So I got to thinking about this story today as I was walking around Charleroi. I'll tell you why cause I think opening the dialog is more important right now than protecting my personal boundaries.
I'm having a zipetty-do-dah day today. Fellow program vets will understand what that means. It's a beautiful day here! Sun shining, cool breeze, birds a singing... but I've been reminded of a horrendous event from inside the building with major repercussions into the here and now. I don't want to trigger anybody else, so quit reading now if you're not up for processing some of the dark details.
It has to do with the public perceptions that kept us all imprisoned by sadistic lunatics back then and which continue to oppress so many today. I promise, at the end, there's some optimism. A truly encouraging development, that spoon-full of sugar. At least people are starting to notice and put it into entertaining and understandable terms. That's good. Baby steps.
These are two broadly held public perceptions that led to the horrible events of yesteryear and continue to wreak havoc on communities to this day.
- Drugs are the root of all evil, especially where teenagers are concerned. ALL evil.
- The Program® is the only answer to the only cause of any kind of problem.
Depressed much? Drugs. Trouble in school? Drugs. Hard time getting along with your parents? Drugs. Must be drugs. That's the only thing it could possibly be. Got a problem controlling your urge to rape little boys? Drugs. I shit you not, I saw it with my own glazed eyes. Some of you know what I mean. You were in group with me that day. For those of you lucky enough to have been sweating mid-term exams or suffering teen angst over boy/girl troubles or pimples & such, here's what happened on the way to the exit one day.
There was a young man in $tr8 Inc. He landed there because his dad had enough clout to pull some strings and get his darlin' lad's prison sentence deferred if he could finish the program. I don't remember what he was convicted of having done, just that it was a violent act and his sentence was something like 10 - 20.
To be perfectly fair, I'm pretty sure that the dad believed that drugs were at the root of his boy's problems. I don't think this man was evil enough to have been complicit to the fraud. I could be wrong, maybe that's just what I have to believe to live among humans. But that is my belief and I'm not interested in exploring other explanations right now. Mkhay?
Well this young man had progressed through the phases to the point where he had newcomers locked up in his home and was going to work every day. His home was known as the most "secure", inescapable, hard-core host homes. They had a couple of vicious dobies in the yard outside the bedroom window. No escape possible. And he was a BIG guy! Would have been attractive as hell if it hadn't been for the sadistic gleam in his eye. Even in a big room with a hundred or so other people, his presence was downright chilling. I wish I could say I can't imagine being locked up alone with this monster night after night, but one day I was forced to focus on just that scenario.
One of his newcomers was a very timid, small young man, maybe 14 years old and a late bloomer. Well one day while the oldcomer was at work, it came to light that he had been violently raping this little boy. This came to light when the young boy was stood up and confronted about why blood was seeping from his rectum onto his chair.
If sane people had been running the show, they would have taken him to the hospital for an exam and made a complaint to the police and sent the oldcomer back to prison where he belonged. If frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their asses when they hopped. When I say I was raised by wolves in the twilight zone, I'm really only half kidding!
Instead, the boy was taken to the bathroom and given a kotex to put in his drawers. When the oldcomer came in from work, he was confronted and started over, day one, in his "drug rehabilitation program." About 3 months later, staff and group having been convinced that he was sincerely working his program, he was again advanced to a higher phase and they started sending him home with more little boys. I shit you not. I couldn't make this up. Others witnessed it too and have posted publicly. The victim in this case told the story himself. I'm not going to name him cause I don't know if he feels like reliving this nightmare right now. Anyone who knows who I'm talking about, please respect that and don't bring it to his attention! Thank you.
All the while, during the entire years long ordeal and for many years afterward, we all were just stuck with keeping things like this to ourselves. After all, who's going to believe a teenaged runaway from a "drug rehab"? The cops? Yeah right! Our parents who paid to keep us there? Good luck with that! How about clergy? Teachers? CYS? Somebody? Keep on telling yourself that somebody's minding the shop and keeping the world safe from things like this if that's what helps you sleep at night.
Now all of the above happened over 30 years ago. I'm not whining. I'm pretty much over it, functioning well, enjoying good relationships and a reasonably comfortable, enjoyable life. So is the victim described in the paragraphs above, as far as I can tell. Matter of fact, when I have a bad day sometimes I think of him and find strength to take a brighter view of my own situation.
Some days, though, I find cause to reflect on these darker days. Today is one of those days for two reasons. And it may be hard for most people to see the relation between these two seemingly unrelated stories. Maybe some people will understand and explain it a little better than I can right now. But I'm going to try and explain anyway.
William Evans was paroled the other day. Please spare me the very real trauma of relating the details of why that is so disturbing to me. Please stop and read this article:
Nicole Parisien was murdered in B.C. in 2007 by former Calgary man Andrew Evans, who was recently granted day parole. Photo courtesy Helena Lines/Calgary Sun/QMI Agency
Done? Ok, to proceed. Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center is a 3rd generation spin-off of The Seed, where my nightmare began. Seed->Straight, Inc.->Kids of Bergen County->AARC
Despite the heinous nature of the crime, this man was granted parole the other day, in part because Dean Vauss, the megalomaniac director of the AARC program where Evans was a counselor, spoke for him at the parole hearing. Evidently, Dean still believes that drugs are the root of Evan's problems and that he has the only solution to that problem! Ok, well he's obviously a lunatic; this having been obviated by countless witnesses to similar acts of megalomania, various lawsuits, etc.
