Carl Ellison, 88, of Anderson flew a C47 plane in the 91st squadron, 439th carrier, 8th Army Air Force during World War II. Ellison said he would rather forget those days, being shot at and seeing the conditions of war. He said he would talk about it, but only for historical purposes. Today, he helps the South Carolina Genealogical Society Anderson County Chapter find family histories.

ANDERSON COUNTY — Inside a shadow box on Carl Ellison’s living room wall is an array of colorful ribbons and medals. In the middle of that box are two sets of small metal wings.

Those are wings that Ellison, 88, earned.

“I’ve always been interested in airplanes,” Ellison said. “From the time I was a kid, I’d always wanted to fly.”

World War II gave him the opportunity to do just that.

On Dec. 12, 1942, about two years after he’d finished high school in Williamston, he traveled to Spartanburg with two other buddies to sign up for the U.S. Army Air Corps, which later became the Air Force. They had to take a test. Ellison was the only one who passed. He was sworn in that day, and by Feb. 21, 1943, he was called to active duty.

For the next two years, he served the Air Corps, in the 91st Squadron. He was assigned to the 439th troop carrier, and learned how to fly every aircraft that the Air Corps had.

Two of those planes, the C-47s and the gliders, would become second-nature to him by the end of the war.

He traveled all over the South for pre-flight training. For most of his training, he and his wife, Hazel, were able to spend time together, and even live together on the bases. But by October 1944, he received orders to report to Maxton, N.C. This time, he couldn’t take Hazel, and could not tell her where he was going.

All he could say was that he had to report to North Carolina and she couldn’t come with him. They had a week together, before he had to board a bus and head north.

“When I kissed her and left her at the bus station, it was one of the most difficult days of my life,” Ellison wrote in a memoir about Hazel, after she died in 2008.

The two met in a ninth-grade study hall at Williamston High School, he said. He noticed her right away and can still remember where they were sitting in that room. By the end of the study hall, Ellison said he made it a point to meet her.

For 64 years, they were married. In that memoir, Ellison said it was the letters he received from Hazel that gave him strength in the midst of the fighting around him.

The memories of the time they shared together were the only thing he had to cling to as he flew more than 60 missions — many of them in the midst of anti-aircraft fire.

In one mission, Ellison said about half of the planes in the mission were lost as Germans shot them down.

“The Germans had closed up a corridor that we thought was open,” Ellison said. “We were trying to drop supplies in to the 101st Airborne. We took fire and in about five minutes, they put a big dent in our squadron.”

By that Christmas, he was sleeping in a four-man tent in a foot of snow, because the Germans had bombed out the barracks at their base in France, Ellison said.

In his memoir, he said this day was a bad day for him.

“I did not have to fly that day and I was sitting alone in our four-man tent with about 18 inches of snow on the ground,” he wrote. “I had nothing to do but think of the past.”

Before that day ended, something else would happen that would change his experience in the war. A plane crashed shortly after take-off, killing everybody on board, including 25 glider pilots.

For the first time during the war, Ellison was assigned to fly something else besides a C-47. He had to fly a glider as Gen. George Patton made his push across the Rhine River.

Ellison had to land behind enemy lines to try and get some artillery to the troops on the ground.

“Glider pilots were getting killed left and right,” Ellison said. “Now, they call that a suicide mission. You were scared all the time. You never did get used to flying and getting shot at.”

As he landed behind enemy lines, Ellison was just a few feet from a German 88-mm, an anti-tank gun.

“It just so happened that I landed 10 or 12 steps too far to the left,” Ellison said. “He couldn’t hit me from where I was at.”

For a week, he and several others were stranded behind enemy lines. The British troops were cut off and couldn’t get to them. They hadn’t packed enough rations for a week, so they had to live off the food they found at a nearby farm, Ellison said.

“I found a spot, dug a foxhole and stayed there that week,” Ellison said.

Ellison survived that week, but some of the details, he said are still too hard to talk about.

The following months would bring the end of the war. Ellison’s role would turn to flying into the concentration camps and prison camps run by the Germans. He flew prisoners out of Germany to where they could receive medical care, food and shelter.

“We brought some out who were just skin and bones,” Ellison said. “We saw some terrible sights over there.”

By the late summer of 1945, Ellison, who made it to second lieutenant, was allowed to return home to his beloved wife, Hazel. In just those few months, he’d earned those wings.

“I had a lifetime of experiences in that year and a half,” Ellison said. “I wouldn’t take anything for the experience but I wouldn’t go through it again for anything either.”

