December 15, 2006

Renee Kimball and Hugo Schultz gathered together a group this day to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of our Bill of Rights. Below are some photos, including "Ben Franklin", a copy of the Bill of Rights. Great job Renee and Hugo! Thank you for reminding us that we do still have a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights.

November, 2006

I recently returned from a three week stay in Europe. It was a busy, exciting time. I saw many beautiful places, revisited my favorites from former sojourns, attended a translator's conference in Edinburgh, and most important, spent time with old friends.

During my travels I interviewed friends, and strangers, mostly in France, Italy and Germany. I asked people what they thought of Bush and got some pretty funny answers.

French people refer affectionately to our president as "the American idiot" or "la foufoune", which is a literal translation of "bush", in reference to female anatomy. The best were in Italian. I am not fluent in Italian and did not understand everything, but was able to have some good laughs during my mini-interviews in Rome. I plan to translate some of these and insert them into my cable programs later this year.

After spending a weekend with friends in Paris, and visiting the artists' open atelier in Ménilmontant, I rented a car, and drove from Paris through the South of France, where I had a misadventure trying to find some friends' house in the middle of the night.., then traveled on to Tuscany and Umbria, where I looked at houses, on to Rome, where I met my friend Lori. We drove from Rome to Copenhagen in five days, passing through Florence, Boulogne, Milan, the Alps (where we got lost), the German countryside around Allershausen, and Berlin.

One of the most interesting experiences I had was in East Berlin, where I stayed with some friends of Lori. My German is very sketchy, but it was no problem, as Vesna, and most of her friends, speak fluent English.

After the Berlin Wall came down (my friend from Paris Philippe helped tear it down and has a piece of the wall hanging in his living room), in part thanks to a grant from the German government, Vesna bought an old building on Oderbergerstrasse in East Berlin, and remodeled it into a beautiful apartment building, with a very modern feel, and incredible views of the city from the penthouse apartments.

We got a full tour of Berlin, from the perspective of Vesna, an architect, seeing the contrast of East Berlin architecture, with the new style that is replacing it. We visited, just a block away from the building we were staying in, the site of the Berlin Wall monument, and remnants of the wall. We went down Grossenhamburgerstrasse, where we saw the Jewish Hospital, where holocausts victims were sent on their way to deportation to concentration camps. Initially, they were told they were being taken to the camps "for their protection". (Does that sound frighteningly familiar?)

I insisted on going to a cabaret. "Oh, the cabarets, the cabarets, all you Americans care about is the cabarets..!"--but, finally, Vesna found us a cabaret, and quite an interesting one, but which we had quite a hard time getting to as the Unterbahn mysteriously closed down the line we were on several stops before the one we needed. Luckily on the way back, Vesna came to find us just as we were reluctantly about to get back on the underground to try to find our way back.

We were driven back to the Oderbergerstrasse apartment where we had late night supper and a fascinating conversation with some East Germans, one of whom has a grant from the German government to build monuments in memory of those who have helped German political prisoners. We heard about the National-Socialist Party (the former Nazi party) and its alliance with Le Pen and other right-wing European leaders, and how frightening it is to see a resurgence of the same party that dragged Germans into the Nazi atrocities.

There is still perhaps some unresolved shame around the average German's participation, or acquiescence to, Hitler's regime. Many young people do not know, or will not acknowledge that family members were involved in the Nazi party. Most Germans simply did not know what was going on before it was too late (another frightening resemblance to erosion of our rights in Oregon, and around the US as a result of the so-called Patriot Act).

The conversation really picked up about midnight, our German friends wanting to know all about Oregon, and what we think of American politics. I noticed that German intellectuals will still light up a cigarette when a conversation starts to get interesting. I have barely ever taken a drag off a cigarette, and in fact hate smoke, yet strangely found myself tempted to ask for a Gauloise or whatever it was they were all smoking. Anyway, my friend and I had to get up early the next day to drive to Copenhagen, so we did not get to finish the conversation.

Everywhere I went I told people about children's protective services. "You've got to be kidding", said a friend in Paris, when I told her how my daughter had been taken and put on forced medication by the State of Oregon. Most people said nothing I could tell them about our government would surprise them.

