******
- Verified Buyer
This book is a must read. Like many folks I heard the news stories unfold since last fall with a mounting sense of horror and disbelief. The beatings, abuse, then the grizzly discovery of human remains and unmarked graves (unaccounted for and vastly greater in number than initial estimates). I listened with a stunned sense of incredulity that Gov. Scott and state officials were unwilling to exhume remains and seemingly unwilling to take any responsibility for the systematic and state sanctioned abuse and murder of children placed in the care of the state of Florida. This from NPR: "A few years ago, the state investigated and said it found no evidence that staff at the school had been responsible for any student deaths." [quoted from NPR org website, actual reference deleted in publication of review]. Like many people I felt outraged and helpless. There is no shortage of disturbing and horrifying news stories out there but this one struck me and would not leave my mind. This was not a story about foreign country thousands of miles away engaged in genocide, this is our country, and it did not happen that long ago. (Note: Due to mounting pressure from all sides on Aug 6, 2013 Gov. R Scott finally agreed to exhumation.) [see story from NPR org website, actual reference deleted in publication of review].Furthermore, stories that started with statements like: "something went horribly awry at the FSB...now coming to light..." made me even angrier. Something went horribly awry all right at the FSB, my problem is that such statements contain a tacit implication that nobody knew what was going on, that somehow the situation went "awry" when state appointed guardians brutally beat (in some cases to death) hundreds, perhaps thousands of children, that no one knew that this so-called reform school was being run by a bunch of sadistic, rabid dogs. People knew. Officials knew. You can bet your ass that in 1965 probably almost every Florida resident had a pretty good idea what was going on at this place. Roger Dean Kiser has likened FSB to a concentration camp...and so it was: and in more ways than one: people knew, people saw, people either turned a blind eye or worse, condoned it. Beatings were not banned until 1967, this place opened in 1897: that is 70 years of systematic, state sanctioned abuse and murder! No public statement or admission of responsibility made by Florida officials until 2008, more than a century after it began! Think about that for just a moment. The book is subtitled: "An American Tragedy": even that characterization is far too generous. An earthquake or a tsunami is a tragedy. This? This was far worse than a tragedy; it was intentional, savage brutality and first degree murder.The book: is written in sparse, plain spoken English. RD Kiser states the facts without embellishment or unnecessary emotional manipulation. His writing style enables the reader the emotional space to process and feel our own feelings which makes it vastly more haunting and devastating to read. The news stories will make your mouth drop open in shock. The book will make you cry. This is the story behind the story and one man's story of his process of institutionalization and brutal abuse perpetrated by the state of Florida for the crime of basically having no parents. He was not a criminal (and even if he was would he have deserved this?) The book is heart breaking, intense and powerful. RD Kiser has a voice and a story that deserves and needs to be heard. Without his work and the stories and voices of the White House Boys the state of Florida likely would have been overjoyed to bury this mess forever. I can just about guarantee that this book will make you desperately sad, then enraged, then it will make you want to act. And Kiser does it all without overwrought emotion or unnecessary drama. Buy it. Read it. See for yourself. That is what a good book does. It drives you to want change, to demand change and to create change.RD Kiser has given us a gift, one that is cheap for us to receive at the price of a book, but at a price he never should have had to pay: his childhood, his dignity and much of his adult life. Let us join our voices to those of the White House Boys and on behalf of the murdered victims who have no voice. These are the stories of our dark and twisted past. We owe it to ourselves, to the victims and their families, and to our children to see that this story is fully illuminated in all its hideous, gory detail. Only then can we accept what happened, demand reparations on behalf of victims and move forward, armed with knowledge of the past so nothing like this will ever, ever happen again. As a endeavor to heal on behalf of the WHB, to move forward and to protect our children this is a moving and incredible book that must be read. Perhaps Lee Simonson states it best in his eloquent and heartfelt foreword: "While Roger's grandchildren may have saved him, I say, 'Roger, you have saved us!' And for that, thousands of people around the world will be forever grateful for his inspiration."Elizabeth Mead Aug 26, 2013