I cannot stand back and ignore the 12/14/96 note from [log in to unmask] Re:
Letter To Attorney General Janet Reno--NO Response.
Barb, you are the most prolific writer in the group with opinions on
everyone and everything. And I must say that I do enjoy some of your notes.
But I did not enjoy your response to Ryan Law regarding Attorney General
Reno. Ours was not a malicious gesture. It was merely a light hearted
little poem to a politician who happens to also be a lawyer -- just like the
three of us. At about the same time we received your scathing attack on our
motives and our insensitivity and our failure to live up to your lofty
standards, we received a request to reprint the poem. Not everyone agrees
with your assessment of it or the letter.. The poem, by the way, was written
by a judge who has since been forced to retire at a young age because of PD.
We did not intend to humiliate Attorney General Reno -- she came out of the
closet all by her lonesome. I think you do a disservice to her by suggesting
that she is so sensitive that she could not handle our little message. If
memory serves me, she was treated much more rudely by the U. S. Supreme Court
recently than she was by us. Personally, I am not impressed by her failure
to even respond to what was intended to be a message of good cheer to another
lawyer at Christmas time.
Perhaps the fact that the three of us are also recovering alcoholics tends
to make us less inspired by the heroic act of anyone coming out of the
closet. The three of us believe that our success to date in the struggle to
cope with two serious diseases has been enhanced by the fact that we try not
to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves constantly (although we have our
weak moments too). We try to accept PD just like we were forced to accept
our unrequited love affair with John Barleycorn. No one benefits from living
in the closet -- whatever the underlying problem might be. We can't do
anything about the fact that we are ill, but we can try to face life as it is
and with an occasional smile and the Serenity Prayer. That was our crime.
But I must say that I didn't appreciate the pretentious and sanctimonious
tone of your letter directed at a fine man who has helped countless
worshipers of booze find a solution to their problems through his sense of
caring humor. With all due respect, humor is more than just a talent with a
colon and a parenthesis. . Jack Stanfield - Laramie, Wyo.
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