ALCOHOL
The Untold Story!
By David J. Stewart | November 2006
The Reality Of Booze!
Photo to Right: The Chicago United Mission at 34 S. Desplaines in downtown Chicago where I spent my childhood. My father directed the mission for over 15 years, and I tagged along almost daily. The famed Legion Hotel cannot be seen to the right of the building; but Al Capone was a regular there in it's heyday. 
Alcohol is a much bigger problem than the beer companies and beer drinkers would like for us to think. There's an untold story. Every year, millions of people are victimized, one way or another, by alcoholic beverages. Children especially, are hurt because of booze.
I grew up in Chicago. My father was a Skidrow minister in downtown Chicago, directing the Chicago United Mission at 34 S. Desplaines for many years. Before that, he was the assistant director of the Christian Industrial League (another mission). My father often preached at the Olive Branch Mission and the Pacific Garden Mission, and I would tag along as a child, observing all that was happening.
My mother often played the piano. I would quote a verse or two. I simply cannot tell you how many men and women I saw lying in the gutter, literally, because of booze. I saw many dead bodies in my years growing up around Skidrow, and the police paddywagon that came to collect the bodies. Only God fully knows the amount of evil caused because of alcohol.
Listen friend, I can show you a few pictures and some statistics on my website, but you simply do not know the hellishness of alcohol until you've spent your youth growing up around Skidrow. I cannot possibly convey to you the images forever engrained in my mind of men lying drunk by garbage pails. I regularly walking over battered bodies in the doorway of the mission, of men drinking paint-thinner to satisfy their ungodly addiction to alcohol.
My father provided shelter for over 100 men each night, a bowl of soup, some bread and butter, and a cold floor to sleep on (but not as cold as the sidewalk). Men were provided with clothing to use for blankets. There simply weren't enough beds for a hundred people. Cardboard or old donated clothing was tossed upon the floor for the men to sleep on. There were some poor women too. It was a common practice for sleepers to cover their heads at night, because the rats would sometimes crawl over them on the floor. Rats were a constant problem in downtown Chicago. I've caught many rats in my time— “super-rats” as big as a full-grown cat! The one common denominator I saw amongst the poor in all my years of helping my father on Skidrow was ALCOHOL!
I've stood at my father's side during many funerals he was asked to conduct. It was just me, my dad, and the corpse! No family! No loved ones! The beer companies won't show you this. Alcohol will take you to a lonely grave and the pits of Hell! As Chicago's urban development came into force, they closed down most of the missions. There was no help for the poor where there was once help. As a result, hundreds of poor people literally froze to death on the streets of Chicago. Drinking alcohol numbs the body to the point that you don't realize you're freezing to death. Many of them didn't even realize they were dying. Alcohol has caused untold multitudes of victims to freeze to death. So you see, there's a very good reason why I fight uncompromisingly against alcohol—because I grew up around Skidrow and I know firsthand where the road of alcohol often leads!
BOOZE Kills! BOOZE Steals! BOOZE Destroys!
Helpful Information to Fight Against Alcohol!
According to CNN medical correspondent Dr. Steve Salvatore...
It doesn't take much! 
Alcohol effects graphic
Actually, a driver can be impaired with a U.S. blood-alcohol level as low as .03.
When you drink alcohol, it goes straight from the stomach to the bloodstream. Alcohol can be detected in the blood as fast as five minutes after drinking, and its effects -- most obvious in the central nervous system - peak in about 30 to 45 minutes.
Alcohol depresses the central nervous system which, in turn, impairs motor function, motor performance, speech and eye movements. These skills are not only slowed down, they are performed more inaccurately. Alcohol also affects the ability to think and reason clearly.
Do you see the great DECEPTION of the .08 BAC legal limit? At just .05 BAC, the human body is already experiencing impairment of coordination. This is serious folks! What is wrong with our legislatures? Are they brain dead? Get this ... our very SAME government which sets the BAC legal limit at .08, also states the following...
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) position on the relationship between blood alcohol concentration and driving is that driving performance degrades after just one drink.”
SOURCE:FACT SHEET
Am I missing something here? If the NHTSA (our government) admits that even ONE ALCOHOLIC DRINK degrades a person's driving performance, then why in the name of common sense doesn't our government's lawmakers lower the BAC to equate to ONE DRINK? Tragically, our government leaders are playing games with people's lives, and people ARE DYING!
