By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon—
I am feeling a great deal of empathy for the family of Kyron Horman, who spoke at a press conference today, eight weeks after their 7-year-old son was abducted.
Eight weeks after my four children disappeared from Oregon 14 years ago, my lawyer was able to obtain a PO Box number in Eden, Utah. It was our first clue to the general location of my children, somewhere in the mountains east of Ogden.
I later learned that mail was being received there, but not actually picked up by anyone, and that the letters I had been writing to my children's mother's last address were actually being forwarded to a woman in Hillsboro, a person named Evelyn Taylor.
By then, I had already learned that several people were involved in the kidnapping, that it had been in the works for months.
I learned even later that it is not illegal to receive mail intended for abducted children.
Later still, I learned that more than 200,000 US children are abducted by family members or persons known to the victims every year, and that the majority involve multiple perpetrators.
You learn these things one at a time when your children disappear.
A lot of numbness sets into your bones at the eight-week mark. The world feels completely empty.
And it stays that way.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Parental abduction wisdom, pt 9: When the police figure it out
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon--
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday, more than 50 days after Kyron Horman disappeared, that they were now convinced that a crime had taken place in the disappearance of Kyron Horman.
While it took law enforcement more than a month to decide that the disappearance of a 7-year-old child was a criminal matter, Kyron's family knew it right away.
When your child disappears, like mine did 14 years ago, you know right away that a crime has been and is being committed. Sometimes the police never figure it out….
Most of us who are parents knew by the end of the first day Kyron went missing that a crime had been committed, somewhere, somehow, by someone.
This child was not lost, had not wandered off on his own, this child had been taken, whether by a stranger or by a person known to the child, we did not know, but what we knew for certain was that a crime was being committed against this child and against this child’s family.
ALL of us who are parents of kidnapped children, parents of children who have vanished with or without a trace, we knew right away.
The police needed more than a month to come to that conclusion, in a case as obvious as Kyron Horman's.
They are MUCH slower when the issues aren't so clear-cut, like when the children have vanished along with a parent or family member.
The police will take reports of missing children and there’s a filing system for those reports, where they usually wind up.
But if a family member, if a parent is gone with the child(ren), then local law enforcement rarely forwards the report on to the Oregon State Police, which explains why so few abducted children are ever listed on the OSP website, which also explains why the Sheriff’s Office is unaware of any other children missing in Oregon “that meet the criteria.”
Many of those children are gone forever.
And that’s a crime, the same crime that began on the day each child disappeared, a continuing crime, crimes with beginnings but no end.
Try to tell them that when your child disappears, you'll see....
Portland, Oregon--
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday, more than 50 days after Kyron Horman disappeared, that they were now convinced that a crime had taken place in the disappearance of Kyron Horman.
While it took law enforcement more than a month to decide that the disappearance of a 7-year-old child was a criminal matter, Kyron's family knew it right away.
When your child disappears, like mine did 14 years ago, you know right away that a crime has been and is being committed. Sometimes the police never figure it out….
Most of us who are parents knew by the end of the first day Kyron went missing that a crime had been committed, somewhere, somehow, by someone.
This child was not lost, had not wandered off on his own, this child had been taken, whether by a stranger or by a person known to the child, we did not know, but what we knew for certain was that a crime was being committed against this child and against this child’s family.
ALL of us who are parents of kidnapped children, parents of children who have vanished with or without a trace, we knew right away.
The police needed more than a month to come to that conclusion, in a case as obvious as Kyron Horman's.
They are MUCH slower when the issues aren't so clear-cut, like when the children have vanished along with a parent or family member.
The police will take reports of missing children and there’s a filing system for those reports, where they usually wind up.
But if a family member, if a parent is gone with the child(ren), then local law enforcement rarely forwards the report on to the Oregon State Police, which explains why so few abducted children are ever listed on the OSP website, which also explains why the Sheriff’s Office is unaware of any other children missing in Oregon “that meet the criteria.”
Many of those children are gone forever.
And that’s a crime, the same crime that began on the day each child disappeared, a continuing crime, crimes with beginnings but no end.
Try to tell them that when your child disappears, you'll see....
Monday, July 26, 2010
Jim Pepper Hour of Power on KBOO 90.7FM
Portland, Oregon—Nick Gefroh will host the Jim Pepper Hour of Power from noon until 2:00 on Wednesday July 28.
Here’s the link for live streaming audio:
http://kboo.fm/
I will bring my collection of rare Jim Pepper recordings and Nick will bring his, and you’re right, the show IS two hours long! It won't be long enough! You'll see….
Here’s the link for live streaming audio:
http://kboo.fm/
I will bring my collection of rare Jim Pepper recordings and Nick will bring his, and you’re right, the show IS two hours long! It won't be long enough! You'll see….
Friday, July 09, 2010
Parental abduction wisdom, pt 8: To murder the soul
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon—
Former Portland police detective C.W. Jensen recently gave his opinion regarding the presumptive motive for the abduction of Kyron Horman:
“If you are really, really angry at someone, you can kill them, or you can kill their soul by taking their child away, and that’s what I’m afraid happened here.”
Every year, more than 200,000 US children are abducted by family members or persons known to the victims. The crime is horrific, but only a tiny percentage receive any attention by the media, the public or law enforcement.
In all of these cases, the abductors intend to murder the soul of the victim parent by causing their child to disappear, and are willing to murder the soul of the child victim as collateral damage.
High-conflict custody battles are common; parents use their children as weapons in far too many cases, but the abduction of a child is indeed tantamount to murder.
When my four children disappeared on February 12, 1996, 14 years ago, kidnapped by my former wife and a group of Mormon officials in three states, no one was interested. Four children vanished. Zero interest. Ho hum.
My former wife wanted to murder my soul, and was willing to put our children through hell to do so; the Mormons that Kory and Chris Wright organized to carry out the abduction wanted to re-engineer my children’s personalities, at a cost to my family that was irrelevant to them, and through a process that led to the death of my son Aaron Cruz.
Those Mormons included Evelyn Taylor and Mormon Bishop David Holliday in Washington County, Mormon Bishop Donald Taylor in Clark County and Utah resident Steve Nielson, who would become my former wife’s fourth husband, who I would later learn slapped my children around throughout their marriage.
Retired Portland police commander Cliff Madison, interviewed today about the Kyron Horman case, made a comment that resonated with my experience, referring to the revelation that Terri Horman, Kyron’s stepmom, might be involved in the 7-year-old’s disappearance:
“They’ve just been hit with a big right hook, because all of a sudden the possibility of someone within the family being involved. It is a shock, because we all refuse to believe that until it is thrown in our faces.”
It is that refusal to believe, on the part of law enforcement, the media and the public, on the part of the courts, that refusal to believe that a family member would kidnap a beautiful child, that stands in the way of recovery and of achieving justice in many, many cases.
