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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 1976)
Alcoholics: £SCflP£’s Second Generation aids children of problem drinkers By MARTHA BLISS Of the Emerald Untold numbers of mute spec tators witness daily the tragic lives of alcoholics. These are the children—the horror-stricken little ones who innocently watch and listen to their parents’ nightly drinking binges, only to wake up each morning and be told that they themselves are the roots of the evil. Perhaps the most pathetic as pects of these ill-fated witnesses are the buried chambers of sil ence in which they carefully keep all their observances. Many of them mentally carry these cham bers around wherever they go, even into adulthood. And as adults, these witnesses can have hard times relating to the world because of the ever-present hauntings. Second Generation is a Univer sity ESCAPE program designed to offer children of alcoholics a helping hand as they begin to face the world after confusing and often painful childhoods. Geared toward college and high school aged children, Second Genera tion studies the effects of these childhood experiences and seeks to free the victims of their inner hangups. It is not synonomous with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which handles the alcoholics themselves and fights any exces sive drinking tendencies. Rather, Second Generation is simply a group of the alcoholics children—most of whom have no drinking problems themselves. Oswmg by P«iw Pinch An alcoholic’s child herself, Cof fey stresses the fact that it is a “non-threatening" program which UJe want to understand our parents as human beings, not as parents who have let us down/' Judy Coffey, a Second Genera tion coordinator, cites the main thrust of the program as “getting to know others with similar experi ences. Most of us had never talked about our personal experi ences with others before we formed the program.” simply gives support and empathy to its members. “We do not oper ate on a pity level," she says. Begun winter term, Second Generation has split into two ph ases this summer. One consists of University members who are train ing to become counselors for other children of alcoholics. This group has been studying various therapeutic and awareness de vices, such as transactional analysis, to use in explaining and overcoming the problems of being an alcoholic’s child. The second phase is an out reach to teenage children of al coholics in the Eugene Springfield area. Second Genera tion coordinators hope to expand this phase of the program more fully in the fall and encourage such teenagers to investigate the prog ram now. Coffey hopes the teena gers will “come forward them selves." Coffey realizes the difficulty many people have in "coming forward,” since she herself had the same problem “In the begin ning, it was very hard to talk about my expenences of being a child of an alcoholic,’’ she says “My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking, but now I don't care who knows." Vernon Palmer, another Sec ond Generation coordinator, ag rees that his childhood experi ences do not burden him as much, now that he is in the program He also considers the main problem troubling children of alcoholics is the inability to identify their par ents' alcoholism as the root to many seemingly unrelated prob lems. “Such things as guilt, inferiority feelings and the inability to de velop loving relationships are widespread among children of al coholics," he explains After studying the problems, he feels that these problems are closely associated with the parents al coholism. Coming from a family in which one parent is an alcoholic and the other is not, Coffey explains, can give a child a "screwy value system." Second Generation, she says, attempts to straighten out these systems and “understand parents as human beings, not as parents who have let us down." People interested in the prog ram can contact Second Genera tion through the ESCAPE office, 327 EMU All information is confi dential. Environmental footnotes BLM plans huge tree site; bottle bill rejected By E.G. WHITE-SWIFT Of the Emerald BLM’s Bicentennial Gift: A proposal to establish a 47-acre stand of exceedingly large Douglas-fir as the “Valley of the Giants” Outstanding Natural Area may be approved in the Washing ton office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) later this month. Once the designation is made official in the Washington office, the stand will be withdrawn from the timber base of Salem district of the BLM, which manages the land as part of the Oregon and Califor nia (O and C) Railroad land grant repossession. The Valley of the Giants Out standing Natural Area is on the North Fork of the Siletz River about ten miles west of Valsetz. It is characterized by individual trees that are over 20 feet in cir cumference with at least a dozen trees of 25 feet in circumference, and one individual tree, probably the third largest known Douglas-fir in Oregon measuring 35-feet, 6-inches in circumference and 230 feet tall. The area surrounding this stand has been managed intensively for timber production. In June, 1974, a Salem barber, Maynard Draw son, petitioned BLM to set aside the grove as a representative of the last undisturbed stands of large growth Douglas-fir in an ac cessible location to the public. Drawson is a big tree enthusiast who has been credited with the location of many of the largest trees of various species listed in the National Register of Big Trees. Drawson’s proposal was ap proved by the Salem District of the BLM, as permitted in the Code of Federal Regulations. The Oregon state office of the BLM approved and forwarded the proposal to Washington where it is awaiting approval from BLM director Curt Burklund. At the May 1976 monthly meet ing of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Oregon, the Valley of the Giants Outstanding Natural Area was endorsed as a Bicentennial Grove, and the eventual dedica tion ceremony as an official Bicen tennial event. Oregon’s Sen. Mark Hatfield, the Amerian Forestry Association, and the Salem Statesman have all actively supported the proposal. A half-mile long trail into the area was started two weeks ago by a trail construction crew of the Youth Conservation Corps. Part of the trail crosses the Siletz River, and until a bridge is constructed, the trail will have to be used during the summer when the river is at a low water level. National Bottle Bill: The Senate rejected an attempt to ban throwaway beverage containers June 30 by a vote of 26-60. Sen. Hatfield, sponsor of the amend ment, said that the “power of big business and big labor marching in lockstep simply overwhelmed us." The leader of the opposition in the Senate was Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, ironically, the foun der of Earth Day. The Senate then overwhelm ingly voted for a federal study of the beverage container issue to be completed by March 1977. This Hatfield amendment was adopted by a vote of 86-1. The lone "no” vote was cast by Sen. Herman Talmadge, who repres ents Georgia, where Coca-Cola has its world headquarters. The amendments were offered to the Solid Waste Utilization Act, Senate Bill 2150, which then pas sed 85-3. The legislation now goes to the House. Energy Officials and Industry: Common Cause recently re leased a study of employment backgrounds of top officials in two major federal energy agencies, the Energy Research and De velopment Administration (ERDA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Among the findings the Com mon Cause study revealed that: • 52 per cent of top ERDA emp loyes came from private enter prises involved in energy ac tivities; 75 per cent of these offi cials came from ERDA contrac tors. • 67 per cent of top NRC emp loyes came from private enter prises involved in energy ac tivities; 87 per cent of these offi cials came from private firms and universities holding licenses, permits or contracts from the NRC. "We recognize that government often must seek needed expertise from private industry," Oregon Common Cause executive direc tor, Bill Fritz said. "However, the patterns Common Cause has un covered raise two highly troubling issues. First, the affected energy industries are now over represented in the highest levels of federal energy policy-making. Second, this influence is hidden from the public." Fritz pointed out that it took Common Cause nearly a year to accumulate the data necessary for its study because of contested freedom of information requests.
