Where I Stand: WestCare offers hope to addicted, troubled youths, adults

Tuesday, March 4, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A FAVORITE PHOTO of mine is of a young man being congratulated on his graduation.

Graduation pictures are commonplace and usually treasured mementos of happily remembered family occasions.

But this one is special.

The young man was graduating from WestCare's drug rehabilitation program at Harris Springs Ranch.

For a good many years, people addicted to drugs or alcohol have found new hope through this long-term residential program offering treatment for their addictions.

The WestCare program began in 1973 through a grant from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The project was named Fitzsimmons House in honor of the union's president, Frank E. Fitzsimmons. From that early beginning, which was the brainchild of a dedicated group of people, Fitz House has become WestCare with facilities in three states serving youth, adults and families.

Other programs have evolved from the original concept. These include a runaway youth emergency shelter, an adult services center offering drug and alcohol detoxification, family support groups, a Hispanic Outreach Project and a community involvement center offering day treatment services, education, placement services and others.

WestCare also operates a runaway or homeless youth emergency shelter in Mohave Valley, Ariz., and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Fresno, Calif.

How does it pay for all this?

That's the big question. Funding comes from government grants and state and local governments. However, 30 percent of the annual budget is secured by donations from private individuals, corporations and foundations and special fund-raising activities.

That's the purpose of this column.

To remind everyone that the annual WestCare dinner is March 16 at the Riviera hotel-casino.

Attendance at the dinner not only aids WestCare in its work, but affords an opportunity to honor Sen. Richard Bryan and his lovely wife, Bonnie.

For reservations, call 385-2090.

Pay as you go.

I suppose sleeping in President Lincoln's bed is something for which every red-blooded American should strive, no matter what the cost.

The going rate for this honor seems to have been upwards of $50,000 to assist in the political campaign of President Clinton.

Anti-Clintonites are raising a furor over the "selling of the White House."

Seems like a tempest in a teapot to me. The people who got ripped off were those who actually took the president up on the invitation.

Imagine sleeping in a bed where a president had been embalmed. History tells us that Lincoln hated that bed as being ostentatious and uncomfortable. The only time he actually slept in it was when he was dying from an assassin's bullet.

England's famed Prime Minister Winston Churchill claimed he saw Lincoln's ghost and asked for other quarters when he was a guest at the White House.

Shucks, I wouldn't even pay to sleep with President Clinton and most certainly would have no desire to doze in Abraham Lincoln's bed, especially after some of Clinton's paying guests had rested there unless I was sure they changed the sheets.

FOBs (friends of Bill) might dismiss the matter by quoting William Shakespeare: "Much ado about nothing."

Republicans would prefer another Shakespearean quote to the effect that "there's something rotten in Denmark."

And the brouhaha does throw suspicion on our campaign financing laws.

It's politically incorrect to get rowdy on a golf course. Players -- especially the pros -- must have absolute quiet when they approach a shot. Nothing must shake their concentration.

Arnie's Army was respectful, if you recall. But the pros find Tiger Woods' assemblage of fans and followers a bit noisy and distracting, so they are complaining.

Lessons in concentration from pro basketball players standing alone at the foul line to make a crucial shot as crowds go bonkers might be in order for the golf pros. Big league batters know how to blank out the crowd noise when they stand at the plate. Modern tennis audiences are not the quiet types of years back.

If golfers feel they aren't getting the respect due, just chalk it up to our changing social attitudes.

Cloning was inevitable.

What with surrogate mothers, sperm floating around in saucers, artificial insemination and even organ transplants, it should have been expected.

All of which makes one wonder what is going to happen if we don't stop fooling with Mother Nature.

"There's nothing new about the flat tax. Every year, after paying my taxes, I'm always flat." (H. Albright)