— Musings —01.03.2016 08:25 PM
— Musings —01.03.2016 08:25 PM
Warren,
Courage comes in many forms and this is a fine example of it. May God bless.
Good for him. Knowing when to get help is a good thing. I wish him the best.
We all know (way too many) people who have faced this battle.
But, as they say, admitting there’s a problem is the first step to overcoming it.
I wish him only the very best.
From a rather overly partisan Conservative supporter (but not a troll), I wish him the very best. I hope his course is easy and am glad that his example might be more willlingly followed by others.
I wish him well but I do question why, if he felt it was this badly affecting his life, he felt that he should run in an election not even three months ago. I’m really only hypothetically asking this as I know from experience with a few friends that are now regular upstanding AA members that their judgement while on the “substance” wasn’t always spot on. While I do think he should be lauded for entering this program, I also think his judgement should be questioned and watched in future. Before all the progressives pile on to me for being a heartless “Con” troll… imagine if this was a Conservative MP only 5 months ago…. do you think the comments above would be even half as supportive?
Actually, scary enough, and part of what culturally tends to distinguish hard conservatives from Libs/NDPers/centrists, yes, I do. I’ve even seen it, so long as it wasn’t being used as an obvious dodge to get out of a sticky situation, in which there I do believe a certain level of cynicism is inevitable and probably sensible.
You are also presuming a lot of character/judgment issues with this man based solely on this decision without accompanying evidence of it, and I find that a bit problematic. For all you know it may have hit him in his early exposure to just how freely the alcohol flows towards sitting MPs that he could no longer maintain a working/healthy/reasonable balance, and so to prevent real problems and judgment issues he is taking this as a preventative step for something could be seeing happen to him if he does not, IOW evidence of good judgement and decision making. Is this the case, of course I do not know, but at the moment from what we have to work with it is as viable and reasonable an explanation as yours, and far more charitable in the face of that lack of additional evidence to base questioning his judgment upon.
It is that presumption of judgment flaw by you here that bothers me most absent other evidence to support it, and I suspect is what would make this come off as partisan to some/many. Being the child of an alcoholic parent (and in whose family on both sides unfortunately alcoholism ran rampant) who only faced it down when I was in my 30s and had been one since before I was born, this is one of those things I am wary of making judgments on absent that extra information where people are concerned. I’ve seen simply too much variance where alcohol issues/abuse/dependencies and people are concerned to ever make such an assumption as you did without that additional evidence to base it upon, and I’d argue it does not show you in a very charitable nor fair light.
As for this man himself, as Kinsella says, this took guts, especially for a public figure, and particularly in the (so far as we know at this time) public/private scandal forcing this issue. This is a hard road for those who walk it, and those that manage it at face it head on deserve nothing but respect for that in my books. Even if they aren’t perfect 100% of the time it is still a brave thing, and to do so when you live in the public light as this man is, well that is especially hard to do and therefore that much more noteworthy for its courage.
Good post Warren.
Brian Mulroney kicked the bottle back in the mid ’70s and went on to great success in all aspects of his life and career.
Good point… but he also didn’t run for MP in the 70’s while still under the influence. That said, and just to counteract my comments above…. Churchill was a one quart of Whiskey a day man, FDR drank 8-10 Martinis a night and Hitler was a teetotaler. 🙂 Seamus is a good old Irish Newfie… he was likely born drunk. Good on him for knowing when to call it a problem.
Check out Warmington’s vile comments in todays Sun. What a low-life piece of work he is.