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Editor’s
Note: The following letters were received in
response to Mike Roselle’s May 18th piece, Relearning the Three R’s.
In that piece Mike confided he had been fired from The Firm after a
luncheon
where his superior requested he check into rehab. Lowbagger readers
were asked
to vote on whether or not Mike should spend some time with Betty Ford.
The
results…..read on. Alcohol, The Fuel of Mike’s Madness? Hey Mike, I just
today learned that
you no longer work for The Firm and am very, very sorry to hear
it. About the
drinking: I have
no advice, just some thoughts. My dad was an alcoholic, my
brother is a
recovering alcoholic. Twelve years ago this month I stopped
drinking,
stopped cold, and, apparently like all drinkers, miss it almost every
day. But that was me. And who knows, I may take it up again
(the
evidence for the positive health effects of red wine becomes stronger
every
day!). I think each of us is different--when I drank, I got nothing
done
(well, maybe I noticed the flowers more). When others drink,
they get
everything done. I guess I would rather see you drink and continue
doing
what you do than stop drinking and becoming like everyone
else. But that's
easy for me to say. On a
forest note: I am sad
to say that road building has begun in the first Clinton roadless area
in the
Tongass--the Yakutat Salvage sale. Caught all of us, or at least and
especially
me, by surprise. A few of us in Sitka are trying to get something
organized there but it doesn't look too hopeful. There actually
are good
reasons for waiting for a different sale to go all out and do the
CD/forest
action thing, but it is sad and humiliating that they
have begun.
You remain
one of my few
heroes. Good luck, Don Muller Loud Rednecks on Alcohol Can Frighten Young Suburban Activists I'm someone who does not drink alcohol (I just don't like the effect it has on me) and one who is around lots of folks who do drink the stuff. As a long-time activist though, I have seen many examples of drunken buffoonery...at many of the same venues Mike Roselle cites. Mostly, I find
such revelry amusing. And, unless someone gets hurt, I find it not just
harmless and entertaining, but cathartic for the many who, as Mike
noted,
"drink to kill the pain" of living in these ecocidal times. I'm down to one
drug --- pot. I even gave up sugar. And, I'm not about to knuckle
under to
some neoPuritan crap about my choices. I know it's not a great thing to
take
some super-heated gasses into my lungs, but it's my choice. The
benefits, as
they say, outweigh the risks. I see alcohol
the same way. Doesn't do it for me (all the really dumb things I've
done in
life had alcohol involved and it also puts me to sleep); has obvious
risks (the
one thing that should be of concern); but, it's a personal freedom
choice, as
long as one harasses no one else. Therein lies the rub: sometimes,
young
suburban-refugee activists are, well scared, at seeing a big, loud
redneck guy like
Mike
drunk and
fearfully bleat "harassment" and "intimidation" when
nothing of the sort occurs. (I find such charges completely unfair.) That's the only
problem I see with it and obviously it does not originate with Mike (or
any of
the other loud guys and gals in the movement who get a bit louder when
hitting
the sauce). The problem is others' mistaken responses. I'm not sure how
to deal
with it, other than to let people know that no one is out to harm
you...they're
just partying and letting off steam. And, you can check out of the
scene
anytime you want (I do all the time...just ask Mike.) Michael Donnelly Looking Forward to Beers With Mike I enjoyed your ramblings on Lowbagger and I hope you're doing okay and look forward to having a few beers and catching a buzz with you on the beach front. Jackie and I are living in a shack on Ochlockonee Bay in Panacea, Florida and plan to visit you folks in Destin before too long. Howdy to all, see you soon. Joe Glisson Whining and Self Pity Don’t Mask Age Discrimination Dear Mr. Roselle I was reluctant to read your most recent monodigipeckings, 3 R's, because, at first look, it appeared to be too long and had the potential of turning into whining. Boy ,was I ever right! While I admire your courage in fully disclosing the (unbiased?) nature of your career choices, professional meandering, and gastronomic excesses, I still smell sour grapes. What do your alcohol & drug choices have to do have to do with "The Firm" as long as job performance had not been affected. If your insurance coverage, provided by TF, offered the chance to go to such a well known care center as the Betty Ford Clinic, you missed an opportunity, alcoholic or not! Bad choice! Furthermore, judging by your impressive work history, you should have no trouble whatsoever finding gainful employment as long as you interview sober. Stop wallowing in self pity and giving a shit about what THEY think. If you want to drink, DRINK. If not, DON'T! That's all you need to know. Sounds like you have other issues to take up with individuals within TF that have nothing to do with drinking or drugs. My advice to you is to think about the possibility of age discrimination! So, my dear Roselle, Pope of Trees, King of Rivers, Captain at the helm (when you're not jumping ship!) and Master of your own Design, dump the hubris, find a good woman, count your blessings and pass the warm Milwaukee. Life is too sweet. Bemonty We thought this could end up in the stop drinking category, but with the warm Milwaukee statement blew that one. New Batch of Wine Almost Ready For Roselle My
diagnosis as to the