I had a chance to talk with a French psychologist in Paris, a woman who worked in children's services before becoming a psychologist. She had just returned from a weekend retreat with other psychologists and spoke enthusiastically about new projects involving children and adoption. I listened, and then told her what I was seeing in the States with social engineering, children's services, and the use--or misuse--of psychology. Nadine stated that when she had worked in children's services, she was sometimes asked to write up reports on families, but that she did not like to do this.

Maybe it was something about telling my personal story in another language, or maybe that it had been so long since I had really thought about it, that made me get very emotional when I told my story to Philippe and his new girlfriend Audrey--"ma cousine de Martinique"! They made me feel very at home, and that it was ok to talk about it. I realized I had still not fully gotten over the shock and horror of having complete strangers take my daughter and lock her up, put her on dangerous medication, and keep her isolated from her family for nearly a year.

I felt very good about educating so many people on what happened to me and my daughter as a result of the children protective system run amok in Oregon, and hearing their affirming reactions.

I told them many stories of other children and families I have advocated for. I told them about babies who have been taken from their mothers because of breast-feeding, when perceived by a caseworker (pervert?) as being "sexual abuse".

Some had heard about the family from the Marshall Islands which was torn apart based on some photos showing the mother breastfeeding her baby; the parents were charged with child pornography and the baby was taken. What the Europeans I spoke to did not know was that these horror stories are not isolated incidences. Au contraire--they are just a few of the thousands of crimes that are committed against innocent parents and their children every year in the name of child protection.

I told people about the children who are in hiding with their real parents, and how their photos are displayed on the internet as part of the "missing children" list.

I was surprised to see in Edinburgh that children's services offices were open at 7 a.m. and the workers were helpful and friendly. I learned that the Scottish equivalent of CPS is the child protective unit, and that they have a Web site, which I intend to consult. As far as the workers I spoke with knew, there is no group like American Family Rights actively investigating wrongdoing by the Scottish child protective agencies.

During the translator's conference in Edinburgh, a moment of silence was observed at 11:20 a.m. on November 11, the anniversary of the WWII armistice. Sitting next to a young German woman, I got chills realizing I was in Europe, where people have lived through these wars, that we have only learned about in history books. Later that day, I bought a poppy from a Scottish soldier, and have kept it as a souvenir.

A week earlier, as I was driving through the North of France on my way back from Amsterdam, I also experienced some extreme emotions as I visited Arras and Amiens, the many monuments to war heroes and WWII resisters who risked their lives to protect Jews and others who were persecuted by the Nazis. I stopped at several British cemeteries to read the names of soldiers who had died between September 16 and 18, 1918 during the landing of the allied forces.

One of the many highlights of my trip was spending three days in Rome, revisiting places I had been mesmerized by 30 years ago when I went there with a friend from the Pau France program I was participating in. In the youth hostel where I was staying (you don't have to be young anymore to stay in a youth hostel in Europe--you just have to be tough enough to live in prison-like conditions with perfect strangers, of both sexes, most of whom will be between 20 and 25 years old) there was a group of American girls all about 20-21 years old. I told them how special it was to be back in Rome, and thanked them for sharing the bunkroom with an old lady! Later that night one of them told me how much she admired me, at my age, traveling on my own and staying in hostels!  I interviewed many at the Vacanza hostel, though only a few would talk on camera. Only one, a girl from the Midwest, admitted she had voted for Bush.

The last night in the Rome hostel my friend Lori and I were the only women in a roomful of men who looked to be from the Middle East, and who were extremely polite and cordial. It was awkward, and funny, especially when I asked them where they were from and they each said, with their heavy accents, "I'm from London". (I traveled to Rome from Paris, where I was stationed during my trip--but did not tell people, "I am from Paris"!) That seems to be a common response, however from Middle Easterners who have been living in the West, when asked where they are from. There was something cute, though sad, about dorm mates' reluctance to say where they are from.

Sleeping a bunk away from men "from London" was a challenge for me, and renewed my faith in humanity, as I woke up realizing how safe I had been through the night, in spite of my internalized fears of "the other", especially when the other is a male from Saudi Arabia (or wherever they were actually from). It made me think of what Anne Frank said, that in spite of everything, people are basically good, that underneath my fears, it's still possible to see that basic goodness in others. Braving the hostels was like enduring a kind of test of my ability to cooperate, tolerate, and do without. I'm glad I decided to do it, rather than just staying in hotels the whole time.