That refusal to believe that a family member would do such a thing causes the wheels to turn slowly, if at all.
In most cases, the family is entirely on its own. No cops, no detectives, no media, no public outcry…ho hum….
In the months and years that followed the disappearance of my children, I nearly died from shock, from grief, from bereavement, from depression and from suicide, when I had run out of hope and was overwhelmed by the pain.
My mother died four years after the abduction began, without seeing or hearing from her grandchildren again. That fact alone speaks to the character of the people involved in the abduction.
Remember that kidnappings are continuing crimes, crimes with a beginning but no end….
The abduction of Kyron Horman has thrown the fact in our faces, that a person in a trust relationship with a child, a family member, could inflict harm on this scale, and law enforcement, the public and even the media are getting involved.
There was a time when they could have expended just a little bit of energy and saved my family, could have saved Aaron’s life….
Now there is Aaron’s Law on the Oregon books, soon to be modeled in other states, and with it a drive to end parental and family abductions in this country.
I hope that they find some time to take an interest in that, too.
Portland, Oregon—
Former Portland police detective C.W. Jensen recently gave his opinion regarding the presumptive motive for the abduction of Kyron Horman:
“If you are really, really angry at someone, you can kill them, or you can kill their soul by taking their child away, and that’s what I’m afraid happened here.”
Every year, more than 200,000 US children are abducted by family members or persons known to the victims. The crime is horrific, but only a tiny percentage receive any attention by the media, the public or law enforcement.
In all of these cases, the abductors intend to murder the soul of the victim parent by causing their child to disappear, and are willing to murder the soul of the child victim as collateral damage.
High-conflict custody battles are common; parents use their children as weapons in far too many cases, but the abduction of a child is indeed tantamount to murder.
When my four children disappeared on February 12, 1996, 14 years ago, kidnapped by my former wife and a group of Mormon officials in three states, no one was interested. Four children vanished. Zero interest. Ho hum.
My former wife wanted to murder my soul, and was willing to put our children through hell to do so; the Mormons that Kory and Chris Wright organized to carry out the abduction wanted to re-engineer my children’s personalities, at a cost to my family that was irrelevant to them, and through a process that led to the death of my son Aaron Cruz.
Those Mormons included Evelyn Taylor and Mormon Bishop David Holliday in Washington County, Mormon Bishop Donald Taylor in Clark County and Utah resident Steve Nielson, who would become my former wife’s fourth husband, who I would later learn slapped my children around throughout their marriage.
Retired Portland police commander Cliff Madison, interviewed today about the Kyron Horman case, made a comment that resonated with my experience, referring to the revelation that Terri Horman, Kyron’s stepmom, might be involved in the 7-year-old’s disappearance:
“They’ve just been hit with a big right hook, because all of a sudden the possibility of someone within the family being involved. It is a shock, because we all refuse to believe that until it is thrown in our faces.”
It is that refusal to believe, on the part of law enforcement, the media and the public, on the part of the courts, that refusal to believe that a family member would kidnap a beautiful child, that stands in the way of recovery and of achieving justice in many, many cases.
That refusal to believe that a family member would do such a thing causes the wheels to turn slowly, if at all.
In most cases, the family is entirely on its own. No cops, no detectives, no media, no public outcry…ho hum….
In the months and years that followed the disappearance of my children, I nearly died from shock, from grief, from bereavement, from depression and from suicide, when I had run out of hope and was overwhelmed by the pain.
My mother died four years after the abduction began, without seeing or hearing from her grandchildren again. That fact alone speaks to the character of the people involved in the abduction.
Remember that kidnappings are continuing crimes, crimes with a beginning but no end….
The abduction of Kyron Horman has thrown the fact in our faces, that a person in a trust relationship with a child, a family member, could inflict harm on this scale, and law enforcement, the public and even the media are getting involved.
There was a time when they could have expended just a little bit of energy and saved my family, could have saved Aaron’s life….
Now there is Aaron’s Law on the Oregon books, soon to be modeled in other states, and with it a drive to end parental and family abductions in this country.
I hope that they find some time to take an interest in that, too.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Parental abduction wisdom, pt 7: Complicated Grief and a Continuing Crime
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon—
I began the Parental Abduction Wisdom series in 2009, but the subject was so painful that I had to step back after posting the sixth installment, “The Little Girl in the Blue Dress”, nearly a year ago.
Kidnappings are continuing crimes, however, and the damage to the Cruz family continues to mount with the passage of every minute of every day.
The present case involving the disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman illustrates the concept of a continuing crime very clearly: the public generally understands that this child is just as kidnapped today as he was when he disappeared several weeks ago. The crime continues….
My experience, as the victim of a parental, family and Mormon kidnapping, has been entirely different. Few have understood the continuing nature of the crime, many have wondered at why I haven’t let the crime (and my children) go, and some have expressed frustration that I haven’t “moved on.”
I want to note here that each of my critics can pick up the phone and speak with their living children any time that they want to…and that none have experienced the disappearance of their child….
Before I saw the Oregonian article linked below, I had never heard of "complicated grief syndrome", but I realize that it attaches to cases of child abduction, like mine, which began with the abduction of my four children in a Mormon kidnapping.
Unlike deaths, time and aging bring no closure to kidnapping victims. There is no "coming to peace with it." Only the mending of the relationships can bring closure.
Kidnappings are "continuing crimes", meaning that the crime has a beginning but no end, not before the victims are reunited and the kidnappers see justice served.
I want Mormon kidnappers Kory and Chris Wright in particular to take notice of that last statement. The crime has no end. Justice…will…be…served!
So long as people believe that they will get away with abducting a child, they will do so. In the case of Mormon zealots like the Wrights, they will relish pulling off a child abduction, if the purpose is to absorb the child into their belief system.
More on this later.
I am reviving the Parental Abduction Wisdom series with this post. There is no end in sight.
Here is an excerpt from the Oregonian article on Complicated Grief Syndrome:
“We are built to love, biologically programmed to attach. To lose that relationship, as everyone does, is to meet sorrow.
“Early in grief, humans yearn for the one who died, until we recognize that search is futile. Psychiatrist M. Katherine Shear says this transformation occurs in the brain circuitry and we eventually come to peace. ‘Death is a part of life and we have the mechanisms to come to terms with it,’ says the Columbia University professor.
“But in the 1990s, Shear and other researchers realized that about 15 percent of the bereaved suffer ‘complicated grief,’ stuck in a loop of despair. Their longing for the loved one overcomes all other desires. They either avoid any mention of the dead or become totally preoccupied. They daydream about being together and have suicidal thoughts. Brain imaging shows their reactions differ from people who progress through the grieving process. Researchers want complicated-grief disorder and its treatment included in the 2012 American Psychiatric Association diagnostic manual.
