June 14, 2006
FELLOW ADDICTS: Ramstad Reaches Out to Kennedy
By Kevin Diaz
McClatchy Newspapers
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| Rep. Patrick Kennedy
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The friend was Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the Kennedy family scion from Rhode Island. After a high-profile political dust-up in Washington, Kennedy underwent 28 days of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was released last week.
Ramstad visited him four Saturdays in a row. Looking forward, he has also agreed to sponsor Kennedy's recovery, accompanying him to recovery meetings and staying in regular contact.
"It was no different for me visiting Patrick Kennedy than it is visiting with 'Patrick Jones,' " Ramstad said. "We recover by talking, listening, and supporting each other."
It's the same way Ramstad recovered from alcohol addiction 25 years ago, after he woke up from an alcoholic blackout to find himself in a jail cell in Sioux Falls, S.D.
"He's provided a support to me by his ability to incorporate his own experience in a way that I really couldn't get from anyone else," Kennedy said in an interview with the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, his first since returning to Washington. "He's got the perspective of being both a member of Congress and somebody who's in recovery."
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| Jim Ramstad
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"We're going to redouble our efforts, and Patrick's openness and honesty and experience are going to help us publicize the need for treatment for people who are still struggling," Ramstad said.
They have 228 sponsors in the House, and 68 in the Senate. That's more than enough for passage. But until now, GOP House leaders who oppose the legislation have blocked it from a vote.
Ramstad and Kennedy have teamed up before as founders of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus in Congress. Ramstad also has a history of taking recovering addicts under his wing, including convicted Colorado murderer Kent LeBere, whose battle with alcohol addiction loomed as an issue in his defense.
Kennedy, the 38-year-old nephew of President John F. Kennedy and a six-term member of Congress, complicated his long-term struggle with bipolar disorder on May 4 when he collided with a police barrier on Capitol Hill during a swerving, 2:45 a.m. drive without headlights.
Despite their long friendship, Ramstad said he didn't see it coming. "I didn't know he was struggling to that degree," he said. "As a recovering person myself, I try not to take other people's inventories, I try not to be judgmental. That's such an individual thing. Only an individual can tell if he or she is an alcoholic or an addict."
Kennedy apparently decided he was.
Reporting for treatment in Minnesota, the Democrat received a number of high-profile visitors, including former Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey and his son, Buck Humphrey.
But it is Ramstad, nearing 25 years of sobriety on July 31, who he said he will lean on most heavily to lead him to better days.
Ramstad has also stuck up for Kennedy politically, warning Rhode Island Republicans and others that calls for Kennedy's resignation would be a "slap in the face" of all recovering addicts like himself.
Kennedy plans to stay in office and face the consequences of the legal case before him. Ramstad has offered to be at his side during the judicial proceedings.
Guided by lawyers and a wealth of political advisers, Kennedy said he needs someone who is just looking out for him as addict:
"Being very public, it's very difficult not to have someone who isn't going to treat you honestly and straightforwardly, not as a congressman, but as a person," Kennedy said. "Jim can do that. We related to each other as friends."
One irony of the situation is that the modern treatment ethos calls for the recovering addict to follow the lead of the sponsor.
Said Kennedy: "It will be the first time in my life that I will have a Republican telling me what to do."
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
