Randy's Blog

Cheeze Whiz

2010-07-05T23:08:00.001-07:00

The Cheez Whiz Incident

Being a product of the sixties I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the birth of many notable consumer items. The Pocket Fisherman, the Bic lighter and the plastic pop bottle are just a few. But the one that I think I connect with the most is a product called Cheez Whiz. That unique blend of chemicals not only formed an orange substance with the consistency of pudding but also somehow created a tangy “cheese like” taste that every kid loved. To this day whenever I see one of those yellow jars with its comic label it always takes me back to a vivid recollection of a cold November evening in 1975.
My sister and I were sitting at the kitchen table after a hard day of sledding. Our cheeks were still rosy red and our feet and fingers still in the process of thawing out. The warm toast on the plates in front of us had been slathered with Cheez Whiz and the aroma was pungent yet inviting. It had become our favorite after sledding treat since it had hit the store shelves not too long before. My mouth watered as I inhaled deeply.
My little sister, who was sitting to the right of me at the head of the table, was eyeballing her own toast much like a starving refugee eyeballs a steak dinner . I half expected her to start drooling. Then after thinking about it, the mental picture of her actually drooling over Cheez Whiz and toast seemed so silly it made me laugh out loud. In fact, I started laughing so hard I couldn’t stop! And even though she didn’t know why, Melissa started laughing just as hard as I was. Soon we were both sitting there at the table laughing loud and merrily and eating our cheese toast.
It didn’t take much of this before my father bellowed from the living room, “Stop messing around in there and eat! I’m trying to watch television!“ Now, my father was from the old school and this was nineteen seventy five, an era when it was still ok to hit your kids. So we knew when to back off. Naturally we both clammed up immediately because in our house a smart tongue could be a serious liability. It might even get you a blinding slap to the back of your noggin.
My dad was an imposing man. In fact, he was scary. He stood lean and mean at 6’4”, two hundred and forty pounds, and sported a close cropped haircut at all times. Dad was an angry and bitter person and it showed in his eyes and in his demeanor. Whenever he was angry with me his face took on a look much like the one a hawk gives to its prey seconds before it digs in its talons. That look made me pee my pants once. He was also a real proponent of the “tough love” method of rearing children so cuffing me behind the head was not out of the question.
Having been warned, we were more than happy to return to eating our tasty, gooey homemade snacks. We sat there munching away like fat rats in a cheese factory all the while shooting each other furtive glances. I could see my sister was on the edge of bursting into laughter again. It soon became apparent to me that if I could make her laugh and keep my own mouth shut, I might succeed in getting her into trouble with the Burgermiester in the other room. I stopped chewing and looked her dead in the eye for a whole 5 seconds before opening my mouth and revealing the contents. That was the money shot. She burst into such a fit that I thought she was going to fall out of her chair. Now all I had to do was to not laugh along with her and all would be well. Miraculously, I did not laugh. But I wanted to! I clamped my hands over my mouth and watched as my sister’s head rolled around with laughter.
To dispel any mystery about my motives for wanting to get my baby sister into trouble, I must pause here and explain myself. When I described the mean giant to you earlier I was giving you MY impressions. My sister would portray “daddy” as a totally different person than I did. After all, she was daddy’s little girl and the apple of his eye. I never once heard dad yell at her, let alone lay a hand on her. That would have been tantamount to blasphemy.
In my mind I could hear a sinister chuckle that I recognized as my own. This was going to be great! Miss Polly Purebread was finally going to get a taste of dads’ wrath. So I waited. Sitting there with my hands covering my mouth trying desperately not to make any sounds. As I tried to stifle my own laughter I realized that I was unconsciously holding my breath and by now my eyes were watering profusely. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I waited for what seemed like twenty minutes for the sound of my fathers’ recliner to make that familiar double clunk that signified that he was getting up.
Sure enough I soon heard what I was waiting for. Shortly followed by thundering footsteps of course. The sound of those feet stomping across the floor coming my way usually sent waves of terror through my boney little body. But not this time. This time I was unusually calm. Even in his socks my dad tended to send shockwaves through whatever floor he was walking across.
One by one the footsteps came closer to the kitchen and at any second I expected to see his towering figure enter the arched doorway between the kitchen and family room.
I was not disappointed. But instead of looming in the doorway yelling at my sister, as I had expected, he entered the kitchen in a blur and made a beeline straight to where we were sitting. He came at us with his hand in the air poised for the ultimate slap, and for a minute he gave the briefest of pauses seeing that it was the princess who was going to be punished and not the “usual one.” But that pause was so brief you would have to rewind the tape and play it in slow motion to actually see it.
Without even breaking stride he swung his mighty arm and his open hand caught Melissa square in the back of her head. His hand glanced of her head and traveled in a complete arc until it came to rest in the air behind me. He didn’t miss a beat. I soon felt the hard knuckles as he backhanded me own head. Normally that would be enough of a shock to my system that the pain would register immediately. This time however, I barely noticed it. What my eyes were telling my brain overshadowed anything else that was trying to get through.
The slap was actually nominal and didn’t really hurt that much, but it had certainly caught my little sister off guard. She was still in the mist of her own laughter, rocking back and forth in her chair, when the hand connected to her dome. Her head shot forward with unbelievable momentum until her face finally came to rest with a thump in her plate of toast.
The scene that followed next seem to move in slow motion. My sister, who was already in the middle of her meltdown, slowly raised her head from the plate. Her face was as red as a beet and her mouth was gaping wide. From it came the most unearthly wailing I have ever heard. It looked like she was having a stroke or something of that nature.
This is only funny because as she sat there bawling her eyes out the two pieces of cheese toast were stuck to her face like giant postage stamps. One on her forehead and one on her right cheek. They were stuck there good too because no matter how many tears she streamed down her face they didn’t move. The sight of her in this state almost made me lose my composure. She just sat there with that toast stuck to her face, wailing and crying. She seemed totally oblivious to the fact that they were even on her face.
My dad was not one to find humor in the things around him, but I swear, to this day, that as my father left the room I could see just the faintest hints of a smile on his face. I’m sure he didn’t actually smile but laughter can shine through even the roughest of exteriors. And on this day it did just that. For that I’ll always remember Cheez Whiz.

