Alcoholics Anonymous

A middle-aged computer analyst related a string of personal woes to the circle of 16 people recovering from what they said were patterns of self-destructive behavior.His problem is compulsive anger, expressed over the slightest things. He would say mean things to those around him and maybe throw things. He had been trying to remain calm over recent setbacks but the ugly anger was returning. He said he needed help.His listeners are used to baring their souls. The colleagues say they ate too much, ate too little, got too angry, worked too much, became too anxious and became too controlling or too meek in relationships.

When drug addicts and alcoholics hit bottom, they visit a Fells Point oasis called The Serenity Shop.Here, in the 200 block of S. Broadway, hundreds of people come each week to the shop's coffee bar, bookstore and pool hall. They share their life stories, provide support for each other and attend the Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous PTC meetings held each day behind the pool tables.It's the kind of place where recovering addicts "can . . . see there is a life beyond drinking and drugging," says Michael Bratt, a drug counselor at the Baltimore Recovery Center in West Baltimore.

Those who know former convict Kenneth Griffey Jr. say he's replaced the cocaine he once injected into his veins with religion, letting it guide his life."

James Joseph O'Reilly came to court yesterday and described the pain, emptiness and remorse he has suffered since September 1993, when he got drunk, got behind the wheel and ended up killing a 53-year-old Snydersburg woman."

JAMES McKelvey and Eugene Traynor were drunk for more than a decade. After they joined Alcoholics Anonymous and sobered up, they discovered that they were no longer eligible for government education benefits. Veterans Administration rules required that claims be filed within 10 years unless prevented by "a physical or mental disability which was not the result of their own willful misconduct."Mr. Traynor and Mr. McKelvey, steeped in the "I am sick, not bad" philosophy which has become something of a mantra for Alcoholics Anonymous, sued the VA, claiming that alcoholism is a disease, not "willful misconduct," and that their 10-year benders should be regarded as disabilities beyond their control.

Declaring America's "war on drugs" a failure, retired U.S. Sen Harold Hughes exhorted recovering addicts and alcoholics yesterday to fight brazenly for more treatment programs and health coverage.To do that, he said, recovering addicts need to move beyond their tradition of anonymity into political activity.Mr. Hughes, a one-time Iowa truck driver who was jailed several times for drunkenness before beginning 39 years of sobriety, visited Baltimore yesterday to launch what he hopes will be a national movement of political activism by a group accustomed to secrecy.

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"Anyone who watches "Saturday Night Live" will recognize those stirring words as the mantra of Stuart Smalley, the coifed, co-dependent character invented by comedian Al Franken.For three years now, Mr. Franken has starred in a "SNL" skit called "Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley," in which Stuart, a creature of the recovery movement -- the vast array of 12-step programs based on Alcoholics Anonymous -- looks lovingly into a mirror and mouths the affirmations that remind him he's really OK.Now those words are also the title of a book by Mr. Franken.

Coordinating an alcoholism support group in Anne Arundel County isn't easy, as Joan Urbus found out.Especially when no one shows up.But Urbus, who recently attempted to form a Women For Sobriety group in Pasadena two weeks ago, wasn't surprised."

Washington -- James Lee Burke is speaking about gratitud (( and appreciation of good fortune now that, at age 55, his books are finally being read and appreciated. His voice drops to a near-whisper as he talks with slight disbelief about Joyce Carol Oates' rave review of his most recent crime novel, or when he marvels at the splendid mountain setting of his home near Missoula, Mont.And there's something else to be thankful for: He still knows pain, but he is grateful every day not to be drinking himself to death.

Washington -- James Lee Burke is speaking about gratitude (( and appreciation of good fortune now that, at age 55, his books are finally being read and appreciated. His voice drops to a near-whisper as he talks with slight disbelief about Joyce Carol Oates' rave review of his most recent crime novel, or when he marvels at the splendid mountain setting of his home near Missoula, Mont.And there's something else to be thankful for: He still knows pain, but he is grateful every day not to be drinking himself to death.

Julia M. "Julie" Conquest, a former Roland Park resident who owned and operated a Chestertown boutique, died Wednesday of pneumonia at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. She was 87. Julia Muse Henry was born in Cambridge and, after the death of her parents when she was 6, moved to Philadelphia, where she was raised by relatives. She attended Goucher College and was married in the late 1940s to Pleasonton L. Conquest III, a Baltimore stockbroker, who died in 1979. During the 1960s, she worked as a secretary in the physics department at the Johns Hopkins University.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld yesterday a death sentence from a jury that had consulted the Bible's teachings on capital punishment. In a second decision on the role of religion in the criminal justice system, the same court ruled Friday that requiring a former prisoner on parole to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous violated the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion. In the case decided yesterday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals split 9-6 on the question of whether notes, including Bible verses prepared by the jury's foreman and used during sentencing deliberations, required the reversal of the death sentence imposed on Stevie L. Fields in 1979.

James William Houck Sr., a retired electrical engineer and salesman who as a recovering alcoholic befriended the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and preached clean living throughout his life, died of complications related to old age Sunday at the College Manor nursing home in Lutherville. He was 100. Born in Walkersville, he was a 1925 graduate of Frederick High School, where he played on a state championship basketball team and was an Eagle Scout. Mr. Houck recounted for The Sun in 1999 that he had started drinking at age 5 "when I got into my mother's dandelion wine, and I drank all the way through high school and college."

Almanac-- June 10-- 1935: Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio. 1946: Italy replaced its abolished monarchy with a republic.

George J. Gibmeyer Sr., a retired Anne Arundel County police sergeant, died Thursday of complications from a stroke at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Fla. The former Glen Burnie resident was 71. He had moved to Vero Beach in 1991, when he retired from the county police force. During his 26-year career, he had assignments on patrol in the Northern District and working in the 911 Center in Millersville. Born in Baltimore and raised on North Belnord Avenue, Mr. Gibmeyer was a 1948 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School.

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore recently spoke at The Sun with Richard C. Gross, editor of the Opinion * Commentary page, about Baltimore's needs and how the state and Congress might fill some of them. You said the state isn't doing enough for Baltimore. What should it be doing? One of the things the state has to do is give more money for drug treatment. Baltimore is definitely a city that's on the move, and we are getting stronger every day. But we can get stronger faster if the state gave more with regard to drug treatment and helped us make sure that those drug treatment dollars work for or are used to provide the most effective treatment.

A middle-aged computer analyst related a string of personal woes to the circle of 16 people recovering from what they said were patterns of self-destructive behavior.His problem is compulsive anger, expressed over the slightest things. He would say mean things to those around him and maybe throw things. He had been trying to remain calm over recent setbacks but the ugly anger was returning. He said he needed help.His listeners are used to baring their souls. The colleagues say they ate too much, ate too little, got too angry, worked too much, became too anxious and became too controlling or too meek in relationships.

James Joseph O'Reilly came to court yesterday and described the pain, emptiness and remorse he has suffered since September 1993, when he got drunk, got behind the wheel and ended up killing a 53-year-old Snydersburg woman."

When drug addicts and alcoholics hit bottom, they visit a Fells Point oasis called The Serenity Shop.Here, in the 200 block of S. Broadway, hundreds of people come each week to the shop's coffee bar, bookstore and pool hall. They share their life stories, provide support for each other and attend the Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous PTC meetings held each day behind the pool tables.It's the kind of place where recovering addicts "can . . . see there is a life beyond drinking and drugging," says Michael Bratt, a drug counselor at the Baltimore Recovery Center in West Baltimore.

Those who know former convict Kenneth Griffey Jr. say he's replaced the cocaine he once injected into his veins with religion, letting it guide his life."