INGREDIENTS FOR PAYSON'S DRUG PROBLEM HAVE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS

Mike Burkett's Jan. 11 article on the "out of control" drug problem in
Payson should be read by everyone who lives in, and loves, Rim country
- - and should serve as a wake-up call for the community at large,
especially the town's leadership - both political and religious.

First, we shouldn't be surprised at the regrettable development - not
when all the ingredients for it have been in the making for years.
I've lived in Payson three years (my wife and I having moved here from
the mean streets of Phoenix), and I have observed several underlying
trends that have contributed to the steady proliferation of a
criminal, drug-based underclass in a town whose small population is no
longer a bulwark against the typical fears that haunt the average,
security-challenged city-dweller.

I see three critical "issues" which some may find cliche, but I find
illustrative:

(1) Low-paying jobs. Let's stop pretending that
service/retail/hospitality-related
jobs are enough to attract families with growing children to the area,
who hope to achieve anything other than a subsistence-level of
existence. We need a "balanced" economy here, period.

(2) Affordable housing. The bane of every retirement-oriented
community is a real-estate market that favors well-heeled pensioners
over wage-and-salary earners teetering on the brink of poverty thanks
to the bare differential between average income and average cost of
housing. Time for a change.

(3) Spiritual impotence (yes, drug abuse is a spiritual problem) not
only among those who abuse drugs, but also among those who should be
exerting the greatest influence for good in this battle against evil -
believing Christians and their ministerial leaders. The drug problem
in Payson is an indictment against the Church of Jesus Christ for
retreating from its role as "sin-and-devil-conquering rescuer-and-
nurturer of souls" to one of biblically-compromised social club and
day-care for culturally-emasculated spiritual eunuchs; where the
training up of children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord"
has given way to "free, secular public education for all" (and
expensive-but-essential religious education for a few). Thus, the
agency most responsible for administering and applying the life-
changing doctrines of grace in society - the Church - gets caught in a
web of irrelevance and indifference, and personal victory over sin
gets replaced with hopelessness and defeat.

There's a lot to do for both the incoming political leadership in
Payson and the current religious leadership, as well as for rank-and-
file citizens and believers in the power of God.