Nurit Greenger
Instead of Brent enjoying life today, his parents, Linell and Robert, and his brother, Grant, are working tirelessly to make our society aware of the drugs and alcohol addiction disease that took Brent's life away, the drugs and alcohol that infect young and old, rich and poor and there is no cure in sight.
Peer pressure is a modern, politically correct, term for the lack of the right parental and school guidance. Our today's society ethos has tied the hands of the king and the queen of the household kingdom, the mother and father of today, to be able to invoke the right way to raise children. The two parents working household that causes lack of time and overwhelming life circumstances are depriving many children the required upbringing. The way of the past of the school system has been lost forever too. The school, where kids are to learn manners, respect, good citizenship and how to have fun has been lost to society that is scrambling for answers.
Discipline is not in vogue, so parents and schools fail their job and thus fail the children.
In Chicago they teach children of kindergarten age about sex: Chicago public schools may start sex ed in kindergarten - http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/28/chicago-public-schools-to-start-teaching-sex-ed-in-kindergarten/and here I thought that at that age they teach to color in and the beginning of reading and writing?!
Succumbing to peer pressure also points at a weak character and the lack of self responsibility.
No wonder that at the very young age youths get involved in consuming drugs, alcohol, mischief and sex. When do they experience real childhood and innocence? Do they ever?
Do we say where are the good old days to which we long for, or we look back and say we can do better than those days.
After the Shapiro family lost their young son, Brent, to drugs and alcohol they had two options, to sit back and look at what went wrong, or go fix the wrong; they chose the latter. The Shapiro's turned their tragedy into a cause; they have founded the Brent Shapiro Foundation (http://www.brentshapiro.org/) that is in the business of alcohol and drug prevention. Prevention is the key for any illness and that includes the drug and alcohol disease. (Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiYmC5pvnk#t=280)
As in the past eight years, since Brent lost his life in October 2005, this month the Brent Shapiro Foundation held its annual fund raising gala, at the magnificent estate of the Mei Sze and Jeff Greene. The list of those who support the Brent Shapiro Foundation's efforts is endless and too long to mention. Let the list only grow longer and thus the support will expand. The guests, over 1000 in number, were incredibly impressive, made of the beautiful people of California and beyond, the rich, the famous, the actors and the rest of us. The glitz and glamour, the music, the fashion show, the great food, the auction all hide well the pain.
| From L-Linell & Robert Shapiro, Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin Spirit of Recovery Award recipient, Mei Sze & Jeff Greene-Photo Orly Halevy |
| Robert Davi performed-Photo Nurit Greenger |
| The fashion show-Photo Nurit Greenger |
| The guests at the event-Photo Nurit Greenger |
Each year, the Brent Shapiro Foundation reminds us that our society loses its innocence way too early. That to recover and stay sober takes insistence and responsibility for oneself and for one's family and peers. The focus is on awareness, teaching children about addiction and how to avoid it. To encourage soberness, each year the Foundation awards people who achieve permanent sobriety and support these efforts. This year the Spirit of Recovery award was given to actor Harry Hamlin and the Spirit of Support ward was given to the actor Ted Danson.
To make sure the Holocaust will never be forgotten, we talk and write about it, we make movies and we build museums. We have to make sure it does not come back and that is the goal of the people behind the Brent Shapiro Foundation; that you talk about drug and alcohol addiction and when you recover, you recover for good, that the disease does not come back to haunt you. More so, the Foundation has created and will create programs that will prevent you catching the alcohol and the drug disease. Among those programs, the Foundation has recently formed a partnership with Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles, where kids are disfranchised, assisting in any many ways that drugs are not part of their lives
Drugs and alcohol addiction is an epidemic to which we are losing a society. From the attendance of the impressive gala one can assume that behind each door there is a drug problem. I sincerely hope that is not at all the case.
May the Brent Shapiro Foundation go from strength to strength to weaken the unfortunate of so many to end up becoming drugs and alcohol addicts.
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