Do Not Leave it to Beaver
Your suggestion to “crash” an AA meeting (“Cheap Thrills” by Karen Shugart, Feb. 28) is one of the most insensitive entertainment ideas I have ever heard of. It’s unimaginable that one could propose such a hideous and rude outlet for social entertainment.
There is nothing “thrilling” about being an alcoholic/addict or a spouse and/or child of the latter.
How dare you encourage this cruel and indecent idea to readers who may think for one second, yes, let’s go make fun of some poor misfortunate soul. Anyone with any form of common sense would know a suggestion as such to be a bad, bad idea!
Why not have suggested heckling the homeless, the overweight, and the disabled or yelling out vulgar ethnic slurs at anyone non-WASP, for such wouldn’t cost a dime either? All ridiculous ideas, and socially unacceptable, but that sounds about par for the entertainment course on which you promote.
Remember, not everyone living in Charlotte has had a “Leave it to Beaver” rearing. I’d expect more social awareness from a Creative Loafing journalist other than conveying a disregarding “cheap” message that parallels living life as if it were an eternal frat party. “Uh, dude the kegger was like totally killer … so was pretending like we had something ‘wrong’ with us, right, like when we crashed that AA meeting … huh, those people are like total losers!”
Wishing all of society could be flawless as those who seem so perfect …
— Jamie S., Charlotte
Love it Elusively
(In response to Citizen Servatius: “Black People Removal” by Tara Servatius, March 28) No black leaders?! I love it! (And yes, I am.)
— Arthur Smith, Charlotte
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.
Thanks to Jamie and all others who have commented on Creative Loafing’s suggestion to “crash an AA meeting” for a cheap thrill, and who have reminded readers that the second A in AA stands for “Anonymous.” It was inappropriate when the suggestion was made in the episode of “Golden Girls” the writer cited (but in context, that episode presented a fictional statement on the audacity of those times, when it was briefly hip for nonalcoholics to hook up at AA meetings). It remains inappropriate today.
When I saw the item in CL’s “Cheap Thrills” issue a few weeks ago, I initially read it as humor, a non-serious, tongue-in-cheek gag. But the writer went on to suggest that if one WERE to “crash” an AA meeting, he or she should be “as respectful as one possibly can” of the attendees. That’s a bit of a contradiction in my book, not to mention inscrutable. What, pray tell, does “as one possibly can” mean? Of all the media in Charlotte, I would expect the reigning alternative weekly newspaper to know better.
But Creative Loafing is hardly the only place where ignorance of the disease of addiction exists. More than 70 years after Bill Wilson and the original AA founders published the book Alcoholics Anonymous, many respectful citizens, too, remain uncomfortable with seeing addiction as a disease. Some of it is due to lack of education, some of it deep denial. Whatever the case, it’s up to those of us who deal with this disease on a daily basis to understand the toll that we, in our active disease, take on families, friends and businesses, and to take responsibility for our actions. It’s also up to us to help the rest of society begin to understand the gravity and depth of this disease that kills not just us, but those who are victims of our irresponsible choices. The best way we can do this is to live in the solution a day at a time, and show those who don’t understand the disease that recovery is possible. We can do that by practicing an AA program or any other method of recovery that works. When we fail to treat our addictions with diligence and respect, we not only fail ourselves but we fail those who love us, respect us and want to believe in us.
First of all, congrats on two decades of great alternative press; CL is quite possibly the best thing EVER to happen in Charlotte, NC.
I was pleased to read (most of) the comments by Mark Kemp in this week’s Loaf. However, Creative Loafing should NOT have printed his last name, even though he contradicted himself (the second A in AA = Anonymous
vs. he GAVE you his Full Name!).
AA’s traditions state that “anonymity is the spiritual foundation” of the AA Tradition, which is Unity… and that we must always remain anonymous at the level of press, radio, and films. Basically, i was disappointed both by CL and Mark K.
Sincerely, Rob B.