Rebecca ParsonKonto zweryfikowane

As a priest and as a Christian, the Bible tells me of a God who feeds the hungry with manna from heaven, who delivers the command that we love one another. I serve a God who walked this earth freely healing and feeding poor and desperate people,

no matter who they were and no matter their status in the community. Jesus asserts our right to abundant life.

Perhaps the most controversial issue in this community is how we should deal with our prevalence of addiction. Grays Harbor County has one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in Washington State and the highest methamphetamine consumption in the country.

This, of course, is not particularly a homeless issue— it is the intergenerational reality of a former timber community and affects housed and unhoused people alike. Drugs became a source of income for many struggling people when the timber industry left this region,

as well as a form of self-medication for physical and emotional pain. Somehow, the city council and other community members seem to believe that asserting every person’s right to life is enabling addiction. I would encourage those who ascribe to this mindset

to do some serious investigation into the abundance of scientific research on healing from addiction and trauma. Isolating people and leaving them to die of exposure is a cruel response to addiction, one that is not supported by the Constitution, or the Bible, or science. [...]

research shows overwhelmingly that people can only heal when they have the care and support necessary to do so in their communities. Addiction is borne of hopelessness and despair— pain and survival.

For a community so preoccupied with the surface-level symptoms of addiction, I would point out that we currently have no detox facilities, very limited treatment options, and wait lists a mile long.