A guy told a woman he was sorry for something that happened between them years ago when he was drunk. The woman is now pressing charges for rape.
12 step programs have shown some success in helping people with addictions to drugs and alcohol. The steps are pretty straighforward:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Notice step nine, making amends to people you've harmed. The fellow in this story
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/15/12step.apology.ap/index.htmltried to make amends and is on his way to jail as a result. I have no idea what happened between this man and woman but you'd think this guy would have realized that he was sticking his head in a cannon. You'd think his sponsor (AA person assigned to help a newbie through early recovery) would have told him to find a way to approach this transgression in a way that wouldn't destroy his life.
Many if not most people with serious addiction problems have committed crimes that could land them in jail. If they are not out mugging old ladies and breaking into houses it is only because they are keeping up appearances in a 9-5 job as they rob the till. I like justice as much as the next guy but I know there is a difference between justice and law. I would think AA would have dealt with at least one lawyer who refused to send himself to jail in order to get sobered up.