I didn’t create a drug addict. I’m not a drug addict. I’ve
been asked to volunteer my efforts and care to helping teen drug addicts. And I
have for over 5 years now.
These are suburban, white teenagers from the western suburbs
of Chicago for the most part. They are our kids, your kids, someone else’s
kids. But they are kids. And they are Americans. They are our neighbors in a larger sense. And we help neighbors, don’t we?
Recently a public hearing was held in Wheaton, Illinois, to consider a
proposal by a professional health service agency helping with drug addicts. The
residents of the immediate area – a professional office and shopping district,
not a residential neighborhood – claimed such an operation would lower their
housing values. They were adamant. They were forceful. For all I know the
authorities in Wheaton will give in to the public sentiment of this small slice
of the population. This is not the community, mind you, but a very small bit of
it.
Do we listen to this ‘bit’ or do we cast our minds to larger
audiences? A public official must consider the entire community, not just a
small slice of it. And those officials must also counter claims of lower
housing values with the reality of the market. Will a drug treatment operation
likely lower housing values within some distance, or radius? Outside expertise is needed to determine if
the emotional claims are true or just hot air.
My thought is it is hot air. I doubt housing values several
blocks away will be affected in any way.
I do know that I volunteer to help Wheaton youth drug
addicts. Yes, Wheaton, your kids. They are every bit at risk as the inner-city
youth you look down on. Inner city youth have much more to be afraid of, and
risk escape in any manner possible. Wheaton youth – and Downers Grove, Carol
Stream, Glen Ellyn, Naperville, Lisle and many other towns – are escaping the
blankness of life caused by comfort and lots of money. They don’t see
themselves competing successfully in such a society. And they witness the
absence of parents from the home as they scramble to succeed at careers that
provide empty lives at home.
Think about that. Think about the horror of the lives of
those kids. Think of the drugs they take because others around them are doing
the same. Think of the escape they are conjuring for themselves. It doesn’t
work; you know that; I know that. But how, then, do we adults help these kids
understand the world around them in a constructive way, one that is expansive
and fun and exploratory?
We can help them in drug treatment programs. We can’t help
them outside of those programs. You can, the parent, by changing your lives to
nurture your own kids. But if you don’t do this, someone else has to. And you
say no to a program near your back yard?
How numb are you to the realities of life? These kids are
living out their lives in desperation and fear. They have something to fear,
don’t they?
What then is the excuse for the rest of us who do nothing
but let the epidemic of drug use in America continue unabated? Do we care as a
nation? Hell, do we care as a community?
Do we understand the term community? Perhaps we all need to
look up the word and its definition. Something is missing in our lives. It’s
time we found out the what and brought it back under our own roofs.
January 8, 2018
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