“No one tracks how losing a young, healthy child in war can push parents and other survivors to suicide. Yet, complicated grief almost exclusively occurs after the loss of a person's closest, most rewarding relationships. Losing a beloved child is one of the most obvious risks, and losing an only child, greater still.
"’Debra wanted to be with Michael,’ George says, ‘Wherever he was.’"
The complete article is titled: " Measures of Sacrifice: Answering the call to military binds a patriotic Oregon family", here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2010/07/measures_of_sacrifice_answerin.html
My heart goes out to this family.
Portland, Oregon—
I began the Parental Abduction Wisdom series in 2009, but the subject was so painful that I had to step back after posting the sixth installment, “The Little Girl in the Blue Dress”, nearly a year ago.
Kidnappings are continuing crimes, however, and the damage to the Cruz family continues to mount with the passage of every minute of every day.
The present case involving the disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman illustrates the concept of a continuing crime very clearly: the public generally understands that this child is just as kidnapped today as he was when he disappeared several weeks ago. The crime continues….
My experience, as the victim of a parental, family and Mormon kidnapping, has been entirely different. Few have understood the continuing nature of the crime, many have wondered at why I haven’t let the crime (and my children) go, and some have expressed frustration that I haven’t “moved on.”
I want to note here that each of my critics can pick up the phone and speak with their living children any time that they want to…and that none have experienced the disappearance of their child….
Before I saw the Oregonian article linked below, I had never heard of "complicated grief syndrome", but I realize that it attaches to cases of child abduction, like mine, which began with the abduction of my four children in a Mormon kidnapping.
Unlike deaths, time and aging bring no closure to kidnapping victims. There is no "coming to peace with it." Only the mending of the relationships can bring closure.
Kidnappings are "continuing crimes", meaning that the crime has a beginning but no end, not before the victims are reunited and the kidnappers see justice served.
I want Mormon kidnappers Kory and Chris Wright in particular to take notice of that last statement. The crime has no end. Justice…will…be…served!
So long as people believe that they will get away with abducting a child, they will do so. In the case of Mormon zealots like the Wrights, they will relish pulling off a child abduction, if the purpose is to absorb the child into their belief system.
I am reviving the Parental Abduction Wisdom series with this post. There is no end in sight.
Here is an excerpt from the Oregonian article on Complicated Grief Syndrome:
“We are built to love, biologically programmed to attach. To lose that relationship, as everyone does, is to meet sorrow.
“Early in grief, humans yearn for the one who died, until we recognize that search is futile. Psychiatrist M. Katherine Shear says this transformation occurs in the brain circuitry and we eventually come to peace. ‘Death is a part of life and we have the mechanisms to come to terms with it,’ says the Columbia University professor.
“But in the 1990s, Shear and other researchers realized that about 15 percent of the bereaved suffer ‘complicated grief,’ stuck in a loop of despair. Their longing for the loved one overcomes all other desires. They either avoid any mention of the dead or become totally preoccupied. They daydream about being together and have suicidal thoughts. Brain imaging shows their reactions differ from people who progress through the grieving process. Researchers want complicated-grief disorder and its treatment included in the 2012 American Psychiatric Association diagnostic manual.
“No one tracks how losing a young, healthy child in war can push parents and other survivors to suicide. Yet, complicated grief almost exclusively occurs after the loss of a person's closest, most rewarding relationships. Losing a beloved child is one of the most obvious risks, and losing an only child, greater still.
"’Debra wanted to be with Michael,’ George says, ‘Wherever he was.’"
The complete article is titled: " Measures of Sacrifice: Answering the call to military binds a patriotic Oregon family", here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2010/07/measures_of_sacrifice_answerin.html
My heart goes out to this family.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
2010 Jim Pepper Arts Festival announcements coming soon!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon) We’ll be going live midsummer! Meanwhile, see the following brief (!) Gunther Schuller bio. The complete one will run a couple of volumes! Please note the last paragraph, referencing Gunther's 85th birthday this year, being celebrated at more than a dozen tribute concerts around the world.
Gunther's leaving us after the conclusion of the Jim Pepper Arts Festival to fly directly to Greece, to one of those tribute concerts, where he'll receive another honorary doctorate to add to the dozen or so others….
On September 28 at Portland State University, he will be honored as the Founding Occupant of the Jim Pepper Hunga-Che-Ada Flying Eagle Chair in the Department of Native American Studies, fulfilling Oregon Senate Joint Resolution 31 (2005), “to further the study of Native American music and its relationship to jazz.”
As the Jim Pepper Chair, Gunther will be with us for two weeks as an artist-in-residence, working with the University, students and faculty, and with the Portland community, to leverage the genius of Jim Pepper, the brilliant Native American saxophonist, singer, dancer, bandleader, innovator and composer, into an instrument that makes real differences in real lives, building a path to higher education for Native American students, financed with Jim Pepper Remembrance Scholarships.
The 2010 Jim Pepper Arts Festival will culminate at Trinity Cathedral on Oct 7, 8 and 9 with the American premiere performance of “Gunther Schuller’s Witchi-Tai-To: The Music of Jim Pepper”.
This series will feature the Portland Chamber Orchestra, Gunther Schuller conducting, with the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band and the Intertribal Veterans Powwow Drum from Ft. Defiance, Arizona. Native American poet and storyteller Ed Edmo will also be on the bill.
All Jim Pepper events are benefits for the Native American Studies Department, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at Portland State University.
Let's not forget to wish Gunther a happy birthday while he's in town.
Sean
Gunther Schuller (b. 1925, Jackson Heights, NY)
Gunther Schuller has earned prominence as a composer, conductor, jazz and classical performer, author, educator, administrator, music publisher, record producer, and all-around advocate of other innovative musicians. He is the winner of several major honors including the Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Genius Award, DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award and inaugural membership in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Born to an artist mother and a New York Philharmonic violinist father on St. Cecilia’s Day, which celebrates the Patron Saint of Music, Schuller’s destiny was clear early on. Within his first 15 years, he would discover talent for both art and music. That combination would lead to some of his most exciting compositions, including his well known Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959). Another famous combination of interests, classical music and jazz, would go on to define his career and secure his place in the musical history of the 20th century as a leader in the “Third Stream” movement.
He began as a composer, studied flute, and then switched to French horn. Schuller had already performed professionally under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and Antal Dorati before becoming the principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 17 in 1943. In his two important years in Cincinnati, Schuller first met Duke Ellington and developed an insatiable appetite for live jazz. By the time he joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1945, Schuller was spending much of his time at the dozen or so clubs on Broadway and New York’s legendary 52nd Street with his wife, Marjorie Black Schuller (1925-92).
