| Justice For All?
How many of us from age 5 to 18
began every school day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? How many
of us have been led to believe that we live in a country where we
are free, where there is liberty, where there is justice ... for
all?
Many children, teens, and young
adults are
learning they are not free and that there is not justice for all.
The Amber Alert was implemented because too many children have
been abducted from their homes, some from their beds in the middle
of the night. Americans cry for these children and Americans do all
they can to bring them home to safety.
But who is crying for the tens of
thousands of children and teens who, too, are being
abducted,
some in the middle of the night, some during broad daylight? These
are abductions of a different kind. These are paid abductions. Paid
for by their own parents.
Program staff and parents believe
children are liars and manipulators. But, children and teens have
reported being lied to and deceived. Many children have reported
they were awakened by strangers in the middle of the night,
instructed to get dressed, and taken against their will to
facilities hundreds and thousands of miles from home. Facilities
that, most often times, are not licensed or regulated and that are
located in remote rural areas where children lose contact with the
outside world.
One girl reported her mother lied to
her, promising to take her to McDonald's for lunch. When they
arrived, her mother jumped out of the car while two women opened the
passenger door, grabbed the girl, handcuffed her, threw her into the
back seat of their car, and drove to the airport where they flew her
thousands of miles from home to a behavior modification program.
There she was locked up and lost all her basic rights. She lost the
right to speak freely, to a proper education, to contact with the
outside world, among other things. This was a girl who had never
been in trouble with the law, a girl who was a straight-A student,
and whose worse infraction was talking back and wanting to dance
ballet. Click here to read more children's and teens' stories.
How many children and teens today
are locked up in residential treatment facilities, boot camps,
wilderness programs, and residential boarding schools? Too many. How
many have died? Too many. Too
many for us to ignore.
Sadly, we are learning there is certainly not justice for all.
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