Dear Levi & Mercede,
I was sorry to hear about your mom’s arrest and plea for drug use and selling drugs. I was even more sorry that it’s in the newspapers and on the blogs, and that people are making fun of her.
I am around your age (nearly 18) and my mom has been in jail for almost eight years on drug charges, so I know some of what you are going through.
I am also completely a busybody and am going to use this blog post to give both of you some advice.
- Go to Alateen. Or ACOA. Or someplace that’s NOT your church where you can learn about addicts and addiction how none of this is your fault and that you can’t cure your mom. Also, Mercede, if there’s a support group in your town or in your HS for kids who have a parent in prison, GO!
- Mercede, I don’t know who you are living with these days, but my brother became my guardian when he was 18, and he was way too young. And that’s without being a father himself or having reporters and photographers following him around. I hope that you stay with a family, a whole, real family, at least until you finish HS.
- You will find out really soon who your real friends are and who thinks a lot less of you because your mom is in jail. Sometimes even good friends can be insensitive, but at least they still like you for who YOU are. Some kids are incredibly creepy and think it’s cool to know someone who knows someone in jail. Stay away from them. Same thing with overly curious adults.
- People will ask you what they can do to help. It’s a dumb question, but if they ask twice, tell them to do something to improve life for prisoners and provide treatment for addicts. You may even want to join organizations that encourage treatment instead of prison for addicts.
- Stand up for your mom. Make sure that the lawyers and guardians and corrections people all know that someone is watching and that someone cares. I don’t visit anymore, but I do have an adult in my life who communicates with my mom and with the prison.
- Because your mom is an addict like my mom, and because we watched our moms use drugs instead of facing problems head-on, all three of us can become an addict more easily than most people. So learn what the signs are, and be careful, and watch out for each other.
We all need to work on making this country less inclined to incarcerate addicts and more inclined to help them find treatment. And that starts with making sure that drug use is not a crime. Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and it’s not working for drugs.
I hope you do go to Alateen and counseling and get all the help you need to not have to ride your mother’s roller coaster addiction. You didn’t cause it and you can’t cure it, but you can learn healthy ways to get through the next few years.
Your friend,
Cassie
Political Teen Tidbits 
August 22, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Excellent post, Cassie. Excellent post.
August 22, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Wow, Cassie.
Wow.
Excellent advice for the Johnstons. I hope that they have some better role models in their lives.
Wow,
Tengrain
August 22, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Great post, Cassie and wonderful advice. I hope many people read this (how about making it a Seminal post, too?) Best always, L.
August 23, 2009 at 11:19 am
Hugs Cassie,
This is good, straight advice from the heart and from experience, and I do hope they will read it and follow it.
August 23, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Sadly, most teens and young adults in such situations try to go it alone. It’s part of the instinct: ‘if you ignore it, things won’t get worse’ or the ‘tough it out because the only thing worse is other people’s pity’. It is an emotional survival thing, like a wounded animal hiding under the porch. But it is not a way to get better. And it is not a way to be emotionally healthy enough to raise kids. That kind of pain does not get better if it is ignored; it becomes an emotional cancer that will turn a person mean and bitter inside, and lead them to drinking and drugs to try to cope with it all.
That is why your open letter is so great. They need to know it is OK to talk things out with other young adults and teens who are going through the same thing, so it is NOT pity or whatever. It is a peer group – a way to ‘teamwork’ with people that know what to do when your own family is not damn help anymore for real support or advice.
I hope they read it.
August 23, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Nice work!
August 23, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Cassie, you are wise and compassionate beyond your years. I hope that Levi and Mercede find guidance and solace in your words.
August 23, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Ditto on the above, Cassie. You really have your head on straight. You’re a good writer, and your advice is sound.
Based on your blog, you seem to be more mature than many people twice your age. Keep up the great work.
August 23, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Cassie- I have read you often, but never commented. You are wise and insightful – you say so much here in your post.
Thank you for your insight and your words.
August 24, 2009 at 11:28 am
You are only 18? You are one smart cookie Cassie. 😉
August 25, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Just heard you on the radio with M. M.
Great advice in you letter.
You’ve done good.
Best wishes with your future studies.
August 25, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I also just heard you on Malloy’s radio show. You are a very well-spoken young woman, and I think this post was very well thought out.
Best of luck in everything, especially your college endeavors. Oh, and to your mom and brother in their paths, too.
June 20, 2011 at 12:40 am
[…] this year I wrote an open letter to Levi Johnston and his sister Mercede about how they could survive their mother’s recent arrest and […]