finally a defense of Joan Crawford

Simply, Cristina Crawford was not in Joan Crawford's will and Mommie Dearest was her revenge-she made a fortune off the book and the movie and sued Joan Crawford for money from her will and did win a settlement from that as well . After a lifetime of help from her mother to get an education, then a hand into film and TV roles, when Joan Crawford died, Christina Crawford did not want the money to end, so she used her mother again to make a fortune off of. The book was published just a year after Crawford's death in 1978.It is no thoughtful piece of work that took her time to write-it was a vendetta. it was written when memoirs were not challeged for truth, but were readily believed. Now we are finally seeing a return to respect for the actress and person of Joan Crawford. I would encourage anyone to see some interviews Joan did that are on Youtube and you can get a sense of her yourself and she speaks of her relationship with Cristina in interviews as well that can be found in print . And to read this latest bio. on Joan Crawford in which the other children Joan Crawford adopted are interviewed and reveal no such abuse happened (which they have said all along but were not listened to). Was Joan Crawford a strict disciplinarian-she herself admitted that in interviews,-she had a profound fear of her children being Hollywood brats and admitted to being too strict at times, but a child abuser-no. One has to place the weight on a person's INTENTIONS and that Christine Crawford, I believe, had and has mental illness- that must have been challenging to deal with as an adoptive parent. No one writes a hateful book who is normal-it lacks empathy, thoughtfulness and a basic decency about destroying another person's place in the world. if You compare C. Crawford's book to Linda Grey Sexton's bio on her mother, you can see the difference between revelation of information, compassionately presented and just contempt, with the added punch of revenge. Joan Crawford never publically said a bad word about Christina, even calling her a talented actress and how grateful she was to Hollywood for providing her the income to adopt her children and help them lead better lives than what they were born into. Christina Crawford has spent her entire life living off her mother-what a sad and pathetic existence. Mommie Dearest is really a character study of the darkness that was and is Cristina, not Joan Crawford.

swine flu-another hysterical American response

let's try to calm down....it would seem the reason there are deaths only in Mexico and that the insidences in the US are low and completely treatable with no deaths are because of certain things related to Mexico (another strain included in those cases of death, poor general diet and health and massive pollution that affects air and breathing quality). One has to also consider the occurance of swine flu before in the US, during Ford's presidency , and that the panic lead to immunizations that themselves lead to death. We are really poor in this country on exploring a topic before it becomes a media event or worse. you know, like how ok it is to torture people, because we are so scared of our inability to control our sense of fear and put some perspective on what is REALLY happening. The pic is of October 12, 1976-: Nurse Jacqueline Spaky administers a swine-flu injection with an injector gun on the first day of the immunization program in New York City, ordered by President Ford for every citizen.

letter to MADD, asking to help them

Hi Roberta-I appreciate your response. Fortunately, I have never had a family member or friend killed by a drunk driver, but I have great empathy for the incredible social damage alcohol misuse and addiction does to our culture and how little is done to address it.
I completed a certificate program last year at Westfield State College to become an addictions counselor and as someone who is not an addict (many in the program were), I was really astounded by the myths perpetuated by the program regarding addiction, specifically that my program, which was a year in length, did not address at all the damage done by addicts to their family, or the broader affect of addiction on injury or harm to strangers. I was fundamentally taught to 'expect failure' as a counselor, as most addicts do not change. I can not imagine any other education anywhere where such a concept as failure would be an acceptable goal.
The program at the college was run by a former addict, all my classes were taught by former addicts and at my internship at the VA in Northampton, my supervisor was a former addict and 99% of my classmates were former addicts encouraged to take the program. Former simple means these individuals had stopped their primary addiction (to drugs and or alcohol for the time being-a return to addiction is still always a possibility). many still had , in my opinion, the personality of addicts (a fundamental lack of empathy for others that had not been addressed fully) and other addictions still present (smoking being the most notable, but also food and sex being quite prevalent still). I found this to be a fundamental flaw in the education I recieved because, without the insights of persons without addictions understanding what a healthy life can be , the structuring of recovery facilities and the education of healers (addiction counselors) are solely the vision of only addicts, and I believe this is a primary reason why so many addicts do not recover and continue to do damage to themselves, their families and strangers.
I went into the program with 2 college degrees and was seen as suspect by the program director and some of the teachers I had (oh, you've been to college) or treated as naive because I was not an addict myself in recovery. I was specifically told by my supervisor at the VA that 'we only hire our own'. Drunk driving will never cease, I believe , without a fundamental change in how facilities are miopically run by addicts and education does not include an understanding of the incredible damage alcohol addiction does not only to addicts themselves but to the world around them. Substance facilities are also a business and I saw much evidence of welcoming former residents/patients back simply because it meant continued profit or funding by the state.
I am very interested in helping rid our culture of the comfort level that exists in which alcoholics kill innocent people on highways or city streets. We are not very good as a culture about connecting the dots-and treat each incident as an isolated case instead of as a predictable and lethal pattern.
Pardon my longwindedness, but I had wanted to let you know where I am coming from. Once having completed my program, I found I really wanted to work with the families of addicts in counseling, or persons in general who have been damaged by the effect addiction. Only recently a smoker was responsible in my area for burning down his apartment building , which left many persons homeless temporarily and 22 pets killed. The effect of addiction on harming or killing strangers is an appalling reality and one our culture does not grasp the scope of.
Please let me know if I can help in MADD's efforts in the western massachusetts area ( I live in Easthampton, MA).

Susan Boyle- at last

every once in a while, an extraordinarily beautiful person comes along to cut through all the shallowness. Susan Boyle, in honoring her mother's memory by entering the Britain's Got Talent show and just being herself has really been one of the best things that has happened in the world lately. The fact that she is a cat lover makes her just about perfect to me.

Marisa Bannish

Marisa was a classmate of mine at Westfield State College last year in their lousy Addiction Counselor Education Program and she died recently though I am not sure yet how. She was only 25 years old, really smart and insightful. She and I were two of 3 or 4 people in the program who did not have addictions and our insights were not welcome-it is an addicts world in the addiction field (run by, taught by addicts which is very flawed). I remember her being very outspoken about how she did not believe addiction was a brain disease (neither do I-I believe in self responsibility and it is less recovery from addiction than an honest accessment about the personalities of addicts who are immersed in self hatred and an almost unbeliveable lack of empathy or caring for other people). The damage addicts do to others was also missing from the program at WSC. I remember specifically that the woman who ran the program at WSC didn't even bother to learn our names the entire year we were there and there really is no thought about the employment whatsoever of people who are not recovering addicts taking the program. Marisa had attended and held a degree from Mount Holyoke College and was an exceptionally talented woman. She led a group I was in for class with a theater performance and that was fun and really encouraged former addicts in our class to show their feelings. She didn't have to be there at WSC, nor did I with my 2 degrees but we were trying to do some good-in our faulty idealism. I hope her family is doing ok- a sad loss because this young woman had a lot of talent and potential.