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The Georgia Bulletin
January 8,1981
Keep The Difference
The "melting pot” is an idea so
dear to Americans that we sometimes
need to be reminded there’s more
romance to it than fact. The new
statement by the bishops’ committee
urges us to welcome ethnic diversity,
md not want or expect people of
different cultures to "melt” into
something called an American.
In fact, we never have blended as
much as we think, or say, we and our
ancestors did. A trip through the
ethnic neighborhoods of any city
shows that ethnicity not only survives
generation to generation, but adds
charm, richness and diversity to
America, even as it inevitably brings
clashes between differing cultures.
Ethnic ties strengthen families and
neighborhoods when we badly need
such bonds. Newcomers everywhere
instinctively head for a place - a
neighborhood, a church, a synagogue,
an organization -- where they can be
among their own. We expect that, but
it grates when people become too
conspicuous in their differences. We
wonder whether we didn’t melt a bit
more than the current groups of immi
grants.
The challenge of the new statement
is to do more than tolerate differences
— to welcome them. The hundreds of
Cuban refugees who still have not
received sponsors are one example of
the gap we are asked to fill between
the right words, and the challenge of
living up to them.
- GRK
Resound ... Resound ...
To the Editor:
Thank you so much for your excellent
support of The Salvation Army Christmas
cheer drive.
We also are grateful for the delightful
article, “The Merrily Marching Army.” You
have captured well the essence of joy which
we Salvationists have. How good it is to be
alive and in the Master’s service!
We pray for you a challenging and
satisfying 1981 in the service of our Saviour.
John Jordan, Captain
The Salvation Army
‘SAVE’ SUNDAY - At a Sunday
Mass at Holy Cross Church in
Trenton, N.J., Michael Szurgala,
eighth grade class president at Holy
Cross, calls for action to curb sex and
violence on television. In addition to
urging stronger parental supervision
over television, the class distributed
post cards addressed to the Federal
Communications Commission asking
that the license for station WOR not
be renewed.
Working Women
Sheila Mallon
As parents we are concerned about T.V.
violence, violence on the street, in movies
and books. There is another form of violence
that is wreaking havoc on our nation’s
greatest treasure, our children, and that is
the violence of the drug culture.
This violence is much less obvious, but
just as deadly as any of the above.
Unfortunately, this kind of violence does
not affect just the user but families, friends,
employers, teachers, etc.
I recently interviewed a young addict and
her mother. They are part of a Narcotics
Anonymous program here in Atlanta. There
are several worthwhile programs around, but
NA is probably the most successful.
We will call this young woman Gail. She
began with drugs in her sophomore year in a
Catholic high school. Up to then, she was
part of the mainstream of school life. Honor
student, athlete, class beauty, she had it all.
For the last three years of her high school
career, she began a slowly escalating use of
drugs which was to take her from honor
student to drop-out - from the apex of
physical well-being to a sick, barely
functioning wraith.
As Gail herself tells it, she began by
drinking and smoking pot occasionally,
usually at parties given by classmates from
which parents were conspicuously absent.
This continued at football games and other
school functions. Now she and many others
were experimenting with other drugs. Pills
such as librium and valium (usually obtained
from homes) painkillers such as demerol,
(whatever was available). Her marijuana
habit became constant and she was smoking
before going into class in the morning. She
spent most of each day stoned.
Her parents knew that something was
wrong, but really had no idea that their
daughter was into drugs and, in fact, never
realized it until she was already addicted.
Their first suspicion that there was
something wrong came about because of a
change in her attitude. She changed from a
happy child doing well in school to an
unhappy rebellious young woman
challenging parental and teacher authority.
Her grades began dropping, she lied
constantly, skipped class and blamed the
teachers and school for her failures.
Secretiveness and long, whispered telephone
calls became the norm with locked doors
and a great deal of time spent sleeping. She
was always late when returning from school
functions, dates or parties. Finally, her
parents realized that she was stealing from
them. Confronted with this, she screamed,
“Don’t you know I’m an addict.” At this
time Gail had graduated to mainlining
“speed.” She was later to use heroin and
cocaine regularly also.
The horrow of her addiction was one that
her disbelieving family tried to cope with.
Their attempts to get help for her were
frustrated by her anger and her refusal to
cooperate. They also discovered that the
psychiatrist they were sending her to was
telling their daughter that the use of
marijuana was harmless.
On a number of occasions, Gail left
home. She would be gone sometimes for just
a few days, at other times for a few weeks.
Each time she returned it was with the
promise that she would change, but her
return was really only so that she could
recoup physically and financially. After a
few days they could see the need for the
drugs returning and soon she would be gone
again.
They went through every agency and
program that was available, but Gail was not
really willing to give up the drugs. She had
to go as far to the bottom as it was possible
to go before she finally admitted her
dependence and was willing to admit her
need for help.
