Many people have long enjoyed the groundbreaking work of broadcast journalist Bill Moyers. His pleasant mannerisms, classy personal skills and poignant insights have always been highly esteemed whethe
r the topic be politics, cultural analysis or grassroots domestic issues. So it was somewhat a surprise and a disappointment that a man so linked to old fashioned family values could have a son, William "Cope" Moyers, who while demonstrating admirable qualities much like his father's on the outside, was actually a lifelong junkie with a relentless crack/cocaine habit. Absolutely nothing was known about the Cope's problem until he was well into his 30's, having established a reputable career as a Washington, D.C. journalist and married over a decade to an unsuspecting wife and father to a toddler son.
r the topic be politics, cultural analysis or grassroots domestic issues. So it was somewhat a surprise and a disappointment that a man so linked to old fashioned family values could have a son, William "Cope" Moyers, who while demonstrating admirable qualities much like his father's on the outside, was actually a lifelong junkie with a relentless crack/cocaine habit. Absolutely nothing was known about the Cope's problem until he was well into his 30's, having established a reputable career as a Washington, D.C. journalist and married over a decade to an unsuspecting wife and father to a toddler son..
Even after the secret was 'broken' to his family in 1994, it would be a grueling 7-year path to sobriety, compacted with numerous relapses, methodone treatments and stints in rehab, not to mention several heartbreaking counter-reactions from those closest to him. Ultimately Moyers would find and maintain a full recovery only after permanately discarding all pride, dishonesty and personal dignity, a theme clearly identified in the memoir as utter "brokenness". His own words say it best, "Sobriety couldn't just be a part of me--it had to be me, become me, overtake me . . . If I lost it, I would have nothing because I would be nothing." (p. 332). Cope Moyers is now vice-president of the Hazeldon foundation which advocates better facilitation and treatment for addicts in dire need of recovery just like himself.
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