Hollywood

2010-07-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

HOLLYWOOD PREDICTS THE FUTURE Since the dawn of mankind, the art world has had a predominately mimetic flavor to it. In other words, art usually imitates life. Through out the centuries that always held true all the way up until the late nineteenth century. With the invention and acceptance of cinematography as a new genre among the arts the opposite seems to be taking place and for the first time life has started to imitate art. For the last one hundred years or so the motion picture industry actually seems to be predicting our future. Oscar Wilde was probably the most famous person to publicly agree with the ideology that life imitates art and he stated so in an essay called “The Decay of Lying.” Art mimicking life dates back as far as the stone age when primitive man first started adorning his cave walls. He painted hunting parties, animals, landscapes and even his own tribesmen. He had discovered a new way of communicating but due to his limited life experience and imagination that is as far as it went. He painted what he knew. As time went by man became more refined and so did his creative skills. He began to expand his artistic horizons and started using more imagination in his art. He started painting images of what he thought something he had never seen before should look like. He started painting pictures of his gods and of course, his demons, too. All of what civilized man calls “fine art” almost always depicts very unimaginative objects that were around the artist. Beautiful woman, landscapes, images of children playing and of course the bowl of fruit. Some artists painted the stars and sunsets and while these works were very beautiful and awe inspiring, they were still mere copies of something the artist had seen before. This trend continued for hundreds of years until the literary arts finally broke the cycle. At that time most books were about the same comfortable topics. Love stories and epic tales of heroism were the fodder of the times. Apparently man had yet to look to the future and wonder what life was going to be like. There were a few artists that thought outside the box and speculated about the future and things of that nature. A few even used their artistic mediums to tell the world about it. One of the first was Jules Verne, a pioneer of science fiction in the 1800’s. Eventually other writers joined in and started publishing their own speculative views on the future. The earliest film about space travel was a silent film released in 1902 called “A Trip to the Moon.” It was inspired by two different novels that were popular at the time. One by Jules Verne called “From the Earth to the Moon” and the other by H.G. Wells titled “The First Men in the Moon.” Film making was still in it’s infancy so the special effects were quite primitive and a bit cartoonish but it did have vision. It predicted that man would make it to the moon. Space travel to the moon in a rocket and alien beings from another planet had not been a popular theme in any art form until 1902 when this film was released. The satellite and space technology that we have now makes everything predicte by the movies back then look primitive and clumsy. Yet they did predict its coming. And although the science has exceeded Hollywood’s expectations producers can still lay claim to the prediction itself. They showed us a glimpse of the future and it came true. Another noteworthy film that truly speculated on the future was a silent film called “Metropolis” which was released in 1927 by Fritz Lang. This movie was quite innovative for its time because it was the first time we got an actual visual glimpse of what the future might look like. The movie was set in an ultra industrial city and it introduced us to such things as the first humanoid robot and the first mechanical prosthetic or bionic hand. Fritz’s vision has already come and gone and the industrial age is actually dying during our own lifetimes. We are now in the transition period between the industrial age and the information age and Fritz’s vision from almost a hundred years ago has been seen by us all. In the thirties and forties movies about flying saucers became popular in theaters all over the world and still are today. Of course the reported sightings grew in popularity soon after that. Even though there may have been rare reported sightings before film, it wasn’t until the movies made the idea popular that it started becoming true. With countless reports, photographs and videotapes can we conclude that they are all fakes and lies? Either thousands of people went mad in just a few short years, all having very similar hallucinations or there