[Magdalen] Heather Cook

[Jim Guthrie]

>Yes, I am in recovery.  Yes, I am a party poop.  But addiction, and 
>specifically alcoholism, is killing our brothers and sisters.  We cannot keep 
>silent

I think an awareness of the history is useful:

A hundred years ago, the prohibitionists were hard at work trying to ban 
alcohol. Once they passed the income tax to replace excise taxes on alcohol, and 
then Women's suffrage to ensure passage of the 18th amendment (and you thought 
women's suffrage was some sort of crusade about the rights of women!) we got 
what some in recovery seem to want now.

Some of the results of this experiment are well known, others are not: like the 
fact the rich could get all the alcohol they wanted (usually from Canadian 
Friends); Roman Catholics who were well-connected and generous in their parish 
could get all the wine they wanted from the priests (a process that made the 
Gallo Brothers Millionaires and established Gallo Wines as a major force).

Poor people got screwed, of course. But everyone "knew" the poor had no self 
control and therefore had to be "Protected" from themselves.

And of course, there are millions of Americans who simply don’t drink at all for 
religious or other reasons. Mormons, many conservative evangelicals etc.have 
never touched the stuff, and aren’t likely to start.  Certainly my conservative 
religionist cousins fall into that category; and when my folks were first 
married, Aunt Cornelia dumped the entire family liquor cabinet down the sink, 
thus imposing her religious views on the family.

(I think it was the only time they sent her packing for Grand Rapids sooner than 
her usual return).  She later apologized and promised never to do that again.

It should be noted that most of them take a hands-off view toward those who don’t 
share that faith. And at the same time have little or no understanding of people 
in recovery, regarding their situation as a product of moral failure in the 
first place.

Alcoholism is a disease, obviously. But trying to protect people in recovery or 
from themselves (in some cases) is far more complicated, I think.

Cheers,
Jim