Cigars are addicted to ME!
Posted By The Cigar Soldier on August 5, 2011
One of our local politicians here in Northeast Wisconsin has gotten himself into trouble. Again. Big surprise huh? Sheboygan mayor Bob Ryan made the news two years ago after being recorded while drunk making sexually explicit remarks about a female relative of his and again a year later while tying one on with his brother in a local tavern where he finally admitted he was an alcoholic. His most recent indiscretion came when he was reportedly in a “barroom scuffle” after literally being passed out on the bar. He also verbally harassed the female patrons in another
nightclub that same evening. Now although this just seems like typical behavior for our upstanding morally bankrupt politicians because they are all scumbags, that’s not the part that bothered me. It was not his obnoxious behavior that really set me off, it’s that many are blaming his alcohol addiction for his asinine jackass actions.
Let me be perfectly clear before I go any further, I sympathise with those of you near to anyone that has battled or is battling alcohol addiction but it is just that, an addiction. I personally do not think calling it a “disease” is accurate or even proper. Why you ask? Go ahead and ask because I’ll be more than happy to answer it. A disease is something that happens to your body that you generally can’t control contracting. I say generally because some are genetic or environmental and by living a normal life with standard heath precautions you may help prevent the onset of certain conditons but of course it does not guarantee you’ll stay free of these diseases. The other side of the coin is cancer as an example, this is a crippling and deadly disease that you can’t prevent, you can often treat it but you can’t prevent it. You can however prevent alcoholism.
Now don’t go off on me about how alcoholics can’t function without drinking because the urge is so powerful that it controls their life because I’ll address that. The connotation that it is a disease is then simply wrong because the vast majority of diseases can’t be completely prevented simply by abstaining from one specific behavior. No drinking, no alcoholism. Labeling it as a disease means that you have no control over it and thus takes responsibility away from the alcoholic which makes them a victim. Our society loves to put the blame on anybody but the one responsible for the irresponsible behavior. So by saying that alcoholism is a disease, it takes away all personal accountability from the individual so we can feel sympathetic for them and place the blame on the substance in the bottle . This is where it gets good so try to keep up. Why is it that being addicted to alcohol is a disease where you are not held accountable
for you actions and being addicted to smoking makes you a disgusting human being?
Ah, are you getting it now? If I pound down two bottles of vodka per day, loose my job, burn through all my money and ruin my marriage I get to blame my addiction on alcohol for destroying my life and most people are accepting of that. On the other hand, if I smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day, loose my job because they have decided to test me for tobacco use, burn through all my money and ruin my marriage I’m just a nasty smoker and it’s tough shit for me because I should have known better than to use such an addictive product. The argument that these sympathetic bottle blamers like to use is how alcohol destroys the family because of the addiction. So how is that worse than all the horrible deadly second hand smoke (ETS) you people believe in that the family is forced to deal with? I don’t buy into all the effects of ETS but wouldn’t the possibly of death from second hand exposure be wore than anything an alcoholic does to his family? If so, then being addicted to smoking is a by far worse “disease” because according to the CDC, roughly 20.6 % of the adult population smokes while only about 5% of the population is classified as heavy drinkers.
Why is “being” an alcoholic a disease as well as what results from excessive consumption such as cirrhosis and pancreatitis also a disease? But being a smoker is only classified as an “addiction” until you get acute myeloid leukemia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach; abdominal aortic aneurysm, cataracts, periodontitis, pneumonia, cancer of the bladder, esophagus, larynx, lung, mouth, throat. Once you get one of these conditions, now you can finally be classified as having a disease. One of course you gave to yourself. Smoking also has been linked to chronic lung disease, chronic heart and cardiovascular disease as well as reproductive problems. Blah blah blah, we know there are dangers to smoking but looking at ALL of those possible diseases must mean that the addiction to want to smoke must be SO GREAT that you are willing to risk your life just to have a puff every know and then. It obviously must be a disease then with these risk factors that far outweigh those of alcohol use. It’s not the smokers fault, blame it on the disease because then they to can be victims.
Being an alcoholic is no more a genetic predisposition than being a smoker, both addictions can EASILY be prevented by abstaining from the action that causes the addiction. Being the son of a serial killer doesn’t mean you’ll be a serial killer any more than being the son of a pedophile will make you become a priest. I’m just sick of the way the public views smoking while we treat every other addiction with kid gloves because they’re all victims of the substance they choose to abuse. It’s complete bullshit. Want to argue with me about how alcoholism actually is a disease by quoting a few internet articles you read? Feel free, but first know that I spent 3 days next to my Mothers bed as her relapse with cancer (not from smkoing by the way) finally took her from me last fall and there was not a damn thing I, she or her doctors could do about it. That is the definition of a wicked disease. Now tell me how not being able to control how many beers you have is the same thing. Are you sure you’re ready for that fight?
Whew, feel better getting that out of my system so on to happier things like Cigar Night. I need to first thank Big Dick for having us all over to his place this past week and for keeping us out of the rain. Next month we be at Brother Grandpa Bears’s house (Mike Lauder) at 153 Hilltop Drive in Allouez. Due to Labor Day weekend we’ll be holding Cigar Night on the 2nd Tuesday to better accommodate everyone’s schedules. So put the 13th on your calendar and I’ll see you there.
Have a great week my Brother and Sisters!
The Cigar Soldier
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