actually have been visitations. The odds dictate that at least one of all of those accounts be real. If man usually depicted what he saw in his art, why isn’t there any evidence from past eons of visitations? Because it wasn’t until the movies predicted we would be visited that it happened. There is a whole myriad of appliances and gizmos that were introduced in the movies that are now our everyday reality. Instantaneous video and wireless communication was just cool idea in science fiction just a few years ago. The stun gun, the robot vacuum cleaner, hands free telephones and the microwave oven are just a few of the cool toys we now have. One of the ideas that came alive in the movies long before actually being invented is the laser beam. In the movies aliens and superheroes were blasting each other long before an actual working laser was produced in 1960 by Theodore Malman and even then it was hardly more than a fancy light. It definitely would not have knocked a spaceship out of the sky or cut an alien in half. Today we have lasers commonly used in manufacturing settings the will cut thru thick metal within seconds with pin point accuracy. We even have robots fitted with their own metal cutting laser beams. And let’s not forget the flying car of tomorrow. Although they haven’t been perfected it yet, we already have flying car prototypes and we have had them for years.It’s just a matter of time before we are all flying to work and causing fiery accidents all over America’s skies. The idea of ultra mechanized cities filled with these gadgets has come and almost passed. We’ve imagined space travel and although we haven’t mastered it we still have been there many times and are advancing rapidly in the technology. We even have manned space stations now. We will be traveling to other planets and teleporting in no time. Conquering the obstacle of long distance space travel will of course open the door to crossing the time barrier. From there we will be able to time travel also. Of course with the good things the movies have brought us they have brought us the bad tidings also. Terror movies of today or so horrifically realistic that it scares us to think about it. For every well known monster from the movies there is a human counterpart walking our streets at this moment. Statistics show that there are at least ten serial killers active in our country at any given moment. That’s a lot of Freddy Krugers on the loose. The brutality of some of the crimes committed in real life are sometimes far worse than that of the movies. In the movies it’s usually horny teenagers being killed, not innocent toddlers walking with their parents in Walmart. The psychopathic killers on the loose today are just movie monsters without their masks. Of course the increase of the macabre in our everyday news can be explained away to larger population. But never before has it been so unsafe for our kids now that Hollywood has brought the Boogeyman to life. They may not have invented him but they certainly perpetuated and glorified his existence in our everyday news headlines. So what does all this mean for our future? In the last few years the movie industry has started a new wave of predictions. In the last twenty years or so, there has been an onslaught of apocalyptic films depicting the world’s demise from one evil or another. The movies about alien visitations and invasion vastly outnumber even those. There are of course even movies who’s themes center around alien visitations that culminate into our apocalyptic demise. With the unrest in the middle east and the remainder of the world killing each other over borders, is it so unfathomable that the wrong people will start pushing the wrong buttons? There really are plenty of power hungry dictators in the world that have access to some pretty big bombs. And a lot of them are seemingly quite mentally unstable. There’s been plenty of movies built on that premise also. The end, as they tell it, will come either in a hail of missiles, meteorites or alien spaceships. We’ve raped and plundered this rock into irreversible submission and sooner or later, if allowed the time, we will finally use up it’s natural resources. We will suck it dry until it’s nothing but a hollow shell and then we will move on or perish. Maybe humanity in general is a cancer and the aliens will come here and wipe us out before we are able to spread. Either way, no matter what we do for the planet, it’s still too late to repair the damage we’ve done to mankind itself. We’ve built our very own Frankenstein and now it’s too late to kill it. The end is near and this must be true because Hollywood has shown us this on the big screen, and so far they have never been wrong.

