody wants to volunteer let me know.  

What we did last year was people sometimes doubled-up or tripled up on a room.  Same for transportation.  Somebody might would post I'd like to go but don't have transportation.  Maybe somebody could pick up a bunch in New Jersey or DC or Atlanta.  The people could chip in on gas and a room.  As for conference registration, if you tell me you can get there but might not have but $45 or $5 left for the conference registration, let me know that too.  

Don't be fooled,  there is a double agenda here.  This is also a reunion of Straight and Kids survivors.  I think the growth that has been made by this board and others and all the web pages is significant.  And I think we really need to keep momentum going.  Better now than when you're 45 and moapping over a beer and say "you know we should have done something way back when."

The bottom line is that crimes were in fact committed.  Child abuse is a crime.  And what they did was to terrify your parents into beleiving you had some life threatening disease which while some of you may have had problems,  none one had problems to justify being tortured.  Stanton Peele made a remarkable statement at last year's conference.  He asked,  "why take somebody who obvioulsy already feels bad about himself, and make him feel worse?"  And in any event their treatment modality is unacceptable.  If the best we can do is to convict them in the court of public opinion--well that is just what this forum and my web page is doing.  But I say let's continue applying the pressure.  Believe me,  never in a million years when they sat on the top of the world,  did they ever imagine that there would be such a tool as the Internet.  Nor did they ever envision that those people who managed to get through their malicious mental tortures and can still communicate would use this marvelous invention to tell the story.  

And while Reverend Doctor Doctor Miller Newton has been exposed, Melvin Smebler still continues to glow in his creation--Straight, Inc. which is the progenitor of Kids.  Just a few months ago he told the US Senate that Straight, aside from his kids, is his most important accomplishment--or words to that effect.  So for these reasons it is important that we have this conference and Straight/Kids Re-union,  and that as many of us as can make it,  do it.

Take care everybody,

Wes
[email protected]

[kpickle39]

hello to all - yes, it was kinda a rush job, but we thought other folks from far places would already be in the area during the same week adn we thought they would come.  We were mistaken; none of those folks are even coming to Florida.  Oh well, ya live and learn.  yes, next year will be different; as part of the strategic planning session on Sunday, we need to spend a portion toward next years conference.  We will only have about 2 hours, so we must be very efficient with our time.  Dr. Conrad is an outstanding facilitator adn I'm sure he will help us greatly.  Trish - thanks so much for your comments and thoughts.  Look forward to your participation next year.

Best regards -
the Kpickle

[aillecat2112]

kk, anyway, this is a "late reply" yet I feel I must respond before the conference.

I would love to help with the "housing committee" for a conference next year, so if you need a chair or something, ya'll have my email. I just hope I have enough money. Maybe we can move it back up to VA or NJ next year?

-Trish