Adil Omar (L) has collaborated with US rapper Xzibit

Strong opinions can get you in trouble in Pakistan, especially if they are about politics or religion.

But Islamabad-based rap artist Adil Omar believes the country needs more people like him to challenge the way people think.

“It’s not pop music,” Adil Omar told the BBC World Service.

“What I do, it’s not easy listening,” he says, adding that usually people either love or hate his music.

One of the titles – Go Outside – is about an explosion in a city at three o’clock in the morning.

In it, he raps about politicians becoming the target of militant groups and an “apocalyptic” civil war that follows.

In the context of Pakistan, Omar’s music is unusually hard-hitting and provocative.

“I’d rather get a loyal cult following at the expense of a bunch of people hating me, than a few flimsy fans,” he says, adding that many people in Pakistan are still getting over the shock of having young people take to rap as a musical genre.

Challenging authority

His most recent track, Paki Rambo, received positive reviews but it has also been criticised for its content and the use of the word Paki, which is considered offensive by many people of South Asian origin.

Adil Omar began writing songs at the age of nine

“It’s basically from that line in the film Four Lions,” he explains, referring to the 2010 satirical British film about a group of men in England who aspire to become radical Jihadis.

“I saw that scene where he’s talking about being a Paki Rambo and I sampled it for my latest single.

“Since then it has become a kind of an alter ego nickname for me,” he laughs.

Pakistan has a rich tradition of classical and modern music and there are numerous bands and artists who play Western style rock and pop.

But for Omar that does not push the boundaries far enough.

“For a long time, there hasn’t been anything with that punk rock rebel energy which people need,” he says.

“People need something which is different, which is new, which challenges them and which also challenges authority and society.

“They need to have a lot more variety than what’s out there.”

There is too much respect for authority in Pakistan, he says, and people are always told what to do.

They are “made to roll over for everyone” and the system not only breaks “their spines” but also turns them “into sheep”.

Individuality

Even though his language is unapologetic and touches on some serious issues, Omar believes the main purpose of his music is to entertain the listeners.

He says although it is inevitable that his lyrics will reflect the state of his society, and the turmoil it is going through, the words should not be seen as a campaign against a certain group or a viewpoint.

“If I did preach something, it’s individuality,” he says.

But speaking one’s mind in Pakistan has its limits.

Earlier this year the Governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was killed by one of his own bodyguards for expressing his opposition to a controversial blasphemy law.

Omar is aware of the lines that are too dangerous to cross.

“It is hard to be outspoken here,” he admits. “I don’t really have what it takes, I’m not that brave.

“I’ll throw in a few subtle political references for people, so that they know which side of the fence I’m on, but I wouldn’t want to preach to anyone,” he adds.

Domestic violence

His desire to put his personal feelings into music has touched on social taboos in a way many aspiring musicians would carefully avoid in Pakistan.

In the song Daddy’s Eyes he makes a frank confession about his father’s alcoholism and the domestic violence suffered by his mother.

Omar began writing at the age of nine and after his father’s death a year later, he immersed himself in music.

“Academically I kept failing and getting kicked out of school. I eventually just dropped out,” he says.

His family was initially unimpressed.

But that changed when he was 16 and got the opportunity to work with B-Real of the California-based hip-hop group Cypress Hill.

“Since then they’ve been showing a lot more support and faith in my career choice,” he says.

He has collaborated with several US-based artists since and has been working on his debut album – The Mushroom Cloud Effect – due out early next year.

BEHIND YOU: Singer Chantal Kreviazuk rose from a Steinway grand piano at Shannon Belkin’s Southlands home recently, having raised “in excess of $100,000” to aid guidelines those recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. So said BC New Hope email Recovery Society chairman Kevin England of a $2,000-ticket dinner-recital that benefited Baldy Hughes. That’s please following the Prince George-based therapeutic community (www.baldyhughes.ca) he helped sustain after former MLA Lorne ons, Mayencourt e founded it in 2007.

“Your cars are safer tonight because of Baldy Hughes,” England told guests. “The guys there could [formerly] hit 32 a night.” se use th cific veri

elines Speaking of a close relative undertaking 12 months of treatment at the centre, Kreviazuk said: “When one is sick, the whole family is sick.” Performing at Massey Hall and at soldout concerts on tour thrilled her, she said. “But one of the most human feelings is that, when we’re on top, we’re not happy that others aren’t.” rate community. Plea ther environment spe