The 12 Steps of AA

2010-07-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

THE TWELVE STEPS OF AA I am going to explain the process of working the twelve steps outlined in AA’s Big Book and what that actually means to the person working them. Over the years the twelve steps have become a “concept” in most people’s minds. The fact that it’s an actual proven process seems to have been forgotten. It’s been tested time and time again and it works, as long as the person doing it is truly willing to be totally honest and thoroughly diligent. Addiction has been around for a long time. In fact it’s even touched upon in the Bible. Methods of recovery on the other hand, have not. After hundreds and hundreds of years of just letting addicts die or locking them away in sanitariums, a method was devised that seemed to work for the true addict…the twelve step process outlined in the Big Book of AA. In the early part of the last century two recovering alcoholics named Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob put their heads together and came up with a process that seemed to work for the “true addict.” In order for one to understand what that means they have to wrap their head around the fact that all heavy drinkers are not true alcoholics. If given sufficient reason a good number of them can actually stop abusing drugs and or alcohol. This isn’t so for the true addict. If a person is the real kind of alcoholic or addict that is described in the Big Book of AA then no other man made means is going to stop them from using and abusing. Not one method or treatment center can boast the success rate that AA had when it first started. Addicts everywhere were discovering a new life and a new freedom from their addictions. Not only were they giving up the habits that seemingly ruined their lives, they were staying clean. So what are these magical steps and why do they work? They are a regimented process that the alcoholic or drug addict undergoes that cleans out the wreckage that they have made of their lives. The process helps the person recognize their own faults in past matters and ultimately allows them the opportunity to mend many past mistakes. They are led into a deep self analysis that brings all the dark little secrets into the light and they finally look at them closely. Once this is done it’s about that time that they will start to feel a change in the world around them. They start getting “out of themselves” and into life again. They begin to care for the people around them a little more. They come to realize that life is finally something to look forward to. They for once believe, truly believe, that there is a higher power out there running things. So exactly what are the steps? This is the order: Step one says we admit we have a problem and cannot manage our lives on our own. This is hard for a lot of alcoholics because one dominate characteristic of the true alcoholic is that they are control freaks to the core. They like to think that even though they have a drinking problem, they have the rest of their lives under control. It usually takes some convincing get them to see that even though they have been driving the bus, they suck at it. If they were actually in control then they wouldn’t be having this issue. Simple as that. Next comes step two, which states that they come to believe that only a power higher than themselves will be able to get them to stop using. By this time they have usually been through treatment centers and rehab facilities to no avail so it often takes very little convincing. Once a person has exhausted all other methods of recovery they usually have no trouble believing that it will take more than just their willpower to stop. That leads them into step three. This step is where they finally make a decision to turn their lives over to whatever higher power is out there. They make a conscious choice to let someone else drive the bus for awhile. At this time there is a prayer called the third step prayer that the sponsee and sponsor do together that basically seals the deal. Once done the sponsee is obligated to follow through. Of course many don’t. These three steps I just outlined should not take that long. From the minute a person decides that they need help, to the minute they say “amen” at the end of step threeshould not take that long at all. In my opinion it should take only a week or so. There is a lot of controversy over what I just said in the AA community between AA pacifists and AA extremists. The pacifists think a person should take a year or more to do these threesteps. I personally disagree. If a person came to me and said they were terminally ill and I was holding the cure, would I tell them that I have a cure but they will have to wait a year to use it? Of course not. If a person is sick enough to seek out a cure, then it’s the responsibility of every member of AA to help them find that cure as soon as possible. These first three steps are merely ideas and decisions. If a person can take a year from the time that they walked into AA to the time that they are saying the third step prayer, then they must not have been hurting that much. But this falls on the shoulders of the sponsors. It’s bad sponsoring and laziness that have led to this now common practice. The Big Book of AA clearly states that this is a program of VIGOROUS action, and waiting a year to make a decision is not “vigorous.” This leads us to step four. It’s at this point that a lot of people give up. Step four says they take a fearless and thorough moral inventory of our lives. The person sits down with pen and paper and searches out the dark nooks and crannies of their inner selves. They put down every bad thing that they have done and every bad thing done to them. They must be totally honest at this point or the process doesn’t work. Rigidly honest. