Chapter11
"You will never convince me that no one, not one person, has died in the past decade because that one person was unable to afford health insurance allowing that person to receive a life-saving operation; and you will never convince me that obesity and soaring health care costs are not related. I have read too much recently to think otherwise." And Mac had educated himself the past few days before this week's alcohol group therapy session. Sharon, the counselor, normally had an alcohol related topic prepared for the session, but it being difficult at times to have one she was thankful tonight Glen had begun the session stating how his life had turned upside down since his second DUI. The ranting and whining became contentious at times. The convicted drunk drivers who normally sat with very little to say during any session had reason to speak up, for their lives as well had been severely affected being convicted of drunk driving.
The biggest bummer of a story told that night was Aaron's. Aaron looked in his mid- fifties and was convicted of his first DUI more than decades ago. Anyone old enough in the group had a good idea that Aaron most likely was pretty schnockered when he got pulled over. The time he told the group put his first DUI sometime in the early 1980's, the cusp, still the time when it was common for the officer to give warning and advise to drive home safely. Aaron had no such luck. He tended to the DUI's punishments sedulously, and realizing adulthood loomed demanding an ever greater sense of responsibility, swore off the booze. To this pledge he remained faithful until his second daughter's twenty first birthday celebration hosted by her closest friends at a bar very close to Aaron's home. Driving home, as Aaron will swear, after having his first three drinks in over thirty years, he was pulled over one block from home, the rest, history.
The scariest, biggest bummer of a story told that night was Matt's. Matt had way too much to drink that night ending with enjoying the scenery at Hooters just off Kipling and Sixth Avenue. Too bad for Matt that his .41 BAC, behind the wheel, route home was chosen to be Kipling southbound, on which, only a short distance from Hooters, control of his speeding vehicle was lost and crashed into the fence surrounding the Federal Center. That's Federal, as in federal property. Matt told the group this story not from his own memory but from what he read in the state and federal police reports. Not having any recollection whatsoever of the crash or hours after, Matt is certain that he must answer to both state and federal charges; ouch.
Now these group therapy sessions lasted two hours a pop and had as few as seven or eight to as many as twelve people enabling each person ample time to voice themselves. The number of hours each person must attend group therapy ranged from eighteen to one hundred twenty four hours meaning repeat stories were common. Mac had already related his story a few times by now and decided to broach the topic of fairness. Not the fairness relating to what the courts deemed necessary and proper punishment doled out to each convicted driver; this group's membership had been mostly constant the past three months and the moaning and groaning concerning judges' arbitrariness had been discussed thoroughly.
He began by stating that he would be the first one to admit that everything the courts demanded of him was just and deserved and continued comparing, at its most fundamental essence, the similarity between an obese individual and a chronic alcoholic. To wit, once they start an activity they very, very much enjoy, neither have the ability to stop until, for the obese, no more food can possibly be consumed, and, for the alcoholic, the alcoholic passes out. Mac extolled efforts curbing drunk driving-drunk drivers do and will continue to kill innocent people- and he praised the judicial system and the state offering assistance and programs regarding alcohol abuse. But he made clear the overwhelming evidence evincing the scourge and astronomical costs associated wi