topoftheworld

I have to get a required emissons test (sigh) and in doing some web searching I came across a board about this very thing. One interprising person empted his tank and poured in rubbing alcohol on the premise that it somehow improves the results of the test. :unsure: No results were reported. What people will think of next!

Mission Impossible Jon Voight Pearl Harbor

The Abyss Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio White Sands

"Heck no, Toppers, they came out of hiding to watch her look for it!" Of course, in print they'd NEVER admit that!!!!

"I think we went to one session, Excathedra, you and I, out of pure guilt. " "I "sacrificed" and volunteered " Ah, the truth of our Elder Corps comes out at last! While I was "religiously scribbiling" you guys were ditching. ROFLMAO!!!!!!! You guys definitely got the better deal. Of course, you probably missed VP raking a camera guy over the coals cause he didn't move the camera to follow him when he stood up.

Thanks, Raf. You're a bright and sensible light in a dark world (at least the one we knew )

I was hoping you would!!!! I, Robot Bruce Greenwood Passenger 57

Defending Your Life Meryl Streep The River Wild

Great synophis, Sunesis.

My two favorites: 2 CMPLEX PMS 24-7

Jonny-- If there's a doggy heaven, I know that's where you are-- About a billion miles away, Standing on a star. It's a doggy paradise; No fences and no leads. There won't be any do's or don'ts. You can do just as you please. There'll be lots of bones to chew And lots of holes to dig. There'll be lots of other dogs-- Little ones and big! You can romp and play with new-found friends Forever, don't you see? So, why are you sitting at the gate Just waiting there for me? Zoa Rockenstein 1975

Prayers for your doggie. Prayers for your A/C-or cooler weather quick! Prayers for pennies from heaven. Just prayers-got nuttin else to offer. :(

"My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand." Nope-it can't come back. It shouldn't come back. It should never have come in the first place.

Happy Birthday, Krys!!

"STURGIS, S.D. - American Indian tribes trying to protect their sacred Bear Butte have purchased land around the Black Hills historic site to keep it out of the hands of developers eager to serve bikers who roar into town every year for a raucous road rally. According to Meade County records, three tribes have spent $1.3 million over the last two decades to buy 2.6 square miles of land around usually serene Bear Butte, where colorful prayer flags line a hiking trail and Indians have come for centuries to fast and hold ceremonies. For a week every August, the sound of the South Dakota wind is replaced in the hills by the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. This year's rally is Aug. 7-13, and Indians from several tribes are camping out near the butte in protest of bars and other entertainment venues they feel violate the sanctity of the 3,100-foot mountain. "The mountain is sacred to us," said George Whipple, executive director of Tribal Land Enterprise, an arm of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. "Therefore, the cultural and spiritual value of the land was what was significant to us. By keeping with that tradition, we're also keeping it from being developed into a beer garden.""

Very happy for you and your children-and all the other children you will protect with your actions.

"While vacationing on a deserted beach in China, Lindsey Lohan lost a contact lens. The paparazzi came out of hiding to help find it."

Happy Brithday, Raf! Have a good one, you closet poet you.

I wanna be a Walmart greeter when I grow up!!! (Hey, nothing wrong with aspirations, right?)

Jonny-

((((Excie))))

Quote Oldies---"Twi did not perpetuate this crime... they facilitated Top to strive to be her best in the corps, I believe that was the heart behind the corps.... not her having evils befall her." OM-I am stunned that you still think this after all you have seen and heard. I do not believe that you are listening because you do not want to hear. And you took one honest comment I made (and I tried to be fair, believe me) and chose to use that as part of your argument to once again protect TWI instead of taking in my entire story. TWI perpetuated the crime by allowing it to continue-even after a wonderful young man was killed-because of their continued teaching that it was NEGATIVE BELIEVING that caused such things to happen. No, it wasn't their intent-that would make them monsters, and I too believed that they wanted me to be their idea of the best-at least that's what I thought. But once evil did befall me, once again BECAUSE OF THEIR POLICY AND PRACTICE, they did nothing, NOTHING, to help me in the aftermath or to stop the practice or to insure that others did not have the same fate befall them. No-they did not invent the concept of hitchhiking. But they used it as part of their curriculum as a requirement, irregardless of the potential consequences. They simply continued along the same path, hoping for the best and covering up the worse. Any group who did that today would be crucified on the front page of every paper and web site available. I have not remained a victim in thought or action. I have moved on with my life, because thankfully I still had a life to move on with, unlike others. But their actions-and lack of actions-profoundly changed the direction of my life. One of the purposes of this forum is to bring to light the abusives that began the downward spiral of the organization and of the damage to people's lives, and hopefully to make those still in understand the history of this group and compare that to where it is today. That is my reason for coming forward, not for symphathy or attention, believe me. But insensitive and downright stupid logic coming out of people's mouths to defend what participation in the group did to some of us makes me angry, so I came out of the woodwork. I am going to BELIEVE with all my heart that something will move in the hearts of the unbelievers to make them see the light. Let's test the law of believing, shall we??? My apologies for the words in all caps-I did try to keep them to a minimum. Breathe, breathe.........