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Hurtful and shameful things that have been buried for a lifetime come to the surface again. But it is necessary because it’s the culmination of these “resentments” that have led them down the road of destruction. This step usually takes a week or so and when it’s complete the person doing it usually has quite a sizable list in front of them. Now comes the really hard part. Step five. Step five says that the person takes their list and makes a full disclosure to themselves, their higher power and one other human being, usually their sponsor. Now admitting all of their flaws to themselves and their higher power is easy enough, but to tell another person all of their deep dark secrets is not. It’s humiliating and humbling and tends to make one’s ego balk. But once completed, the person almost immediately feels fifty pounds lighter. Things that they have been hiding for years have been brought to light and they feel that they can finally start getting rid of them. Once done they are ready for step six. Step six states that the person is ready and willing to let go of all that garbage build up and let their higher power have it all and handle it all. It’s a lot like confessing your sins to a priest, just not as formal. This is usually accomplished through a brief period of prayer and meditation. After this they are ready to move on to step seven, the dreaded amends list everyone has heard about. To work on step seven the person must refer back to the previous list in step four and start a new list. The amends list. They look back over their lives and write down every single person that they have harmed. Even institutions can fall on this list. If a person feels that they wronged a company for instance, then that company goes on the list. They do this honestly and with a new outlook on situations from the past. Once they have the list completed they move on to step eight which says that they become willing to actually make the amends to the people on the list. Once they have finished step eight by becoming willing to make actual amends to people they have hurt, they move on to step nine. This is the step that they actually go out and make amends to these people. This is one of the hardest things some people will ever do. This step also takes some time because people aren’t always easy to find after years and years. But the person working the steps must honestly keep trying until the list is done. By this time they should only be a couple of months into the program. If they are honest, diligent and thorough about working step nine, when they are done they are going to have what is called a “spiritual experience.” This happens differently for everyone but it does happen. It’s usually not a burning bush type of experience but more of a “spiritual awakening.” My own experience was somewhat subtle compared to some, but just as real none the less. Even if they haven’t had a noticeable experience at this time they move right into steps ten, eleven and twelve. These last three steps are done for the rest of their lives and ensures their continued sobriety. Step ten says that they continue to take personal inventory on their actions every day and promptly admit when they are wrong and quickly repair any damage they may have caused. They must always be on the lookout for any ill feelings they may cause another. Step eleven is all about enhancing their connection to whatever higher power they have in their lives through prayer and meditation. They may also try to learn new and better ways of meditation, and once found, use these methods for a clearer path to their higher power. This also goes on for the rest of their lives in conjunction with step ten. The last step is step twelve. They must go out and find another addict and give that person a message of hope. They must try to convince another hurting person that there is a way out of addiction and that there is a life out there that is beautiful and rich.That isn’t always as easy as it sounds. And they must continue to do this for the rest of their lives if they want to ensure their own sobriety. So far I’ve explained to you how to work the twelve steps of AA. The basic mechanics of it all. If you haven’t noticed, staying sober isn’t even mentioned in the steps. The person gets so far out of themselves working them that staying sober almost becomes a byproduct of the process. But why do the steps work? The answer is simple. The addict, usually for the first time in their lives, is finally living “outside” of themselves. They are for once thinking of how they can help others and they are for once thinking about God. And God is taking an active part in their lives. They don’t become religious fanatics or zealots, but their connection to their higher power is stronger than ever at this point. They start to “live” the way they know they were meant to. They have been put in a place of neutrality around alcohol and drugs and helping other addicts keeps them in that place as long as they keep the connection to God open at all times.

