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Learning the science behind addiction frees us from judging, condemning and shaming the alcoholics and addicts in our lives.

Trusting the unchanging Word of God, living daily by the power of His Holy Spirit and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ comforts us, strengthens us and allows us to detach with love and live in peace even in the midst of heartbreak and chaos in our lives.

Read more on Science + Faith: Learning to live in peace in the midst of addiction…

The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives and friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength, and hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.

Read more on Al-Anon & Alateen…

Alcoholics Anonymous® is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

Read more on Alcoholics Anonymous…

Kids never say, “When I grow up, I want to be…” “An alcoholic.” “A crack addict.” “A prostitute.” “Homeless.” They were all young once.

Jeri Rowe writes about Roscoe, a homeless man I first met at a Wednesday night dinner at Grace Community Church, years ago.

undated family photo of Roscoe; published in N&R

He was 17 when he was drafted into the Army and given a parachute and a gun to fight the enemy in Southeast Asia.

He earned a Purple Heart for the two bullets lodged just beneath his scalp. He also got lost in the jungle for 27 days , living on bugs, tree bark and snakes he killed and ate raw.

He saw his buddies torn apart by bullets and watched young children offer his fellow soldiers shoeboxes purported to be gifts. The shoeboxes contained live grenades.

Davis could never shake those memories.

Wow, I never knew this about Roscoe. The purple heart, the war memories. There’s a lot I didn’t know about Roscoe.

Read more on I never knew that Roscoe had a purple heart…

From The New York Times:

A man was down, immobile at the edge of one of this city’s busiest intersections. No sirens sounded, no ambulance rushed to the scene. Dealing with the scourge that has consumed Alaska’s biggest city is often delegated to two men in a white van, the Community Service Patrol.

Read more on Deaths spur Anchorage to involuntarily commit homeless alcoholics…

image credit: Bettina

According to tradition, this is how an Eskimo hunter kills a wolf.

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer after layer of blood until the blade is completely concealed by the frozen blood.

Read more on Licking the knife…

image credit: Kuba Bozanowski

Jim Schlosser somehow fashions a heartwarming, aw-shucks tale from the life of Jack Fuquay, a homeless alcoholic who slept on a park bench in downtown  Greensboro in the 70’s, and died alone in a public toilet.  I guess we’re all supposed to feel good about Fuquay’s homelessness, alcoholism, tragic life, and lonely death because he was a “character” who spent his benefactor’s charitable contributions on milk instead of wine. Wow, I feel so… not uplifted.

Read more on Seen through rose-colored glasses: The life of a homeless alcoholic in Greensboro…

The News & Record and WFMY report that the owner of the University Mart in Greensboro has been charged with food stamp fraud. He’s accused of making purchases at local grocery stores with food stamps that weren’t assigned to him. The University Mart is on Warren Street, near the intersection with Spring Garden.

Read more on Finally! A Greensboro store owner gets charged with food stamp fraud…

Did you read News & Record editorial page editor Allen Johnson’s Sunday, October 4, 2009 column? Read it online: My conflicted views about panhandlers.

Allen writes in response to the heavily restrictive changes to the city’s panhandling ordinance, which have made it illegal to panhandle almost everywhere downtown, and have limited panhandling throughout the city. Allen talks about why he has mixed feelings about panhandlers.

Read more on Allen Johnson: Conflicted about panhandlers…

Be sure to read Lorraine Ahearn’s News & Record article, “Benches highlight a bigger problem”, which begins like this:

“The location of artistic benches, which were removed from the Downtown Greenway on Friday after neighbors complained, looked good on paper but ignored some basic urban topography. Just a stone’s throw from where the benches were removed, amid complaints that they drew drunken and lewd behavior, sits ‘The Block.’ At the southwest corner of Eugene and Lee streets, at the entrance to HealthServe clinic and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s night shelter, this stretch of sidewalk has been a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution for 20 years….”

The benches were never the problem, so removing them won’t solve it. The problem on the block is primarily addiction. People drink there, and buy and smoke pot and crack. And where you find crack, you find dealers and prostitutes.

Read more on Bilbro benches gone, next target: homeless on the block?…

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Fox8 News reports on the dangers of being a downtown cop in Greensboro. The segment begins with the story of officer Marc Gonzalez, who was dragged by an intoxicated woman driver in a BMW just after midnight on Friday night, 09/11/2009. That story was first reported here on ChosenFast.com, six days before it was picked up by other local media. It’s being reported that Gonzalez had minor injuries, but he is receiving ongoing medical treatment. When the driver is found, she’ll be charged with a felony assault on a law enforcement officer. For a full description of the car and driver, click here.

Read more on Fox8 News: Greensboro cop’s dragging shows dangers of downtown policing…