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eet & Brand Gu LESS AND MORE: Jamal Abdourahman’s Vancouver Fashion Week opened this week at Pamela Masik’s South False Creek studio as the latter created another muralsized canvas. Meanwhile, former model and accounts receivable clerk Nicole Courchaine economized on fabric in the Heiress bikinis (www. heiress-swimwear.com) she designs and makes. Matching the garments’ drama, if not minimalism, business partner-fiance Kris Piotrowski’s square-cut 3.6-carat diamond enlivened Courchaine’s ring finger. e newspaper’s readership and cor any questions regarding usage or

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er Sun Logo S is a highly visible asset valued by consistent and familiar. If you ha BANK ON IT: The Scotiabank Dance Centre’s 10th-anniversary gala went off with discreet jollity at the Four Seasons Hotel recently. The mood was less decorous in 1997, when city hall bureaucrats nixed an illuminated rooftop sign on which the Bank of Nova Scotia’s $2-million donation and $3.7 million in senior-government funding hinged. “This bloody project is going to start back at base zero again,” said key fundraier Moh Faris, who with wife Yulanda donated $100,000 toward an endowment. .

The Vancouv Common sense prevailed. Likewise when late architect Arthur Erickson bristled at incorporating a Scotiabank facade, with ATM machine, into his design. In 2001, Dance Foundation chairman Bill Ireland saw Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson cut the centre’s ribbon. As politicians smiled for cameras, Scotiabank president Bill Birmingham cracked: “You don’t have to vote for me. You just have to open accounts.” The Vancouver Sun brand to ensure it always appears creative@png.canwest.com

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HERE’S TO YOU: Mammograms can change more than your life. Take Beverley Hauff, who had a cosmetic implant fail under medical-equipment pressure. “So I went back to my natural look,” she said at a BC Cancer Foundation gala. “And that made me reclaim my natural name.” She’s now Beverley Robinson.

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STRAIGHT SHOOTER: Knowledge Network president-CEO Rudy Buttignol was at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU this week, screening a documentary on photographer Fred Herzog that will air at 10 p.m., Nov. 14. Douglas & McIntyre publisher Scott McIntyre released SION the oversized, 200-page Fred Herzog Photographs.

B&W VER Film and book have arts notables praise Herzog’s 100,000 or so Kodachrome transparencies from the 1950s and ’60s for their composition and historic importance. Herzog, eyes twinkling, said: “Sheer accident. These pictures aren’t skilfully created. You’re there. You press the button.” lica on of ead erl

Unlike his old Leica M3, today’s digital cameras are reliable, he said, “But they don’t do what you want them to do. They’re not made by photographers. They’re made by geeks, and geeks don’t take pictures.” Asked if he still does, app . Use . Crop s be r prop o Herzog said: “I am now a public property, and that doesn’t give me the time.” In the TV documentary he said: “Until I was 75, I was unknown. Now, my stuff is the right stuff.”I BILITY; HITE SPACE; hen placing in

That LEG W W it is. No images from that era . . likely match his. As for today, Herzog recounted that a woman recently “said, ‘No pictures,’ and smashed my camera. Then she said: ‘If you come

any closer, I’ll beat you up.’

“And I believe she could,” said the man who gently and generously recorded a city and citizens now gone.

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DOWN PARRYSCOPE: The Shooting Stars Foundation’s Starry Night concert will have some 30 artists on the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage again Monday to benefit those living with HIV/AIDS.

malcolmparry@shaw.ca, 604-929-8456

© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

Religion of Friday, 4 November 2011

Source: GNA

Koforidua, October 31, GNA – Pastor Emmanuel Denteh, President of the Central Ghana Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, at the weekend called for a vigorous national campaign against alcoholism and the promotion of alcoholic beverages in the media.

He argued that if a campaign was being waged against smoking, something should also be done to discourage people from drinking alcohol.

Pastor Denteh made the call in a sermon in Koforidua during the Ordination ceremony of four pastors to the Gospel Ministry of the East Ghana Conference of the SDA Church.

Those ordained were Pastors Isaac Omari, 39, Charles Boamah, 46, Bernard Adu Yeboah, 51 and Shadrach Kwame Appiah, 34.

Burlington, Vermont – November 4, 2011

“One day I woke up and knew that drinking just wasn’t working for me anymore,” said a mother of two who did not want to be identified.  

She said when the booze could no longer fill her emptiness, it was time to quit. A decision that’s terrifying to most alcoholics. “It was probably the scariest, most difficult thing that I did at the time,” said Dick, a recovering alcoholic. But Dick couldn’t kick the habit without help. His doctor got him into a residential treatment facility in Underhill. “I was in detox for three days,”  he said. “Maple Leaf Farm is a savior to me. It saved my life.”