I had left the US on October 20 thinking maybe I might be the target of some anti-American feelings, which, given what our government is involved in, and has been involved in internationally over the decades would not come as a surprise. I felt none of this. Everywhere I went (except Paris, where people appear just plain "antipathique" (unkind/unfriendly), I encountered pleasant, helpful people, who, when I asked them what they thought of Bush, were quick to express their disapproval. Many insisted on explaining that while they may be disgusted with US foreign policy, they have a positive attitude towards Americans--especially if you are polite and try to speak their language.

During the conference in Edinburgh, I was shocked when I spoke French to another French translator, and was answered back in English, "why are you speaking French to me, you are AN AMERICAN". I have never been spoken to that way and in one moment realized what it might feel like to be the target of racial or cultural discrimination. I asked her if she had a problem with the fact that I was American, but she had nothing else to say. Thinking back, I'm not sure if it was so much her disdain for the US, or maybe her disbelief that an American could speak fluent French. In fact, when I speak French, most Europeans never guess I am American, but when they detect a little accent, usually ask if I am German or Dutch. Americans, because of our geographic isolation from other cultures and languages, do have the reputation of being monoglots.

"Nous sommes tous des enfants immigrés" ("we are all immigrant children") is a popular chant among students who oppose the racist politics of the right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Many French believe that it is the fault of North Africans and other foreigners who move to France that their country has a weaker economy. Le Pen advocates closing the border, which would create enormous hardships, especially for the "harkis" or North Africans who fought with the French government in North Africa during the French colonization, and who, after the French pulled out, were not properly compensated for their alliance with the French Republic.

We have a similar problem here, and many believe that closing the Mexican border would solve economic problems. Maybe they are forgetting that "we are all immigrants" (especially here in America).

I think my greatest joy was making lunch for Philippe's daughter Justice, who is now 14. The last time I had seen her she was maybe 9 or 10, and my daughter must have been about 12 or 13. She is tall and thin now and speaks a little English. I wish I could have spent more time with her.

I also saw and interviewed for my documentary, Frédérique the 28 year old daughter of another friend, Etienne, who is now a professional editor in Paris. It's a real pleasure to see these kids all grown up and living their own lives now.

Another young person who lives in the same building as Philippe, was selling T-shirts as a fundraiser for his trip to Berlin later this year. When I saw the shirt "Ich bin ein Berliner", I had to have one!  It's from a phrase pronounced by John F Kennedy showing his solidarity with the people of Berlin, and resonates with the phrase "we are all Americans" we heard after the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. (During my trip I often wore a sweatshirt left behind by my daughter which says "Suisse";  I joked about being disguised as a Swiss woman in case there was any anti-American activity..

My only regret was not stopping in Nurnberg, which my friend and I passed by on the way in to Berlin. Nurnberg had been a favorite city of Hitler's because of its aristocratic past, and was later the site of the Nurnberg trials, where Goering and the other Nazi judges were tried for crimes against humanity in 1946.

I hope someday to help set up an international tribunal to try children's services officials, and judges like Nan Waller and Linda Hughes, for crimes against children for their participation in the widespread ongoing abuse and exploitation of Oregon children.

I was sad to leave, but happy to be back home, and have already started editing footage from my trip for possible use in a piece on international perspectives on children and child protective services.

Susan Detlefsen
November 20, 2006

---

September 29, 2006 1 p.m. Salem Capitol Building Hearing Room E

DHS victims will finally have a chance to speak to the legislature about what DHS did to their family. Please send a one page resume outlining any foul play by DHS involved in your case, including, for example:

• How did you get involved with DHS?

• Were there false allegations?

• Were you and your children denied due process, ie, a fair hearing?

• Were you threatened by DHS caseworkers?

• Were your children lied to by DHS caseworkers, ie told "you don't care about them", etc?

Email your testimony to: rep.gordonanderson@state.or.us by September 25.

For more information, see Legislative Notice

MotherInterrupted letter to legislators

September 2006

Judge Nan Waller
Multnomah County Circuit Court
1021 SW Fourth Avenue
Portland, OR

Judge Waller, the MMPI-2, Eugenics, and Child Welfare

To Judge Waller, and others concerned:

I recently had my Website reactivated after having been shut down by some psychologists who found that I had published to the internet a copy of the MMPI-2, a tool that is used by the courts now to legitimize taking children and sending people to prison.

