Post by: wesfager on April 09, 2002, 07:48:00 PM
Gentle People, Yes, it's time to kick their butts down there in Florida on the radio, on TV, in the press, in their courts and legislature, on the Internet--no physical violence, only our voices and pens and the Internet. 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 (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 (http://thestraights.com/news/index-page2.htm#florida-state-civil-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 the 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 (http://www.greatlakesconference.org/2001_great_lakes_conference_on_addictions_&_mental_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/ (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 (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/ (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 where we shall use peaceful means only to prevail with our voices and pens in the press, courts and legislature.
Thank you,
Wesley Fager
Author, A Clockwork Straight at
http://www.thestraights.com (http://www.thestraights.com)
EMail: [email protected]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-20 05:48 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-20 05:56 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-20 06:08 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-22 08:33 ]
[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2002-04-22 08:36 ]
Post by: wesfager on April 10, 2002, 04:02:00 AM
Wes
Post by: kpickle39 on April 12, 2002, 06:06:00 PM
Post by: ladyjerrico on April 13, 2002, 10:28:00 PM
Also for the fact I live in Michigan and would need some form of transportation to head down there.
I have read the postings on the Alumni site and responded. I wish I could go.. but I'm sure my boss would be pretty ticked off and I would get disciplinary action if I took anymore time off than I did this year.
I won't be able to attend this time :sad: sorry
Post by: Anonymous on April 15, 2002, 12:19:00 PM
Post by: Anonymous on April 20, 2002, 08:58:00 AM
Post by: ladyjerrico on April 22, 2002, 12:12:00 PM
Post by: Anonymous on April 25, 2002, 09:09:00 PM
Post by: kpickle39 on April 28, 2002, 05:55:00 PM
Post by: kpickle39 on May 03, 2002, 04:22:00 PM
Post by: Anonymous on May 06, 2002, 12:06:00 PM
Post by: kpickle39 on May 08, 2002, 01:19:00 PM
Post by: Anonymous on May 13, 2002, 07:13:00 PM
Post by: kpickle39 on May 17, 2002, 06:51:00 PM
Post by: Anonymous on May 26, 2002, 10:52:00 AM
Post by: Cleopatra2U on May 31, 2002, 01:44:00 PM
Post by: Antigen on May 31, 2002, 03:17:00 PM
****** AND WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU! ******
If you're planning to take part in any of the conference activities, or
if you KNOW of someone who is (and who doesn't check their email
compulsively like some of us) PLEASE contact the conference planning
committee* or have your friend contact us so that we can better plan for
the number of people we'll be accomodating!
Well folks,
In just one week, June 8-9, 2002, The Second International Conference on
Adolescent Treatment Abuse & Straight, Inc. / Kids Reunion will begin. For
those of you who don't have all the details, please see
http://trebach.org/abuse/ (http://trebach.org/abuse/)
Although the conference itself promises to be very informative--we've
lined up an impressive panel of childrens' rights advocates, legal experts,
experts in cult recovery, authors and survivors of various branches of the
institutionalized child abuse industry--it's also going to be a
Reunion/Party/Celebration... a real BASH not to be missed.
-->> FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 4:30PM <<--
The party begins with an informal gathering in the park
-->> FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 7:00PM <<--
From there, off to Mattisons for happy hour/final conference planning
session and some smooth jazz from the Nate Najar Band
-->> SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 9:00AM <<--
The formal conference begins at Heritage Hotel, Julian?s Conference
Room 256 Second Street North St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 We'll be
focusing primarily on the history and nature of thought control 'treatment'
as well as recovery from the harm done by them.
-->> SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 12:15PM <<--
Lunch prepared by wold class chef, Paul Mattison at Mattison's American
Bistro 111 Second Ave., NE, St. Pete., FL What a treat! Chef Paul is
preparing a special menu for conference attendees. The cost for attending
the luncheon will be $15 (included in conference fee) If you're planning to
attend the lunch, whether you're taking part in any of the other
activities, PLEASE contact the conference planning committee* ASAP so that
we can let Chef Paul know how many people to expect.
-->> SUNDAY, JUNE 9th at 9:00AM <<--
The second day of the formal conference begins at 9AM. We'll be focusing
on legal actions, past, present and future in the morning session. In the
afternoon, Dr. Conrad will facilitate conference participants in building
an effective organization for broad social, political and legal reform.
With this, I must remind ya'll that, so far, these conferences have been
funded out of pocket by just a handful of dedicated people, with the help
of many hours of unfunded effort. This project has been a labour of love.
-->> BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME... <<--
If you want to attend but you can't swing the $100 fee, we understand and
we'd rather have you there than your money. But that "well funded, thightly
knit, carefully camoflaged, organized consipracy" is just another of Betty
Sembler's wild flights of fancy. Personally, I'd trade all of my funding
for the coffee kitty at just one of Betty's ".* Drug Free .*" outfits.
We're about as organized as a herd of cats. And we're not camoflaged at
all, even carelessly. The only thing we're conspiring to do is to SET THE
RECORD STRAIGHT. And I'm proud to be a part of it.
Although we've gotten some generous donations to help make this happen, and
we are deeply grateful, some folks we all know and love have contributed
significant sums out of their own pockets in addition to working tirelessly
on this project outside of their normal working hours. If you can spare
$10, $20 or more or if money's not a problem and you can donate more than
that, please do!
*
-->> REGISTRATION AND DONATIONS <<--
Here are several ways to register and/or make donations.
WWW: http://Fornits.Com/anonanon/conf2002/ (http://Fornits.Com/anonanon/conf2002/)
Use the comment box to tell us which activities (if any) you plan to
participate in.
If you use that form, you'll get a page with a link to
http://trebach.com/abuse/conf2002/#donate (http://trebach.com/abuse/conf2002/#donate)
If, for any reason, you don't want to use the web forms, you can send a
check payable to:
The Trebach Institute
Box 185
5505 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20015-2601
Then call Mike and Rhonda (our gracious hosts) at 888-883-5685
For further assistance send eMail to [email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected]) | http://Fornits.Com/ (http://Fornits.Com/)