Politics in recovery mag? Life in recovery is living life, right?

[CharlieG]

I am planning on using the story I wrote below in my next column in JOURNEY, but am wondering what you guys think. It is political, but politics are a part of life and living in recovery means living life, right

I was going to write this story in the last issue of JOURNEY since it came to me on the 4th of July, but it was JOURNEY’S Anniversary Issue, and I wanted to write about one of my God shots.
So here now, is my first political opinion, and for those of you who ask ‘What does this have to do with recovery?’ Go back and read my interview in the Anniversary Issue with Pat Taylor, Director of Faces & Voices of Recovery.

We in the recovery community need to put a face on recovery; let the public know that we are not their imagined stereotypical alcoholic or addict hanging on to sobriety by our fingertips,
But thriving, hard working, intelligent, contributing members of society whose opinions are not puerile palaver (How about being able to put those two together in a sentence!),
But introspective and heart felt, that we can articulate and contribute to our country’s dialogue.

So in that vein, I want to tell you a story that came to be last month.

On the 4th of July to be exact.



One steamy night last month, I left my house to go to a 12 step meeting. As I closed the door & headed towards my car, I stopped.

I live on a quiet street. Trees stand at attention the length of my road, with their branches’ overhang a mesh of coolness on most afternoons. Not a lot of street lights, and those that are there are placed a ways apart.

The night was blanketed in what looked like fog, but had the sharp, acrid smell of gunpowder.

It stopped me short. It was not a normal sight when you leave your house in Miami.

The smell though, a little more so.

Then,

BOOM!

I flinched, body crouching in the ‘duck & run’ position, then saw,

A colorful cascade of lights littering the sky as a 4th of July fireworks display played out above me.

Another BOOM.

And another.

As I stood there, flinching at each concussion and looking up & down my road at the street lamps light being filtered through the leaves of the overhanging trees and crystallizing into distinct, flashlight beams stabbing the hazy night;

The fireworks’ smoke as effective as a fog machine in a South Beach strip club,

As loud, explosive booms played in the background instead of the DJ’s top 10 songs;

I felt each concussion resound inside of myself as its force washed over me.

I felt like I had gone through the twilight zone into the twilight zone.

The movie.

The foggy, night scene where the Hollywood army helicopter’s planned crash caused the unplanned death of actor Vic Morrow. He died as explosions rocked the air around him in the dark, smoke filled, simulated war scene.

Then I thought; This is what our soldiers are going through in Iraq.

Every night.

It was a scary realization.

What they are doing.

Going through.

Over there.

With just my taste of it,

Over here.

For us.

For what?

Why are they over there?

As I am,

Flinching at every BOOM,

In a place I didn’t recognize.

Getting a taste in that one night,

Of what our guys are going through,

Every night.

It was enough.

And I wrote the story below.

Peace



It may be naive, but..

By CharlieG


I was asked to change my aviator to a flame on another blog, to support peace and the end of war.

And I wondered.

I have a tattoo on my shoulder I got back in the 80's. It is of the American flag, and has the words 'And proud of it' around it.’

When I got it, I was.

Now, I'm not.

Not an easy thing to say, especially when you love your country as I do.

And I DO love this country.

My country.

My country was a country that the world looked to for guidance.

For moral guidance.

My country was a country that the world looked to for an example of how the world should be.

My country represented;

God.

Hope.

Rights.

Freedom.

Possibilities.

Love.

We had CARE, HOPE & The RED CROSS.

We fed the poor and defended the weak.

We were a beacon for the underdog.

We championed God.

Human rights.

Our rights.

We helped bring about a fledgling democracy in Russia;

And bring down the wall in East Berlin.

We've helped bring more rights to more people in more countries.


Now,


We don't start school with a morning prayer anymore.

Now we are sued when we do.

We want to take Christ out of Christmas.

Heck, we want to change 'Merry Christmas' to 'Happy Holidays.'

Your phone calls can now be listened to without a warrant.

Your emails read without a warrant.

You can be locked up in prison for the rest of your life without ever seeing a judge, if you’re labeled a terrorist suspect.

Who has that job? (Do NOT want him pissed off at me! Peace, bro!).

And we want to build a WALL across our border between us & Mexico???

We have an immigration problem because our economy is so much better than our neighbor’s.

Our neighbor.

Our ally.

Would we even entertain that idea on our Canadian border?

I have an idea of what we should do instead of putting up a WALL across our country.

Why don’t we build all those factories that we use in China, for all that stuff we think we need here,

In Mexico?

They would be able to earn a comfortable living, and thus want to stay, in their own country.

We would be helping our neighbor,

Our ally

Their cost of living might be more than their Asian counter parts, but it would still be lower than ours, and it would be an anodyne for both societies.

The savings from less uninsured hospital stays/emergency room visits, more school space/ratio of teachers to students, less under the table work/unpaid & uncollected taxes,

Plus a multiplex of other costs we incur because our neighbors,

Our allies,

Can not contribute to our economy while hiding on the fringes of society.

And maybe the most important of all in the long run –

We’d be spending our money on /and helping an economy grow, a country in our hemisphere;

Not one who will very soon be using the very money we pump into their economy against us;

To buy their increasing need of,

The dwindling supply of,

Our planet’s energy supplies.

That’s not even counting the monetary & planetary energy savings of not having to ship it to us from half way around the world.

And I bet it would be a lot easier to do quality control checks for lead in the paint of children’s toys!

It may be naive, but it's what popped into my head.


On the radio coming home the other day, a guy was ranting about the rising discontent with the war in Iraq.

"Where was our fortitude? Where was that drive that carried us to victory in World War I & II?"

He sputtered.

And I thought,

‘In those wars we were the defenders. Not the aggressors.’

‘We were protecting a sovereign country.

Not invading one.’

It may be naive, but it's what popped into my head.


I got an email asking me to change my avatar on one of my blogs to promote peace and the end of the war, and I thought,

'The time might be right to say how I feel.'

Then I thought;

I have to wait for the right time to say how I feel?

I have to be scared if I want to say how I feel?

I have to worry about being called a sympathizer, or unpatriotic, if I say what I feel?

In my country?

In America?

This can't be right.

It may be naive, but it's what popped into my head.

peace.

Charlie G