Her mother had taken Gail to a Narcotics
Anonymous meeting and Gail had refused to
return. In desperation, her mother had
applied what the Narcotics Anonymous
Family Group calls “tough love.” She told
Gail to leave and not to call or come back
until she was willing to seek help for herself.
That night and for many nights to come
her mother was to weep over that decision.
But it had been made with much love and a
great deal of prayer. She had asked that God
give her the wisdom to say what needed to
be said and that He take this beloved
daughter into His care - for her mother and
family were helpless to aid her.
Months passed and finally the call came -
Gail had made a decision. She wanted to
come home and get off drugs. With the help
of the Narcotics Anonymous program she
has been successful. Soon she will celebrate a
year without drugs. She is back in school and
doing well, her health and beauty have
returned and that wonderful potential that
seemed lost forever has been restored. In
fact, now she is helping other young addicts
overcome their dependence on drugs
through the NA program.
There are meetings of both the Narcotics
Anonymous Group and the Nar-Anon
Family Group five days a week in the
Atlanta area at a number of locations. On
Monday they are held at the Ridgeview
Institute and on Tuesday at St. Luke’s
Presbyterian Church, the DeKalb Addiction
Clinic and Brawners Institute. On
Wednesday the Flint River Center is host.
Thursdays they are held at Holy Cross
Church and on Fridays they are held at
Peachford Hospital. This is a regular weekly
schedule so that on any given day a worried
parent or young drug user may attend a
meeting somewhere in the city.
The Nar-Anon brochure begins, “If you
have found evidence - or have even a vague
suspicion someone close to you may have a
problem, we know how you feel.” They do
know. They have all been there and they will
help anyone who needs it.
For any family who might feel that they
have a problem the prayer of Thomas
Merton might be appropriate. “All true
prayer somehow confesses our absolute
dependence on God. It is a vital contact with
Him. It is when we pray truly that we really
are. From our prayers we receive light to
apply ... to our own problems and
difficulties.”
“The Deer Hunter” Tragedy
Michael Gallagher
NEW YORK (NC) - Last November a
13-year-old boy named Gottfried (Freddy)
Saganowski, an eighth-grade pupil at Holy
Cross School in Trenton, N.J., died of a head
wound. He had been playing with his
younger brother a few days after both of
them had seen “The Deer Hunter” on
television and he had found a pistol in his
parents’ bedroom closet, according to the
account by John M. Leahy in The Monitor,
Trenton diocesan newspaper.
Emulating actor Robert De Niro in the
terrifying Russian roulette sequences of the
movie, Freddy Saganowski removed all but
one bullet from the revolver and spun the
cylinder. Then, despite the horrified protests
of the younger boy, he placed the muzzle to
his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet
passed through his brain and out the other
side of his head. Freddy lingered for three
days before he died Nov. 17,
Station WOR-TV of New York showed
“The Deer Hunter” at 8:00 p.m. election
day. Like many other independent stations
throughout the country it had bought the
broadcasting rights from the parent
company of Universal, which released the
theatrical version, after the major networks
had turned the film down on the grounds
that it would have had to be cut too much
to make it pass as prime-time fare.
WOR-TV and its fellow independents
apparently felt no such qualms. At any rate
they were willing to take the risk. So they
showed the film virutally uncut, thus
treating Freddy Saganowski and his younger
brother in their own home to the sort of
R-rated violence that the two boys would
not have been able to see in a theater unless
accompanied by one of their parents.
WOR-TV’s reward was a splendid victory in
the ratings. There can, of course, be no
victories without at least a few casualties,
but that’s show business.
First let me say a few words about the
alleged high quality of “The Deer Hunter,”
which had the prestige of five Academy
Awards going for it, including one for best
picture and one for best director, Michael
Cimino. It’s a pertinent point since I don’t
think that WOR-TV and the other
independents would have otherwise run the
risk of showing an R-rated film in prime
time.
The ad in TV Guide for “The Deer
Hunter” solemnly warned the reader that
the film “includes certain scenes and
language that, although essential to the
story, may not be suitable for children.”
You can be sure that “certain scenes” are
indeed essential to the story and were also
essential to the critical and popular success
of the movie. For without the bloody, gory
melodrama of the Russian roulette
sequences, which all too many critics
swallowed whole as a marvelous metaphor of
the Vietnam War, Michael Cimino’s creation
would have been recognized as the bloated,
pretentious, banal movie that it really is.