His early involvement with the New York jazz scene eventually led to a life-long relationship with the Modern Jazz Quartet’s John Lewis, then a young bebop pianist with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1950, Lewis suggested Schuller replace an absent French horn player on the third and final Birth of the Cool session led by Miles Davis. Schuller would go on to record two more albums with Davis, including 1958’s Porgy and Bess with Gil Evans, and several more with Lewis as a major collaborator. Together they created the Jazz and Classical Music Society in 1955, founded the Lenox School of Jazz in 1957, performed on each other’s recordings (1955-65), and co-led the Third Stream ensemble Orchestra USA from 1962-65.
Despite collaborations with musical titans like Milton Babbitt, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Dimitri Mitropolous on the classical side and Charles Mingus, J.J. Johnson, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Scott LaFaro, and the Modern Jazz Quartet on the jazz side, Third Stream music was mostly maligned by critics and poorly supported by the public. But Schuller, who had gained classical recognition for his composing of works like Symphony for Brass and Percussion (1950) and his first book, Horn Technique (1962), never missed a beat. With references like Leonard Bernstein, conductor of Schuller’s Triplum (1967) with the New York Philharmonic and a close friend, Schuller’s star was on the rise in the classical world.
He left the Met in 1959, and continued to freelance on French horn with artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra until retiring to focus on composing in 1963. That year also began his twenty-two year association with the Berkshire Music Center where he presented Tanglewood’s first-ever jazz concert (1963), and served as Head of Contemporary Music Activities (1963-84) and Artistic Director (1969-1984).
In 1967, Schuller left his position as Associate Professor of Composition at Yale University to become the President of the New England Conservatory in Boston. At the helm of the NEC, he created the first conservatory-level degree program in jazz, founded three important jazz repertory orchestras including the Grammy-winning NEC Ragtime Ensemble, formed the Third Stream Department, and assembled an amazing array of talented faculty including George Russell, Joe Maneri, Ran Blake, Russell Sherman, Jaki Byard, Victor Rosenbaum, John Heiss and Benjamin Zander.
Before Schuller’s performances with the NEC’s Ragtime Ensemble helped spur the worldwide revival of interest in Scott Joplin in 1972-73, he would write the first of his seminal jazz books (Early Jazz: It’s Roots and Musical Development, 1968), tour Eastern Europe extensively for the U.S. State Department (1963-78), receive the first three of his eleven honorary doctorates in music, and premiere two of his operas (1966’s The Visitation and 1970’s The Fisherman and his Wife). In 1975, Schuller orchestrated Joplin’s opera Treemonisha and premiered and recorded it with the Houston Opera, also performing it on Broadway.
Also in 1975, Schuller founded the first of his three companies, Margun Music, to publish the works of composers like Alec Wilder and many younger, less-known composers who deserved public recognition. Before being sold in 1999, Margun, and its sister company GunMar, published over 1000 works. GM Recordings, Schuller’s independent record label, released its first recording in 1981—the piano music of twelve-tone composer Robert DiDomenica—and celebrates its 20th anniversary and the issuance of over 115 jazz and classical recordings in 2001. Schuller has received the Alice M. Ditson Award (1970) and many other honors for his selfless championing of other musicians.
After retiring from the presidency of NEC and his directorial position at Tanglewood, Schuller spent most of the 1980’s as one of the primary on-call composers for orchestras performing contemporary classical works. He also premiered his jazz ballet, The Great Gatsby (1987), in Pittsburgh, wrote his second award-winning jazz book, The Swing Era (1989), and edited Charles Mingus’ Epitaph for its posthumous premiere at Lincoln Center in New York (1989).
The 1990’s were arguably Schuller’s most productive decade. He collected a throng of awards including the MacArthur Genius Award (1991), the DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award (1993), the Pulitzer Prize for Composition (1994), the BMI Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), Musical America’s Composer of the Year (1995), the DownBeat Critics Poll Jazz Album of the Year with Joe Lovano (1995), and Columbia University’s William Schumann Award for lifetime achievement (1989).
He co-directed and transcribed early jazz music for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (1991-97) and in 1997 released his controversial treatise on conducting, The Compleat Conductor (Oxford University Press). He also won the Gold Medal in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1997), and was commissioned to compose a piece for the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, The Black Warrior, which premiered in Birmingham, Alabama (1998).
In 2000, he arranged several of Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper’s compositions for orchestra, jazz band, powwow drum and singers.
“Gunther Schuller’s Witchi-Tai-To: The Music of Jim Pepper,” was recorded in Cologne, Germany on Tutu Records, Gunther Schuller conducting the WDR Radio Orchestra, members of the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band, and Yellowhammer, a Ponca Southern-style powwow drum and singers from Oklahoma.
Approaching his sixtieth year in professional music in 2002, Gunther Schuller has composed nearly 180 works and is still active as a world-traveling conductor, public speaker, and label president/producer with GM Recordings. He is currently documenting his unique life experiences in a long-awaited autobiography and celebrating his 85th birthday at more than a dozen tribute concerts around the world.
(Portland, Oregon) We’ll be going live midsummer! Meanwhile, see the following brief (!) Gunther Schuller bio. The complete one will run a couple of volumes! Please note the last paragraph, referencing Gunther's 85th birthday this year, being celebrated at more than a dozen tribute concerts around the world.
Gunther's leaving us after the conclusion of the Jim Pepper Arts Festival to fly directly to Greece, to one of those tribute concerts, where he'll receive another honorary doctorate to add to the dozen or so others….
On September 28 at Portland State University, he will be honored as the Founding Occupant of the Jim Pepper Hunga-Che-Ada Flying Eagle Chair in the Department of Native American Studies, fulfilling Oregon Senate Joint Resolution 31 (2005), “to further the study of Native American music and its relationship to jazz.”
As the Jim Pepper Chair, Gunther will be with us for two weeks as an artist-in-residence, working with the University, students and faculty, and with the Portland community, to leverage the genius of Jim Pepper, the brilliant Native American saxophonist, singer, dancer, bandleader, innovator and composer, into an instrument that makes real differences in real lives, building a path to higher education for Native American students, financed with Jim Pepper Remembrance Scholarships.
The 2010 Jim Pepper Arts Festival will culminate at Trinity Cathedral on Oct 7, 8 and 9 with the American premiere performance of “Gunther Schuller’s Witchi-Tai-To: The Music of Jim Pepper”.
This series will feature the Portland Chamber Orchestra, Gunther Schuller conducting, with the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band and the Intertribal Veterans Powwow Drum from Ft. Defiance, Arizona. Native American poet and storyteller Ed Edmo will also be on the bill.
All Jim Pepper events are benefits for the Native American Studies Department, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at Portland State University.
Let's not forget to wish Gunther a happy birthday while he's in town.
