Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Got your attention yet? Hope so. Remember a while back when I made that post about how IrregularTimes is fixating on just a handful of topics and letting a lot of other important things fall by the wayside? Well, this is another of those things, but I can’t rightly fault the staff here for failing to catch wind of it before now. But this is something that I really, honestly, truly wish would be added to the List of Things To Cover Until Doomsday. This is regarding the systematic torture of United States children. But no, it’s not by the government.

It’s at the request of the parents.

Confused? Appalled? I don’t blame you, I was too when I first heard about this. But I want to give (most of) the parents the benefit of the doubt and say they’re well-meaning, if naive. See, what happens is, for whatever reason, they’ll find out about these schools for “troubled teenagers” run by a group calling themselves the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP) and go their their website. They’ll read, see nothing wrong, then take a quiz to see if there are warning signs that their kids are in danger of becoming out of control. Through a series of loaded questions which a “yes” answer would, for the average parents, just say “typical teenager” the website says your kid is at risk and to send them there to get help.

Also, send them there if the kid is/might be gay and/or bisexual. See, these schools are run by fundamentalist Mormons.

As I said, for the most part, the websites will sell you a story of a fairly easy going place rather than the reality which is that it’s little more than a concentration camp (yay for Godwins!) on the far side of the River Styx. The warning bells should be going off when they tell you (either through the phone, in person, or on the fucking website) that your child will lie to you about what is going on at that school. When anyone, even a school or corporation, has to poison the well with regards of what is going on there, you should know something is up.

And if that isn’t enough, the “emergency teen escort service” (no, it’s not a door-to-door brothel) that will wisk your child away from their bed at 2 or 3 in the morning should. These are people who’ll enter the home in the early hours, terrorize the kids, kidnap them and transport them to one of the WWASP’s schools either in the USA or overseas. Here, I could sit and type all these things out, but I want to share a story from someone who’d gone to one of these place. A wonderful little school called Cross Creek.

From Reddit.

On May 10th of 2007 at around 2:30 in the morning two strangers barged into my bedroom. I started screaming and crying, as in my mind I was sure that these two strangers had broken into my house and were going to abduct me, rape me, kill me, or in some way harm me. They immediately told me that if I did not shut up that they would handcuff me. I was not being in any way violent or threatening. I was reacting in fear for my life by being vocal and hoping that someone would come to help. I had no idea what was going on. I stopped screaming, still in fear for my life. They started going through my closet digging out clothes as I was only in a night gown. They still had not explained what was going on. I asked, frightened, what the wanted from me, trying to see if I could in some way appease them and get them to leave. They then explained that they were going to take me to a school. It took me a second to understand what they meant by this, as this was an extremely bizarre way to introduce a child to a new school. It then occurred to me that this was what my mother had arranged for my brother several years ago when she had him shipped away to Cross Creek. The two strangers were from Teen Escort Service, a for-profit company that transports teenagers, usually by force, to WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) facilities.

I was extremely upset and cried the entire trip, but I obeyed all of their orders. Even though I was being cooperative they said it was their policy to put a belt around the bust of the child and hold the belt so that there would be no chance of attempting to run. It was so humiliating to be led around like a fucking dog around the airport. It was also extremely uncomfortable to have this strange older male putting his hand so close to my breast. I never understood how any of this was legal but definitely knew that none of it was ethical. To this day I feel extremely angered, disturbed, and violated by this entire experience. In addition to this they “forgot” all of the psychiatric medication I had been on at my house. It’s not that I am for psychiatric meds, but it certainly did not feel healthy or normal to go from taking this medication regularly, to just not having it and stopping with out tapering off of it.

From the moment I arrived at Cross Creek, I was treated as though I was broken, dirty, and inhuman. During my stay I saw many others treated this way. I had never spoken to R., the program director, before and my first experience with him was horrible. He asked me why I was there, and I told him all of the things I’d done that I could think of that could possibly be perceived as “bad”. He yelled at me, saying that I was lying and that I didn’t love or care about my parents. I was shocked and confused, unsure of what I had done to deserve this treatment from someone I had just met. To this day, the only thing I can think of that I possibly could have left out was my attraction to other females. In one of the Parent-Child seminars we were made to attend, my mother shared with me that this was one of the biggest “issues” that caused her to send me to Cross Creek. Not the drugs, not the sex (she told me she had no knowledge of me being sexually active prior to being forced to disclose it to her), not the issues with school, but just the fact that there was a possibility that one day I might fall in love with a female. Sorry for not realizing what a horrible, broken child this made me, R.

