20/20 Condemned Our Childhoods to "Shame"

[Guest guest]

20/20 Condemned Our Childhoods to "Shame"

By Raghunatha Anudasa

 

>From Raghunatha Anudasa to Michael.pressman

 

Printed by CHAKRA on request of Raghunatha Anudasa

 

Re:

 

1) 20/20 Condemned Our Childhoods to "Shame"

2) Exaggeration Undermines Our Story

3) Jagadish: Stalin of Guru-kula

4) Neglect This Letter is to Belittle Feelings of Most

5) Your 3 Video Clips of Me: Do you have more?

 

Dear Michael Pressman,

 

Thank you for your concern to both our story and to my reservations

expressed in our telephone conversation.

 

I will briefly summarize those reservations for your reference.

 

1) 20/20 Condemned Our Childhoods to "Shame"

 

Introducing us with your opening title as the "Childhood of Shame"

was to dismiss the 15 to 20 years of our entire childhood as nothing

more then shameful. You may as well have been talking of criminals

and druggies. This reasserts the very negatives that hundreds of us

have spent decades struggling to overcome by tediously building upon

the positives offered in our childhoods of travel, cultural exposure,

religious experience, philosophical insight and extraordinary

friendships. This is not done because of some religious fervor, but

more out of our carefully honed survival skills. We have learned to

take our seeming disadvantages and transform them for maximum

advantage as young men and women of vast life experience: "ISKCON

Youth Veterans." Most of us consider this to be "our story," a story

that your show missed entirely.

 

This story was missed because you targeted those with only the worse

to say while avoiding those with something positive. As a result, you

slighted us right from your opening title. It is disheartening to say

the least. Once again, those offering to take our cause, do so at our

expense. So many have stone walled and covered up for

their "mistakes" made while "helping" us. I hope you can do better in

spite of the bureaucratic, legal or face saving considerations that

have always complicated people's efforts in making amends with us.

 

I say this as much for us as 2nd generation Krishna kids as

any "victim" you may cover in the future. See if they want to present

themselves as "shame(ful)" victims before stepping in as their spokes

person to the world.

 

2) Exaggeration Undermines Our Story

 

I also question a couple details raised by those on the show. I'm

cautious about this for it can seem uncaring. But I do so because I'm

finding some of our peers exaggerating our story, which only goes to

undermine the credibility for the rest of us. That is unfair to us

all. It's a shame because our story is more horrific then most of the

exaggerations. In fact, your show was an understatement to our

hardships and abuse. That surprised me. The following site is a copy

of my story written about 11 years ago to demonstrate the point.

http://surrealist.org/gurukula/children.html

 

The first red flag for me was Siddhababa, Ben, saying he was tied to

the tree. The tree he refers to was about 4 to 6 feet around meaning

that the rope would have had to be 12 to 15 feet long-which was

unlikely given that the administration hardly bought toothpaste what

to speak of 15 to 20 feet of extra rope. Beating the girl in the

temple room naked was also highly unlikely, for nudity was strongly

prohibited in the temple room. I'm about 8 years older then those

interviewed. I was 9 and 10 while they where 4 and 5. I therefore

have clearer recollections on most things. Again, I say this as a

word of caution to our peers to be honest in our story. Nothing more,

nothing less. Then we have a cause of both justice as well as truth.

 

3) Jagadish: Stalin of Guru-kula

 

And now for Jagadish. Let's say your studio hired a security company

to watch over your place. Let's say the manager of the security

service used those guards to steal from you and molest your employees

for 20 years. Now imagine seeing that same manager saying the

company "didn't know what (it) was doing" because they had poor

security. Jagadish was "the system" Prabhupada put into place to safe

guard us. Jagadish instead bullied parents and children into his

schools to build his own power base within the society far beyond

what Prabhupada intended. We paid the price for his campaign, a

campaign that continues to this day, 35 years later, in your show

that once again gives his skewed account of "Prabhupada." Why not ask

us for our accounts of Prabhupada and guru-kula? I can send you some

of the many essays I 've written.

 

Providing Jagadish a national forum to make excuses and blaming

others for his crimes was infuriating. Could you think of a greater

insult to Jews then asking Hilter for his opinions on Jewish

concentration camps? And then airing it nationally. Jagadish is the

only common link to all child abuse throughout the movement and may

have the distinction of overseeing more child abuse then anyone else

in the Western world of the last 40 years. It was Jagadish who

pressed for having children separated from their parents. The best

example is in Jagadish's official handbook on gurukula. There he

changes Prabhupada's quote from saying children can stay with parents

to stating children can't. If Prabhupada was indeed so insistent

about separating parents and children, why would Jagadish have to

make such changes? I bring this up to answer points raised on the

show. Other more gruesome controversies would take many pages to

cover whether changing many a "Prabhupada said" or the time he beat

me severely or transferred a number of sexual molesters from one

school to anther.

 

4) Neglect This Letter is to Belittle Feelings of Most

 

Last but not least, please don't mistake my "feelings" as that of a

lone "student" as you referred to twice in our telephone

conversation. To do so is to belittle the feelings shared by most

guru-kuli's who watched your show. I hope you can take immediate

steps to demonstrate your concern to these issues. A short follow up

covering the points referred to-above-would be superb. If you need to

hear from more kulis to press the issue with your bosses, please let

me know and I will begin putting together a campaign for this

purpose. I should be able to make a real ruckus for you. Actually,

this letter would make for a sensational article for newspapers, but

thought it fair to work with you as you have extended yourself to us.

 

5) Your 3 Video Clips of Me: Do you have more?

 

On a more technical note, it raddled me with a lot of different

feelings to see myself there. In fact, you showed me 3 times in your

clips from Dallas. Just look for the biggest kid from your group

shots, spacing out. That's me. I was also the one bowing down at the

desk. It hit me hard to see. You are one of the few in the world with

any footage from those days and have the only other footage of me

from my childhood. Let me know how I can get copies of the footage

you have of me. Thank you for taking the time to film and save this

rare piece of history.

 

I look forward to hearing any suggestions or comments you have and

will share your response with all my friends much as I am doing with

this letter. Thank you again for your time and concern both today's

as well as that shown many years ago when your studio first jumped

into the fray in a way no other station would. It was as bold of you

then as it is of you today.

 

Raghunatha Anudasa John Giuffre

 

Raghu PO Box 1108 Hilo HI 96721 323 969-472 * * * * *

 

UPDATE

 

Mr. Pressman said he was going to have a letter of response by next

week so will pass that along when I hear from him.

 

The Prospectus for ROOPA is done as is the first of six ROOPA Charts.

The Prospectus outlines the activities, goals, time frame and cost

analysis for starting ROOPA as an official organization. We have sent

copies to some prospective sponsors and should be hearing from them

this month. The Prospectus and Chart are available for $20 for

printing and shipping for those who are interested. A laminated color

Chart is $11 and black and white copies are $3 for shipping and .50

cents per copy. I send everything priority mail because of the Hawaii

mail situation

 

Please respond to my new address: Raghu. Sept. Oct. and

much of Nov. mail is yet to be read as I was focusing on the

Prospectus and Chart for the last several weeks. Please mind my

tardiness. I've transferred all AOL correspondence to Outlook which

has scrambled some of the letters so if you don't hear from me within

the month, this maybe why. I'm spending the next week working with

Outlook and should be in LA , in a weeks. Off to Hawaii by months

end. More later. Raghu

 

© CHAKRA 14-December-2000