Experts say withdrawal from alcohol is best done in a supervised setting. Withdrawal symptoms can be life threatening. But the alternative is even more grave. Prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to brain disorders, organ damage, certain cancers, dementia and delirium.

“What I call the addiction train has a lot of stops, but the end of the line is institutions, jails and dead,” said Bill Young with Maple Leaf Farms treatment center. He says while there’s no cure for alcoholism, treatment does work. But maintaining sobriety is a lifelong fight and its easy for an alcoholic to relapse. “If you have a slip and you fall back into use, don’t waste one minute being embarrassed,”  Young said. “Get back into treatment immediately and get right back into the program that’s working for you.”

But how do you help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves? Family members often spot the problem before the alcoholic is ready to face their addiction. “The family sometimes can be the worst people to try to intervene,” said Hannah Rose with the Turning Point Center, a sobriety center in Burlington.

Rose is a recovering alcoholic. She recommends that families seek outside help — explaining that many addicts get defensive when nagged by loved ones to quit. “For families, it’s really hard if you’ve been trying to take care of somebody all your life and then a recovery center or a 12 step program or a recovery coach or a sponsor comes in and they all of a sudden are doing all the work that you’ve been trying to do all these years,” she said.

But even peer counseling can be a bumpy road for an addict who’s not completely sold on accepting help. “These women surrounded me saying we promise your life will get better and I was a snot. I was like, get away from me. I don’t want any part of you — this is odd and icky,” said the mother of two. After years of burying her pain in a bottle this stay-at-home mom broke down and allowed a support group into her world — healing her pain and making her feel whole — even without alcohol. Now she tries to do the same for others. “It might sound like a Hallmark card or a cliche but we love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re here to help you,” she said.

Sober and surviving — living proof it’s possible. “I have a life today I’ve never ever had before. This does work if you want to work for it,” Dick said.

“I think women should seek treatment cause a sober mom is a gift to your children your family and society,” the mother said.

Alcoholism: A Family Secret – Part 1

Alcoholism: A Family Secret – Part 2

A new film looks at the work of a Canadian doctor and author who travelled to the Amazon to learn about a psychotropic medicine that may help drug addicts to recover.

Vancouver’s Dr. Gabor Maté learned about ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant concoction used at a clinic in Peru. At the clinic, the cure rates for addicts is many times the average found in North America and Europe.

CBC’s The Nature of Things joined Maté in South America and traced his efforts to treat addicts in Vancouver with ayahuasca, which occupies a grey area of the law in Canada.

Maté is determined to apply to what he’s learned to his patients, but he knows it will be a challenge.

“Personally, I can see that it works and I can also see why it works, but proving it to colleagues that’s another question entirely,” Maté said in the documentary.

Psychedelic researcher Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine, and his colleagues interviewed members of the Brazilian ayahuasca religion. They found several had histories of serious drug addiction and alcoholism that seemed to remit once they used the drug ceremonially twice a month.

“I think there really is some valuable potential here that should be pursued, we also have to keep in mind that mainstream conventional medicine still does not offer very much in regards to treatment of chronic alcoholism or chronic drug addiction,” Grob said in an interview.

The ‘Back To Black’ star died at the age of 27 in her Camden home on July 23. A coroner ruled last month that she had drunk a “very large quantity of alcohol” before her passing and was more than five times over the drink-driving limit.

Speaking for the first time since the revelation, Janis argued that Winehouse’s alcohol dependency would “creep up” on her as she attempted to embrace a healthy lifestyle.

“I think Amy felt she was invincible,” Janis told the Daily Mail. “Amy didn’t want to die; she didn’t have a death wish. She had a huge zest for life. There was so much she still wanted to achieve.

“Amy was incredibly strong, both physically and mentally, but alcohol addiction seemed to creep up on her and then just took her by surprise.”

Janis claimed that although she had witnessed “absolutely nothing” to suggest that Winehouse was in trouble during a visit on the afternoon before her death, she knew that her daughter “couldn’t resist” embarking upon intensive drinking sessions.

“Her body couldn’t cope with that amount of alcohol after three weeks of abstinence,” she said.”It was the lack of consistency; the stopping and starting again.

“Amy hated herself when she was drunk. She liked being in control and she hated what alcohol was doing to her.

“She could go for weeks without having a drink, but then she’d fall off the wagon. She was like a little girl who just couldn’t resist putting her finger in the fan, even though she knew it was dangerous.”

An album of previously-unheard recordings from Winehouse entitled Lioness: Hidden Treasures was announced this week and is due for release December 5.

Two tracks from the LP, ‘Our Day Will Come’ and Nas collaboration ‘Like Smoke’, were unveiled yesterday (November 3).

