FAMILY'S COURAGE MUST SPARK COMMUNITY ACTION

At the memorial service for the 18-year-old Portage Central High
School graduate who died June 28 from a heroin overdose, one of the
key messages was forgiveness.

Some who are grieving this needless loss will feel anger and guilt,
one speaker said, but they need to forgive Amy Bousfield. That's good advice.

But we shouldn't be so quick to forgive ourselves.

Let's not make it too easy to ignore an underlying problem here. That
problem, for lack of a better term, is substance abuse.

It transcends all geographic divides. It affects all income levels.
It hits all ages, races and religions.

Pick your poison, legal or otherwise: Tobacco? Alcohol? Prescription
medications? Other drugs? Cocaine? Heroin? Meth? As a community, we
indulge ourselves to excess. But the price is high. Too high.

Drugs, even illegal substances, are so readily available, our most
vulnerable youths who, like Amy, may be struggling with depression or
other illnesses, can get them if they want them.

Dr. Michael Liepman, a Kalamazoo psychiatrist who specializes in
addiction, points to trends that indicate growing use of tobacco and
alcohol among middle-school students. Middle school? Even if those
youngsters don't make the transition to illegal drug use, Liepman
says tobacco and alcohol use are big problems.

If you say, well, that doesn't affect me, you're kidding yourself.

If we didn't abuse alcohol and drugs at the rate we do in this
community would we need the level of law enforcement we must have to
protect us from ourselves?

And don't even think about the related costs that these problems
eventually contribute to our health care system.

But it's all connected. It doesn't matter how much money we pour into
the problem. Attempts to control it will always fail if the community
continues to deny its depth and breadth.

We commend the Bousfield family for courage and candor in sharing the
struggles of Amy's life and the cause of her death.

Their honesty and openness have given all of us a tremendous gift, a
gift of knowledge that has the power to help us -- if we use it.

If we all were faced with the reality of that terrible grief coming
into our own lives, would we do something to prevent it and protect
our children?

The answer lies in the individual actions of each adult, each parent,
grandparent and guardian who bears the responsibility for each child
in our community. It can simply start with a conversation. Talk to
kids. Express an interest in what they're doing, where they're going
and who they're hanging out with. Pay attention. Seek help if they need it.

We can pretend there's no problem.

But we do so at our peril.