Do you like broccoli? This is one of 550 or so moronic questions, which were originally used in parlor games, which now comprise the MMPI. What does it mean if you answer yes? My understanding, based roughly on information from a Portland psychologist, and Annie Murphy's book "The Cult of Personality", is that, depending on which group of mentally ill inpatients from a Minnesota control group answered the same way you do, or with the same patterns, you can be labeled "paranoid", "angry", "depressed", etc. Though there is not really a correct answer for any question, there is a way to "ace" the MMPI.

For more information on the MMPI-2, see:

http://www.familyrightsassociation.com/psych/MMPI/white_papers_on_mmpi.htm

I agreed to remove the MMPI from my Website, motherinterrupted.us, though multiple copies of the exam are now circulating, in prisons, among family rights groups, and on the internet. Anyone who wants a copy of the MMPI can get a copy of it now, before being forced to take it by the courts.

Why were some psychologists so up in arms about my publishing the MMPI, so determined to keep it off the internet (which they can't do) that they hired an attorney to have my Web site shut down? Well, it could very possibly be related to the huge fee they're paid--often with our tax dollars--every time they administer the parlor game (MMPI). A psychologist can reap anywhere from $600 to $1,500 for a couple hours work spinning up a "psych eval" for the courts. 

Routinely, after children are taken, parents are told "all you have to do is have a psych eval to start getting your child transitioned back home". This is a cruel joke played on the parents. By the time the children are taken, the mother may have developed some real mental health issues, namely post-traumatic stress, anger, depression, etc., which, when revealed by the MMPI, or other parlor games used by clever psychologists, will allow DHS to justify keeping the children indefinitely.

On September 11, I was in your courtroom as an independent family advocate for Brent Webster, Deborah McKinney and Austin McKinney. The only thing district attorney Kate von Der Stegge has on Mr. Webster is the fact that he apparently took some pain medication at one time. With the help of her cohort, deputy DA Jose Cienfuegos, von Der Stegge has tried to paint a portrait of Webster as being mentally ill, though his courtroom manner reveals he is polite, clear-thinking, well-paced in his presentations to the court.

Mr. Webster has refused to answer some of von Der Stegge's questions about whether or not he has ever submitted to a "psych eval". The MMPI, and other so-called psych evals are used by children's protective services as cruel moronic weapon to justify taking and keeping children in state custody.

I don't know whether or not Brent Webster has taken the MMPI, but he feels his health information, including any mental health history, is privileged. Brent Webster refuses to submit to DA questioning on any psychiatric or psychological testing that he may or may not have had in the past.

I hope you have read some of the Oregonian articles on DHS, Judge Waller. Please note that grandmother Rose Lucas was denied custody of her grandchildren, not because she was not the best placement, but because she was labeled by DHS as a "troublemaker".

A troublemaker, according to DHS and juvenile court, is any parent who stands up to fight for their children, a parent who rejects DHS' "services" or who exposes DHS fraud and corruption.

While many parents are too afraid to stand up to DHS, a few parents will. These are the parents I advocate for. Even if the parents lose, someday I believe the children (the ones who aren't killed in foster care) will learn the truth, that their parents loved them enough to fight for them in court, in spite of threats and abuse from DHS. Brent is one of these parents.

I offered to testify as a character reference for Brent Webster. Brent declined my offer. That may have been a smart decision, as the State would likely attempt to discredit me as having a vendetta against DHS, which I don't. My daughter came home a long time ago, and is now attending college out of state. What I am is a living witness to DHS abuse of power. 

Brent Webster did agree to have me write this letter on his behalf. 

Brent has been to my house several times to fix doors, toilets, etc. Last time he was here Brent taught me how to fix a toilet myself. I have always safe around Brent, and never had any concerns leaving my teenaged daughter in the house alone with him, if I had to go out while he was fixing something. 

I have met Brent's daughter and his son, and observed that both kids have affection and respect for their father. Brent has apparently not always been as involved as he would like, in the life of his son, but it is not too late for him to have a close relationship with Austin. 

I believe Brent would do whatever is necessary to make himself available to parent Austin full-time if necessary. Both Brent and the boy's mother feel that right now the boy belongs with his Deborah, his mother, with whom he has always lived (before being taken by the State). I don't know Austin's mother, other than what I heard from her doctor and long-time friend, both of whom recommend the children be returned to her, if she has income and housing. 

Most children, including Emily Lake, whom you might remember--she was hiding from CPS with her mother--are turned in to CPS by someone who wants to hurt the parent(s), not by anyone who wants to "protect" them.

