Thoughts on "The Ring"

I saw the Ring on many occasions, even as late as the year 2001. It was a really sick thing to watch.

When I first got locked up in the cult called Elan, I was pretty disturbed by everything I was witnessing but for some reason I thought that the Ring would be something that was actually cool to watch. I guess that is just how teenage boys thinks. And of course, what I was picturing in my head was very different from what I actually saw.

I remember hearing one day that we were having a Ring that day and I was kind of excited, picturing one of those goofy blow-up boxing rings, like a bouncy house or something, and maybe giant oversized boxing gloves.

No, it was just a "ring" of the toughest, craziest teenagers in the house, mostly the older ones that were 17 - 19 years old. They also only chose the veterans, kids who had been in the Elan for a year or more, the ones already broken and more fucked up by the place.

They basically just sent kids in to beat the shit out of the kid they called "evil" and the entire ring itself worked as another form of torture for that kid, all the kids in the circle were screaming and laughing and making sure to push and pull and take jabs at the "evil" kid who completely surrounded by them. So he was trying to avoid them while also having a kid constantly beating him. And every round that went by, they brought in a new kid "fighting for good", and that new kid was always fresh and not tired at all because he hadn't been boxing for round after round like the "evil" kid.

During the ring, other kids would be crying and shaking and in shock of what they were seeing. Kids as young as 13 watching this horror show and trying to make sense of what they were seeing. All of this happening in the USA, a place where all of us had spent our whole lives being assured that things like this were not allowed. And since all of our communication to the outside world was completely censored and controlled, we knew we couldn't tell a single soul what was going on.

The adult staff were even worse, riling up the tough kids on purpose to make them act even crazier and encouraging them to "act street" with the "evil" kid because he deserved it and needed to see a dose of reality to "be saved from his guilt". I am sure that many of those staff members placed bets on the side, they seemed to really enjoy anytime we had a Ring. They would smile and whisper to each other and laugh while it was happening, sometimes screaming something out like "YEAH, GET HIM!" which many of the kids would see as a cue to also scream out something similar.

Seeing this as a 16 year old was something I will never forget, the blood, the screams, the truly sick laughter, the kids having nervous breakdowns all around me because "this couldn't be happening" and also because they knew they could easily be next at the smallest possible offense. How this "school" was allowed to stay open for 40 years I will never, as long as I live, understand.