extent of Mike Roselle's drinking habits are as follows: Prof. Roselle should stop by the farm here in the Helderburg Mountains of New York so we can taste the new batch of Maple Syrup Wine, which is just about ready. It's been too long. Long time drinking friend and agitator, David Weiss, President New York Farmer's Wind Power The problem is Mike gave up too many of the drugs he did as a teenager. I can't remember that "no beer" party around the Nixon Inaugural. I can think of a few possible explanations. 1. So lame I didn't realize it was a Party. 2. We were playing with Mike, left him behind, and went to the real Party. 3. He dreamed it on the acid. 4. I can't remember it because he slipped me a Quaalude. 5. He took a wrong turn, and ended up at the Progressive Labor Party party. Been a long time dude. I'm gonna try and catch up with you for a bit this summer. Who says 50 is too old to be a juvenile delinquent? Ben Masel Problem Must Be Realized By Self When the doctor told me that with Hep C in my history, cirrhosis is sure to follow too much binging, I quit drunking, if not drinking (I guess in some books two beers a year counts as drinking). I miss it, though rarely. This is your problem. If you don't have a problem, who's to tell you that you have a problem? Rehab will do you no good unless you need it. From what I see, though, people who are sent into rehab "for their own good" before they're ready, before they've noticed they've lost control, develop more self destructively, if less spectacularly than people who notice on their own (OK, with a bit of prompting by friends) that they have a problem. They're also harder on the rest of the population at AA meetings. Unless you never control your drinking, unless you don't stay sober enough that that first beer is truly a blessing instead of a relief, you're OK. I drive a taxi, and the company I drive for has a contract to transport the occasional client from the local rehab residence to meetings, appointments and such, and we occasionally talk. These are my impressions based on these conversations (and seeing some of these people later out of that context). Edward Craig Drinking Is More Fun Hi Mike, I’ve never known an enviro worth half a shit that wasn’t bipolar with a drinking problem. Hell, you were the one that inspired that particular analysis, when someone was asking me why you were the way you were. If you get your drinking problem fixed, then you’ll just be bipolar. And that’s not nearly as much fun. The worst thing about where the movement is going is that people are afraid to laugh, as well as consume substances that make not laughing impossible. Nothing sucks worse than Sturm und Drang, coupled with WASP Puritanism and an attitude for non-offense. It’s pretty much shut me out. I always figured that a good joke contained something about sodomy AND the human condition. If you can’t joke about blowing your cookies whilst standing in an old-growth grove about to be razed with six of your stinkiest friends, or getting a blowjob, what can you laugh about? To a Life of Shame and Failure, Chuck Pezeshki If Mike Had A Whiskey It Would Be Beam Mikey
has a drinking
problem? The mind inevitably turns to Abe Lincoln's reply to a
critic of
the General Grant.... "So Grant
gets drunk,
does he?" queried Lincoln, addressing himself to one of the
particularly
active detractors of the soldier, who, at that period, was inflicting
heavy
damage upon the Confederates. "Yes, he
does, and I
can prove it," was the reply. "Well,"
returned
Lincoln, with the faintest suspicion of a twinkle in his eye, "you
needn't
waste your time getting proof; you just find out, to oblige me, what
brand of
whiskey Grant drinks, because I want to send a barrel of it to each one
of my
generals." Ron Huber Make Own Choice On Type of Carbo Intake As a previously raging alcoholic myself, one who progressed from social drinker to one who too many times challenged the Great Mystery (tankasila wakantanka) to open the void and let him in, I can not dismiss Mike's well deserved need to obliterate the consensual reality of too many friends who seem all too well meaning. Since many of those same people are friends of mine, I do have a different perspective on the issue than they, both from my own path and from occasionally sneaking in on Mike's over the last nearly 40 years. I decided to stop drinking on a bet; a big bet. It was an easy one to take, and make the mark. Two professional gambling friends challenged me to not drink for 21 days, as one of them had stopped for 20. This was at the point in my life when I could drink a pitcher of kamikazes(my version--Stoly, Sapphire, Rose’s Lime) and drive my car over cliffs, climb out and do it again. At the time I worked for a prominent government agency in a vital role and was free from getting arrested for my antics and DUI moments. My friends thought that I needed to change too. But none of their insistence, threats, cajoling, etc. really mattered as much as that big easy money. When the 21 days passed I just never started again, and got the doubled down wager paid in full (nice weekend in Vegas to boot); that was 15 years ago. The point is, that there are many carrots to pull the horse away from the "water," it is a matter of finding the right one. The reason the bet worked was that it required me to stay sober when I was around large groups of people partying on the most insane amounts of psychopharmocopia and alcohol. Now I would never stop taking those sorts of things, but not being able to drink on top of them painted a pretty stark picture of what alcohol brought to those moments. I was a nasty drunk, a mean spirited vicious type, who could in the depths of depravity beat the shit out of anyone for any reason, and I loved scotch as much as kamas and scotch was a mean thing for me. Once I chose to not drink yet still party, I saw all the same