Juneau Empire Story Archive

My Turn: Stand with children and not with alcohol

By MORISSA LOU WILLIAMS

Drug-pushing as a profession engenders corruption, ruthlessness and denial. One cannot be astonished at the self-serving, self-insulating, self-promoting postures of the alcohol industry. They mimic precisely the mannered cruelty of drug pushers everywhere - heroin peddlers on the street, crack-cocaine cookers in backstreet warehouses. The only difference I see between a heroin peddler and an alcohol peddler is that the alcohol peddler has paid lobbyists manipulating politicians in the halls of Congress and the corridors of our Legislature. Other than that, the ramifications of the trade are identical: broken families, abused children, destroyed lives, eviscerated communities. Nowhere, anywhere in America, is that more true than our own state of Alaska.

An increased alcohol tax is the bare minimum price to be paid for the purveying of alcohol in our community.

Some years ago the state of Alaska published a heartbreaking document called "Alaska's Children of a Hidden War." It was a compendium of case histories of Alaskan children who have been abused, neglected and sexually assaulted, and brought into state custody. There have been so many of these brutal histories, in fact, that a second volume was published in 2002. (That volume can be found on-line at the state of Alaska website.) The preface of this document implores readers, "Please read these stories and consider the role substance abuse has played in these cases. Remember that these abused children have a greater chance of abusing their own children. Know, too, that further abuse can and must be prevented."

Here are two "typical" excerpts from "Alaska's Children of a Hidden War":

"A police officer, while on patrol, observed a very drunk man walking down a street while holding a two-year-old child in his arms. The officer, in his vehicle, approached the man who then lurched in front of the patrol car. The drunken man told the officer the child's mother was in a nearby store. Handing the child to the officer, the man went into the store, seeking the mother, but did not return ... ."

"An 11-year-old child was left with her aunt while the child's mother went to fill out a job application. Later, the mother called from a bar and made threats to the child over the phone. Both of the child's parents remained in the bar drinking. The aunt called DFYS to report she could no longer care for the child and could not locate the parents ... ."

Recently I was at Sandy Beach having a picnic with my family. On either side of us were families with children. Both groups of people were drinking and smoking heavily. Who do you suppose was going to drive those children home? And what kind of atmosphere do you suppose was waiting for them when they got there?

Both groups, by the way, were non-Native. One of the most disgusting aspects of alcohol abuse in this state is that white people, trying to deny their own horrific rates of alcohol abuse, play a racist card and perpetuate the myth that alcohol is a "Native problem." In fact, Alaska Native leaders are among the only people in Alaska with the sobriety to recognize and challenge the social policy problems at the heart of alcohol abuse in the state.

Is our community really willing to look our children in the eyes and tell them that the ever-broadening profits of the alcohol industry are more important than the children themselves? Is our community really going to permit the alcohol industry and the users of its products to avoid paying, even in this minimal way, to redress the devastating economic and social horrors associated with alcohol abuse in this community?

I stand with our children. I care profoundly about our community's economic health and vitality. I'm committed to a better future.

How about you?

• Morissa Lou Williams writes frequently about alcohol abuse in Alaska. She wrote most recently about the economic impact of substance abuse in the April, 2004 Alaska Business Monthly.

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