Rebecca ParsonKonto zweryfikowane

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.

There are 16,000 people in Aberdeen. 1,000 of them are homeless.