1. Little things are important and
2. Never loose an opportunity to mold a young person in the correct way and
3. Never judge a book by its cover…
Two things stand out very strong in my life as as kid of 9 or 10 years old. These two things are still in my mind to this very day and they look like they will be there guiding me the rest of my life. One of the items hits home as to the stupidity of how the US is acting about the adoption issues with Russia right now. Let me tell you two true stories about what created who I am…
Story one: I was a strange duck when I was little. I could not bring myself to toss trash on the ground. It just felt wrong, but everyone around me always tossed trash anywhere they pleased. I remember as we traveled by car and I would look out along the freeway, the roadsides where littered with trash…
I told myself at around 5 years old, that I would not toss trash on the ground and always find a trash can to toss it in. In those days it was hard to find a place to toss trash and sometimes I had to wander way off my path to throw something away. I remember getting yelled at for having a pocket of trash when I got home many times, for you see I never found a trash can…
Why I remember once getting yelled at by a cop! I was trying to remove a broken bottle from the road I was riding my bike on and he stopped and here was his exact words, “Hey you little shit! Did you break that bottle? Get out of here or I will take you in!”
I was raised to never talk back and I just said, “Sorry Sir!” Then I walked my bike away and never looked back…
That was what I expected and always received from the normal adult…
Then one day all that changed…
I was riding my bike and had a wrapper from an ice cream sandwich. I relished that ice cream and when I was done, I had a wrapper to get rid of. I looked around and saw a dumpster near a local slaughter house! It was owned by a German…
I rode my bike down this long driveway and tossed the wrapper into that dumpster. Then a rough harsh voice in broken English behind me said, “Hey Kid!”
I turned and just about screamed, for standing there was a mountain of a man, with a white blood stained apron on. No shirt under it and a huge meat cleaver in his right hand. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and if looks could kill, I was dead…
I said, “Yes Sir!”
Then what happened next was part of my growth and molding in life…
He pointed that meat cleaver at me and said, “You good kid, thanks for doing that!” and the meat cleaver pointed at the trash dumpster…
He then turned and left me standing there…
I later heard that he told everyone all over town, that I had taken so much effort and tossed my trash away in his dumpster. He told everyone that he just had to walk out and tell me that. Now there was only 489 people in our town so word spread fast… 🙂
I learned several things from him,
1. Little things are important and
2. Never loose an opportunity to mold a young person in the correct way and
3. Never judge a book by its cover…
The second story is more about adoption: I was riding my bike out of town one day. I took the old road out of town and as it was fall and the leaves had fallen pretty much completely off the trees, I could see homes along the road real easy. The homes became less and less, until they disappeared. Then I came upon this huge home, a home so big it could house 50 people easily. I could see the front yard and it had a playground in it and I stopped. I was wondering what the place was?
Then as I sat there on my bike, I watched a kid run out of the house and several adults ran after him with what looked like a broom handle. They beat that kid until blood ran from his mouth and ears… 🙁
Then they beat several more kids, the same way. I stood and watched in shock. I then saw what had to have been 40 kids all come outside and they took the ones they beat and tied them up to poles that were lined along the playground. So while all the kids played, the ones that had been beat where forced to watch and the kids playing were forced to see what happens when you are bad…
I saw at least 12 adults and they all had sticks and rope to tie kids up with…
I then rode to the local police station and told them what had happened. they told me that it was out of their jurisdiction and that those kids are not wanted and sick. They deserve what they get… 🙁
My parents could not be bothered with what happened and then I found out that everyone knew what happened out there, they were just so thankful that we had a place to put kids that are mentally challenged or handicapped in some other form. Most of the kids were just not wanted and the parents paid for them to be kept there…
I learned several things from the orphanage as a kid,
1. Little things are important and
2. Never loose an opportunity to mold a young person in the correct way and
3. Never judge a book by its cover…
When I got much older and had come back from the army and done my national duties by killing people. I decided one day to make a trip to this place again. I drove my 1969 Mercury Cougar to the hill over looking the place and sat down and watched. I had not ever even one day forgotten what I had found at this place and I never forgot what the cops said…
It (The orphanage) was still in business and had all kinds of new playground equipment and such. But the poles were still there and there was many more of them, 5 of them had kids tied to them. The facility had been expanded and could now house over a hundred. I was not a scared kid anymore and the longer I sat there, the madder I got. They still tied kids up in the yard. They still beat them and no one still cared…
So I went back all these years later to the police station, as we now called it. There was 6000 people in my town now and I asked about the jurisdiction on the orphanage out in the country. They laughed and told me that it was out of their territory and that was how the orphanage wanted it. You know! So we mind our own business… (Ha Ha Ha)
I drove back out to the orphanage and went to the front door and knocked. As I went to the front door I took pictures of the kids tied up and then I stood waiting as I looked at 5 kids tied up to poles in the yard. The door was answered by a man with a baseball bat and he asked what I wanted…
I pointed to the five kids and I saw in their eyes, the anguish that I felt for them. They were kids, by god, just kids, Kids with mental issues and kids with health issues…
The hour it took for the State police to arrive, because that was the only ones who had jurisdiction, I used that hour and beat 5 grown men and tied them to the poles. The women working there sat on the front porch of the place and just watched. I brought all the kids out of the home and then I took more pictures with my camera. There was 87 kids in this home and they all had black and bruise marks all over their bodies. They were malnourished and it was just plain sick. I took three rolls of 24 pictures that day and removed the film rolls and held them to give the State Police…
I spent 1 week in jail! My first but not last time that I sat in jail. I had handed the rolls of film to a State Patrol Officer and I was lucky. He was not paid off at all by the orphanage. The pictures got into the hands of many people and at the end of 7 days I was released, I was released with a warning to never do that again…
The embarrassment to the state officials was precinct at that time in life and the home had been hurriedly incorporated into my cities boundaries and tax base. So the local police then looked after it…
1 month later the place had been emptied of kids and it accidentally burned 1 year later, according to the local newspaper. I had never been back, I was told by a judge that I was to never go near the place and if I had to drive down that road and stop, then I would not stop at go and I would not collect a pay check. I loved the old days and the Monopoly remarks…
I learned several things from this incident,
1. Little things are important and
2. Never loose an opportunity to mold a young person in the correct way and
3. Never judge a book by its cover…
So I shake my head at Americans telling everyone about Russia and how Russia treats their kids in orphanages. I guess Russian need to learn how to hide the truth better…
So while we stack the Internet or deck as we use to call it, against Russia, with lies and games from the Western world. We still have a long ways to go in America, before we can talk about others. I realize that we covered up the orphanages with the foster care home, but the fact remains, we just applied one facade to cover another and it was done to play the statistics on the truth…
So maybe I know your little dirty secrete and I do not like it at all…
I learned several things early in life,
1. Little things are important and
2. Never loose an opportunity to mold a young person in the correct way and
3. Never judge a book by its cover…
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…