ONE YEAR

A year ago today our son and brother, William Williams, was denied inpatient detox treatment by his insurer.  He arrived at the hospital with his bag packed, ready to begin treatment.  He was turned away, although he had benzos and opioids in his system.  He wanted help and was told "NO."  A year later the insurer has still not provided us with the complete records documenting or justifying their denial of service, despite repeated requests.  Four days later he accidentally overdosed, leading to cardiac arrest, six weeks in the hospital, and his eventual death. Support Shatterproof, Partnership at Drug Free, NCADD, or the Where There's A Will Fund, or any other fund of your choice,  but please join us in our promise  "to do everything in our power to educate and inform people about drug abuse and its prevention, to provide ever more enlightened treatment for addicts, to help make treatment options for addicts more readily available, and to remove the stain of shame surrounding this disease."  This is our pledge to William. Thank you all as we continue to strive to honor it.

The Kitson-Lichtenberg Effect

     I read a column in the New York Times yesterday where Paul Krugman mentioned the Dunning-Kruger effect.  I’d never heard of it before.  Mr. Krugman defines it as follows, “the truly incompetent can’t even recognize their own incompetence.”  In other words, or better – in Mr. Krugman’s words -  why a Congress hijacked by Republican radicals is at an impasse.  Like most of America I’m frustrated by fools leading us nowhere, or worse, toward crisis. 

     I’ve worked with people suffering from Dunning-Kruger, even been “managed” by them.  My attempts to advise them of their disorder failed, miserably.  In fact,  in one instance it cost me a job.  As a wise friend reminded after I’d lost my job, “You can’t fix stupid.”

     I think this condition has a mutant cousin.  I call it the Kitson-Lichtenberg effect. I define it as “the truly offensive and greedy are oblivious to their vulgarity and money-grubbing.”  Brian Lichtenberg is a designer who came up with a series of shirts designed to look like athletic jerseys, each with a number.  However, where a player’s name might ordinarily go, he’s placed Xanax, or Adderall, or Vicodin.  You can go here to see what these shirts look like and to get a sense of the reaction of the pharmaceutical companies that produced these drugs:  http://www.tmz.com/2013/08/29/xanax-adderall-vicodin-trademark-lawsuit-kitson-drug-t-shirt/

     You can go here to see what the The Partnership at Drugfree has to say:  http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/letter-to-the-ceo-of-kitson-la-remove-shirts-that-promote-prescription-drug-abuse

     I wrote to Kitson today.  Here’s what I had to say:

“You fools don't get it. Promising copies of Kristen Johnston's brave book, "Guts", for free with a purchase of your obscene drug jerseys is hideous. While you're at it, make one for heroin and put the number 24 on it. That's how old my son was when he died from an overdose. Of course, no one knows who my son is. Who would want a William Williams jersey, right? So maybe you could make your heroin jersey number 31. That's how old Cory Monteith was when he died. That's probably a better marketing strategy. You'll make more money. A word of advice. Don't use up all the low numbers. Some family member of someone in your company will die from abuse of the very drugs you profit from. You'll surely want a memorial jersey with their drug and number on it. Maybe something like Vicodin 19.”

     So I’m crabby today.  Why?  Because I live in a country where people afflicted with the Duning-Kruger effect can take money from pharmaceutical companies to overlook the damage prescriptions drugs are doing to our nation, while people afflicted with the Kitson-Lichtenberg effect can make a joke about drug abuse and line their pockets. 

     How about some of that money going to The Partnership at Drugfree?  Anybody want to buy a jersey that says Will 24?  We’ll put the proceeds in the Where There’s A Will Fund:  https://www.facebook.com/WhereTheresAWillFund  Maybe my friend is wrong.  Maybe it’s time to fix stupid. 

    

Letter to the Editor

The August 21^st New York Times had the following article about naloxone, a drug that can help save the lives of those who overdose on drugs.  The title of the piece was, An Effort to Expand Access to a Drug That Could Save Victims of Overdoses.  The complete article can be found here: http://nyti.ms/179vyXm  Please give it your attention.  Then consider the reaction my wife, Margot, and I had.  We wrote a Letter to the Editor in response to the article.  Unfortunately, it did not get published in the Times.  Nonetheless, here is what we wrote.

“Our son, William, was a heroin addict who was saved on a number of occasions by the swift work of emergency responders in Manhattan using naloxone.  Unfortunately, an accidental overdose at home led to a six-week hospitalization before he eventually succumbed to a vegetative state.  Had we, his family, had appropriate training in the administration of naloxone, with the drug available in our home, he might still be alive today.  We’ll never know.  Paul A. Werfel worries about addicts becoming combative after being administered naloxone.  A combative addict beats a dead addict in our book every time.  It’s time for those who live with and deal with addiction on a daily basis to be combative about the lifesaving potential of the drug.  Combative enough to speed up the pace of public health protection against the plague of addiction.” 

On Point with Tom Ashbrook – NPR

From On Point with Tom Ashbrook – NPR

Dr. Josiah Rich:

“The CDC just put out a notice that for something like the 15th year in a row the overdose death rates have increased. We’re experiencing a tremendous public health disaster – the likes of which we haven’t seen since the early AIDS epidemic or the AIDS epidemic itself here in the US, and also around the globe. The disease is opiates addiction. You know those receptors: they don’t care if it’s heroin or morphine or oxy.”

