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The Troubled Teen Industry / Lesson from RTCs
« on: May 07, 2005, 04:02:00 PM »
The big life lesson for teens about RTCs is that if you run away from home, you'd better make sure you never get found, and you'd better never go back.
In fact, to keep from getting found and picked up by "escorts" while walking down the street, you need to change cities and go to a city where nobody knows you.
Homeless shelters and soup kitchens are good, and construction is a good way to earn money since they take day laborers and hire illegals. You can also probably find out from the illegals when and where you can get work picking produce. Live like an illegal and you'll probably get by just fine. Just keep in mind that if your face ends up on a milk carton you may have a harder time hiding than an illegal. But probably not. Who remembers those faces, anyway?
Also, learn enough about stage makeup and method acting to change your appearance. Heavy makeup is conspicuous, but pads high in your cheeks to alter the shape of your face are not. Neither is long-wear lipstick that is either drawn just inside your lips to make them look smaller, or drawn just outside to make them look larger. Bangs or the absence of bangs can affect the apparent shape of your face. Learning to act casual without sneaking and wearing neutral colors, dying hair to a neutral brown if it's not already, make you unmemorable. Obviously, don't come to the attention of the police. Well, if you're a guy, growing or shaving beard or mustache is the thing.
Learn Spanish and glom onto a family of illegals. Brown contacts would be a good investment, as would fake-tan lotion. If you look like an illegal, people aren't likely to look at you twice. (If you're black, you've got it made--most people's eyes will skate over you anyway.) Just don't look WASP. If you're Asian, hang in a heavily Asian area to avoid notice. Let the other illegals think Daddy did "bad things" so they'll sympathize with you and won't turn you in---don't ham it up, just say your dad did "bad things" and refuse to talk about it.
Don't use drugs. It will screw up your ability to focus on surviving on your own.
Get *real* good at Spanish. If you come to the attention of anyone, just pretend you don't speak English and only talk Spanish. As long as they don't hand you to the INS--which they probably can't---it probably won't occur to them to think you might be a runaway. Eventually they'll have nothing to do but let you go. And if the INS gets you, you can admit who you are long enough to get out of their custody and *hope* you can find a chance to run again. If you tell the INS guy, in English, that you're legal to convince him and stick to your "Daddy did bad things" story and clam up about what those might be, the guy handling you may feel sorry enough for you to look the other way when you take off.
The cool thing for you is you can just hide out until you turn 18 and you're suddenly "legal" again.
It's an Unintended Consequence of the RTC industry. Running away now means you'd darned well better do it right and stay gone until *after* your 18th birthday.
The other thing is you could find out states ahead of time with liberal emancipation laws, know the rules, and play illegal until you qualify, then get legal aid to help you with the paperwork.
If you get in good with the illegal community, and work alongside them, the conservative latino values may provide some protections from the dealers and the pimps.
Yep, that's the lesson from the RTC industry:
If you run away, do it right, and whatever you do, don't go home before you're 18.
(For the stupid, this is all satire and not an actual attempt to get people to break the law. Don't really do this, kids.)
Timoclea
In fact, to keep from getting found and picked up by "escorts" while walking down the street, you need to change cities and go to a city where nobody knows you.
Homeless shelters and soup kitchens are good, and construction is a good way to earn money since they take day laborers and hire illegals. You can also probably find out from the illegals when and where you can get work picking produce. Live like an illegal and you'll probably get by just fine. Just keep in mind that if your face ends up on a milk carton you may have a harder time hiding than an illegal. But probably not. Who remembers those faces, anyway?
Also, learn enough about stage makeup and method acting to change your appearance. Heavy makeup is conspicuous, but pads high in your cheeks to alter the shape of your face are not. Neither is long-wear lipstick that is either drawn just inside your lips to make them look smaller, or drawn just outside to make them look larger. Bangs or the absence of bangs can affect the apparent shape of your face. Learning to act casual without sneaking and wearing neutral colors, dying hair to a neutral brown if it's not already, make you unmemorable. Obviously, don't come to the attention of the police. Well, if you're a guy, growing or shaving beard or mustache is the thing.
Learn Spanish and glom onto a family of illegals. Brown contacts would be a good investment, as would fake-tan lotion. If you look like an illegal, people aren't likely to look at you twice. (If you're black, you've got it made--most people's eyes will skate over you anyway.) Just don't look WASP. If you're Asian, hang in a heavily Asian area to avoid notice. Let the other illegals think Daddy did "bad things" so they'll sympathize with you and won't turn you in---don't ham it up, just say your dad did "bad things" and refuse to talk about it.
Don't use drugs. It will screw up your ability to focus on surviving on your own.
Get *real* good at Spanish. If you come to the attention of anyone, just pretend you don't speak English and only talk Spanish. As long as they don't hand you to the INS--which they probably can't---it probably won't occur to them to think you might be a runaway. Eventually they'll have nothing to do but let you go. And if the INS gets you, you can admit who you are long enough to get out of their custody and *hope* you can find a chance to run again. If you tell the INS guy, in English, that you're legal to convince him and stick to your "Daddy did bad things" story and clam up about what those might be, the guy handling you may feel sorry enough for you to look the other way when you take off.
The cool thing for you is you can just hide out until you turn 18 and you're suddenly "legal" again.
It's an Unintended Consequence of the RTC industry. Running away now means you'd darned well better do it right and stay gone until *after* your 18th birthday.
The other thing is you could find out states ahead of time with liberal emancipation laws, know the rules, and play illegal until you qualify, then get legal aid to help you with the paperwork.
If you get in good with the illegal community, and work alongside them, the conservative latino values may provide some protections from the dealers and the pimps.
Yep, that's the lesson from the RTC industry:
If you run away, do it right, and whatever you do, don't go home before you're 18.
(For the stupid, this is all satire and not an actual attempt to get people to break the law. Don't really do this, kids.)
Timoclea
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.[ This Message was edited by: Timoclea on 2005-05-07 13:04 ]
--Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father, author, and inventor