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There he was . . . Oh my God it’s Mel
Sembler. . . I couldn’t believe it. My eyes focused, and
I realized there was the main dude responsible for all this
crap standing 30 feet from us. I yelled out there he is!! The
rest joined in. Mel would not validate our existence by looking
at us. He was keenly aware of the group confronting him. It
was a very tense and exhilarating moment. The tension was palpable.
We made a difference to the status quo. We rocked their world
and made them think. We were the topic of discussion in the
grand Holocaust party.
| Comments of one of the protesters. |
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On January 17, 2004 at 7PM the Florida Holocaust Museum had its 4th Annual
"To Life Awards" Banquet in the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tampa,
Florida. Honored guests included actor John Voight and World Heavyweight
boxing champion Evander Holyfield. But at 4:30PM a crowd assembled outside
the Hyatt to protest the event. Why would anyone want to protest a function
sponsored by the Florida Holocaust Museum! Well the protesters know about
the great Straight Holocaust and the people responsible for it. They know
about Straight's grand-scale violation of human rights and civil liberties
of thousands of American teenagers. The protesters were protesting the
fact that the Florida Holocaust Museum was founded by Walter Lobenberg
who happens to be former president of Straight Foundation and who continues
to be on the board of Straight under its current name--the Drug Free America
Foundation. The protesters' grievance is documented in their flier/press
release here. Last summer Reverend
Doctor Miller Newton, Straight's former national clinical director, settled
with former client Lulu Corter for $6.5 million for the abuse he directed
to be inflicted on her at his second-generation Straight--KIDS of New
Jersey. That story is here.
Besides Mr. Loebenberg, the Florida Holocaust Museum recently named Dr.
Bruce Epstein as an interim director. Dr. Epstein is a former Straight
board member himself. Worse yet, from the point of view of the protesters,
Straight founders Mel and Betty Sembler are (or have been) Florida Holocaust
board members. The protesters say they want the Florida Holocaust Museum
to sever all associations with anyone connected to Straight.
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The
SS called Dachau a "re-education centre",
Straight calls its camps "re-acculturation centers"
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According
to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance and other sources
Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, was originally flaunted
by the SS as a re-education centre to reeducate criminals. The
roof of the administrative building at Dachau displayed this
motto: "There is one path to freedom. Its milestones are:
Obedience, Diligence, Honesty, Orderliness, Cleanliness, Sobriety,
Truthfulness, Self-Sacrifice, and Love of the Fatherland."
Later the SS changed the classification of the prison to "concentration
camp", a term coined by the British during the Boer War.
(Ref 1,
Ref
2, Ref
3)
The Communist Chinese call their camps for political prisoners
"Seventh of May Academies" or "re-education"
centers.
Straight calls its indoctrination camps "re-acculturation"
centers. Truthfullness and Honesty are flaunted to the point
that kids often have to lie to avoid punishment. Some Straight
kids without drug or alcohol problems are abused in the name
of Sobriety. Straight is a five phase program, but, paradoxically,
when one graduates he doesn't progress to Sixth Step, he graduates
to Seventh Step perhaps in reference to Chinese Seventh of May
Academies. |
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There were over twenty protesters and, interestingly enough, most of
them had never been in Straight themselves but know of its dastardly reputation
for organized child abuse. Marti Heath, a citizen from the Tampa area,
has volunteered to be a spokesperson for the group. The protest stopped
promptly at 7PM. (Note: For the first time theStraights dot com
had picture images phoned in as they were shot. We put those photos on
the web as soon as they were received thus allowing us to publish in almost
real-time.)
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| Cops show up at 1707 and give the protesters the green
light. |
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Reason for the protest. The
protesters' flier/press release is here.
A detailed description of the protesters' grievence is here.
Additional photos taken by photo cell
phone will be posted as they are transmitted to us. link.
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