#i have great great grandparents who nearly got killed under his administration

[queer-crusader]

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[dipulb3]

How making guitars helped save a man from addiction

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/how-making-guitars-helped-save-a-man-from-addiction/

How making guitars helped save a man from addiction

He was 12 years old and hundreds of miles away at his grandparents’ house in Florida when his father broke the news over the phone. When young Moore returned home, his mother was inconsolable.

“I felt like I was unlovable. I really felt small,” the 44-year-old said. “I wanted to do all I could to make the house better, to feel better at home. And I didn’t know how to do it.”

Moore discovered the power of opioids to take that pain away while attending college at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. After a series of minor surgeries for ingrown toenails, Moore ended up with more than 400 pain pills in his medicine cabinet.

“My friend came over and showed me that I could use these pills then to feel better, to study longer, to just have increased performance and it was great in the beginning.”

It helped him feel more comfortable in social situations too — but on the outside, Moore says, he looked ridiculous — slumped over and drooling.

Moore’s addiction lasted more than 15 years — before he finally found the help he needed. It was a nightmare odyssey that led him to steal his grandmother’s cancer pain medication and his police officer brother’s ATM card to pay pills.

He says he tried to kill himself twice and spent nine months in jail where he was beaten in a prison riot.

Moore went through five different drug treatment facilities but always ended up using again.

Not until Moore says he found a 12-step program and a mentor who showed him the art of building stringed instruments — did he find the self-love and confidence that turned his life around for good.

Turning wood into music saves a man’s life

Moore was trying to get clean yet again in 2012 when he heard a master luthier — an expert stringed-instrument maker — was coming to his hometown of Hindman, a tiny hamlet nestled in the lush mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

The town has a quaint main street, but it has been ravaged by unemployment with the downturn of the coal industry and a brutal epidemic of opioid addiction.

Moore had been doing carpentry, building cabinets and had a love for guitars.

The desperate young man made a point of showing up to see a band one night where the luthier, Doug Naselroad, was performing.

“He said, ‘I need to come to work in your studio — I need you to teach me how to make guitars’,” recalled Naselroad.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s no problem. That’s what we do.’ And he said, ‘No, you don’t understand I need to come and do this.'”

Moore admitted he had a felony on his record and thought that might be an obstacle to apprenticing under Naselroad. At the time he was going through a 12-step program to fight his addictions.

“There was some discussion about the wisdom of bringing people in addiction into our studios,” said Naselroad.

In the end, Naselroad and his employer — the non-profit Appalachian Artisan Center, said yes. Moore was elated.

“I was probably headed for death that time. How many more chances do you get in life?”

Finding peace in a wood shop

Moore found himself in Naselroad’s wood shop nearly every day learning how to craft guitars from Appalachian native hardwoods in a town where the mountain dulcimer was first made in the late 1800s.

“Music has always been a part of this community ever since pioneer days,” said Naselroad.

What started out as a one-year apprenticeship became a six-year journey that brought Moore back to life.

“(Naselroad) would bring in what people would throw away and he could see through the rough grain and see that there was beautiful wood laying underneath,” said Moore. “To be able to do that and see beauty through dark places, is a gift he has and was able to show it to me.”

Moore says he began to see the beauty in himself peering through those dark places and his confidence grew as he built a new skill.

“You don’t realize what you’re capable of until you’re able to produce something in an artistic form. Art releases something deep inside you don’t know you have.”

Since he began, Moore has made more than 70 instruments. He’s sold many of them and kept others. And while building instruments at night, during the day he earned a master’s degree in network security administration.

Eight years later, Moore is still sober and works as the director of information technology at a residential treatment center where a large percentage of the employees are recovering addicts themselves.

One addict’s recovery inspires arts program

Moore’s success inspired the creation of the ���Culture of Recovery” arts program at The Appalachian Artisan Center. The non-profit already had pottery, luthiery and blacksmithing studios, and in 2018, with a grant from ArtPlace America, started inviting people in recovery into their studios to work with mentors.

“We don’t do the difficult work that the recovery centers do. We don’t take people in who need to go through detox,” Naselroad said. “What we do is we accept people into our studios when they’ve phased into a place where that’s useful to them; when they’re ready to come out into the light of day. We try to occupy them and mitigate their recidivism.”

The program is voluntary and invites people who are enrolled in local drug rehabilitation programs like the Hickory Hill Recovery Center and Drug Court, which uses a non-punitive approach to recovery.

“There are creative individuals that this just fits like a hand in a glove,” said Kimberley Childers, Circuit Court Judge for Knott County, whose own family members have struggled with opioid addiction.

“The recidivism rate is very low when a person goes through this program — I would consider it to be 10% or less,” she said.

