{"id":1942,"date":"2021-05-18T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2021-05-18T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T21:34:18","slug":"america-loves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1942","title":{"rendered":"America Loves . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>F<\/span>amed adman Ed Labunski penned <\/span>the catchy, classic jingle that <\/span>branded American culture as \u201cWe <\/span>Love Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie <\/span>and Chevrolet.\u201d Eating one at the <\/span>ballpark just somehow tasted different <\/span>from an ordinary hotdog, and dreams <\/span>of sharing that first hotdog with your <\/span>young son\u2019s first trip to a ballgame <\/span>brought wistful smiles to baseball <\/span>fans throughout the country. Yes, <\/span>American culture from the 70s was <\/span>very different from our culture today. <\/span>We focused on relating to each other, <\/span>based on shared experiences and <\/span>desires. My adult children tell me it <\/span>comes across as rather narcissistic, but <\/span>it really was just a 70s thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alcoholics Anonymous reflected <\/span>a different culture back then. Old-<\/span>timers packed smoke-filled halls <\/span>playing cribbage and drinking <\/span>massive amounts of coffee. If you <\/span>attended 12-step meetings regularly, <\/span>you could quote what they\u2019d say on <\/span>each respective step. The first step, <\/span>\u201cwe admitted we were powerless <\/span>over alcohol \u2013 that our lives had <\/span>become unmanageable,\u201d was dubbed <\/span>the drunkalogue. No matter how <\/span>many decades you\u2019d been sober, it <\/span>was important to keep in the front of <\/span>your mind what a miserable drunk <\/span>you\u2019d been. Tearing down statues <\/span>from the past would have made no <\/span>sense to these fellows. After all, AA <\/span>is an honesty program. If you forget <\/span>where you\u2019ve been and who you\u2019ve <\/span>harmed, you\u2019re on the road back to <\/span>becoming that horrible excuse for a <\/span>human being. \u201cOnce a drunk, always <\/span>a drunk.\u201d This approach worked for <\/span>most members and as the AA Big <\/span>Book teaches, don\u2019t judge others; the <\/span>key to life-long recovery is to focus <\/span>on improving yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that AA didn\u2019t <\/span>evolve over time. Nonsmokers <\/span>decided they just couldn\u2019t handle the <\/span>immense amounts of second-hand <\/span>smoke; others felt that meetings <\/span>should be more targeted or selective <\/span>in their membership. Groups formed <\/span>restricting membership to gender, <\/span>profession, sexual orientation, age…<\/span>the list goes on. Old-timers thought <\/span>that sharing the desire to quit drinking <\/span>was the most important thing to have <\/span>in common. Life had taught them <\/span>that working together towards the <\/span>lifesaving goal of sobriety should <\/span>be the main focus. Listen with an <\/span>open mind and you\u2019ll discover that, <\/span>although details of the stories may be <\/span>different, it was the consequences of <\/span>these stories, the same excruciating <\/span>pain, that bonds those in recovery. <\/span>Younger members didn\u2019t understand, <\/span>they felt their experiences and needs <\/span>were different from those crotchety <\/span>old men.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultures need to evolve over time. <\/span>For example, back in the day an <\/span>intervention for alcoholism wasn\u2019t <\/span>a friendly circle of friends and <\/span>family trying to break through the <\/span>alcoholic\u2019s denial by gently sharing <\/span>stories about the pain caused by the <\/span>alcoholic\u2019s behavior and guiding them <\/span>into seeking treatment. No, original <\/span>interventions were mobs of self-<\/span>proclaimed loved ones ganging up and <\/span>brutally attacking the alcoholic and <\/span>his unwanted behavior. The goal was <\/span>to break down these dastardly drunks <\/span>to rebuild them into acceptable, sober <\/span>people who share the same thoughts <\/span>and beliefs as other sterling members <\/span>of society. Eventually this practice <\/span>stopped. Bullying and ostracism is <\/span>powerful for those engaging in it, but <\/span>leaves a destructive path for others to <\/span>clean up. <\/span><\/p>\n

AA meetings continued to happily <\/span>segregate into specialized groups that <\/span>shared accepted thoughts and values. <\/span>But then some young members started <\/span>to question why they should seek a <\/span>new group. Shouldn\u2019t the present <\/span>group change for them? Why were <\/span>the old-timers saying the Lord\u2019s <\/span>Prayer during meetings? Don\u2019t <\/span>they realize that this is offensive to <\/span>other members who are atheists, <\/span>agnostics or practice other religions? <\/span>These old men should change for <\/span>their own good. Their culture is <\/span>outdated and insensitive. What these <\/span>whippersnappers didn\u2019t realize is that <\/span>with culture, comes traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people are familiar with 12-<\/span>step programs, but are ignorant of <\/span>the 12 traditions designed to address <\/span>conflicts between members and to <\/span>protect the purpose of AA. The first <\/span>tradition stated: \u201cOur common welfare <\/span>should come first; personal recovery <\/span>depends upon AA unity.\u201d The belief <\/span>that unity and common welfare is key <\/span>to stability and sustainability has been <\/span>lost to heated political discord that is <\/span>brutally tearing this country apart with <\/span>no leadership in sight for healing the <\/span>divide. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some corporations are tiptoeing <\/span>through the consequences of violating <\/span>another old AA tradition: holding <\/span>\u201cno opinion on outside issues; hence <\/span>the AA name ought never be drawn <\/span>into public controversy.\u201d Chevrolet, <\/span>long-time sponsor for Major League <\/span>Baseball, has updated its commercial <\/span>message from loving baseball, <\/span>hotdogs and apple pie to baseball <\/span>\u201creminds us of all that once was <\/span>good, and that could be again.\u201d But <\/span>when MLB decided to slide into a <\/span>murky political cesspool by moving <\/span>the All-Star Game from Georgia to <\/span>Colorado to protest a new voting law, <\/span>it lost sight of its purpose of unity and <\/span>bringing people together. Baseball <\/span>once was as American as apple pie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Stephanie Fawkes-Lee is Senior <\/em><\/span>Sports Correspondent for the Prairie <\/span><\/em>Progressive, and a recovering lobbyist.<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of the Prairie Progressive.\u00a0 <\/em>Not available at newsstands, but you may subscribe to this quarterly publication, which is “Iowa\u2019s oldest progressive newsletter,”<\/span> by sending a check in the amount of $12 to:\u00a0 Prairie Progressive, PO Box 1945, Iowa City, IA 52244.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Famed adman Ed Labunski penned the catchy, classic jingle that branded American culture as \u201cWe Love Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet.\u201d Eating one at the ballpark just somehow tasted different from an ordinary hotdog, and dreams of sharing that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[214,830,856,857,855,858,687],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-substance-abuse-and-alcoholism","tag-alcoholics-anonymous","tag-cancel-culture","tag-chevrolet","tag-cultures","tag-ed-labunski","tag-mlb-all-star-game","tag-prairie-progressive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1945,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions\/1945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}