Sean
Gunther Schuller (b. 1925, Jackson Heights, NY)
Gunther Schuller has earned prominence as a composer, conductor, jazz and classical performer, author, educator, administrator, music publisher, record producer, and all-around advocate of other innovative musicians. He is the winner of several major honors including the Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Genius Award, DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award and inaugural membership in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Born to an artist mother and a New York Philharmonic violinist father on St. Cecilia’s Day, which celebrates the Patron Saint of Music, Schuller’s destiny was clear early on. Within his first 15 years, he would discover talent for both art and music. That combination would lead to some of his most exciting compositions, including his well known Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959). Another famous combination of interests, classical music and jazz, would go on to define his career and secure his place in the musical history of the 20th century as a leader in the “Third Stream” movement.
He began as a composer, studied flute, and then switched to French horn. Schuller had already performed professionally under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and Antal Dorati before becoming the principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 17 in 1943. In his two important years in Cincinnati, Schuller first met Duke Ellington and developed an insatiable appetite for live jazz. By the time he joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1945, Schuller was spending much of his time at the dozen or so clubs on Broadway and New York’s legendary 52nd Street with his wife, Marjorie Black Schuller (1925-92).
His early involvement with the New York jazz scene eventually led to a life-long relationship with the Modern Jazz Quartet’s John Lewis, then a young bebop pianist with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1950, Lewis suggested Schuller replace an absent French horn player on the third and final Birth of the Cool session led by Miles Davis. Schuller would go on to record two more albums with Davis, including 1958’s Porgy and Bess with Gil Evans, and several more with Lewis as a major collaborator. Together they created the Jazz and Classical Music Society in 1955, founded the Lenox School of Jazz in 1957, performed on each other’s recordings (1955-65), and co-led the Third Stream ensemble Orchestra USA from 1962-65.
Despite collaborations with musical titans like Milton Babbitt, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Dimitri Mitropolous on the classical side and Charles Mingus, J.J. Johnson, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Scott LaFaro, and the Modern Jazz Quartet on the jazz side, Third Stream music was mostly maligned by critics and poorly supported by the public. But Schuller, who had gained classical recognition for his composing of works like Symphony for Brass and Percussion (1950) and his first book, Horn Technique (1962), never missed a beat. With references like Leonard Bernstein, conductor of Schuller’s Triplum (1967) with the New York Philharmonic and a close friend, Schuller’s star was on the rise in the classical world.
He left the Met in 1959, and continued to freelance on French horn with artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra until retiring to focus on composing in 1963. That year also began his twenty-two year association with the Berkshire Music Center where he presented Tanglewood’s first-ever jazz concert (1963), and served as Head of Contemporary Music Activities (1963-84) and Artistic Director (1969-1984).
In 1967, Schuller left his position as Associate Professor of Composition at Yale University to become the President of the New England Conservatory in Boston. At the helm of the NEC, he created the first conservatory-level degree program in jazz, founded three important jazz repertory orchestras including the Grammy-winning NEC Ragtime Ensemble, formed the Third Stream Department, and assembled an amazing array of talented faculty including George Russell, Joe Maneri, Ran Blake, Russell Sherman, Jaki Byard, Victor Rosenbaum, John Heiss and Benjamin Zander.
Before Schuller’s performances with the NEC’s Ragtime Ensemble helped spur the worldwide revival of interest in Scott Joplin in 1972-73, he would write the first of his seminal jazz books (Early Jazz: It’s Roots and Musical Development, 1968), tour Eastern Europe extensively for the U.S. State Department (1963-78), receive the first three of his eleven honorary doctorates in music, and premiere two of his operas (1966’s The Visitation and 1970’s The Fisherman and his Wife). In 1975, Schuller orchestrated Joplin’s opera Treemonisha and premiered and recorded it with the Houston Opera, also performing it on Broadway.
Also in 1975, Schuller founded the first of his three companies, Margun Music, to publish the works of composers like Alec Wilder and many younger, less-known composers who deserved public recognition. Before being sold in 1999, Margun, and its sister company GunMar, published over 1000 works. GM Recordings, Schuller’s independent record label, released its first recording in 1981—the piano music of twelve-tone composer Robert DiDomenica—and celebrates its 20th anniversary and the issuance of over 115 jazz and classical recordings in 2001. Schuller has received the Alice M. Ditson Award (1970) and many other honors for his selfless championing of other musicians.
After retiring from the presidency of NEC and his directorial position at Tanglewood, Schuller spent most of the 1980’s as one of the primary on-call composers for orchestras performing contemporary classical works. He also premiered his jazz ballet, The Great Gatsby (1987), in Pittsburgh, wrote his second award-winning jazz book, The Swing Era (1989), and edited Charles Mingus’ Epitaph for its posthumous premiere at Lincoln Center in New York (1989).
The 1990’s were arguably Schuller’s most productive decade. He collected a throng of awards including the MacArthur Genius Award (1991), the DownBeat Lifetime Achievement Award (1993), the Pulitzer Prize for Composition (1994), the BMI Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), Musical America’s Composer of the Year (1995), the DownBeat Critics Poll Jazz Album of the Year with Joe Lovano (1995), and Columbia University’s William Schumann Award for lifetime achievement (1989).
He co-directed and transcribed early jazz music for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (1991-97) and in 1997 released his controversial treatise on conducting, The Compleat Conductor (Oxford University Press). He also won the Gold Medal in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1997), and was commissioned to compose a piece for the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, The Black Warrior, which premiered in Birmingham, Alabama (1998).
In 2000, he arranged several of Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper’s compositions for orchestra, jazz band, powwow drum and singers.
“Gunther Schuller’s Witchi-Tai-To: The Music of Jim Pepper,” was recorded in Cologne, Germany on Tutu Records, Gunther Schuller conducting the WDR Radio Orchestra, members of the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band, and Yellowhammer, a Ponca Southern-style powwow drum and singers from Oklahoma.
Approaching his sixtieth year in professional music in 2002, Gunther Schuller has composed nearly 180 works and is still active as a world-traveling conductor, public speaker, and label president/producer with GM Recordings. He is currently documenting his unique life experiences in a long-awaited autobiography and celebrating his 85th birthday at more than a dozen tribute concerts around the world.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
“Bureaucratize It” Oregon GOP Governor candidate Chris Dudley to create new political bureaucracy!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)—Chris Dudley plans to create a new bureaucracy of political appointees in the Governor’s Office, with new titles of “State Budget Director” and “a Budget Review Team”, and order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies.
Reaching deep into his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, Dudley posted his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
Dudley’s proposed State Budget Director will not have any actual budgetary authority, but will report to the GOP Governor and help him understand what the fiscal reports and audits mean in language he can understand, and will lead the proposed Budget Review Team, acting as the Governor’s Point Guard on the Budget, doing the work that the Governor normally would be doing himself.
Dudley has not disclosed the salaries and PERS benefits his “experts in public and private finance” are looking forward to claiming, nor a short list of who these essential Team Dudley members might be, saving that information for after the election.