The judge said the program speaks to the soul of the people in a region that has a strong tradition of craftsmanship.

“Our culture is so rich in these things. We’re using what we have.”

So far, a couple of hundred people have taken part in these classes. They come once or twice a week to learn how to make pottery, guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, or chef knives and axes.

Kimberly Patton was one of the Culture of Recovery’s first students who learned how to make pottery. Five years later, she’s now sober and teaches other recovering addicts at the Artisan Center.

“Sitting here, you’re focusing on one thing. It shuts the outside world down. It really helps,” Patton said. “If I get mad or upset I can just come here and everything goes away.”

“When they gave me the key to this place — I was like ‘Wow, I finally got a key to something. I’m gaining back trust.'”

Taking instrument skills to the next level

Naselroad felt that a natural extension of the program would be turning those skills into jobs. Last year, he made it happen.

After turning over the luthiery teaching to one of his best students, he opened up the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company — a factory which builds instruments and hires students trained at the “Culture of Recovery” program.

“The jobs we create are an economic development engine. But they’re also helping to keep our guys off the streets, which is part of recovery,” Naselroad said.

The Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company has only five employees — two of which are recovering addicts — but his dream is to have 50.

“The guitars that are made here, the mandolins that are made here — each one of them has a piece of the life of these individuals in recovery made right into them. And so, in the end result, you have an instrument that’s got a lot of life in it.”

[whereithappens-theroom-blog]

The Cuban struggle does not overshadow the current American struggle.

I am a daughter of Cubans who migrated to this country in the 60s. My parents were under the age of 10, so the Cuban struggle is something only my grandparents really understand. I would never take away what my grandparents went through. They were imprisoned multiple times, family members were murdered, they lost businesses; all truly horrific things they had to endure on top of having to leave their homeland for another country.

 I was raised hearing these stories and feeling an immense sense of pride knowing that my own blood was so strong and resilient, something that has rung true to even the youngest of my family members and I like to think that genetics plays a huge part in this, that what my grandparents did, their courage is something we've all inherited through more than just stories but cells as well. The Cuban struggle is something that any one like me knows is a huge part of their story, and something they must always remember. I am grateful to my grandparents for doing what they did and coming here, had it not been for that, my parents would of never met at a sporting event between rival high schools and my sister and I would never have been born.

My whole life and still today, my grandmother (mothers mother) like to tell me stories of her other life and what she went through. I think she does this because I am so fascinated by our ancestry and I believe this is her way of letting me know where I come from, and I thank her for this. I thank my grandfather (mothers father) for living in some camp in Cuba where he braved the elements, amongst other things, to be able to “pay his debt” to leave the country. I would never take this away from him ever. That being said, I am not sorry that President Obama lifted the wet foot dry foot rule; I believe that it is about time. I believe that, while Castro was truly human scum, he is not the only face of evil, for evil has many layers, many faces.

My reason for writing this is not to discuss the issues with Cuba, because frankly I don't care nearly as much about Cuba as I do to what is happening in my country and other countries where their situation is atrocious. I am tired of discussing how terrified I am for my country and the world with this new administration and being told “oh its not bad. You don't know bad. Cuba, that’s bad.” 

Like I said, I am well aware of Cuba’s history and its not a pretty one, but again CUBA IS NOT IN THE SAME NEED FOR HELP AS IT ONCE WAS. PLEASE BE HAPPY ABOUT THAT. But one thing I have noticed about Cubans is that because of Castro, they feel superior to the human race, as if they are the only ones suffering and that kills me to admit, but its something I've become aware of recently. For instance, Cubans won't vote democrat because it is a leftist idea, therefore must be communism, so we've got to vote Republican, hence where we are now with a Trump presidency. Now, I am not giving all the Cubans in this country the credit for electing Trump, but a mentality like that is why he is where he is and that really sucks for millions of others and myself. I am tired of the ignorance of so many of my family members who tell me I need to stop complaining because I am not living what the Cubans lived, but just like Castro took away your rights, Trump is threatening to take away mine. 

News outlets are already starting to become silenced by the administration with audacious claims like “fake news.” Health care is looking to be repealed therefore leaving thousands of people without quality health insurance and some will most likely die in the next 4 years. Women are looking forward to a future where we have no say over our own bodies, women who have suffered some form of domestic abuse are looking at a future where they will get no help because of the organizations put in place to help them will be defunded. News networks like NPR might be a thing of the past. LGTBQ rights, will soon be rights for whom? Children in the public school system might suffer under religious oppression if we don't vote against Trumps pick for secretary. Also global warming/ the Paris agreement act, will no longer get funding either. 

