From a Dime a Dozen to Priceless

Follow this orphan through two orphanages in Pennsylvania from the age of 2 until the age of 14 when he runs away and lives on the streets of Philadelphia.A four year stint in the US Air Force is followed by a concurrent pursuit of education including law school while working as a conductor on the railroad and publishing a small town newspaper. Many relationships are attempted but none succeed.A despicable crime earns him a punishment of a 20 year sentence in Folsom State Prison in California. Considered the most violent US prison in the 80s, cunning, luck and mainly faith allow him to survive. Following an early release he spends almost twenty years as a public servant, using computer skills learned before leaving the prison system.The essence of this unbelievable autobiography is a quest to find the answers to two questions that haunt society and whose experts have been unable to answer. What is a cause and what is a cure for pedophilia?If those experts read this autobiography, they may find clues or answers to each question. The author discovers his answers by re-living his life through this writing. Because of the content of this unique book, there is a printed warning that must be read before reading this unique life story. This book is intended for open-minded adults, parents, teachers, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, law enforcement and justice officials, and perhaps Christians who might just want to read the mother of all testimonies. It is especially directed at those persons on the verge of committing the same crime for which Steve A. Mizera spent a frightening time in prison in the hope that they will not repeat his mistake and ruin their life, and create a victim whose life will also be ruined.At times this book is both funny and serious. The reader may cry or get angry. Whatever else it may be, it is also an education that may not be available anywhere else.Elizabeth McCrory wrote the introduction to this book in which she offers the reader plenty of reasons to read it: "Steve Mizera would not have chosen the childhood he was forced to endure. Nobody would. News reports pop up all the time about figures in positions of leadership using their superiority and power to abuse trusting young children. Boy Scout leaders, Catholic Priests, and even more recently, Penn State coaches have all been stigmatized for their role in the suffering of children under their watch. Unfortunately for Steve, the institution he lived in as a young boy included the stereotypical pedophiliac activity making headlines today.His journey starts in a very dark place, and brings the reader through his adolescence to his adulthood, including details of the horror he inflicted on victims of his own, eventually finding a new life in Christ, with a loving family that he had been robbed of as a boy. Along the way, the author describes his own theories and insights regarding the choices of those around him, as well as his own. When the opportunity arose for me to help proofread and edit his initial writings, I found myself intrigued, hoping his words will help reach others and possibly assist them to seek help and/or enlightenment of their own. As it is often said, if this book helps stop one child from being abused, or steers one offender toward rehabilitation, then his goal will have been fulfilled."
About the Author: Born in 1940 as the thirteenth child of unmarried parents, I was committed to St.Francis Orphan Asylum in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania at the age of two. At the age eleven I transferred to St. Joseph's House for Homeless and Industrious Boys, in Philadelphia. I ran away at the age of fourteen from the sexual abuse by a Catholic layman there and learned how to survive on streets of Philadelphia. At the age of sixteen, my employer at Gimble's Department store informed me I was a "Dime a Dozen". I stole $25,000 worth of tires to prove I was not. A four year stint in the USAF introduced me to Republican politics where I met the John Birch Society's founder, Robert Welch, and Ronald Reagan before he became California's governor. I quit the job I had for four years as a salesman for the California Fruit Exchange because I did not get a promotion I thought I deserved and embarked on a career with the Southern Pacific Railroad while pursuing a formal education in both journalism and the law. I moved from Sacramento to Pollock Pines California and took with me Judith Nelson, whose mother thought I was much too old for her. Judy and I founded and published the town newspaper for two years. My relationships continued to implode and I found myself committing a horrendous crime for which I was sentence to Folsom State Prison in California for twenty years. I was released early because the Board of Prison terms deemed my sentence to be disparate. I started a career as a public servant with the State of California as a secretary and retired in 2004 as an Information Systems Analyst. Having the burden of being a registered sex offender, I decided to write my autobiography because it would be one way I could pay for my grave sin and help to prevent the victimization of children. In 1998, I found a family of Russian immigrants - The Klimovs - who informally adopted me and showed me the way to eternal salvation. In 2004 I retired from the state and moved to Christmas Valley, Oregon where I currently reside. I returned to grace and was baptized in 2009 at Grace Family Church in Carmichael, California. I consider this part of my life to be priceless. Although I started my life orphaned from a dysfunctional family, I believe it is God's plan that I became a part of both the Klimov family and the family of brothers and sisters I have in the Baptist church. In retirement I travel, making large, panoramic prints of nature on canvas. I market them at vistagraphs.net.