Since the Oregon GOP platform calls for the “abolition of the Department of Education”, it is possible that Dudley plans to pay for his Budget Review bureaucracy with savings gained from shutting down the Oregon DOE and moving into their offices, but that is only conjecture (except for the call to abolish the Department of Education).
There is speculation that Dudley’s new Governor’s Budget Review Team will also be proponents of Creationism and thus serve a dual role, advising Dudley’s new State Education Director on the many budget-saving faith-based curriculum ideas as called for in the Oregon GOP platform, which would replace the abolished Department of Education.
(Portland, Oregon)—Chris Dudley plans to create a new bureaucracy of political appointees in the Governor’s Office, with new titles of “State Budget Director” and “a Budget Review Team”, and order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies.
Reaching deep into his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, Dudley posted his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
Dudley’s proposed State Budget Director will not have any actual budgetary authority, but will report to the GOP Governor and help him understand what the fiscal reports and audits mean in language he can understand, and will lead the proposed Budget Review Team, acting as the Governor’s Point Guard on the Budget, doing the work that the Governor normally would be doing himself.
Dudley has not disclosed the salaries and PERS benefits his “experts in public and private finance” are looking forward to claiming, nor a short list of who these essential Team Dudley members might be, saving that information for after the election.
Since the Oregon GOP platform calls for the “abolition of the Department of Education”, it is possible that Dudley plans to pay for his Budget Review bureaucracy with savings gained from shutting down the Oregon DOE and moving into their offices, but that is only conjecture (except for the call to abolish the Department of Education).
There is speculation that Dudley’s new Governor’s Budget Review Team will also be proponents of Creationism and thus serve a dual role, advising Dudley’s new State Education Director on the many budget-saving faith-based curriculum ideas as called for in the Oregon GOP platform, which would replace the abolished Department of Education.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Father's Day 2010, child abduction and Aaron's Law
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon--I last had a reason to celebrate Father’s Day 14 years ago, other than honoring my own father and grandfather, not since my four children disappeared into concealment in Mormon Utah in February, 1996.
Abducted children are never permitted to celebrate any memory honoring a left-behind parent, much less a holiday, and the day becomes radioactive for all its victims. No cards, letters, gifts or phone calls will get through in either direction.
Abducted children suffer the devastating loss of a parent, but are never permitted to mourn. My children were compelled to celebrate Father’s Day with a succession of three stepdads in three states, no trace memories of me or my family allowed.
The abducting parent, family members and other criminal associates involved in an abduction will work hard to destroy every emotional connection the child(ren) have to the left-behind parent, and with it any possibility of a normal childhood, of a normal life.
A kidnapping is a continuing crime, with lifelong consequences, and for many victims, like my son Aaron, life-ending consequences.
I have learned that I have a grandchild, name unknown, being raised in concealment in a Mormon enclave.
My son Aaron would have made someone a fine father, with his big heart and irrepressible good humor, had he been given the chance to live a normal life, to become a father himself.
I am working my way out of a five-year period of mourning the death of my son, and have begun preliminary work on the introduction of Aaron’s Law into the California State Assembly, gathering allies, planning, looking at legislative concepts that would increase the effectiveness of the law.
I have connected with the Polly Klaas Foundation and spoken with Marc Klaas,
Polly’s father and Founder of the KlaasKids Foundation. Both organizations are national leaders on the issue of child abduction. See for yourself here, and become aware of the issues at stake:
http://www.klaaskids.org/
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
Portland, Oregon--I last had a reason to celebrate Father’s Day 14 years ago, other than honoring my own father and grandfather, not since my four children disappeared into concealment in Mormon Utah in February, 1996.
Abducted children are never permitted to celebrate any memory honoring a left-behind parent, much less a holiday, and the day becomes radioactive for all its victims. No cards, letters, gifts or phone calls will get through in either direction.
Abducted children suffer the devastating loss of a parent, but are never permitted to mourn. My children were compelled to celebrate Father’s Day with a succession of three stepdads in three states, no trace memories of me or my family allowed.
The abducting parent, family members and other criminal associates involved in an abduction will work hard to destroy every emotional connection the child(ren) have to the left-behind parent, and with it any possibility of a normal childhood, of a normal life.
A kidnapping is a continuing crime, with lifelong consequences, and for many victims, like my son Aaron, life-ending consequences.
I have learned that I have a grandchild, name unknown, being raised in concealment in a Mormon enclave.
My son Aaron would have made someone a fine father, with his big heart and irrepressible good humor, had he been given the chance to live a normal life, to become a father himself.
I am working my way out of a five-year period of mourning the death of my son, and have begun preliminary work on the introduction of Aaron’s Law into the California State Assembly, gathering allies, planning, looking at legislative concepts that would increase the effectiveness of the law.
I have connected with the Polly Klaas Foundation and spoken with Marc Klaas,
Polly’s father and Founder of the KlaasKids Foundation. Both organizations are national leaders on the issue of child abduction. See for yourself here, and become aware of the issues at stake:
http://www.klaaskids.org/
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Put a fee on it! Oregon GOP Governor candidate Chris Dudley posts his solution to privatizing OLCC!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)--"’Kent Craford, acting campaign manager for Dudley, concedes liquor is a moneymaker. ‘It's true that the OLCC and state monopoly of liquor distribution and retailing does make money for state coffers. But that doesn't mean it can't, if it were privatized. The way you do that under a private system is to put a fee on it.’"
Taking another page out of his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, the Dudley campaign has announced that it will make up for the shortage of thought that it put into the OLCC conversation by proposing a new fee to cover the loss of revenue that privatization will bring.
The reason that privatization hasn’t already taken place in Oregon is because every model put forth over the past couple of decades results in (a) loss of revenue to fund critical services, and (b) increased prices to consumers.
There has been no lack of desire from either Democratic or Republican officeholders to find a way to privatize the liquor industry. The legislature and the liquor industry have discussed privatization models for years, session after session, and have run into two insurmountable obstacles:
1. The only way to recover the lost revenue is to impose a fee or a tax.
2. With privatization, net prices to consumers go up. You learn this once you do the math….
In government, in legislative work, it is the Law of Unintended Consequences that bites most ideas in the ass. Those consequences are not always obvious, and the more complex the problem, the more likely you will run into the Law.
The argument for a new fee or tax or higher prices for consumers has been dead on arrival for years—and still is…but not knowing this, the Dudley campaign takes up the cudgel…Just Winging It!....
In every industry, in every line of work, experience counts, job readiness counts…except for in politics.
Only in politics can complete novices make the jump to the top job with no experience whatsoever, with only the skimpiest understanding of the requirements of the job itself, and with little chance of success in the job if they manage to win election.
