DRUGS DEAL REAL DESTRUCTION

I first saw Johnny sitting on the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Totera
Place. He looked both hungry and hopeless as he gazed out into space. I was
on my way to Cloverleaf to get some pimento spread. On my way home, I
passed him again. His position and countenance had not changed, as though
he was etched in stone.

I proceeded home, with a real uneasiness. I returned to the corner to find
a wary Johnny starting up Hillcrest on the other side of the street. I
called out to him and he pretended not to hear me. I told him that I was
not a policeman, that I only wanted to help him.

He came over to my car. I asked him how long it had been since he had
anything to eat. "Five days," he replied. Obviously, my first step was to
feed him. As we lunched, he told me the quite common circumstances of the
dysfunctional family he grew up in. Having been a volunteer drug counselor
for more than 30 years, none of this was new to me.

I took him to several locations to recover his belongings. I recall some
were behind a garage on Westwood and others were in a house on Long Street.
I took him to the House of Prayer and placed him in the capable hands of
Dan Rominger, director.

While getting him settled in his room, I discovered that he had paid for a
Bible study course and was actively participating. This was so encouraging
to me, for at least he was struggling with his problem.

On my way home, I recalled what he had told me; that he had smoked $7,500
worth of crack that week, supported by his housebreaking activities and
pawnshop deliveries. In fact, he was reconnoitering the house on the
corner, my neighbor, when I intervened in his plans.

After one week as a model client, the police dragged him off in handcuffs,
undoing in five minutes the groundwork of a fruitful week.

After a two-year stint in prison as punishment, with no attempt at
rehabilitation, he was dumped like trash into the mainstream with no
support or compassion. This man, as an 8-year-old child, came to believe in
the existence of a heavenly father as he slept in a snowbank without a coat.

On his exit from prison, he showed up at my front door, at Christmas time.
Destitute, hungry, without a coat, hopeless and helpless. Jesus said, "When
you don't help the helpless or provide hope to the hopeless, it's just like
you did it to me."

George Bush invokes God's name as he seeks the "weapons of mass
destruction." Which are greater weapons of destruction, those that Bush
seeks or the drugs in our society that destroy as many lives daily as those
lost on 9-11?

I believe that one-fifth of the money used to defeat Saddam could have been
spent more effectively to remove the scourge of criminality at home brought
on by greed and its accompanying drug dependency.

ARTHUR LYON

Totera Place