FEST Writing Group

Two recent books have broadened my perspective on my young adult life and the perception of my parents and ex-husband that I was a threat.  That perception led them to take steps that led to my arrest and to a 7 year long cutoff from my daughter and family. A book by Thorne Dryer about the 1960-1970’s in Houston and The Scientist and the Serial Killer by Lise Olsen about Dean Coril who murdered an unknown number of boys in the Montrose area (where I lived and ran a walk in crisis intervention center) discussed factors that illustrate the intersection of an anxious society and an anxious family.  Both of the books described a city government that viewed runaways and wayward youth as “throw away” children.  Police chief Herman Short both targeted youth for police brutality and failed to protect them from harm.  He did the same for those of us who ran grass-roots community organizations, the crisis intervention center, runaway house, and free clinics. It was hard for me to realize that what we were doing could be viewed as a threat, but various other factors described in these books would certainly have contributed to anxious reactions. 
            My uncle was a city councilman who knew how the mayor and police chief operated.  Even though Uncle Johnny was a “liberal,” he likely conveyed concern to my family.  My ex-husband’s best friends were a city policeman and local newscaster who also communicated to him their view of counterculture and “black power” organizations as threats to society.  Several of the Chicago panthers were from Houston and moved back to avoid jail there.  I worked with them to create a free clinic, a drug treatment program, and food pantry programs in the black wards. The crisis intervention program and the runaway house were protecting children from harm but we were also the target for police surveillance.  The underground newspaper office and the early Pacifica station were attacked, without protection from the police, who were later implicated in the bombing.  They were also involved in KKK activities.  My ex-husband won temporary custody of our daughter after I was arrested in a police raid of my home in which they planted marijuana. The arrest charges were dropped but only after I agreed to grant him temporary custody.  When he took our daughter out of the country, I lacked the family support or income to fight the court battle.  The year after they moved, a young black community organizer was shot by police and I realized that Houston was a dangerous situation.  It was soon thereafter that the Haight Ashbury Free Clinical recruited me to come out and help reopen the Clinic.  After doing that job, I moved to Baltimore to work and go to Antioch Graduate School.  
            The work with Bowen theory contributed directly to reconnecting with my family and to the reunion with my daughter.  These recent books about the history of Houston provided a further context for understanding societal forces that contributed toward real threats as well as to anxious focus on me as a threat during this time in my life.