Campaigns like Dudley’s depend upon an angry, impatient, uninformed and divided electorate, and name recognition from work in a completely unrelated field that draws a great deal of media and public attention.
That’s the formula.
That’s the playbook.
That’s the game.
(Portland, Oregon)--"’Kent Craford, acting campaign manager for Dudley, concedes liquor is a moneymaker. ‘It's true that the OLCC and state monopoly of liquor distribution and retailing does make money for state coffers. But that doesn't mean it can't, if it were privatized. The way you do that under a private system is to put a fee on it.’"
Taking another page out of his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, the Dudley campaign has announced that it will make up for the shortage of thought that it put into the OLCC conversation by proposing a new fee to cover the loss of revenue that privatization will bring.
The reason that privatization hasn’t already taken place in Oregon is because every model put forth over the past couple of decades results in (a) loss of revenue to fund critical services, and (b) increased prices to consumers.
There has been no lack of desire from either Democratic or Republican officeholders to find a way to privatize the liquor industry. The legislature and the liquor industry have discussed privatization models for years, session after session, and have run into two insurmountable obstacles:
1. The only way to recover the lost revenue is to impose a fee or a tax.
2. With privatization, net prices to consumers go up. You learn this once you do the math….
In government, in legislative work, it is the Law of Unintended Consequences that bites most ideas in the ass. Those consequences are not always obvious, and the more complex the problem, the more likely you will run into the Law.
The argument for a new fee or tax or higher prices for consumers has been dead on arrival for years—and still is…but not knowing this, the Dudley campaign takes up the cudgel…Just Winging It!....
In every industry, in every line of work, experience counts, job readiness counts…except for in politics.
Only in politics can complete novices make the jump to the top job with no experience whatsoever, with only the skimpiest understanding of the requirements of the job itself, and with little chance of success in the job if they manage to win election.
Campaigns like Dudley’s depend upon an angry, impatient, uninformed and divided electorate, and name recognition from work in a completely unrelated field that draws a great deal of media and public attention.
That’s the formula.
That’s the playbook.
That’s the game.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"Just Wing It!" Oregon GOP Governor candidate Chris Dudley announces new campaign slogan!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)--You read it here first! Chris Dudley has decided to bank his campaign run on a reference to the ubiquitous Nike slogan, recalling for voters the only fields he has any inkling of—sports and Big and Tall clothing—as the new title of his playbook, which was formerly titled “Dribbling towards the Finish Line.”
The fledgling Oregon politician (and first-time voter) feels that his new slogan will both reflect his spur-of-the-moment approach to problem-solving and suggest to voters that his qualifications for the job extend beyond the basketball court—even if they don’t—while at the same time emphasizing that he is reading a lot of books these days and calling attention to the fact that he has become aware that Oregon’s official slogan is “She flies with her own wings.” That is a great deal of ground to cover in just one sentence.
It is a truly crafty move…signaling that Dudley will rely less on sports metaphors and more on those that have a basis in actual governance and politics and real-world problems.
Reaching deep into his playbook, Dudley posted on his campaign website his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
With this statement, Dudley (1) demonstrates his skill at crafting long sentences; (2) announces that he will (a) create a new bureaucracy, (b) populate the new bureaucracy with his political appointees, (c) order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies; and, (3) hopes that the reader will not notice the conflict with his other promises to shrink the size of government.
Dudley's new Governor's Budget Director and staff, plus the new Budget Review Team and their staff are going to need some officing space...salaries and PERS benefits....
"(from campaign internal memo): what are we going to do with the reports and audits coming in from the State Revenue and Fiscal offices?...gonna need some more filing cabinets...geez, this seemed like such a good idea at the time it went up on the website...ok...we better Just Wing It! from here...people like the sound of that...we're still going to need a bunch of filing cabinets...."
(Portland, Oregon)--You read it here first! Chris Dudley has decided to bank his campaign run on a reference to the ubiquitous Nike slogan, recalling for voters the only fields he has any inkling of—sports and Big and Tall clothing—as the new title of his playbook, which was formerly titled “Dribbling towards the Finish Line.”
The fledgling Oregon politician (and first-time voter) feels that his new slogan will both reflect his spur-of-the-moment approach to problem-solving and suggest to voters that his qualifications for the job extend beyond the basketball court—even if they don’t—while at the same time emphasizing that he is reading a lot of books these days and calling attention to the fact that he has become aware that Oregon’s official slogan is “She flies with her own wings.” That is a great deal of ground to cover in just one sentence.
It is a truly crafty move…signaling that Dudley will rely less on sports metaphors and more on those that have a basis in actual governance and politics and real-world problems.
Reaching deep into his playbook, Dudley posted on his campaign website his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
With this statement, Dudley (1) demonstrates his skill at crafting long sentences; (2) announces that he will (a) create a new bureaucracy, (b) populate the new bureaucracy with his political appointees, (c) order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies; and, (3) hopes that the reader will not notice the conflict with his other promises to shrink the size of government.
Dudley's new Governor's Budget Director and staff, plus the new Budget Review Team and their staff are going to need some officing space...salaries and PERS benefits....
"(from campaign internal memo): what are we going to do with the reports and audits coming in from the State Revenue and Fiscal offices?...gonna need some more filing cabinets...geez, this seemed like such a good idea at the time it went up on the website...ok...we better Just Wing It! from here...people like the sound of that...we're still going to need a bunch of filing cabinets...."
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Parentally abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
Take Root members are adults who were kidnapped as children by family members.
More than 200,000 U.S. children are abducted by family members or persons known to the child each year, every year.
Oregon's Aaron's Law is unique in the nation. Oregon is the only state where the abduction of a child creates a civil cause of action that reaches to every criminal participant in the abduction of a child, whether relative to the child or not.
If Aaron's Law had been on the books in 1995, then criminal participants Kory and Chris Wright would have been deterred sufficiently, no abduction of the four Cruz children would have taken place, and Aaron would still be alive today.
For the record, Kory and Chris Wright are not related in any way to either the Cruz family or to my former wife's family. Their motive was entirely to carry out a Mormon shunning, which continues to this day.
Aaron's Law was written for the Wrights, and for people like the Wrights....
I hope to see Aaron's Law enacted in all fifty states. While the law currently protects children kidnapped from Oregon, it does not apply to any other kidnapping situation.
Abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
More than 200,000 U.S. children are abducted by family members or persons known to the child each year, every year.
Oregon's Aaron's Law is unique in the nation. Oregon is the only state where the abduction of a child creates a civil cause of action that reaches to every criminal participant in the abduction of a child, whether relative to the child or not.
If Aaron's Law had been on the books in 1995, then criminal participants Kory and Chris Wright would have been deterred sufficiently, no abduction of the four Cruz children would have taken place, and Aaron would still be alive today.
