Speak Out

Jacksonville State President Bill Meehan and Joe Serviss, JSU’s vice president for institutional advancement, both knew that I have been taking strong prescription narcotic pain relievers for the past couple of years due to spinal cervical stinosis with nerve root impaction and diabetic neuropathy, plus a host of other conditions and complications. Altogether, I take 14 medications a day in pill form and wear an insulin pump which gives me a steady drip of insulin. I even have difficulty walking, maintaining balance and climbing stairs.

Yet, these two men continued to have confidence in me and asked me to stay on after retirement to continue ghostwriting Meehan’s weekly column in The Jacksonville News and do the sound editing for the radio show.

My earlier writing, before these medical conditions surfaced, followed journalistic style; I made few mistakes. Now, when I wake each day, I have two choices: to blunt the pain with strong narcotics and go through a dream-like, fuzzy day that seems as if I just came out of a pub, or I can endure excruciating pain and try to punch through to clarity — and then just leave the workplace when the pain worsens.

I’ve had numerous conversations with Meehan and Serviss about these conditions, which were investigated recently by the Alabama Department of Vocational Rehabilitation for suggestions on ergonomic improvements. Rehab engineers came to my worksite. They wrote a lengthy report that outlined suggested changes, and JSU generously provided a special copy stand, chair, keyboard tray and more.

It’s important to note that when I’m taking the narcotics I’m excessively impaired. I’m especially impaired when I write. The plagiarism in Meehan’s column happened not intentionally but due to all these problems coming together, rendering my mind and body useless for the task at hand.

Meehan is not at fault. He is an exceptional president, one of the best JSU has had in modern times. No one should lob accusations against Meehan.

Due to my conditions, I reluctantly took early retirement on Jan. 31. Meehan and Serviss, out of pure kindness, invited me to work a brief number of hours each month to help JSU as I felt able to do so. But it became clear, even to me, in July that I was not catching obvious mistakes that any rookie reporter would spot. I couldn’t proofread my own work, could not feel the keyboard, could not type faster than a slow, two-fingered hunt-and-pecker, and during interruptions I could not easily “find my place” in my copy, as if my brain had just dumped all memory, even if I just needed to remember what happened two minutes ago or which line I was polishing or that my next necessity was to insert citations.

So, I quit all part-time work in order to pursue support networks that I desperately need to cope with my problems and to take care of my wife Patt, who also is disabled and cannot work. Jeff Youngblood’s wrath is completely misplaced. Meehan needlessly endured much ridicule. I regret that I did not retire sooner.

Al Harris is the retired former director of the JSU News Bureau.