A Recovering Addict's Apology to Mexican Mothers Steve Lopez - Los Angeles Times
go to original September 6, 2012

John Whitaker, a former child star, is now a drug counselor and heads the L.A. chapter of Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)

The red-haired man who stepped onto the Olvera Street bandstand looked vaguely familiar, but it was his words that got my attention. John Whitaker, a 52-year-old Santa Clarita resident, was addressing a rally to raise awareness of cartel violence in Mexico, and he started off by apologizing to the Mexican mothers he'd just heard speak about losing children in the drug wars.

Whitaker, a recovering addict, said he now realized that his drug use had no doubt had consequences south of the border, where cartel violence has cost thousands of lives. Speaking in English and then translating his own words into Spanish, Whitaker told the Mexican visitors he was there to ask forgiveness "if any of the drugs I used had anything to do" with any of their family members or anyone else being killed or kidnapped.

Mexican supply and U.S. demand are two chapters of the same story, but I'd never heard anyone make the connection more dramatically than Whitaker, who heads the L.A. chapter of Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing. When I introduced myself after his speech, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen him somewhere, and I found out why when I called later to set up an interview.

Many years ago, Whitaker was a child actor. One of his more memorable roles was on the TV series "Family Affair," in which actor Brian Keith was raising twins named Buffy and Jody with the help of a male nanny played by Sebastian Cabot.

"I was Jody," said Whitaker, 52, who started playing that role at age 6.

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