Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Recession Alcoholism


Good Kisser.
Originally uploaded by Jazmin Million
Wax (myself) has to keep reminding himself that he knows nothing when it comes to recovery. This borrowed picture is not strange to him since he’d called his sponsor for a ride to detox. He sees this daily, he does. It is mostly the black community that causes this unseemly publicly visual display, but I can’t image it to be any more easily comfortable.

I say this after an addict meeting that pissed me off! Thirty black guys and two whites, me one of them. The question was posed by a black woman about domestic violence. I could not relate with what every fucking black man used as excuses for, well, a whole list of things that would make a woman feel endangered at home. The most sickening thing is that, after all that, what I would have expected as the realistic response from what I would think is a good start to a training exercise, the black woman mostly responded with, "I understand." I understand why a black woman should allow a black man to slap her into submission. Maybe that is the way blacks do it, but it is wrong in any race. The female black instructor let it go, because there were 30 black guys to two whites...or maybe there was another reason I do not understand.

Actually, there is no reason, regardless of race, for a man to hit a woman...blacks are no exception. The fact that this black woman glossed over it because she simply understands 98% of the guys in the room by race is unacceptable.

It was like they made excuses for why a woman would make them feel the need to slap them. This group was sponsored by a black woman. And I would think that she would step up and state why this is wrong…but she didn’t. She did nothing. We closed with the serenity prayer...an afront to it.

Look, I don’t know, and I don’t pretend to know, what it must be like to be violated in the most passionate of encounters, but I can understand how it can be misconstrued.

In other words: I have wanted it so badly, I didn’t think of her.

But, I have to say, going to meetings with these black people makes me feel that there is a lower life form…and they want to descend to it.

1 comment:

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

condoning rape and physical abuse is totally unacceptable and morally bankrupt if thats what you mean, but the purpose of an AA meeting is not to debate social issues such as rape or domestic violence, but to help the suffering alcoholic get sober and stay sober.
Meetings ought to stick to their primary purpose, as AA has no solutions to these social problems, but DOES offer a solution to alcoholism.

When i meet aa women who are in danger from partners, I advise them to leave to a women's shelter if necessary, as they are unlikely to be able to stay sober if their life is at risk from a partner and because domestic violence is totally unacceptable.