We dread the call in the night, the knock at the door

I often recommend the blog postings of Rodger McDaniel. I just can't help myself. The topics are, well, topical and meaty. The writing is crisp. And the Rev. McDaniel is a feisty Liberal, something we desperately need in Wyoming.

Rev McD served his state as director of the Health Department's Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division during the Freudenthal administration. So, when those topics arise, he has the expertise to address them. That's what he did this morning. He wrote about the late Sen.  George McGovern's greatest loss -- the death of his adult daughter, Teresa. After an eight-year stretch of sobriety, she started drinking again. One cold night, she got drunk, wandered out of her house and froze to death in the snow.

When the men with dour faces came to George McGovern's door in 1994, he knew their mission. This haunted him and his wife Eleanor the rest of their lives. They had decided to put some distance between themselves and their daughter. You could call it "tough love." It is the approach that one learns in AA and Alanon. That's little comfort for parents who lose a child.

We know. All of us who have struggled with this issue. We know how hard it is to say, "No more." We all dread the phone call in the middle of the night. Or the stone-faced messengers at the door. Tough love does not take away the sting of losing that boy or girl that we pushed on the playground swing and carried on our shoulders.

Read Rodger's column here: http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/2012/10/1972-was-not-george-mcgoverns-greatest.html