Shortly after I arrived, my “HOPE buddy” (the student they assign to “mentor” you and teach you the rules in your first few weeks) started asking me about my past, why I was there, and what issues I needed to work on. I talked briefly about my experimentation with soft drugs, my issues with depression (something I’m pretty sure most teenagers experience), and the abusive relationship I had been in with my first girlfriend. As soon as I said the words “girl” and “relationship” in the same sentence she said “STOP! STOP! We can’t talk about that.” I was filled with shame regarding my sexuality simply from the fact that I was not even allowed to talk about homosexuality in any way shape or form. Shortly after this incident I started talking to the therapist they assigned me to there about this abusive relationship I had experienced, and how it bothered me that I was not allowed to talk about a part of me that I have no control over. His response was that I DID have a choice over whether or not I was attracted to females and that I should just deal with these thoughts of same sex attraction. His opinion was that this was probably a result of some anger I had toward men, particularly my dad and that I probably just wanted to be with females because they were “safer” (even though I had been with an abusive female before!!!) He also said that ultimately this was probably just a phase and a result of my crazy teenage hormones. He believed that if I tried hard enough and ignored these thoughts and feelings one day I might marry a nice boy.

I had no interest in having a relationship with anyone there, but when other girls formed relationships with each other, the repercussions were pretty extreme. I understood why it was not allowed, as relationships are generally distracting no matter the gender of either partner, but the way people were treated was pretty unnecessary in my opinion. It usually involved lots of yelling, ostracizing, and shaming. I remember one R. meeting where two girls were being confronted about this and R. was yelling about how stupid they were being and how no one would be able to trust them now. He went on to say that he had “nothing against homosexuality, but it was not the way God intended things.” and that the Bible definitely did not condone it. These “God” and bible references were used on a regular basis, along with religious videos, praying, etc. even though Cross Creek claimed that they were not in any way religious. The rule book and protocol also appeared to be directly based off of the Mormon religion (no caffeine etc.) The program reprimanded children for telling their parents about this religious influence and regularly tried to hide it from parents. I am in no way against people having their own beliefs and following what ever religion is right for them, however I think that it’s completely and totally immoral to lie to parents about what they are getting. More on this later.

The queer shaming was present in nearly every aspect of the program, including the language used. We were not allowed to use curse words such as “shit”, or “bitch”, but I never saw anyone reprimanded for saying “fag” or “faggot.” This fostered an environment in which teasing and bullying for all sorts of things were fully tolerated. I even remember a facilitator in a seminar trying to trigger a girl by calling her a “dyke.” And no, before you say something, I really don’t care about breaking confidentiality of seminars at this point because I am fed up. What these people said and did broke me down and created so much shame inside of me.

In addition to shaming people on basis of sexual orientation, they taught children that sex was evil and damaging outside of marriage, another blatantly religious notion. We were forced to regularly watch videos involving horror stories of abortions gone wrong, shown gruesome pictures of STDs that had been left unattended for long periods of time, and told that if we had sex before marriage we would likely die or get some horrible ailment. Rather than promoting safer sex methods, we were shown that abstinence was the only option that would not result in death or unwanted pregnancy.

Rigid gender roles were also a big part of the Cross Creek way of life. Many of the rules were extremely gender based. Boys were allowed to crack their backs and knuckles, though girls were not because it was “unladylike”. Boys got meal portions double the size of girls. Boys were allowed to use more curse words than girls were. The list goes on.

I remember when they moved the girls from Center 1 to Pro 1 (these are all names of the dorms we stayed in.) The boys had been living in Pro 1, and when they moved the girls in the dorms were extremely messy. Rather than having the boys come back and clean up this mess, they made the girls clean all day. This was completely, and totally humiliating. What a great way to build confidence and teach girls how to be independent and stand up for themselves.

This is just part one of three parts, the rest of which can be read by following the links. Some of the replies are from others who have gone to one of these places or who knew someone who’d gone to one. The one thing that’s always the same from the latter group is how the people they knew were never the same as they were before they went.

SkyOne news also did a short little article on these places. It’s short, just around ten minutes of your time, but it’s worth a watch.

Teen Rendention

The things that go on in these places are nothing short of psychical and mental torture, and it’s all perfectly legal because the USA still hasn’t signed on to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At the 2011 Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Forum, right wing Christian activist Gopal Krishna attacked America for building a multicultural society (E Pluribus Unum), in which “every weird and kinky lifestyle” is given equal legal status under the law.

A weird and kinky lifestyle? Whatever could Mr. Krishna have been talking about?

How about people who claim to have a personal relationship with a two-thousand year-old zombie from across the ocean who walks on water? Would that count as a weird and kinky lifestyle?

Most people have heard by now of the findings of a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that American atheists know more about religion than religious believers do. The story that they didn’t hear coming out of that survey is that Christians have a more general ignorance as well, when compared to non-Christian Americans.

One of the particular manifestations of Christians’ ignorance is in the realm of politics. When I speak of the political ignorance of Christians in America, I’m not using the term “ignorance” to describe merely having opinions that I disagree with. I’m talking about ignorance of basic political facts. In the Pew Forum study, Christians demonstrated a much greater political ignorance than atheists did.

One of the political facts that the survey tested respondents on was the identity of the Vice President. An astonishing 42 percent of American Christians surveyed had no idea that Joseph Biden is Vice President of the United States. Only 17 percent of American atheists were ignorant of this fact.

