Subject: Signed Guestbook
Date:Tue, 04 Jan 2000 14:11:16 -0500
From: James Russell jrussell@wnec.edu
To: help@focusas.com
Focus Adolescent Services,
Thank you for stopping by my webzine and signing my guestbook. I have been to your web page and have been sure to understand your statements and point of view before I wrote this email in reply. It seems however, that you only gave my writings a quick glance before you dismissed them as "libelous". In response to your allegations of "libel", I can say unequivocably that I have never mentioned the company "Focus Adolescent Services" in my writings. In fact, I was unware your company existed before your guestbook posting. I believe the article you are refering to Prison Camps for Defiant Youth in the first issue of Free Youth Internet. In that article I criticized a company called "Adolescent Services International", the owners of www.defiantteen.com Possibly while searching for the words "Adolescent Services" you came across my web page and mistook the article for being about your company. An understandable error, and I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Before I begin, let me introduce myself. My name is James Russell, I am seventeen years old and a sophomore student at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. I have been a human rights activist since a young age, and have chosen to concentrate specifically on the rights of youth, or teenagers, as that is the demographic I am a member of. I chose to publish Free Youth Internet (or FYI) because of what I see as a wave, or backlash, against the rights of youth that has been sweeping the nation in recent years. Censorship of our art and music has increased, conservatives campaigning under the banner of "family values" have stripped youth of our legal rights, child abuse rates have increased, tens of thousands of young people are now in juvenile prisons for non-violent crimes, and there is a rising business of "prison schools" emerging, where young people who dare to stand up for their rights and defy their parents are locked up for, and I do not mince words, abuse. As a young person myself, I am appaled by how the few rights that we have are being systematically stripped from us, and have decided to use the power of the Internet to campaign for a new civil rights movement, to give rights to children and youth that we are denied.
As I mentioned above, my article was written against Adolescent Services International, and my accusations can hardly be dismissed as libelous. The New York Times, People Magazine, CBS News, 20/20, and Intrepid Net Reporter have all written articles about the horrendous abuse and brainwashing that occurs at ASI's prison schools. I have evidence to support my claim, and if you wish, I can direct to you my resources and bibliograpy for these articles. ASI is an extreme example of an endemic pattern of labeling just being a teen as a "disease" that must be "treated" usually by paying programs large sums of money.
I initially said that there should be no confusion between Focus Adolescent Services and Adolescent Services International. However, after perusing your web page, I find many frightening similarities between what you advocate and what ASI advocates. There may be differences in extremism, but you are both on the same side of the coin. Here is the guestbook posting that you put on my web page. I will respond to it, and show how the programs that Focus support really do oppress youth.
"We do not advocate the oppression of youth and we are very much against corporal punishment. Please take a look at what Focus offers before you make libelous statements. You will see that we believe in knowledge, support, and positive regard towards all.
1. On your web page you listed factors that might mean your child is troubled under "how is your child?". These are things like "defiance", "desiring privacy" , "a change in clothing style", and "listening to music with violent lyrics". These are things almost EVERY teen does! They are part of growing up! They are part of discovering our own identity! What your company does is to decieve parents that their normal teen, who is just trying to define themselves as an individual, has something "wrong" with them, and that the parents need to pay you lucrative sums of money for their child to be "set right". I invite you to look back to your teenage days, and see if you never "defied your parents."
2. You advocate censorship, especially of music. This is an insult to our intelligence. Have you ever heard of the concept of "artistic integrity", that possibly these "violent" lyrics are necessary to express an important message in a piece of art? To quote Bob Dylan " don't criticize what you can't understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command". Take time to listen to the music, and understand what the artist is trying to say, before you censor it. I myself am a fan of artists such as Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, and other artists you might concieve of as "degrading and violent". These artists do not write the lyrics and music that they do simply to shock - they are exploring artistically the darker aspects of life that need to be expressed. Great artists such as Picasso had "blue periods" where they painted dark scenes of death. Did that make Picasso a "bad person"? No, he was just creating ART about dark things, not really doing them. It seems that in this situation, Focus Adolescent Services and parents, not their children, have the difference distinguishing reality and fantasy. I invite you to read an article I wrote on my web page, "Wild Music", explaining the positiveness of the attraction this music holds for young people. It can be found at http://www.oblivion.net/~fyi/wildmusic.html
3. The third and most abhorrent thing I found on your page was providing direction to KIDNAPPING SERVICES!!! I understand, and respect, the right of legitimate authorities such as police to arrest criminal youth, or licensed doctors to confine youth if they are mentally unstable and a threat to themselves or others. But to hire private for-profit hitmen to come kidnap your own child in the middle of night, who have no claim to legitimacy, is a direct violation of the United States and & United Nations universal declaration of human rights. That you provide direction to such rogue hitmen is unconscienable.
All in all, from information publicly available on your web page, Focus Adolescent Services does many of the things that you denied doing in your guestbook posting. Is this just a matter of confusion, or outright falsification? Focus Adolescent Services seems to be a company that takes normal healthy teenagers, labels them with false conditions, and then reaps a profit off it. Many of the things that Focus links to are very positive, such as Al-Anon and suicide crisis hotlines. But these positive links do not make up for the other things that you advocate.
I invite your response or refutation.
sincerely yours,
James Russell
Editor
Free Youth Internet
After a few days, Focus Services has still not replied to my letter. This is another open letter to the company, reminding them of the accusations they initially delivered so forcefully.
Focus Adolescent Services,
A few days ago I sent you an email in rebuttal to your accusations of "libel" for the writings on my web page. You have not yet sent me a reply however. This marks a swift change of emotion on the part of your company that I find rather surprising. On your web page, you cite "mood swings" as a sign of being a "troubled teen". Ergo, following this train of logic, Focus Adolescent Services is a "troubled company" for this sudden change of mood. First, you angrily accuse me of libel - and then say absolutely nothing when I reply. This is puzzling. Your awkward silence has a few possible reasons.
A. You have realized that you cannot refute my arguments, and so are hiding in silence.
B. You feel guilty for the criminal way in which you make your filthy lucre, and are silent out of guilt.
C. You are too busy beating down and oppressing youth to do such minor and trivial things as answer email messages.
D. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney one will be provided for you by the state. (This is what you will hear when the police finally bust open your illegal prison school operation).
Which is it, A, B, C or D? A wealthy company such as Focus can surely spare the time to send back one alphabetical character. Or is there a different reason? I invite your response. Your continued silence will just inflame the fire of activists to shut down your brutal operation.
Sincerely,