2 protests in 3 days?

There's no rule that says we can't hold 2 protests against the teen torture cult east of Cincinnati within 3 days of each other. So yesterday I was called to yet another demonstration against this behavior modification facility.

This was very much a spur-of-the-moment event, for some of the out-of-town folks who came to our July 11 protest insisted on another before they returned home. I was told that yesterday was Bastille Day - which commemorates the storming of France's hated Bastille prison, a key development in the French Revolution. So it's suitable that we'd protest against a torturous confinement facility.

We had 8 participants in this rally, and I'm haunted by what happened at the end - though it may well be the facility's final undoing.

The protest started around 4 PM and at first went about as typically as these events usually do. One of the program parents breezed into the center on a motorbike and said to us, "You people are so retarded!"

Does he even know what "retarded" means? Or is this just another example of the program supporters' 4th grader vernacular? Judging by his maturity level, maybe a couple years from now he'll move on to calling our group "gay."

Also, I think this is fourth consecutive protest in which their side has complained about us videotaping the event. One of the programmies pulled out of the parking lot and angrily said something like, "Get that camera off of me!"

But the scene that will probably haunt me forever happened at the end. A beige car with Kentucky plates pulled out of the facility carrying several teenagers or preteens to their host homes. One of them pressed a notebook against the car window. Written on the book's page were the words "HELP ME." One of the other young people then yanked his hand away from the window.

Then a program parent pulled out of the facility. As she was waiting to pull onto the road, we approached her car and told her what we had just seen. She laughed, saying the kid with the handmade "HELP ME" sign can't be trusted because any kid who'd get sent to that place is "obnoxious."

Frankly, that's bullshit. But it's not an excuse I haven't heard countless times before.

We promptly called the Miami Township Police with our concerns about the youth with the sign. An officer did show up. He informed us he was putting out an all-points bulletin to all the law enforcement agencies in the area to watch for the car.

Because we gave the officer the car's license plate number, you'd think police in the jurisdiction where the car is registered would be knocking on the door of the host home and asking a few questions. But I know better than to get my hopes up.

If somebody did get caught, this could be the event that finally puts the cult out of business. Even if nothing came of the police report, at least the youngster now knows that we support him in his fight against the program. He may feel empowered to fight back harder!

So it was a successful protest, and 4 of us drove around Cincinnati afterwards and gathered on the secret 6th Street bridge under the Waldvogel Viaduct, defying many an Allowed Cloud.

Here's to success!

(More info: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)