Why is it to my family and so many others that my life, mine personally has to be at risk for me to care about what is happening to my country, to my planet. Why do I have to hear “be glad this isn't Cuba” when ever I express my grief. My family in Cuba isn't suffering anymore than my stepfathers’ family in Colombia is and I'm glad for that. I am tired of a country you had to flee almost 50 years ago is priority number 1. I am your daughter, your granddaughter, niece, cousin, sister, my fears, my legitimate fears should be more important than an old act that was revoked/repealed. 

The United States of America was always looked at as this great country, this country the world wanted to be a part of, now look at us, the laughing stock of the globe. So many of you should be ashamed of yourselves for behaving so nonchalantly towards the dismantling of our republic. So many family members care more about the Cubans of today that are fine compared to other poor Caribbean nations then other people, children from around the world who are actually suffering and losing their lives. Haiti for instance, why aren't so many of you crying for Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, or Syria where children don't even cry anymore they've become so numb to the atrocities, or Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia etc. I just don't think I can stand another day with another family member or fellow Cuban telling me to “stop whining” that things are not as bad as they seem, because they are as bad as they seem and it will only get worse. Why must a country be run by a communist to be considered dangerous but not when its run by an alt right wing con artist. So many people I know wouldn't vote for Obama because they believed he was a Muslim immigrant who was also black. So many people I know wouldn't vote Hilary Clinton because of an email scandal but voted in a man with zero experience, who has openly admitted to molesting women. A man who has ties to Russia, who escaped the draft, a man who is a business man but has filed for bankruptcy countless times. A man who won because of an archaic voting system and the help of Russian Hacking. I am so tired of hearing how I don't understand or how I don't know what I am talking about when I know for a fact that I am better educated on our current situation than most people I know, family included. I am tired of Cubans I know playing the Cuban card and telling me I am crazy and have no need to worry, because I do. This man is dangerous and a disgrace and I hate truly hate that he is the next president and that till the end of time he will always be the 45th President of the United States. 

America is in crisis right now and you would think that the Cubans who warned me of crazy politicians would be aware of what is happening. You would think that the Cubans of this country would all stand together against Donald Trump rather than arguing with the Cubans who voted against him. You would think that they would all be less preoccupied with their homelands history than with the future of the country they currently live in. I am just so tired of being told not to complain or freak out because it is what it is and Trump wont be a Castro. I don't need someone to be like Castro for me to fear for my future and that of my family, and the rest of the world (the actual planet included). Why must anyone be like anyone to be concerned? Shouldn't his agenda be reason enough to throw up the red flag? 

I don't believe that Trump= The end of the world, nor do I believe that Trump is going to send anyone to my home and murder me and my family or send us to camps then kill us. I know that even this crazy government wouldn't allow that, but why do we have to wait and see till if it gets that bad to fear? All of the people he has put in place to run this country are either millionaires or billionaires. None of them care about the majority of Americans. Everyone keeps saying he’ll run the country like a business but must I remind you AGAIN that multiple of his businesses filed for bankruptcy. Or I say again, repealing ACA, defunding numerous agencies, not giving a rat’s ass about the planet. This man became President all while telling people to “beat the crap” out of anyone who didn't agree with him, while disgracing women, Muslims, the disabled, the country itself. Our country may have its flaws, but to have every single one of those flaws now be in the next leader is just baffling on top of heartbreaking. How can the Cubans who talked so much about the Cuban struggle still not see how terrible and dark our future is looking? My heart breaks a little every day knowing not only that this country voted in an unqualified pig man for President, but that so many tell me and others “its not that bad.” And to end it, ill say this:

      Dear whomever,

I am aware that this isn't Nazi Germany. I understand that this isn't Cuba in the late 50s and 60s, but while these countries and so many others have seen dark days in their past and those times are something we have learned about in history class, this current period to which we are about to enter, will most likely be our darkest of times. The difference between us right now and Cuba and Germany, is that we’re aware of the dying carcass and we aren't waiting till it’s died before we panic. 

And to my grandparents: I will never take away your struggle or your pain. I will never (hopefully) understand the pain one must feel when needing to escape their country. You're struggle has marked you and our family and it is a more beautiful mark than the one found on my left leg. That mark is what makes us all who we are, fighters. I don't ever want you to think that because I don't agree with you on things regarding the homeland that I do not care, because I do, I care a lot, hence why I am so agitated about what is happening. You taught me to care, to fight for what is right and to call out our oppressors and I am doing that. Please just understand that your struggle and the one millions of others and myself are going to soon encounter may be different but it is just as important. Please understand that this doesn't need to be Cuba for me to fear for my future and that of my family and the people on this planet I love. You taught me better than that, that patriotism and country is worth caring and crying for, and that is what I am doing. Please, don't ever forget what you have taught me: thank you for teaching me.