Will Smith Made Me Forget My Birthday

You heard right, along with all the other things that happened to Will Smith due to “The Slap That Was Heard Around The World”, I am blaming him for me, forgetting my own sobriety date. Seventeen years ago on April 3rd was my first day sober! That’s after twenty five some odd years of almost daily drinking. Now I stopped really celebrating my AA birthday a while back. I will probably do the whole cake and meeting thing when I turn 20 but mostly, I just gratefully and quietly acknowledge the day and move on. But not this year, because I completely forgot. I was too preoccupied with “Oscars so UFC”. To be honest, I don’t watch the Oscars, or for that matter, any other awards show. It’s just that the Will Smith/Chris Rock thing was everywhere and you couldn’t help not look. But prior to that, there was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which pissed me off for so many reasons. The number one reason being that there are currently around 40 ongoing wars and conflicts happening in the world and the majority of them are in Africa. Also there is the Palestinian conflict that has been ongoing since 1948. No one seems to be putting those flags as their Facebook status. But then again, Ukraine is a majority white nation and I guess that’s easier to get behind then black or brown children dying in places that no one has ever heard of. Sorry, don’t get me started. Prior to that, here in Canada, they kept discovering more unmarked graves of Indigenous children who had died or been murdered at former Residential Schools across the entire country, over 2000 remains have been discovered so far and there will probably be a few thousand more before it’s done.

Let’s not forget Covid19. Canada is currently experiencing it’s sixth wave of the virus and there seems to be no end in sight. I myself have been on the frontlines, pretty much non-stop since March of 2020, working 3 different jobs all in mental health and addiction. Along with Covid came a spate of anti Asian violence here in Canada and the U.S. My wife is Japanese and the poor women must feel like she has her own Secret Service detail because I am so afraid of something happening to her when she is out and about with our girls. I make sure I am with them whenever I can be and if not, I make sure that they check in regularly by text whenever they go anywhere. The SARS-CoV-2 virus also gave the tin foil hat brigade ample opportunity to rehash old anti vax theories, not wear maks and cough in people’s face and stand around outside schools, harassing children. So that was nice. Oh and lest we forget, “The Freedom Rally” that occupied our nation’s capital for nearly a month annoying the living shit out of anyone who lived downtown. Horn honking, name calling and allegedly harassing workers at a homeless shelter. Now since the police didn’t haul anyone away, turn ice cold water hoses on them, bombard them with tear gas and flash-bangs, or just disappear them and threaten theri familie’s……I fail to see where their freedoms were being threatened, other than being asked to wear a fucking mask! Personally, had I been in charge, I would have had them all shipped off to Myanmar or China or a hundred other places in the world where people have no personal freedoms or rights and see how well they enjoyed a forced labor camp making i-phones for sixteen hours a day and little to no food or sleep. You know, like what the CCP does to Uighur people and anyone else who happens to criticize the Government there.

I work in mental health and addiction and we have been battling an Opioid epidemic for going on six years now. I don’t care who you are, even if you are the most thick skinned paramedic or a jaded ER nurse or doctor, this number of avoidable deaths of individuals that your job is to help, is bound to take its toll. In just my province, BC there have been 9,236 deaths from street drugs since 2016.

Then there was last week. It started on Monday when I got a phone call informing me that the Youth Detox that I have worked at for a little over 6 years, the only one of its kind in the city for youth in active addiction, was losing its funding. This is a decision that, quite simply put, will cost the lives of countless youth currently battling substance use. I’m not going to go into too much detail. Personally I think the local health authority’s reasons are lame and pretty vague and that this is just another way to cut corners. It costs money to have people like me and my colleagues do the work that we do. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the salaries of the people who shut us down but the Harm Reduction model is the current trend, even if it means enabling people, rather than doing the hard work that getting clean and sober entails. Mind you it doesn’t help that there are not nearly enough treatment beds available for those who do decide to try. Shutting down a youth detox in the middle of an overdose crisis makes perfect sense. One of the reasons given was that they plan on concentrating on home detox. That should work out really well for all the homeless kids right?! A few dead homeless kids is a small price to pay for staying current with best practices (not to mention saving a shit ton of money).

And just when I thought my week couldn’t get any better, one of the youth in another program that I work in, pulled a gun on another youth, which resulted in a room search where we found a bunch of drugs and more weapons. This also meant dealing with the police and lots and lots of paperwork, which anyone who knows me will tell you, is my least favorite thing about the job.

But let’s get back to the whole Will Smith/Chris Rock thing, because let’s face it, that is the real issue right? First off I really do have to side with Chris. I did stand up comedy for twenty plus years and I know his joke about Will’s wife Jada did not merit that kind of response. Having said that, Chris Rock handled the whole thing like a consummate pro. He kept control and didn’t let the whole evening go off the rails. The people who are complaining about the joke, just have no idea what it takes to keep an audience in check and also, if they find it so offensive, they shouldn’t hire comics to host!! Hollywood has got to stop taking themselves so fucking seriously! I work with people who have a combination of mental health and addiction issues, they can be extremely unpredictable. The job can be quite dangerous at times and we don’t get paid all that well. I really don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for entitled Hollywood elites who get their feelings hurt.It’s part and parcel to being famous. There are many people saying that Will had a bit of a breakdown. No shit! On the other hand, get over yourself and handle it. He completely stole the thunder of every other award recipients for the rest of the night. But you know, he’s Will Smith so no security detail escorting his ass out the door. Nope go on up and get your prize like nothing happened, right?!

As a comic I have had people throw beer bottles, ashtrays and one time a guy even pulled a gun! But you’re talking about drunk audience members, not a superstar like Smith. The thing is, Chris Rock is going to get so much mileage out of this and positive publicity because of the way he conducted himself, while Will Smith on the other hand, is going to be taking Social Skills webinars from Mel Gibson.

To get back to my original point. In all the confusion I forgot my sobriety day and I am blaming you Will Smith. Oh sure there may have been one or two world events and personal crises that may have also contributed to my temporary forgetfulness, but since everyone is already pissed at you, I think I’m gonna be too. Thanks for nothing, Fresh Prince.