America Honors Recovery by William Moyers on Creators.com

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America Honors Recovery

People from across the country gathered in the nation's capital one night last week to honor recovery.

It was no march on Washington. About 150 people were crowded into an executive conference room on Constitution Avenue. And the celebrants were not in denial. No matter what the Obama administration touts about signs of an "economic recovery," things still stink, and it is impossible to honor what hasn't happened. Just ask the millions of Americans who still can't find jobs, even as the federal deficit balloons.

Instead, federal officials and agency heads, nonprofit leaders, health care providers, pharmaceutical representatives, families and grass-roots advocates from Vermont to Southern California marked a reality that is all but invisible to most people: recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

Who else but Faces and Voices of Recovery could pull off such an event? The D.C.-based nonprofit is America's leading advocacy organization supporting and promoting solutions to addiction, including highlighting the power and possibility of recovery, especially long-term recovery.

FAVOR honored three men this year:

Joe Powell has been in recovery since 1988 and is the executive director of the Association of Persons Affected by Addiction, in Dallas. In addition to helping people seeking or already in recovery, Joe has done a masterful job building the important bridge between addiction recovery advocates and recovery advocates from the mental health community.

Earl Hightower's recovery began about 29 years ago. Ever since, he's dedicated his professional life and personal life to helping others overcome addiction. A counselor, interventionist and public speaker from California, Earl has trained law enforcement officials, attorneys and other criminal justice professionals about recovery and the advantages of treatment rather than incarceration.

Art Zwerling is a certified registered nurse anesthetist who helps other medical professionals come to terms with their addiction, just as he did for himself in 1987.

A key focus of his efforts has been to raise awareness about the risk of addiction among anesthetists and implement practices to protect doctors and their patients, no easy task in an arena rife with denial, to which even doctors and nurses are susceptible. He lives in Elkins Park, Pa.

These three men have been free from alcohol and other drugs for a long time. Their faces and voices and commitment to helping others are proof that addiction does not discriminate and that long-term, sustainable recovery from it is possible. Their work highlights that recovery benefits all of society.

Another honoree was Patrick Kennedy. A tireless champion on Capitol Hill to expand access to treatment for people with addiction or mental illness or both, the congressman from Rhode Island received FAVOR's first America Honors Recovery Legacy award. After 16 years in the House of Representatives, he will retire at the end of this year.

Unlike the others, though, Patrick has not experienced long-term recovery yet. Accepting his award, he stood at the podium and, with the emotional transparency that has marked his public service, intimated that he struggles still to hang on to what so many others in the room now have. "For me, what counts is the next 24 hours," he said.

Patrick's courage is worth honoring, too.

William Moyers is the vice president of foundation relations for the Hazelden Foundation and the author of "Broken," his best-selling memoirs, and "A New Day, A New Life." Please send your questions to William Moyers at wmoyers@hazelden.org. To find out more about William Moyers and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.