RESPONSIBILITY NEEDED

I was reading in The Floyd County Times the other day that we already have
as many drug overdose deaths in 2002 as we had in all of 2001. Is it not
time to address this issue and take the problem of pills in Appalachia
seriously?

I grew up in South Florida. I've seen what cocaine, crack, heroin and other
addictive drugs can do. I used to be in law enforcement and later worked
with the state as a field investigator for Health and Social Services there.

One of the big problems is changing the way we look and treat people. Since
LBJ came here in the 1960s with the "Great Society," those who chose not to
go to school, not to work or look for work have been told, "It's OK, you
live in Appalachia. The government will take care of you." As in the
ghetto, folks around here learned that any excuse was plausible to garner a
check and sit on their duffs.

However, with that realization came consequences. If folks were not
expected to work and support their families, as God tells us we must do,
then what to do with all that free time? Again, as in the ghettos, the
government, doctors and lawyers realized that idle hands are dangerous.
Besides that, many folks were feeling guilty about their laziness, their
lack of responsibility and purpose in life. The aforementioned group of
professionals decided that these folks needed a little something to cope
with their new lives, or lack of them.

People with too much free time on their hands get into trouble. Many were
lost after giving their manhood away. Many felt guilty seeing their
neighbor drive off to work while they leeched and lounged on the couch. So,
as in the ghettos, drugs became an easy way to tame the masses and keep
them docile, out of trouble. If you were stressed, guilty or bored stiff, a
pill would make you feel better. If you had a bum leg, arm or back, pain
pills would keep you mellow. Everything went along fine until the rise of
OxyContin and crystal meth. Then, as in the ghettos with crack and heroin,
we realized too late we had a big problem on our hands.

In the cities, we have gangs, crime and violence, much of it drug- related.
In the hills, we have had huge increases in burglaries, robberies and other
crimes because, as in the ghettos, these new drugs our folks have graduated
to are highly addictive, as well as dangerous. It was fine and dandy when
Bubby was taking a Xanax, Valium or Tylox. Now Bubby has graduated and he's
coming after your assets so he can stay high. No difference between Bubby
and the addicts in the ghetto. Only the drugs are different. I guess we
should be thankful that crack and heroin are not overly common here!

You can have all the D.A.R.E. programs in the world. You can tell kids to
"just say no." You can increase the penalties for possession or
prescription drugs. We've done all that, but that does not solve the basic
problem. First of all, Bubby needs to be responsible and accountable for
his life and his actions. Bubby needs to be given or, to put it more
boldly, forced to spend his time doing something useful in society.

I went to school with kids who had cerebral palsy, in wheelchairs or who
were blind. They all went on to college or careers in spite of what life
threw at them. Think of all the veterans who came home from World War II
injured or missing limbs. Nearly all of them retrained and worked jobs for
years after that. My dad's family grew up in Eastern Kentucky during the
Depression. Poor, sick, injured or not, the whole family worked and took
care of itself as there were no leech checks around in those days. All 12
kids went to school and college. All had careers and not one sat home on
the draw. It was called pride, a trait many folks have lost over the last
30 years.

In years past, people worked, able or not, because they had no choice.
Nowadays, we have kids in their 20s wandering the stores at the first of
the month, living off the rest of us because they are just too sorry to work.

We need to take the choice of whether to work or not away from the goobers.
Take away the free food, the subsidized housing, the food and medical cards
and force these bums to be what a real man should be. The Army had a term
called the "walking wounded." You may not be 100 percent, but you were
still expected to fight if needed. If a man can walk, he can work! By
reinstilling responsibility, a sense of pride and by holding one
accountable, we can strike at the root cause of drug abuse in Appalachia.

More government programs and throwing good money after bad only worsens the
problem. Put the problem back into the hands of man who has it. Hold him
accountable and use tough love. The money we save could be used for
programs that create independence, rather than dependence. I've worked for
25 years now, and I don't take kindly to my hard-earned tax money going to
a younger, healthier man so he can sit on his tail and party.

Charles E. Scoville Ivel