Yes, Dr. Phill always reminds me of the program. I can't watch or listen to the guy at all, he just sets me off into a smouldering rage.
Also, Maury Povich putting teenage girls on the bogus "lie detector" in front of a live and tv audience and "proving" they were lying about fucking a bunch of middle aged men. Sally Jessy Raphael, I'm convinced, learned her trade in Parents group. There's just so much of it around, it's hard to avoid. But here's a nice tip; you won't see any of that bullshit out in the woods, so that's where I like to spend a little time as often as I can get away.
Know what else? I just realized this the other night. When I was a kid growing up in Pompano, whenever there was some excitement, whether it involved cops or firemen or just a power company truck with a cherry picker or just a couple of neighbors having a loud argument, everyone within ear shot turned out to rubber neck and gossip. It seemed like the most natural thing to do.
In the Program, of course, this was not permitted. "Pay attention to the person who's talking" was code for "Don't look, or even
think about the kid getting his ass kicked on the floor right next to you, or in the timeout room not quite ear-shot away." That, I think, is the primary reason why so many of us can't remember a whole lot of detail about the time we spent in these various warehouses.
Well, in Broward County these days (I just escaped with my family and little else around a year and a half ago) whenever the police are involved in anything, they come out enforce. However many guys they've got doing whatever they're doing at the address on your street, they've got two more going up and down the street with their flashlights and car mounted search lights ordering people to go back into their houses and not to look at what's going on.
And people don't come out and bear witness to trouble in their own neighborhoods anymore. It seems they've learned they're not supposed to look.
It's not like that here in our little depressed steel town in SW Pennsylvania. When there's excitement, people rubber-neck, oggle and gossip and it doesn't seem to bother the cops a bit. But it took me over a year to notice the difference. When I was back "home" in the psychotic shell of what Pompano used to be, I didn't even notice the progression. In recent years, I've found that Program people have had a great deal of influence in public policy in Florida; moreso than on the Federal level or in other localities. What about where you are?
I don't know if there will ever be a class action, but there certainly should be. Contact Wes Fager
http://thestraights.com/ and Safety Net
http://www.safetyintl.org/ They've both been investigating the possibility of a class action and/or a claims bill against the State of Florida.
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself - that is my doctrine.
--Thomas Paine
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Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous