Cleaning Up Spilt Milk

It is amazing how quick I am to form opinions based on the flimsiest of information or worse from an arbitrary and blind assumption. An example of my willingness to have strong beliefs about something I know little or nothing about was my negative stance on methadone and medically assisted recovery, which completely changed into a full fledged advocacy once I had the opportunity to witness firsthand and volunteer at an effective treatment center. Unfortunately I made the same mistake with the organization National Association of Children of Alcoholics (NACoA), a group I very unfairly pigeonholed as a group of alcoholic adults whining about past injustices.

I know it sounds horrible, but a few years back I had read a blog entry (yeah, one paragraph to damn an entire organization) that seemed to be nothing more than alcoholic blaming his condition on his equally addicted parents. The way I saw it, crying over spilt milk instead of doing something about it. I could have been no farther from the truth though, and fortunately I have had the opportunity and the enlightenment to see the error of my judgment. NACoA is not a group with a focus on its own victimization by any means; instead it is a group advocating the health and safety of the nearly nineteen million children living in alcoholic households through public awareness, education, and direct assistance.

So in essence, it is my turn to clean up my own spilt milk and right and unintentional wrong, regardless that it was just in my unvoiced opinion. So I am doing my part by highlighting through my channels this week of Feb. 10-16 which is National Children of Alcoholics Week as designated by the NACoC. Clicking on the flyer to the right will take you to the official site and another link suggesting ideas of how to get the word out. I personally will not stop with this blog post, I intend to submit an article tonight to my local newspaper- I hope you will do the same.

Coming from someone who should have known better, you have my apologies NACoA and an embarrassed but sincere TDA salute for the good work your organization is accomplishing.