But what the hell is wrong with the parole board??? Aren't they supposed to be the sane, responsible people who bar against this sort of nightmare scenario? I suppose it depends on who's doing the supposing. If you factor in those two broadly held, highly dangerous delusions that I enumerated earlier in this article, then it all makes horrifying sense, doesn't it. Do you have some sympathy for the good hearted people of Germany the day any of them came to the realization that they had thrown their heart-felt support to the monster that was the Nazi movement? I do. Often. More often than I'd like.
So I'm walking up the hill to a home health client's home today with a snout full of all of this. And, as I say, it's a blessedly beautiful day; what we call "tourist weather" in Florida, where we only get a couple of days a year like this. And I'm re-gearing my mind and mood to the people I'm about to go and serve; their concerns and immediate needs, their situation, their world-view and mind-set (I envy them that! Oh, they suffered more privation and hardship than most of us, but their world and future were kind and honest and optimistic!) So I'm having this rather private moment with myself, anonymously walking up a public street when I startled a young kid coming out of the alleyway on his rat bike. It's not like we almost crashed into each other or anything. There was plenty of lead time to notice one another.
I think he was startled because I was just radiating all kinds of rage and fear and upset. But what cut me right to the quick? The rapid progression of his expression. First, undefined anxiety. Next, compassion... very briefly, I saw a look of pure honest compassion when he realized I was closer to tears than aggression of any flavor. Then there was a different fear and a turning away. Maybe he rode off cause it was an uncomfortable moment and certainly none of his concern. But the thought troubled my mind that his initial startle response had something to do with fear of confrontation with white people, especially an older white woman in distress. I don't know.
Next thing I know, Dayton, Oh authorities reminded me of why hearing about what people like Dean Vause and his small band of sadistic lunatic followers are up to is so deeply disturbing to me. Because I know what it's like to be locked into life under the rule of such people and we are... really!
I just watched the video of John Crawford being shot to death by police in a Dayton area Wal-Mart.
Sure looks to me like they didn't give him any warning and he wasn't even pretending to menace or threaten anybody. Not even checking out the scope. First moment he even shows awareness of police presence, he's on the floor screaming in fear and pain, forgot all about that BB gun he had been thinking about buying. That went skidding across the floor. He had more important things to deal with just all of a sudden.
Probably couldn't afford it anyway cause the baby needed diapers. When you're considering your own immediate mortality in a real way, the strangest things occur to your mind. Trust me on this.
Here's the kick in the head. This video was released at the same time as the special prosecutor announced that the cops involved will not be indicted by the grand jury. Their reasoning goes that these cops did just exactly what they were trained to do. So sorry about your orphaned baby, sorry you had to bury your son, etc. Just SOP.
This is how I read that:
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Memo: 9/25/20014
From: Staff
To: All 5th phasers, 4th phasers on down, selected PT's will get a personal message through COC.
Re: Recent and historic disposition of LEO involved homicides and other alleged civil rights violations
We have trained our staff to murder more or less random people for no more cause than unsubstantiated anonymous gossip. If they don't like you for whatever reason, and we do all of the reasoning for them, and they think they can get away with it, they'll shoot your ass without provocation or warning. We'll give them a paid vacation, a fund/sympathy raiser, commendations, promotions and a sweet retirement with legacy perfs. You won't even be around to SEE what we do to your granddaughter! LOL!
Nothing to see here. Go back to your X-Box and your football game and your celebrity gossip now. Have a nice day & drive safe now, ya hear! They're here to protect your safety. So don't do anything that might frighten us.
Move<fnord>along and don't resist.
Your protectors
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Now here is the optimism I promised earlier; an entertainingly brave & brilliant presentation about the broadly held delusion that is too often used to minimize and justify the brutalization and murder of innocent people. That fondly held delusion is this:
- Black people are the cause of drugs and all other evils of society.
Now, when I say this is a brave move, I don't mean just brave in the sense that these kids risked marginalization and scorn from people who may disagree with them. I was on the edge of my seat watching this video! Even I knew going in that the black kid was risking his very life just to deliver an important message! And I wasn't at all sure till the end that I wasn't going to witness yet another murder caused by hysterical paranoia fed on a steady diet of pervasive hate. Don't think for a minute that that kid didn't know it full well going in either. In my book, this kid is a damned hero!
Even if you're not black or latino. Even if you're currently a racist who holds to the delusional view that them others are causing all the problems and need to be locked up, driven out of our neighborhoods or killed outright, this matters to you. Cause if you're holding on to this comforting delusion, you're probably also holding onto another, even more dangerous delusion--that it will never happen to you or anyone you love `cause you're not [fill in the blank]. It shall. Trust me. If we don't turn this boat around, it'll happen to you one day, and likely sooner than you think!