For the record, Kory and Chris Wright are not related in any way to either the Cruz family or to my former wife's family. Their motive was entirely to carry out a Mormon shunning, which continues to this day.
Aaron's Law was written for the Wrights, and for people like the Wrights....
I hope to see Aaron's Law enacted in all fifty states. While the law currently protects children kidnapped from Oregon, it does not apply to any other kidnapping situation.
Abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
May 25 is National Missing Children Awareness Day
Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice help shed light on the problem.
Missing children
•An estimated 797,500 children were reported missing each year.
•More than than 2,000 children are reported missing every day, but thankfully the vast majority of them are recovered quickly.
Non-family abductions
•An estimated 58,200 children were taken in one year by someone outside the family
•An estimated 115 children experienced a stereotypical kidnapping, the rarest type of abduction potentially posing great risk of serious harm.
Parental and Family abductions
•More than 200,000 children are victims of family abduction, where the child was taken by a noncustodial parent, EACH YEAR.
National Missing and Exploited Children
http://www.take25.org/page.asp?page=54
Missing children
•An estimated 797,500 children were reported missing each year.
•More than than 2,000 children are reported missing every day, but thankfully the vast majority of them are recovered quickly.
Non-family abductions
•An estimated 58,200 children were taken in one year by someone outside the family
•An estimated 115 children experienced a stereotypical kidnapping, the rarest type of abduction potentially posing great risk of serious harm.
Parental and Family abductions
•More than 200,000 children are victims of family abduction, where the child was taken by a noncustodial parent, EACH YEAR.
National Missing and Exploited Children
http://www.take25.org/page.asp?page=54
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
US State Department notes "epidemic" of child snatching
"Parental kidnapping is one of the worst forms of child abuse." --US State Department
The U.S. State Department has recognized that parental and family abductions in the USA are occuring at epidemic rates and provides information (see excerpts) through the web link below:
"Sixty percent of all children in the United States now spend some time in a single parent home. In these single parent families (354,000 cases reported in 1988), one parent has taken unilateral action to deprive the other parent of contact with the couple’s child, in half of these cases (163,200), according to one study, the intent of the abducting parent was to alter permanently custodial access by concealing the child or taking the child out of the state or out of the country."
"The rise in international child abduction can be attributed to the increase in marriages and divorces between bi-national couples. These marriages, by their nature, come with cultural, ethnic, and religious differences. The ease of international travel and the fact that many dual national children possess two passports facilitate abductions."
"When non-custodial parents resort to kidnapping, they believe they are acting in the best interests of their children. Although a minority of parenta1 kidnappers may actually save their children by taking them out of the reach of the other parent, the motives of most parents who steal their children are not at all altruistic. Parents find a myriad of reasons or self-justification for stealing a child from another parent Some abductors will find fault with the other parent for nonsensical transgressions; others will steal a child for revenge."
"Although most parents who steal their children attempt to justify their actions as the only way to ensure the best interests of the child, the child’s best interests are usually not considered. In fact, the best interest of the child mandates that parents ask themselves what the consequences of the abduction will be on the child. If parents had the foresight and emotional empathy of the impact of lying to a child across time and deriding the custodial parent, then they would not do it."
"Parental abductors have several common characteristics: the abductors are likely to dismiss the value of the other parent to the child. They believe that they know, more than anyone else, including a judge, what is best for their child. Second, the children abducted are likely to be very young (2-3 years old), since they are easy to transport and cannot verbally protest or tell others of their history. If older, such children, often manipulated, have colluded with the abducting parent. Finally, the abductors work with an extensive social network of other persons for practical assistance and to keep their whereabouts hidden."
US State Department: Parental child snatching "one of the worst forms of child abuse."
The U.S. State Department has recognized that parental and family abductions in the USA are occuring at epidemic rates and provides information (see excerpts) through the web link below:
"Sixty percent of all children in the United States now spend some time in a single parent home. In these single parent families (354,000 cases reported in 1988), one parent has taken unilateral action to deprive the other parent of contact with the couple’s child, in half of these cases (163,200), according to one study, the intent of the abducting parent was to alter permanently custodial access by concealing the child or taking the child out of the state or out of the country."
"The rise in international child abduction can be attributed to the increase in marriages and divorces between bi-national couples. These marriages, by their nature, come with cultural, ethnic, and religious differences. The ease of international travel and the fact that many dual national children possess two passports facilitate abductions."
"When non-custodial parents resort to kidnapping, they believe they are acting in the best interests of their children. Although a minority of parenta1 kidnappers may actually save their children by taking them out of the reach of the other parent, the motives of most parents who steal their children are not at all altruistic. Parents find a myriad of reasons or self-justification for stealing a child from another parent Some abductors will find fault with the other parent for nonsensical transgressions; others will steal a child for revenge."
"Although most parents who steal their children attempt to justify their actions as the only way to ensure the best interests of the child, the child’s best interests are usually not considered. In fact, the best interest of the child mandates that parents ask themselves what the consequences of the abduction will be on the child. If parents had the foresight and emotional empathy of the impact of lying to a child across time and deriding the custodial parent, then they would not do it."
"Parental abductors have several common characteristics: the abductors are likely to dismiss the value of the other parent to the child. They believe that they know, more than anyone else, including a judge, what is best for their child. Second, the children abducted are likely to be very young (2-3 years old), since they are easy to transport and cannot verbally protest or tell others of their history. If older, such children, often manipulated, have colluded with the abducting parent. Finally, the abductors work with an extensive social network of other persons for practical assistance and to keep their whereabouts hidden."
US State Department: Parental child snatching "one of the worst forms of child abuse."
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Jim Pepper Lives!...Let's celebrate!
You are going to want to be in Portland in early October 2010. Jim Pepper Arts Festival announcements coming soon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBdaYKqMUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBdaYKqMUs
Sunday, May 02, 2010
On the Republican Oregon Governor Candidate Debate
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon—Ha ha ha ha haha haha…ha ha ha ha… haha…ha haha haha ha haha…ha ha ha…wheeee….ha ha haha ha ha…no no no….I can’t stand it…ho ho ho…help me, please…ha ha ha…I can’t get up…ha ha ha…please stop…ha ha ha…no…ha ha…my stomach hurts…no…don’t say that... ha haha ….
Here's the link to the debate. Be forewarned....
http://www.katu.com/about/events/92241644.html
Portland, Oregon—Ha ha ha ha haha haha…ha ha ha ha… haha…ha haha haha ha haha…ha ha ha…wheeee….ha ha haha ha ha…no no no….I can’t stand it…ho ho ho…help me, please…ha ha ha…I can’t get up…ha ha ha…please stop…ha ha ha…no…ha ha…my stomach hurts…no…don’t say that... ha haha ….
Here's the link to the debate. Be forewarned....
http://www.katu.com/about/events/92241644.html
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