Unite community around treating addiction
I read the article about community opposition to new drug/alcohol treatment centers in Greenfield and Springfield (“Not In Our Backyards” Sept. 24-30, 2015) with great interest. It’s hard to oppose a community uniting for action to safeguard its neighborhoods. Our voices together have power. It would seem to me, though, that programs that address the disease of addiction are of paramount importance in Western Massachusetts.
I visited the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Treatment Center at its pre-casino location on Howard Street in Springfield. I toured the facility with staff there — some of whom were themselves in recovery. I just happened to be walking by on a day when a cohort of inmates were “graduating” from the treatment program and, having served their sentence, were looking to make restitution for the suffering they had caused and to begin a new chapter of their lives — sober.
The Episcopal Church has been rocked by the impact of alcoholism at the highest levels of pastoral responsibility. We are staring addiction down now and working to understand its power in people’s lives. I suspect most families have been touched by addiction — drugs or alcohol. We have seen loved ones become less than God made them to be. In the throes of addiction, many good people do horrendous things for which they must take responsibility. But prison without treatment does our society no good. I believe the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Treatment Center does invaluable work. I hope and pray that we can welcome that work in our communities so that release from prison means release from addiction, too.
White families in ‘danger,’ too
Your selection on all lives matter in the Sept. 3-15, 2015 issue of your interesting paper (“Between the Lines: Why #BlackLivesMatter, but #AllLivesDon’tMatter”) was more than a bit biased. All of the comments, and your comment that the number of white people killed is irrelevant, ignore an important issue. Not all unnecessary deaths at the hands of police are caused by racial bias. Police methods and procedures bear a considerable share of the blame. Reducing black deaths from police violence is a goal that might better be achieved by a better understanding, among whites, of how much danger their families are in and improving police practices.
Go Marthas!
Several months ago, my son and I amused ourselves on a long drive home by thinking up new names for the Washington football team. We considered “Bureaucrats” because “the ’Crats” makes such a good nickname, especially if the team has an impenetrable defense. But the team name we liked best at once honors the capital city’s namesake and addresses the NFL’s problem with sexism and domestic violence: the Washington “Marthas.” The cheerleaders’ outfits would be less revealing, and young women would grow up reading about the “Marthas” beating the “Cowboys.” Moreover, the fact that Martha Washington did not free her enslaved African Americans when George’s went free after his death would make Dan Snyder popular among his fellow NFL team owners battling free agency.
