"Not until they supply free women too."
Posted on 02/20/2011 5:40:04 PM PST by bad company
Marion Hagerman appreciates your concern.
It's OK to give up on him, he says. Everyone else has — which might be the only sensible thing to do.
Hagerman has been drinking for 39 years. He drinks despite decades of lectures, prayers and punishment. He drinks despite two years of homelessness, six DWI's, six treatments for alcoholism and 13 months in jail.
What's ahead for Hagerman? The 54-year-old can see only one thing in his future — more drinking.
That's why he feels lucky to live in a hospice for alcoholics — St. Anthony Residence in St. Paul. There, 60 men can — and often do — drink until they die.
There are no counselors, no scolding, no 12-step programs, no group hugs. Just the love of Hagerman's life, waiting for him every day — alcohol.
On his weeklong binges, he chugs vodka, beer or mouthwash. They are interchangeable to him, he said, gazing around his 12-by-12-foot concrete apartment.
----snip---
They rebel against the chirpy optimism of abstinence-based programs: Try harder. Pray. Ask for help. Don't give up. We feel your pain.
In contrast, St. Anthony feels like Death Row. The message is refreshingly grim: Everyone is going to keep drinking, it's probably going to kill them, and no one's going to talk them out of it.
---snip---
the alcoholics beg on the streets, collect cans for cash or work odd jobs.
When they bring the alcohol back, they check it in at the front desk. When they want to drink, they check it out and take it to the backyard patio.
There, they drink with others, shouting and waving bottles and telling stories. Or they sit alone, taking a sip every minute or so.
They stagger back to their bedrooms, sleep it off, wake up and do it again.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Needs to be renamed to:
St. Enabler’s
I don’t know that I am all that opposed to this, so long as it can be done in a way that is safe for the rest of society.
Some people are subintentionally suicidal and there’s not much that can be done about it.
As long as the taxpayers are not paying for it, let them drink themselves to death. I could not care less.
actually this sort of reminds me of the Democrat congress
Liberalism's alternative to all that religious judgementalism and bible thumping. The final destination of "if it feels good, do it." A concrete hospice. When you're gone, they hose it down while you go up the chimney. I bet they've set it up so they can easily subdivide the "apartments" as the client population expands.
Seattle also has a booze hotel where residents can drink themselves to death if they want to. The press LOVED this when the city set it up, but recently there hasn’t been a word about it. Wonder why? Too many residents leaving feet first?
Says all I need to know.
I bet the conversation is more intelligent.
La Mision de San Carlos Estevez.
well said
That the first honest grifter I’ve heard in forty years.
Some people just cannot be fixed to society’s standards. To make a special place for them, where they cannot harm society, is a fair idea.
Personally, I’m in favor of turning one of the Manitou islands into a prison for sex offenders and wife beaters. Only thing is, the only “law” would be the law the prisoners impose on themselves. Yep, I’m saying let them go all “Lord of the Flies” on themselves. At least society would be protected.
I don’t know what to think about this. I guess these guys are beyond any treatment, but it almost seems like a scene from some bleak novel.
But, I don’t think it’s fair to assist in their suicide and deprive them of motivation to change.
It’s what we used to call Stupid Compassion.
"Not until they supply free women too."
LOL !!!
Leaving Las Vegas writ large.
I don’t know what to think of this. It seems to be giving up on saving the souls of people and letting them enter eternity in a lost condition.
These are people totally committed to wasting themselves and I know there are people like that and I know they suffer on the streets and make others suffer as well.
Oh, this is sad.
Sounds like Hospice for Alcoholics.
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