Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
It's rare that a single column can trivialize and insult two different tragic figures in the news at the same time, but every now and then someone special will come along and BOOM! Next thing you know we're using Whitney Houston's death to write about Josh Hamilton. Specifically, What Josh Hamilton And The Texas Rangers Can Learn From Whitney Houston's Passing.
God.
There are a lot of insulting premises in there, but the worst comes here:
Unfortunately, those individuals that develop an addiction – no matter how irrational it may appear to the rest of us – believe the personal benefits derived from drug usage exceed these costs.
Does he REALLY believe that? That drug addicts think the benefits exceed the costs? Does he really believe Josh Hamilton thinks that risking his career and family and fortune is worth a drink?
Perhaps, Mr. Kelley, you should have Mr. Hamilton sit down and read all about the rise and fall of Ms. Houston. Have him YouTube some of her best performances when she was at the height of her career, and then look-up photos and videos of her during her troubled times. Because this will remind Mr. Hamilton that nothing is forever and that substance abuse destroys.
Any true addict, like Hamilton apparently is, probably has more than enough firsthand experience with lives getting destroyed to understand the stakes.
Come on. Doing drugs is fun. So is getting really really drunk. If the benefits outweighed the long-term costs, we'd ALL do drugs and get drunk all the time. Instead, the only ones who keep living that life are the ones who can't help it. There's nothing rational about drug abuse.
That's what makes it addiction, not selfishness.
And that's what makes that entire column insulting, not insightful.
An addict is someone who understands the risks but ignores them. Addiction is the madness where someone gets hit by a bus, and then wanders into traffic the very next week because they just can't help themselves. It can be treated, but it takes luck and lots of work on a daily basis, not some YouTube epiphany. It's baffling and terrifying and above all it's a tragic disease. Arguing that some Whitney Houston videos could change Josh Hamilton just makes everyone a little bit dumber, and takes us that much farther from understanding what the tragedy really is.
But hey, at least it was topical!
8 comments
Comments
Oh my God
So I ignored your advice and read the article anyway.
That guy has zero clue about addiction. The only thing he says in there that’s right is this (and it’s not even grammatically correct):
True. Then he ruins any momentum he had going with this:
Right, because money solves everything. It sure as hell doesn’t ensure sobriety. I can tell you that from personal experience. You can’t throw money at addiction and make it go away. It doesn’t work like that.
Kudos to the one commenter I saw on that Forbes article, though.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
by mikefive on Feb 13, 2012 7:52 PM EST reply actions
The author of that article has a history of writing ignorant articles
It’s a shame what some writers will do to bring traffic to their employer’s website.
"I could never be a thug, they don't dress this well." - Malice
by Julius Coxswain on Feb 13, 2012 8:01 PM EST reply actions
Unless you've delt with a drug problem personally, or someone you know...
You have no idea how to get through the situation. I can’t stand people that put themselves on a high horse and tell others advice on how to beat an addiction. No, watching videos of Whitney Houston on youtube will not beat a drug addiction. I know that’s surprising, who would have thought.
YURP
by TheYurpman on Feb 13, 2012 8:28 PM EST reply actions
Wow
Haha apply his reasoning to the extremely overweight and it gets really funny.
by rBorba on Feb 14, 2012 12:43 PM EST reply actions
The editors should not have posted this though.
Engaging in a moral bitch fight with other writers on such sensitive issues is the wrong decision for a growing media company.
G-Mac bitches
BC 2011
by jdguggs10 on Feb 14, 2012 12:51 PM EST reply actions
Why?
Explain yourself. The only people who can police the media, are other members of the media. It isn’t even a “moral bitch fight.” It’s just that one person wrote a really, really shortsighted and borderline pathetic article and another person pointed out how shortsighted and pathetic it is.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
It wasn’t an evil article, but standing by after reading an article like that accomplishes nothing, and the author deserves to have their credibility questioned after such a trivial article on such a non-trivial article.
by jpmchugh77 on Feb 14, 2012 6:55 PM EST up reply actions
last word should be “topic” not “article”
by jpmchugh77 on Feb 14, 2012 6:56 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, agreed. Rishe deserves to be called out on this.
He makes himself look foolish with is lack of insight on addiction. Instead of advising Josh Hamilton “to read all about the rise and fall of Whitney Houston,” perhaps Mr. Rishe should watch an episode of Intervention.
by darthmom on Feb 14, 2012 10:49 PM EST up reply actions
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