By Brian Patrick
"Envision CommonUnity"
bpatrick@challengernky.com

Brian Patrick / For The Sunday Challenger

A small highway sign along I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville takes me back to America's deadliest accident involving a drunk driver. In May of 1988, an out-of-control pickup truck crossed the median, striking a church bus near Carrollton, sparking a fiery explosion that killed 27 people. Most of them were teenagers returning home from a fun day at Kings Island.

A little farther south, on the opposite side of the highway, I see the spot where I was arrested for drunk driving nearly 20 years ago, several years before that deadly crash. I am jarred by the realization that my crime was no less than that of Larry Mahoney of Carrollton who served almost 12 years in prison for causing the horrible bus accident. He didn't intend to kill that night, but he got behind the wheel after having too much to drink. I had done exactly the same thing.

It was this connection that led me to spend one afternoon a week with inmates at the state prison in La Grange for about a year. I knew Mahoney had been sent there and I secretly hoped I would see him in meetings for recovering alcoholics. That never happened, but I did witness some miracles during my year at La Grange.

Many of the inmates there were locked up for alcohol and drug-related crimes. I shared with them that I was just like them. I could not control my drinking. Once I started, I had no idea where alcohol or other drugs would take me. I told them that without total abstinence in recovery, I would likely be in prison with them, that is, if I were still alive.

Tensions Relax

Our meetings traditionally end with The Lord's Prayer, recited in a circle with everyone holding hands. At first, the inmates refused to take my hand, extending instead a closed fist. As the weeks went by and I continued to open my hands to them, the guys on either side of me began to hold them as we prayed. Little by little, a few more would open their clenched fists and join in, until eventually, we all joined hands in prayer. The sound of 50 men's voices praying to our Father in heaven echoed throughout the steel and concrete of the cellblock. It still gives me chills to think about it.

Many of those men would never have done the things that put them in prison if they had been blessed with recovery. I'm optimistic that some are in recovery today and are now good fathers to their children, husbands to their wives, and citizens of their communities. Recovery from the prison that is addiction is not only a miraculous gift to the addict, but to society as a whole.

We now have a governor in Frankfort, a doctor, who has made it a priority to address the "scourge" of addiction by helping to fund recovery centers across the state.

"If someone is caught in the jaws of addiction, we've got to make sure we do everything we can to make sure we give that individual the ability to reach their full potential and to get out of the jaws of addiction," Gov. Ernie Fletcher said. "It is very difficult, almost impossible, to get out of those jaws by yourself."

Fletcher has said his administration views drug and alcohol abuse in Kentucky as a "public health epidemic," and blames drug and alcohol abuse for contributing to homelessness and domestic violence.

Fort Mitchell resident Brian Patrick is a regular contributor to The Sunday Challenger, and is a weekend news anchor on WCPO-TV (channel 9). He can be contacted via e-mail at bpatrick@challengernky.com.