Mary MacElveen : Some call it impeachment, I call it intervention!

by Mary MacElveen

This following sentence caught my attention in that “Booze Crisis” article in the National Enquirer where it stated, “Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.”

I am of the opinion that his addiction to alcohol and his use of it have always been problematic for him.

What leads me to say this is the picture that was released the morning after his alleged choking incident involving that pretzel. The picture taken the morning after is a face that I have seen all too many times when I attended AA (Alcoholics Anonymous).

If anyone were to take a picture of me during the active part of my disease, the pictures would have been similar. By the way, I have been sober since February 11, 1988, through the help of AA. I do not know how many of you do remember that picture taken, but a dead give-away is his reddened nose. That is the tell-tale sign of an active user of alcohol. Any person who drinks massive amounts of alcohol such as an alcoholic, it will cause the capillaries within the nose to often expand and burst which gives it that reddened appearance.

Alcoholism is also a disease of the attitudes where one who is active does not have the capacity to feel anything since they are numb from the affects of this drug.

So, when many state that he is a danger when making decisions concerning our national security if he under the influence, then yes he is.

President Chavez has called Bush ”Mr. Danger” ... I do think that he is on to something here.

Often times, the diseased addict will be irrational in his or her thinking since the brain is the primary organ being affected. Some may even act juvenile, and the reason is they stopped growing emotionally from the time they picked up their first drink.

Only through sobriety can one gain those lost years back.

Just before Bush became a candidate for president, when he was governor of Texas, he openly mocked Karla Faye Tucker who pleaded to him for her life to be spared. For those of you around the world who do not know who she is, Karla Faye Tucker was the first woman in this country to be executed since the Civil War and her execution took place in Texas.

A person of sound mind and body does not do that when it comes to a life and death issue.

After he did that, a shiver went down my spine thinking ’God help us’ if he were ever to become president.

When then-candidate Bush referred to Adam Clymer of the New York Times as a “major league ***hole,” while some passed it off, to me it was a juvenile remark indicative of the irrational behavior of an active alcoholic.

Days before the 2000 election his arrest report was released to the media revealing that he was arrested while driving under the influence. At that time, the media enabled him by not intervening on the public’s behalf and holding his feet to the fire. ’Enabling’ an alcoholic is very dangerous and, throughout his presidency, it has become abundantly clear just how dangerous he really is.

Over the years many have joked about his slurred speech, his inability on many occasions to string intelligent sentences or when he stops midway ... and those too are troubling signs. They are symptomatic of this disease as well.

We have also seen crude behavior where one was captured on MSNBC just before the CAFTA vote where he flipped the bird on national TV.

That should concern everyone and is not the sign of someone who is of sound mind and body. While many, if inwardly angry, can hold back an open feelings of hostility often the active alcoholic cannot. This is what concerns me if I am willing to believe that Bush never gave up drinking in the first place.

We expect our leaders to act rationally instead of showing said outward signs of irrational behavior.

Over the years, some have called into question the amount of time he takes vacationing, but that too is indicative of someone who is in the active phase of this disease. Alcoholics in many cases cannot handle the stress placed upon them and need such a retreat. Only through the tools used by AA which are called the twelve steps can a recovering alcoholic be taught how to use them in not only high stress situations, but their normal day to day life.

In many cases alcoholics will spend beyond their monetary means and as we have all seen, Bush sunk the State of Texas into debt and has done that same thing to us on a national scale. You would think the telling point would have been his failed business ventures, but again, the media became his enabler.

Alcoholism is a disease that runs in families ... and we have all heard about Bush’s daughters having had their own set of problems concerning this disease and his brother Governor Jeb Bush’s own children have had run ins with the law concerning not only alcohol but with other drugs as well.

In AA there is a saying: “A drug is a drug is a drug” where there is no separation between which drug is used by the alcoholic or substance abuser.

In AA we are taught that we stand a fifty-fifty chance of any of our offspring becoming an alcoholic. So, when it comes to the raising of my two children, this is an issue that is always being discussed.

On numerous occasions, President Chavez has intervened citing what is wrong with many of Bush’s actions to not only the American people but the world where he has been marginalized or some like Pat Robertson have called him a threat.

* I would like to remind Pat Robertson just who has control over a vast nuclear arsenal knowing their launch codes.

But, when it comes to the disease of alcoholism intervention is needed. So, what President Chavez has been doing is holding a political intervention based upon the acts of Bush. While some alcoholics will pay attention to such intervention, others will refuse to do so and that is called denial. They will often lash out at their perceived attacker if they are not yet ready to get sober.

* An alcoholic must hit rock bottom and have the full desire to become sober if they are to recover.

Intervention is a very useful tool to help the active alcoholic understand his/her irrational thinking, where they are informed of the disease and how best to treat it.

I should know since I went through such an intervention.

While it is not pleasant, I did pay attention ... no one likes such negative things pointed out to them, but intervention is lifesaving.

In this country (USA) some elected officials have been openly critical of Bush only to retract their statements and apologize ... and while some may see that as being weak, when you are dealing with the disease of alcoholism, they are being his enablers.

When it came to the poor who were suffering most during Katrina ... Venezuela offered them aid ... it was important that our elected officials to intervene on the public’s behalf and accept that aid.

But, with their collusive actions, they enabled someone to continue to harm the poor in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama.

As we have seen the death rate due to Katrina surpass one thousand people due to Bush’s arrogance ... also symptomatic of the disease called alcoholism ... he harmed many more than someone getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated.

The world is a dangerous place, but to leave a dangerous man in charge is a far greater danger to us all.

* This is not about politics, but the safety of mankind.

Will any elected official(s) have the guts enough to take away the keys to power from president Bush?

Mary MacElveen
mary@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46151