So long to Fr. Jack Shirley and the politically incorrect cartoonist John Callahan
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Several months ago it dawned on me I had not heard from my dear Internet friend Fr. Jack Shirley for some time….and I was afraid of what I’d find so didn’t look. In writing this issue of TAR, I ran across one of his wonderful posts to me (he supplied me with a number of ideas and leads over the years). It was a terrific personal story on enabling by family physicians: “I remember over 40 years ago while I was in Detroit I went to my family physician and complained about my difficulties drinking beer. He told me to switch to Scotch, which I did. I now had my doctor’s approval.” Such was the recovery humor of someone I consider a true gentleman and friend, who I shall sorely miss. Fr. Jack died long sober. A belated so long, Fr. Jack.
And goodbye, too, to cartoonist John Callahan, who was paralyzed at age 21 from the chest down after a day of drinking in 1972, when he and a man he met at a party went bar-hopping; his new drinking buddy crashed Callahan’s VW Beetle into a utility pole at 90 mph. (If it weren’t for alcoholism, we’d never know a Beetle could get to 90 mph.) Adding to the mounds of evidence attesting to the idea that nothing will stand between an addict and his drug, he kept drinking for another six years before getting sober. While he drew caricatures as a kid, he didn’t begin selling cartoons until the early ‘80s, after which he became internationally syndicated in newspapers and magazines. Everything was fair game, including the disabled, the homeless, fat people and feminists. His best known cartoons included a beggar in the street with a sign that reads, “Please help me. I am blind and black, but not musical,” and one in which a sanctimonious woman glares at a small man and says, “This is a feminist bookstore! There is no humor section!” The politically incorrect among us especially will miss you, John Callahan.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts—which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of misbehaviors and, where possible, proactively intervene.