Beautiful. Shell. Thank you. To those that have loving parents- To those parents who have loving children- To those who have neither- And to those who choose to make a profession out of helping the elderly and who do it graciously and lovingly-

First of all, thank you WW, Dooj and others who have tried to knock some sense into those who do not view the hitchhiking requirement as "foolhardy behaviour" or believe that we are unjustly holding TWI responsible for this practice. Remember the old saying-"A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still"? Obviously, there will be those who will never get the point we are trying to make. For the record: I ran away from "home" in 1972 at age 16. Technically, we were between homes at the time and were overnighting in a motel on our way to somewhere. Because of circumstances I won't get into now, I had to run away in fear of my life, and found myself standing on a freeway off ramp with my thumb out in order to get away. I was terrified, but I had no choice. I didn't pray or "believe": I just did it. And somehow survived. I don't consider myself a "wuss". I did what I had to do, as many young people did during that time, but it's not something I was anxious to repeat. Just because I made it to my destination in one piece doesn't make that action any less dangerous. Until I went into the Corps, I never had to repeat that action again. WW listed brilliantly the steps taken for many of us in our path through TWI. It wasn't even a choice: if you wanted to stay actively involved in the growth of the ministry, there was a logical progression of steps which culminated in enrollment in the Corps program. I did not know, prior to entering the program, that we would be required to hitchhike, specifically to LEAD. If you had a car, other trips like Lightbearers and transfers between campuses were made a little easier, but if you didn't have a car or couldn't get a ride, you stuck out your thumb. NO CHOICE. Would I have entered the program if I had known? I don't know, but I'm betting the answer was yes, simply because of the expectation from leaders and peers. I would have, however, liked to have been given the choice. However, once there, I was committed. Much has been made of the "fact" that we did have a choice, that we could have refused. Refusal meant dismissal from the Corps program. If you were lounging in your arm chair, playing at participating in the things of the ministry, this might seem like a no-brainer. For those of us who were there, it wasn't that simple. It has been mentioned that the program was designed to toughen us up spiritually. Ok. I expected that. I expected to be challenged. I expected to be pushed. I bought into all of that. I, like many others, was ignorant of the "behind the scenes" stuff, or of the tragedies that had occurred before. I bought the glitzy side of the ministry. And for that, even though I was young and relatively immature, I take responsibility for. I do not subscribe, in anyway, that the requirement of hitching to LEAD was delibrately designed to "push us spiritually". It was simple matter of dollars and percentages. The program of LEAD was designed to challenge us, and that was enough. But in order to take advantage of it, we had to get there, and the only cost effective method was for us to stick out our thumbs. And damn the consequences. The percentage of those who made it without incident vs those who did not was very high: therefore there was no need to abandon the practice. If you did not make there, you were dismissed. Period. However, in my case, I was not dismissed. Why? It had to be my fault, right? Didn't my failure of believing cause what happened to me? I was assured, upon my return, that, indeed, I had failed in my believing, but what had happened to me was punishment enough. Oh, and that because I did not fulfill my LEAD requirement, I probably wouldn't graduate. (You know, I'd give a lot to know what was recorded in my file.) Shortly after my return, a Corps meeting was held to address the issue of LEAD. There were several individuals who had made it, but were late in getting there. They had to stand up and stay standing as they were raked across the coals. Why? For failing in their believing. They were, of course, assured that they would have no second chances. If they failed again, they were out. As the meeting went on, I was terrified, absolutely terrified, that my name would be called, that I would have to stand, and that my failing would be revealed and mocked. You know what? It wasn't. IMO, it wasn't because they were protecting me. It was because they did not want what happened to me to be common knowledge. Percentages, right? Why didn't I leave? Why didn't I sue? IT NEVER CROSSED MY MIND!!!! If the whole thing was MY fault, who am I gonna sue??? If it was MY fault, then I had to correct my own unbelieving behaviour. Tell me how you justify an organization's programs, policy's and processes by allowing someone who had been kidnapped off the highway and raped by two men, while in route to a required class, to so convince herself that it was all her fault to the point that all common sense was erased?? To show you how much of a "wuss" I was, I continued on with the program, which included hitchhiking several more times for other required activities. Sorry this has become a book: just had to say what I have to say. And, my dear OM, for the record-I was a victim, so I have the right to speak like the victim I was. What happened to me could have happened inside or outside TWI-I know that. But getting a thumb ride to a concert is a world away from getting a thumb ride to a required class with an organization that gave you no other option if you wished to remain. Or an organization that did not change the practice after what happened to me and others. Lots of words-I just don't know how else to say it.

I've been more than a half-century for eight whole days now, Jonny. It's not so bad.