The Department of Communication of
the U.S. Catholic Conference gave “The
Deer Hunter” a B classification for its
violence. In a wholly negative review I had
this to say about the torture by Russian
roulette sequences: “Even if this sort of
thing did, in fact, occur, and Cimino has in
the two years since brought forth no
evidence that it did, it is so atypical of what
American soldiers suffered in Vietnam that
to focus upon it to the exclusion of all that
they did in fact suffer is a miscalculation of
massive proportions in a film whose
supposed intent is to get at the heart of the
matter in Vietnam and not to conjure up a
machismo fantasy.”
“The Deer Hunter” is just that: a
machismo fantasy. The Russian roulette
sequences advance no theme. They are
rather the whole point of the movie. It is no
wonder then that, magnified by all the
powerful techniques of modem filmmaking,
they had so lethal an effect upon the
impressionable mind of a 13-year-old New
Jersey boy.
And now that the independent stations
have got away with this coup, how long will
it be before the major networks succumb to
competitive pressure?
What’s to be done? I can write articles
like this till I blow a fuse with my electric
typewriter, but they’ll do no good unless
there is some kind of action taken.
And as it turns out, somebody is taking
action. According to John Leahy’s story,
Freddy Saganowski’s classmates at Holy
Cross have formed an organization called
SAVE, whose immediate goal is to make
parents more aware of what their children
are watching on television and to encourage
them to watch it with their children and
later discuss what they see. A more
ambitious, and admittedly more difficult,
goal of SAVE is to influence programming,
using such techniques as cooperation with
other schools, letter writing campaigns and
contacting political leaders.
“Despite everything, I believe that people
are good down deep,” once wrote another
13-year-old whose life was tragically cut off.
If we believe in God, we must also believe
that nothing that happens, no matter how
shocking, is random or senseless. Thus in
God’s providence, it might well be that the
death of Freddy Saganowski will be the
means of focusing some of that power for
good that Anne Frank bore witness to.
If you would like to know more about
SAVE’s activities or would like to express
your support, you may write to Mrs. Camille
Ettenger, Holy Cross School, 201 Adeline
Street, Trenton, N.J. 08611.
(Michael Gallagher is on the staff of the U.S.
Catholic Conference Department of
Communication.)
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Calendar 81
Dolores Curran
Early January is one of the best times of
the year for the family because it’s a respite
from society. After a surfeit of programs,
parties, and paraphernalia, everyone seems
relieved to stay home and quietly catch up.
The IN word this year is stress and, because
the family inherits most communicable
conditions, the new phrase is family stress. I
have a couple of suggestions for putting a
little more early-January time into the rest
of the year.
First, it’s time the family stops trying to
fight the calendar alone. I’ve seen extremely
successful ecumenical efforts in recent years
in impacting community calendars. It works
like this. The pastoral council or family life
department of a church — frustrated at being
unable to find any family time that isn’t
usurped by local sports, activities, or
organizations — contacts a few other
churches who each contact a few more.
As a group, they meet with major leaders
to discuss freeing one evening weekly for
family/church activities. If the entire
community agrees, it is overwhelmingly
effective. It benefits all. Churches and
families get an evening to call their own
while organizations benefit because they
aren’t continually coping with the
frustration of having one or two participants
unable to attend because of church
activities. If everyone in the community has
church activity the same evening, the rest of
the organizations lose only one evening, not
parts of five.
I’d like to see the idea extended to one
weekend per month as well. Pastoral teams
tear their hair in frustration trying to find
one weekend free for a renewal, a family
retreat, or a conference. Aside from the
obvious — that the family forego a few
Saturday games — free weekend every
month is a good answer.
Next, I suggest that families start learning
how to get control of the calendar. Buy a
long-range wall calendar and individual
monthly calendars, one for each member of
the family who can write. Put the wall
calendar (available for about $3 at stationery
shops) on a wall near the center of family
life. Mark school, holiday, and vacation
dates. Then add predictable periods of chaos
like “Getting ready for vacation,” “final
exam time,” and “May end-of-school
activities.” One of our problems is that we
agree to things far in advance, forgetting
what else might be going on. A quick glance
at the calendar prevents this.
To insure family time together, bring out
your individual calendars on Sunday evening
and go over the ensuing week together. Who
has to be where when? Are there going to be
days on end when family life consists of
passing notes? If so, can anybody change
any appointments so there can be some
family meals together?
Finally, consider investing in one of the
many good family calendars put out by
church publishers, marriage enrichment
groups, or diocesan family life departments.
One of the better ones is The Family
Calendar 81 put out by the Family
Ministries Office of the Archdiocese of
Louisville. It is a spiritual, yet functional,
calendar which gives suggested family
activities, prayers, major feasts, ethnic saint
days, and some family trivia. Use the ideas
you like and substitute for those you don’t.
(For information write Family Ministries
Office, 1941 Bishop Lane, No. 206,
Louisville, KY 40218). Cost is $2.50; less in
bulk.
And enjoy what’s left of January.