Sergetalks Blog ~ The Official Blog of Serge LeClerc

Ethyl alcohol’ or ‘ethanol’ is the principle ‘chemical’ within an alcohol drink that causes the impact upon the body and brain to produce the feeling of being ‘drunk’, and which causes the damage to the brain of a developing foetus within the mother’s womb. It is this chemical/poison which the European throughout thousands of years began to develop a resistance to which has limited the damage to their bodies, and to their off-spring who now occupy North America. Nonetheless, the damage we see today to a person’s body as the result of chronic drinking is startling but would be far greater if those bodies did not develop some ‘adaption factor’ through genetic strengthening of the body by inter-generational usage.

On this note, insert the Aboriginal body which never consumed alcohol until the European came to North America. They had no immune system build up to the ethanol; much as they had no immune system familiarity to the ‘Small Pox’ or ‘Flu’ virus which proceeded to decimate the First nation population in epidemic like fashion within short order. They of course, after exposure to the virus’s, did build a resistance to them within their immune system similar to the European who brought it with them. Unfortunately, the same can not be said to the alcohol epidemic now running plague like throughout the First Nations of North America as thousands of years will be needed to build the same resistance to the poison within alcohol – and the damage to the Aboriginal body is horrendous. (more…)

Just to recap some of the statistics of the plague of alcohol upon our modern day society and our young people:

Alcohol usage or misuse and alcohol related deaths are the number one killer of that same age bracket;

What numerous people do not realize is that many, if not most of the 50,000 cases of alcohol poisoning in the United States each year do not result from alcohol addiction, but rather from instance of alcohol abuse. Indeed, binge drinking, a type of alcohol abuse, leads to perhaps the majority of alcohol overdose cases that are reported each year. Obviously, many people are not aware of this information or about alcohol facts such as these.

While underage drinking is a factor in nearly in nearly half of all teen automobile crashes, the leading cause of death among teenagers. (more…)

As we looked at the mind meld by the alcohol industry via the media advertisements aim at young people to pick out a brand of beer or alcohol before they are old enough to drink, you must remember to juxtaposition this effort to the reality of the developmental life cycle and the creation of identity – and its importance for this age group. When you do, then the reasons that young people gave for drinking – and for being the heaviest drinking group of young people in our country’s history – give insight to the absolute effectiveness of the campaign by the alcohol industry.

Young men, before the legal age of being able to drink, gave as their number one reason for drinking; that when they got to a party where their friends were at that they didn’t want their friends to think they were a ‘geek’ or a ‘wimp’ – ‘not cool’. I want you think of it this way – young men on the way to manhood, gave as the number one reason that they drink something that taste like ‘horse-pee’ was so that their friends didn’t think they were ‘unmanly’ ……wonder where they got the idea that not drinking was unmanly? And the number one reason that girls gave; well it really was more like two reasons – 87% of teenage girls who drank below the legal age limit to drink said that they drank because their boy friend drank and 83% of the girls who said they didn’t drink had a boy friend who didn’t drink – and for the girls that drank – the highest number of teenage girls who drink in the history of North America – all below the legal age of drinking – they said that they did so because they were unsure of themselves; weren’t sure whether they were outgoing enough, pretty enough, smart enough ….. and that they needed a few drinks to let their real selves come out! (more…)

For the trip to St. John’s Training School, I was put in a vehicle with a mesh screen separating me from the driver. I remember traveling down a road and going out into the country. It was a new experience for me. I had never been out of the city before.

St. John’s Training School was an ugly place. That was my first impression as we drove through the big steel gates. It had a rural, farmlike setting, but there was nothing peaceful or pastoral about it. The compound consisted of several austere, brown brick buildings and a barn. Much of the complex was surrounded by a chain-link fence. The rest was farm property adjacent to a small town where many of the staff lived.

I was immediately taken to the office of the Head Brother in charge of my assigned dormitory. There I had my hair shaved off, was issued a suit of clothing (blue shirt and pants, both about six inches too long, and black tennis shoes), given a blanket roll, and pointed to my bed. (more…)