Prayer in School

2010-07-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

PRAYER IN SCHOOL For the past few decades the quality of the public school system, especially in the inner city, has gone downhill. The environment that children are growing up in is nothing to be envied and never before has there been so much violence and degradation of moral consciousness among our young people. Ever since the ban on prayer in public schools children are entering adulthood with little to no moral compass to guide them. They definitely have a politically correct compass but is using this as a guide in life better than living by moral standards? I believe the ban on prayer in public school has played a big part in the rise of a generation full of morally inept people. If the ban on prayer in public school were lifted I believe society as a whole would benefit in the long run. We have started teaching our children that it’s much more important that the choices they make do not offend anyone than it is to weigh that choice on a moral and just scale. We do not teach them that something is wrong we just teach them when something is illegal. We arm them with knowledge of every technical subject imaginable but we do not instill any morality whatsoever. We must tip toe around the words God and Jesus in public these days because if we don’t we might inadvertently offend someone’s delicate sensibilities. The ban on prayer and Bible reading in public schools was spearheaded by a woman named Madalyn Murray O’Hair in the early sixties. She filed suit and won when she claimed that it was against her little five year old Billy’s constitutional rights to have to take a moment of silence in school at the beginning of the school day. I can only surmise that young master William must have come home one day from school and just went into a total rant about his first amendment rights being stepped all over by the man while he was at school that day. He had probably had just about enough of that I’m sure. Just as I am sure it had nothing to do with his mother being the founder and president of The American Atheist Association. Whatever the circumstances were she filed suit and won and in 1963 the first ban on Bible reading and prayer in public schools went into effect. The irony of this is that little Billy grew up to become a very strong Christian. In fact he is the chairman of the “Religious Freedom Coalition” and is very active in humanitarian efforts around the world. He of course denounces his mother’s stance on God and religion. Some people may argue that teaching kids about God is behavior modification and that this is a bad thing. They would argue that we should not impose our own personal views onto children and should just stick with the technical fundamentals. Apparently these people think that we should wait until they are hardened criminals behind bars before we try any type of behavior modification. Why spend so much money and effort on behavior modification with an adult once it’s too late and the crime is committed when we can start them off with using morality and justness as their guide lines. According to Infoplease.com since 1996 there has been 39 incidents of school shootings resulting in almost 100 people dead and dozens wounded. That is only in the last fourteen years. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported findings from a survey taken between 2004 and 2008 that, “students ages 12 to 18 were victims of about 1.5 million non-fatal crimes when they were at school compared to about 1.1 million non-fatal crimes while they were away from school. Among high school students in grades 9-12, about 12% said they got into a fight on school property. Ten percent of male students and 5% of female students reported experiencing a threat or injury with a weapon on school property.” Children need to have a structured environment when it comes to learning everything else in life and we give that to them. We force them to learn everything that we think will be important to prepare them for a useful and productive life. Children have to be taught everything else in life so why aren’t we teaching them about morality and integrity also? When we want kids to behave at Christmas time we do not hesitate to use the line, “Santa is watching you.” It is not a bad thing for them to have the idea that God is watching over them and judging their actions. There is nothing bad in teaching them that there is a reason for trying to use moral standards when making a decision. One only has to watch the news to see what we are cranking out into the mainstream of humanity. A population of self centered and self seeking teens and adults that have no concept of the price of human life . We have given children way too much freedom and I’m sure there are parents in Columbine that will agree. We teach them only to be whatever they want to be, good or bad, and to do whatever feels good and is beneficial to them. We teach them everything else but we are afraid we will be infringing on their freedom if we teach them how to act. As a child growing up and going to school in the seventies, I never dreamed someone would walk into school and start killing everyone. I started school in 1969 which was just a few short years after the ban on prayer in public school went into effect. I remember the tail end of the Vietnam war, racial tension all around, the gas crisis and I remember the birth and death of disco. But I don’t remember once hearing about killing in school. I was never preoccupied with worrying about one of my fellow classmates killing me. There was of course the occasional bully but I never thought he would pull out a gun and shoot me. I might have worried he would beat my brains into a bloody pulp, but the fear of him shooting me never crossed my mind. Others may argue that we would be forcing our beliefs on our youth and that they are “people” and we should let them make their own decision if there is a God or not. To that I say we humans do not always choose what is good for us, especially as children. Every kid knows that broccoli is good for them but they do not usually choose it from the menu. We have to make them eat it until they acquire a taste for it and then learn to like it. They have to be taught that. Even if they don’t like it as adults, they might still eat it just because they know that it is good for them. So if we take the same approach about morality and prayer maybe as adults people will question their own actions before just doing what makes them feel good personally. I think that if more people had the concept that God is watching over them maybe they would think twice before taking what is not theirs or going to school and pulling out a semi automatic weapon. In this day and age it would not hurt for grammar school children to start the school day off with a prayer. That is not such a bad habit to have. We think nothing about shoving Santa Claus and the Easter bunny down the throats of our children so I see nothing wrong with a little God in the morning. A jolly magical man that circles the globe with flying reindeer is not a more positive message than the thought of an inclusive loving God. After all, these icons represent the spirit of GOD and JESUS in the first place so it is not such a bad thing to mention His name in public. Santa comes here on Jesus’ birthday and sneaks into our houses and gives presents to good boys and girls. The message is that if you are good, you get presents in the name of Jesus on His birthday. And on Easter, the day Jesus was resurrected, we learn that a rabbit comes hopping along and hides all the eggs we spent so much time coloring the night before. This is not a better role model than a peaceful man that spread love and kindness everywhere he went. We sing songs about Santa and the Easter bunny but we still cannot talk about God in public schools or anywhere else in public. The only reason prayer was ever banned in the first place was to please a self seeking group of people that had let their own lack of faith or anger at God muddle their rational thinking. They stood on the freedom from religious persecution amendment and actually helped undo a lot of what the constitution stands for. The cost of allowing an atheist organization lobby for freedom from religion has been too high and now we are paying the price. Prayer in public schools should be mandatory and if we ever want a chance at a peaceful planet full of compassionate people then we should embrace God more often than not. Works Cited LeBeau, Bryan F. “The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O’Hair” New York City, New York University Press. 2003. Print. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2010. Web. 11 April 2010 http://bjs.ojp.isdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=44 All About History: School Prayer Case History. 2010. Web. 10 April 2010 http://www.allabouthistory.org/school-prayer.htm Time Line of Worldwide School Shootings. 2010. Web. 11 April 2010 http://www.inforplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html Prayer in School. 2010. Web. 22 April 2010 http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/prayer-in-school.html