people, acting the same way, but without the meanness. They didn't seem so bad to me. Sure they were full of themselves, but so was I. It just felt better to not be getting in their faces over dump piss ant sheit. So there is a certain benefit from soberly hanging in the same scenes once in a while, just to reflect on the others. Now, like Mike my family has a long and impressive history of the consumption of psychotropic substances, mostly alcohol but other stuff too. So I knew all along I was an alchy, drinking pretty much everyday through high school and back in those days not getting busted for it. But that history never really matters because even though our genotypes are designed on systemic orientations to preferring certain carbohydrates over others, we make our own choices. It is a blessing that is too oft obscured by it all. And I get really frustrated with people who try to make our choices for us. That lesson was brought home all too well with the death of Jerry Garcia. So many of those friends(many the same as above) felt that ol' Jer had abandoned them, that he had not been made to understand the importance of his music to their world, that he needed to go into rehab and get cleaned up, and keep making music. I never felt that way. Jerry had his own life, like each of us. He was free to make his own choices, experience his own personal relationship with the cosmos. That he chose to chase the dragon was his own. He owed me nothing; I owed him the compassion of understanding that he was kind enough to have chosen to give me some moments of music that were some of the highest ecstatic portal passages of my life. So, my recommendation to Mike is simple. Buddy, when you find the need and the right forum and the golden carrot you will do what you need to do. It is your choice, don't let others make your life for you. If we can't share the responsibility of insuring one another's cognitive liberties, we sure as hell can't be proper and caring stewards for the planet. Thanks for sharing, Iktomi Be Careful When Glorifying Alcohol Hmmm, I adhere to either many Libetarian or Anarchist ideas to start with. Philosophically if someone wants to snort ajax or huff paint I believe its their body and their choice. And if M was getting the job done then whose business is it? That said I think there is the slightest danger in glorifying drinking. I just spent a spring working in a public defenders office and I must say that a big chunk of the bloodiest crimes seemed to be connected with drinking. That’s true of rape and incest as well. Perhaps its experiences like this that make some folks over embrace a Puritan outlook. My grandfather came back from Asia after WWII and my family watched him drink himself to death and rip his family apart. I think this is a common experience for many. Also--M mentions Africa in his essay. I lived in Guinea in West Africa for awhile. Nobody drank cause of the Koran. But you could find booze if you could find a Christian--only Christians ran the few bars. And I could see how it wrecked Fulani, Sou-Sou, Woolof and other peoples who attended them. Last--I guess the role booze had in past colonialism also makes me uncomfortable with its role it tearing apart Native American resistance. By the bible, bullet and booze seems to be the shock troops of colonialism. And almost last--sadly I have seen more than one activist fall to alcoholism. This is true of drugs as well. Heroin wrecked havoc in my home town in the 70's among activists. I get a feel historically that all is not rosy creative use of booze to plan campaigns—but it also can have a negative consequence or two and that its important that our veterans of a zillion hard won campaigns be careful sometimes in the image they present. A lot of folks look up to guys like Mike because of all the hard word that he has done, and his amazing track record. But it’s fucked up if his folks in his community are putting a posse together to straighten him out if they also used pressure at work. Getting someone fired as a political tactic is often used by the FBI. They "interview" and talk to co-workers about an issue to get the person fired or to modify their behavior, and I would be very uncomfortable utilizing tactics the FBI uses. Harriet Tubman Check Your Liver A few people told me about this rant, and, once again, I've been dazzled by Mike's use of the mighty pen (metaphorically speaking). I was at
"the
firm" the same time as Mike--this last time, I mean. I was
"F'd" from
the firm soon after Mike. (Mike: seems our stint in the PNW had a few
casualties). He was the first truly
genuine-comfortablewithhimselfperson-I'd
met at the Firm. A person that very obviously cared about the work--not
keeping
a job. He won my respect immediately. Health
aside, I'm not going
to say Mike drinks too much or too little. I do know that shitty beer
doesn't
get you drunk, and you don't have to be drunk to be a rude loudmouth.
In my
opinion, the Firm cared about the later, not the former. They should
have
offered him a "manners clinic" and that pro'ly would have taken care
of it. Mike says
what he thinks,
when he thinks it--drunk or not. The Firms hypocrisy to this end is
infamous,
and as a good Irish Catholic, I will not divulge any details. Let's
just say,
there is a support group for each of us: a good, old-fashioned weekly
happy
hour at the bar of the week. Denise McDermott This
one scored off the charts for Mike to follow a
self-willed path. Officially the score broke down to 10 votes in favor
of Mike
drinking, and two votes for Mike to look within and consider giving up
the
libation. This means you can probably still find Mike at a local
watering hole
come sundown. |
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