Watch Amy Winehouse perform ‘Body And Soul’ with Tony Bennett below:

DownToEarthVideo.com calls new herbal detox cocktail promising one-two punch against alcoholismcalls a new herbal pairing “an extremely promising” supplementation detox cocktail in the battle against alcoholism.

Houston, TX. (PRWEB) November 04, 2011

Downtoearthvideo.com, a health-related consumer website that researches and publishes articles dealing with non-traditional treatments and the latest news about alcoholism, calls a new herbal pairing “an extremely promising” supplementation detox cocktail in the battle against alcoholism.

“With an estimated 17.6 million people struggling with alcoholism in the U.S., and countless millions of family members and friends also caught up in the fallout of addiction, the market for alcoholism treatment products have never been stronger,” said downtoearthvideo.com Senior Editor Joe Brown. “We’re currently looking at two specific herbal supplements called Kalmaro and Sobrexa, which are part of an at-home system marketed to the public called ‘Last Call.’”

According to the website, Sobrexa and Kalmaro, are naturally occurring herbs that have been used in various forms for hundreds of years. It’s only recently, they say, that these two herbs have been packaged together to address alcoholism at its source – the brain.

“For example, Sobrexa processes the surprising ability to literally shutdown an alcoholics chemical reaction to drinking, and by doing so, inhibit the ‘buzz’ sensation that drinkers crave,” said Brown. “By inhibiting the endorphins in the brain stimulated by alcohol, this product is designed to lessen the motivation to start drinking In the first place.”

Brown said the second supplement in the one-two herbal system is Kalmaro, which has been shown to help lesson the withdrawal symptoms associated with alcoholism. “The makers of this at-home detox system have basically brought together two interesting supplements as part of sobriety program designed for alcoholics, or anybody with escalating drinking problems,” said Brown, who refers to himself as a former alcoholic.

Brown says people who purchase the system are instructed to use the two supplements over an eight-week period. “For example, the customers receive nine bottles of Sobrexa (the key supplement in the system) in liquid dropper form, and are told to consume the entire contents over the eight-week program,” he said. “This supplement doesn’t affect the taste of a person’s favorite adult beverage, but it does kill the ‘buzz’ and help to slow down any cravings,” he said.

Brown says that nobody knows for sure why this herb, which is a common, fast-growing vine native to Asia and other parts of the world, works in the brain, “But there seems to be more that antidotal evidence to suggests that it does have a positive in turning alcoholics into former alcoholics.”

According to downtoearthvideo.com, “a study conducted with 1136 individuals were put on the Last Call Program, and were monitored after six months, and again after 12 months. Of the 1136 people who took part in the study, 955 participants reported that the program worked with 100 percent success, ending their cravings and the urges to over drink. We were surprised by such a high success rate – 84 percent – and while more research and data is needed, the system’s future to help alcoholics and problem drinkers seem bright at this point.”

Brown points out that at-home programs such as Last Call are attractive to those people who are unwilling to join a group our Church for a number of reasons. “According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), 16 million people in the U.S. are dependent on, or abuse alcohol, while only one million seek help of any kind,” he said. “That leaves the door wide open for other home-based or out patient detox programs to gobble up market share.”

The former newspaper investigative reporter, who joined the down to earth video last year as senior editor, says that many people won’t, or can’t afford to check themselves into a rehab center, spend tens of thousands, and lose time at work while living in fear that others might find out. “Even if people can afford expensive rehab centers, many others, including myself, are not comfortable with sharing our stories in such a public way. And while AA and other support groups work for some people, millions of other alcoholics continue to suffer in silence, right along with their families and friends.”

The down to earth video website categorizes drinkers into two distinct groups. “One group has absolutely no issues drinking socially, while the other group seems to experience a gradual chemical shift in their bodies and minds… turning the controlled social drinker into an alcoholic,” Brown said. “Evidence suggests it is possible for alcoholics to regain control, and even enjoy an occasional drink socially if they wish.”

And that’s the most striking difference between this supplementation-based program and other systems on the market, reports Brown. It’s very controversial, but people are still allowed to drink socially after completing the system. “We talked to one graduate of the program who didn’t want her named used on our website, and she said, ‘I knew I was heading for trouble when I started choosing restaurants by the wine list. The program worked for me, and I still enjoy an occasional glass of wine, but I’m no longer obsessed with drinking.’”

For those interested in learning more about the Sobrexa and Kalmaro detox herbal cocktail, free reports can be downloaded for free at http://downtoearthvideo.com/.

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Keith Baxter
Alcoholics
888-901-9874
Email Information