Real Alcoholism

2010-07-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A REAL ALCOHOLIC There are many misconceptions about the true meaning of the word alcoholism and what it means to be an alcoholic. Many people are labeled alcoholic when actually they are merely heavy or problem drinkers. Just because a person has a drinking problem doesn’t mean they are a real alcoholic. Many do not realize there is a difference between alcohol abuse and alcoholism. It’s been said that every alcoholic is a drunk but not every drunk is an alcoholic. A lot of people abuse alcohol but given a sufficient reason they can stop drinking. A real alcoholic can’t and won’t. There are lots of people that party and binge drink but they aren’t all alcoholics. They certainly have the potential but that’s not to say that they are one. Hopefully by the time you are done reading this you will see that true alcoholism is much more than just drinking too much or too often. Webster’s Online Dictionary defines alcoholism as an addictive dependency on alcohol characterized by craving (a strong need to drink); loss of control (being unable to stop); physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms; and tolerance (increasing difficulty of becoming drunk). While this is certainly true, real alcoholism goes a little deeper than the scope of that definition allows. All of these traits are present in most alcoholics but there are a few “key ingredients” that were left out. True alcoholism is a genetic disease that you have from birth. It is progressive and quite potentially fatal if left untreated. When I say untreated I mean that if the person starts and continues to use alcohol. There is no cure for alcoholism and this genetic trait can be passed from generation to generation. The person having the genetic type of alcoholism is prone to addiction if they continually abuse alcohol. This genetic malfunction doesn’t allow the alcoholic’s body to metabolize alcohol the way a normal person’s body does. Instead of processing the booze normally an affected person has an allergic reaction to it and they develop the phenomenon of craving. The moment alcohol enters the body the craving begins and that person is usually going to drink another and another. They have no choice. It’s not a matter of will power and strength over booze because with every sip they take the craving increases drastically until stopping is not even an option. This craving is only the start of things to come. Prolong exposure to this craving produces another side effect called “The Insanity of the First Drink.” This is where the mental obsession to drink comes into play. Many alcoholics know that there will be severe repercussions if they drink again. They know they will lose the kids or the house or their jobs yet they still pick up that first drink. Some even know they will die from it. But the obsession is very strong and never leaves. No amount of self control or willpower can make that happen. Some medicines may control it but none will ever take it away once its ignited. Dr. William D. Silkworth summed up the alcoholic mentality best in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, when he said, “To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable, discontent, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks.” In other words, just taking the alcohol away from them will not solve the problem. It only makes it worse. This is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive symptoms of the true alcoholic. One of the greater obsessions of every alcoholic is to be able to control their use and still enjoy it’s effects. But of course that cannot happen due to the craving. And when they attempt to live life controlling their drinking they fall farther and farther into a pit of depression, anger and self loathing. Controlling their drinking isn’t an option either. Eventually, if they are left untreated, a vast majority will commit suicide while “controlling” their drinking. Most alcoholics that commit suicide do it while they are on the proverbial wagon, not while they are actively using. They finally hit what is called “dry bottom” and ultimately take the only escaper route seemingly available to them. This happens because of another little know and hardly talked about symptom of the true alcoholic. We’ve already talked about the genetic defect and how it can lead to the alcohol abuse. And we’ve discussed how that abuse leads to the craving and dependency. We’ve also covered how that dependency ultimately leads to the mental obsession that never allows the alcoholic the luxury of quitting. Now lets talk about the