The entire show can be found here:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/07/18/heroins-new-reach

Bill Williams On Prescription Addiction Radio

My June 18th guest spot on the Prescription Addiction Radio show can be accessed as follows:  Go to
 http://www.tantalk1340.com     That is the station's website.  Then go to podcast page on menu and look for Prescription Addiction Radio.  Download the 6/18 show.  I'm on in the first 30 minutes.  Thanks for your interest.

Coda - Looking Ahead

For the past six weeks I have been taking an online course:  A Crash Course on Creativity.  It is offered via Stanford University and is taught by a remarkable lady, Tina Seelig.  You should Google her or find some of her lectures on the Stanford website. Try here:  http://dschool.stanford.edu/bio/tina-seelig/
This week our final assignment included a course summary.  I had 22,000 classmates from around the world. Seeing their work, the potential for innovation and change is huge.  The bad news is there are relatively very few people my age taking this course.  The good news is that a huge proportion of those taking the course are under thirty. Below is the coda I wrote for my summary.

Coda – Looking Ahead

In early December of 2012, almost exactly six months to the day as I write, our son and brother, William, died of an accidental heroin overdose.  At his memorial service, our family made a pledge to William.  “We promise to do everything in our power to educate and inform people about drug abuse and its prevention, to provide ever more enlightened treatment for addicts, to help make treatment options for addicts more readily available, and to remove the stain of shame surrounding this disease.”  That is where I hope to devote the time and energy to apply what I’ve taken from this course.  It is work that requires the mindset of an innovator.  There are assumptions to be challenged, problems to be reframed, and patient observation always.  It is about taking the chewed gum and dog shit of my life and turning it into something beautiful and meaningful.  The task is ahead of me.  I’ve new tools to use.   

Purple Unicorns

I began my day today as I often do with the important stuff, the sports section of the New York Times. Then, true to form, I moved on to the Op-Ed section.  There I came across what looked like important advice from Thomas L. Friedman in a column entitled How to get A Job.  He describes HireArt, a start-up designed to bridge the divide between job-seekers and job creators.  Perfect.  I’ve been doing my part to keep the percentage of unemployed up there for some time now. A bridge would be nice.

   

The problem, as I understand it via Mr. Friedman, is that job-seekers apply indiscriminately – “they apply to as many as 500 jobs in four or five months without doing any research.”  Companies, on the other hand “are all looking for purple unicorns:  the perfect match.  They don’t want to train you and they want you to be overqualified.” 

This may explain why I have enough time on my hands to write this morning.  But I need HireArt to solve a different problem. I don’t mass mail resumes.  I actually think about whether the jobs I apply for make sense for me and whoever is doing the hiring.  Probably two years ago, or more, I discovered (just how I cannot recall) that the College Board was looking for someone to work for them in arts education.  “Well now,” thought I.  “It’s about time. Here am I, a veteran educator with an arts background, including many years at a school that packs students off to all the best colleges. What an interesting and potentially profitable match for both sides.”  Being somewhat old fashioned, I tried to discover someone at the Board I might talk with. Despite employing my best “Who do you know at the College Board?” connections, I learned that the Board processes all resumes through its particular “Resume Reader”.  There seems to be a kind of firewall to avoid human contact early in the process.  Essentially, a computer (perhaps one on down time while it’s not scanning SAT’s) searches, or asks you to enter, key phrases from your resume. It adapts your resume to its particular format.  Then it “keeps you in mind” and sends out announcements every so often of available jobs at the College Board. Where humans with common sense enter the process, I do not know.  I think there are humans at the College Board, because the computer keeps telling me about promising matches for jobs which I presume real people do.  I never heard another word about that job in arts education, from either computer or human.  Maybe the poor computer gets flummoxed from sorting through the flood of resumes. 

Theater teacher/director, freelance writer, teacher of public speaking that I am, here are some of the announcements I’ve received lately:  E Mail producer; Support Center Analyst; Director, Online Instructional Design & Development; Photo Editor; Senior Director – Division Planning & HR Liaison;  Executive Director, Teacher Product Support Services; Senior Director/Executive Director – Marketing Strategy – Assessment Products;Director Mathematics Curriculum Development

Now, I fancy myself as a fairly well rounded, liberally educated person.  But, for the life of me, I cannot fathom how in its search for purple unicorns the College Board’s computer passed me over when my credentials as an arts educator were valid, if indeed possibly even compelling.  Since then I’ve received a flood of College Board openings, each more fantastic than the last when it comes to my skill set. These offerings make a purple unicorn seem absolutely pedestrian by comparison.  The set of jobs announcements above arrived in just the last month.

Maybe I should contact HireArt and let them know that sometimes it’s the company that floods the market with announcements, while a purple unicorn stands in full view and wonders why it’s not being seen.  Maybe HireArt has a job for me.  The art in my resume matches Art in their company name. It’s worth a try.  Gotta go.  There may be another 500 or so unemployed theater teachers with the same idea. I need to be at the head of the line. Unless, just by chance, anybody know anyone at HireArt?