By John C. In 1974, I was a young physician struggling with alcohol, baffled by my inability to live with it — or without it. One of my patients paid a house call on me — her hung-over doctor — and introduced me to the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was so thrilled to find a way out of my struggle that I seized upon the AA program without reservations. My life soon changed completely, and became manageable for the first time in years. As I recovered, I regained the trust of my … [Read more...]
Today ‘Chef Jeff’ Henderson wants to change lives
By David Palmer ‘Chef Jeff’ Henderson is a former crack cocaine dealer who became a millionaire selling drugs on the streets of Los Angeles at age 19 and went to prison on a drug charge at 24 for 11 years. Today, Henderson, 45, is an award-winning chef, television personality (the Chef Jeff Project on the Food Channel in 2008), motivational speaker, and, with two books in circulation, a best selling author. He tells his fascinating story of redemption in “Cooked. My Journey from the Streets to … [Read more...]
Young people carry message, tackle adolescent tobacco addiction
By David Palmer Genine Perez, a dynamic 40-year-old with a big smile, big hair and a very busy Blackberry works on the front lines in the fight against smoking among adolescents and even younger children. If Perez can keep kids beginning as early as first grade and up through high school, from smoking, they may never smoke, and they may never use harder drugs. And if they have started, which is often the case, she’ll do her best to get them to quit. Perez directs one of many initiatives under … [Read more...]
Get out and stay out! Help for prison inmates grows
It’s no secret. Prison inmates have a tough time staying out of prison after they have been released. Estimates vary but one, accepted by many, says about three out of four commit another crime or break parole and end up behind bars again. They call this “recidivism.” Why do they do this? Hector Lozano with the California prison system says the simple fact is that “these men and women ex-prisoners know how to get back into prison. What they don’t know is how to stay out.” True, but actually … [Read more...]
My neighbor’s son died the other day
By Steve Straessle My neighbor’s son died the other day. He was a beautiful kid only 21 years into this world. Police and ambulance sirens blared as they raced up our street in an effort to revive him, but the sirens served only as an alarm that a life had been extinguished much too soon. The boy’s parents are constantly soggy-eyed now, and they busy themselves in the yard in the hope that physical exhaustion will somehow exorcise the pain in their souls. The boy’s father was mowing the … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- Next Page »