final and unheard of symptom that all REAL alcoholics suffer from. That is called the spiritual malady. Addiction is the byproduct of guilt and despair and after years of living this way all true alcoholics will develop this thing called the spiritual malady. They have been beaten up by booze and their lives and spirits are broken. They have lost faith in themselves, in others and they have lost faith in whatever higher power that they call God. No matter what is said, everyone has some sort of concept of a higher power and the alcoholic has lost faith in that concept. They might attend church and sing hymns but ultimately deep inside, their faith has been broken or forgotten. At the risk of offending people it must be said that many an alcoholic will profess in the name of Jesus Christ while attending church, but their faith is on shaky grounds. They are not really “connected” to their higher power. The true alcoholic usually suffers from the “ism” part of alcoholism, internal spiritual maladjustment. Their “spiritual center” is misaligned after prolonged use and abuse and their real “God” becomes alcohol. Due to the combination of having an incurable genetic defect along with a mental obsession and spiritual malady it would seem like there is very little hope for the afflicted person. After all, alcoholism is incurable by medical standards. But there is hope. Just like other diseases with no hope of a cure, there is such a thing as recovery. A person CAN recover from alcoholism just like a cancer patient can go into remission. According to Alcohol-Information.com, ninety five percent of alcoholics end up dying from their disease, in one form or another, on the average of twenty six years sooner than they would have if they hadn’t abused liquor. Some suffer from liver damage, some commit suicide while a major portion of them die in an automobile accident. These are horrific statistics. Approximately fourteen million people are addicted to or abuse alcohol on a regular basis. Also, five hundred thousand kids between the ages of nine and twelve are dependant on alcohol. But are all of these people real alcoholics? By now you should be able to see that they aren’t all real alcoholics. One thing is for certain, they obviously have problems with alcohol in their lives but that does not automatically classify them as alcoholics. What I am about to say next will probably not sit to well with a lot of people but you can be addicted to alcohol and not be a true alcoholic. Granted, you will eventually become a full blown alcoholic if the addiction is left unattended but it still doesn’t classify you as a true alcoholic. Sooner or later every true alcoholic reaches a certain plateau that may as well be called the point of no return. To quote straight from The Big Book, “Whether such a person can quit upon a non spiritual basis depends on the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not.” In other words if someone has reached this point in their disease, there is only one way to save them. Spiritually. Maybe they can control their mental obsession with drugs and lots of treatment, and maybe they can control the physical addiction with more pills, but they will never fix that spiritual malady. The usual outcome is relaps within a relatively short period of time. Usually the best course of treatment is a few weeks in a detox center to rid the body of any toxins,followed up with vigorous involvement with an accredited AA twelve step program. Unfortunately most never follow up the rehab or detox centers with AA involvement and subsequently a vast majority return to using only to end up at the center again. Many scoff at the idea of going to AA and working the twelve steps upon release from these centers. They do not realize that AA is not just another program implemented to get them sober. It’s a program of living. The Big Book of AA is an actual textbook and if they follow the instructions in it they will “recover” from alcoholism. It is the only textbook that gives the reader step by step instructions on how to do that. So what does it mean to be a “true alcoholic?” A genetic propensity, a physical dependency, and mental obsession are a good cocktail to start off with…if you’ll pardon the pun. But that’s not to say that environment and other outside factors don’t perpetuate the progressiveness, because they contribute a great deal. But for this author, the unknown key ingredient is the spiritual malady. If you have all or most of these symptoms you are probably an alcoholic by most standards. If you have that symptom on top of the rest of them, I would have to say you certainly are one.