The political implications of this finding are not reassuring. The rate of Christian identity in the United States is in decline, but Christians still make up the majority of voters in the nation. If so many of them can’t even remember who the Vice President of the United States is, then how can this large bloc of voters be expected to make intelligent choices in this year’s congressional elections, when less well-known facts are at stake?

Proof that prayer has no power to make concrete changes came from Episcopal priest Kurt Gerhard, who stood before the U.S. House of Representatives to hold an unconstitutional official government prayer worship ceremony. As part of this congressional worship, Gerhard called upon the powers of his deity to manipulate the minds of the members of Congress.

His mystical incantation:

“O Lord our God, creator and sustainer of all nations and people,

On this day, bless the Members of this House with anger at the injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that they can work for justice, freedom and peace.

Bless them with enough foolishness to believe that they can make a difference in the world so that they can do what others claim is impossible.

Bless them with the humility to know that they can be wrong so that they can respect the perspectives of others.

Bless them with frustration with the way things are so that they will be motivated to create new solutions.

Send Your Spirit of courage and understanding upon each Member of this 111th Congress so that they will hold fast that which is true and serve these United States of America with glory and honor.

We ask this all in Your Holy Name.

Amen.”

So, what happened? Were the members of Congress infused with new supernatural dedication toward doing their jobs?

No. After Kurt Gerhard’s prayer ceremony, members of Congress worked for about three minutes, and then went home. Gerhard’s prayer proved to be profoundly impotent.

I wish that Congressman Ted Poe had stopped to consider his words more carefully before he spoke this week in an angry speech denouncing Islam. Poe said of the Cordoba House, a Muslim community center with Christian, Jewish and Muslim worship spaces and a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001:

“That piece of land in New York City took on a whole new meaning. Ground Zero is no longer just a location in New York. It is a symbol of America as powerful as the stars and stripes. It is hallowed ground of the victims who were victimized because of hate.”

A hallowed ground of hate? Is that really what Ted Poe wants to establish in New York City? Does he really mean to say that hate has the power to make ground religiously sacred?

Congressman Ted Poe is suggesting that we give terrorists the power to create religious shrines in the United States through their violent acts. I can’t think of a better way than that to encourage more terrorism in the future.

so I read the entry on genocide in the bible. I think there’s one particularly hilarious passage in the bible that wasn’t mentioned. I think it’s the best one: “In the cities of these people, that the Lord thy God doth giveth as thy inheritance, thall shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, but thall shalt utterly destroy them – namely the Hittites and the Jebusites, the Hivites and the Perezzites, the Amorites and the Canaanites, as the Lord thy God has commanded thee. That they not teach any such abominable sacrafices as they commit against their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord, thy God.” Deuteronomy 20:16-18.

I’ve pointed this passage out to many people. The best justification I’ve heard is that these “abominable sacrafices” refers to infanticide. So in other words, six different nationalities were all ACCUSED of practicing infanticide – I think these days that would be considered a stereotype – and God’s remedy was to kill every last member of all six groups.

Bradford Braley, who apparently got the privilege of conducting an officially-sanctioned big government worship service in front of the House of Representatives last week just because he’s the brother of Congressman Bruce Braley, dropped the ball.

Braley had the chance to pray for an end to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but what did he do? He prayed for a little emotional manipulation instead.

He prayed, “Inspire a sense of awe and wonder at the bountiful resources of this land, and in light of the environmental tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, may we humbly dedicate ourselves to preserving and protecting those resources.”

Braley had the chance to stand before the most powerful legislature on Earth, and to pray to his supernatural, all powerful deity, but all he asked for was for his deity to inspire a sense of awe, and to encourage people humbly dedicate themselves? If his God is truly as all-powerful, why didn’t Bradford Braley just ask his God to make the oil spill go away?

Does Braley not really believe in the power of prayer, or was he just being stingy?

Today, Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert blurted out the following statement about health care reform: “If you make 133 percent of the poverty level or less, under that wonderful bill, you’ll get forced into Medicaid, like it or not, even if you’ve got an employer who is willing to provide you health care. Oh, by the way, if you’re above 133 percent of the poverty level and you can’t afford the great health insurance policy that is dictated by this Zeus of a Congress and President, then bad news.”

A Zeus of a Congress? What is a Zeus of a Congress?

Is a Sergeant-At-Arms armed with a lightning bolt?

On Friday, Barry C. Black, the official government-paid Chaplain of the Senate, stood up on Capitol Hill to give a speech in which he called for a religious revolution in the Senate, targeting U.S. senators, with a mission to “purge their thoughts and speech”.

American fatwa?

A new social scientific study has found that higher intelligence is correlated with:
- monogamy among males
- liberal political identity
- atheism

If you can’t figure out why that correlation makes sense, why then, you must be a right wing fundamentalist who likes to sleep around.