I want to end my letter by sharing something I learned the other day reading "Toxic Psychiatry", a book my daughter gave me for Mother's Day last year.

In the 1930s, German psychiatrist Ernst Rudin became the architect of the Nazi eugenics program. Psychiatry and psychology were the tools used by Hitler to weed out the "unfit".

"Some people just shouldn't be parents", says Jose Cienfuegos. I'm sure anyone who survived the Nazi holocaust shudders to hear these words. 

So, Judge Waller, who should decide who "should be parents"? Ramona Foley? The State of Oregon? Don't forget, Hitler was not elected by coup d'état, but by, for and of, the people of Germany. 

Governments can make big mistakes.

We have a children’s holocaust now in this country, because of another failing societal cleansing project.

Please stop allowing the State to use coerced psych evals to decide who is "fit" to be a parent.

Austin McKinney has never been abused or neglected by his mother or father. There is plenty of evidence now for you to see this.

Austin wants to go home. You've heard that over and over again, from everyone, except Austin, who isn't allowed to speak in your courtroom. 

Maybe you should listen to the children once in a while, since you are supposed to be acting in their best interest--not in the best interest of psychologists, caseworkers, foster parents, DAs, attorneys, etc.


Susan Detlefsen
www.motherinterrupted.us

 

June 2006

2006 Portland Gay Pride Parade

Join Susan Detlefsen, "Mother X" and others, June 18, at 10:30 a.m., at NW Davis and Park in downtown Portland. Look out for the MotherInterrupted banner and tee-shirts. Come help spread the word about child welfare fraud, meet candidates running for office, state leaders, and others in the community. Let people know not all who advocate family rights are homophobic bigots. Let gay and lesbians child services workers know that not all gays and lesbians support the lucrative child snatching, foster care and adoption industries operating with our tax dollars.

Help bridge the gap between gay rights and family rights and encourage gays and lesbians to support a mother's right to be with her child, the child's right to be with his or her parents. 

Child welfare fraud is wrong--regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. Stand up for our right to be free of government intrusion into our families.

If your children have been stolen by DHS, bring photos and flyers if you have any.

Help send a clear message to all: if you can't have children of your own, make sure you find out exactly where your cute little adoptables come from, adopt kids from homes where kids are abused or neglected. Our children come from good, loving homes, and most were never abused till DHS got their hands on them.

Leave our kids alone! 

Stop helping the state kidnap, exploit and abuse our children.

Stop adopting kids who come from good, loving homes.

May, 2006

"Shane's Story", a short video that documents the story of a young man's experience in the Oregon foster care system, airs through Portland Community Media, the following dates and times:

• Saturday 5/27/2006, 9:19 PM, Channel 23

• Monday 5/29/2006, 9:54 PM, Channel 22

• Wednesday 5/31/2006, 7:18 PM, Channel 23

• Tuesday 6/6/2006, 4:28 PM, Channel 22

• Monday 6/12/2006, 5:44 PM, Channel 11

---

The Taking of Baby Blaze, of Kansas, formerly of Oregon

Blaze and I were sitting in the bedroom playing when in walked two police officers (November 25, 2005).  At that point my heart sank.  They told me they had a warrant to pick up Blaze and I asked them why.  They  were unsure of the circumstances and told me if it was up to them they would just leave them with me.  The officers were very polite and explained everything to me. They let me spend about 15-20 minutes with him and let me put him in the car.  But it still did not make anything easier.  I was worried about him.  How well he would eat being breastfed and all.  He had also refused the bottle in the past.  I cried a lot cause it just ripped my heart out.  I could only imagine what he was going through.  He could not defend himself.  Also how would he react to the formula.  The first time after he was taken that I got in the car to go somewhere was hard cause he was not there for me to take with me.  I am still having a hard time.  I am pumping breast milk 4-6 times a day for him as I have been doing since they took him.  It was also hard that they would think that I was a danger to my baby and they had no reason or no proof of anything.  I just can't wait for the day that he will be home and safe again.  They are doing more harm to him by taking him and putting him on formula and taking him from the people that love and care for him and taking him from his mother. Every day is hell without him.  I need to see him and know that he is doing alright.  He is too little to have to deal with the stress these people have caused him.  It has been 18 days since I last saw him and it feels like an eternity.  Lets just hope and pray he will be home for Christmas.

 

Rhonda