Mike's speech in New York City, New York for the Scotia Knouff 2005 Award
Good evening.
When I leaned that I had been selected as the recipient of this Award, I was in a court-room surrounded by a bunch of my drug court participants. I had previously been selected as our local probation officer off the year; and then I learned that I had also been selected as the Arizona State probation officer of the year. I really didn’t know that there was anything else that could be awarded; and I certainly didn’t feel that I deserved any awards to begin with. So when my chief, Marty Krizay, approached the bench and began speaking; I was a little startled when I realized he was talking about me, again. And, when Marty announced that I had been selected by the American Probation and Parole Association as the Scotia Knouff Line Officer of the Year, (even though I didn’t know what that was) I nearly fainted.
I want everyone here to know that I am truly honored and humbled by all of this; because the truth is, I’m just a drunk who has learned how not to drink.
It was twenty-two years, seven months, and twenty-six days ago, that I took my last drink. (But who’s counting?) In the process of sobering up, I was told that in order to stay sober, I was going to have to cultivate some characteristics which I had previously been ignoring. Things like; humility, honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, credibility, and probably most important, spirituality. As I began working on those things, I soon discovered that the harder I tried, the more blessings I seemed to receive.
About eighteen years ago, an attorney (Paul Hunter) told me that I ought to apply for the position of probation officer; because he thought I would be good at it. A couple of months’ later I was hired as a probation officer in Yuma County. My only credentials at that time were that I had a degree in Agriculture and I had been clean and sober for about four years. At that time we had eight people in our entire department and I was one of two supervised field officers. Today, Yuma County has over 50 probation officers and a total staff of over 95 people. I have been fortunate enough to have worked just about every job in our department. Over the years, innovations such as intensive probation, electronic monitoring, work furlough, pre-trial services, drug testing, intoxilizers, specialized caseloads, and electronic files have all been tremendous improvements which have increased the effectiveness of probation officers all across the country. But the only reason that I am here today is because of a Judge in Florida who decided that it was time to try something new; so some ten or fifteen years ago he stepped outside of the box and invented Drug Courts. Drug Courts began springing up all over the country, and in 1999, I was transferred into the newly developed Yuma County Adult Drug Court program.
As it turned out that Drug Court was a perfect fit for me, probably because I don’t like to follow rules and in drug court I could get away with making my own rules ( at least for a while). About seventeen years ago, me and a fellow probation officer, Owen Nulliner (who now works in Cochise County, Arizona), came up with our own little code of ethics that we both still live by today. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It’s a concept works every time, in every situation. In drug court, I was given the flexibility to incorporate that philosophy and to try out some new methods of supervision that appear to have worked. People’s lives began to get better, and in-turn they in turn began to say nice things about me.
But the truth is, in Yuma County, we have as good a staff as there is anywhere in the country and at this point, I need to recognize a few of those people. First of all, I have to mention my Drug Court co-workers, Thelma Paris of Texas, Angenette Viall of Yuma, Beto Borquez of Yuma, Ed Gonzalez, from right here in N.Y., Fernando Acosta of Guantanamo, Cuba, Martin Loiaza of Ensenada, Mexico, Orlando Harding of Oakland, California, and my supervisor Greg Stewart of Yuma. Also, present with me here with me tonight is my chief, Marty Krizay, and my deputy chief, Steve Hardy; and finally I need to mention our two Yuma County Drug Court Judges, the honorable Tom C. Cole, and Andrew Gould, both great men who truly care about our community. I wish I had time to tell you some stories about each of them, but unfortunately I don’t. But I can assure you that each one of them has greatly contributed to the recognition that I have received here tonight, and I thank each one of them all from the bottom of my heart.
So here I am tonight, accepting this award. I’m not going to pretend I have any special talents or wisdom, because I don’t. But, every morning I thank God for the opportunities he has given me. And today, I am especially thankful that God let me be born an America, a country where a burned out cowboy can start his life over, correct a few mistakes, and then be blessed beyond his wildest dreams.
AND:
I thank God for a wife and three daughters who have never seen me drunk or high.
I thank God for a job where occasionally I get to make a difference.
And tonight - I am extremely honored to be receiving this award here in New York; the City that in the wake of September 11th, 2001, looked the world in the eye, and said “bring it on boys, we ain’t scared; and by the way, you’re going to be hearing from us, real soon.”
So God bless New York City;
God bless the victims of 9-11;
God Bless the men and women of our armed services who right now are out there settling a score for the rest of us;
And God Bess the United States of America.
Thank you. I am Mike Ehrlich