Rebecca ParsonKonto zweryfikowane

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.

I could tell you literally hundreds of stories of men and women coming to me, desperate for help and healing, who were met with red tape and waiting lists. I could show you names on my arm of people who died while waiting for the treatment they so critically needed. [...]

We can choose to become an object lesson for future generations on how a small town can turn on its own and, in so doing, isolate and destroy itself with petty self-interest.

Or we can become a beacon of hope and healing by choosing to invest in the things that will raise us all up — meaningful employment, treatment, housing. We can choose to be a model to the world on how to heal and survive in post-industrial America.

We can love and protect each other or we can destroy each other. It is our choice."

-Excerpts from a statement by the Rev. Sarah Monroe of Chaplains on the Harbor https://www.facebook.com/ChaplainsontheHarbor/posts/2136184516496794 …

I've thought about this again and again since reading this statement and visiting Aberdeen again a couple weekends ago.