"Silence" - Like a Cancer Grows!

The very words of a song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel echo throughout the halls of life itself, resounding to those who will listen, those to whom the words of healing and hope are the last tenet of bringing some back to life after the onslaught of severe drug overdosing.  

No one else, except perhaps we who write, will have the courage to challenge the very muffled voices of public officials and people in high places that are afraid to confront what is happening right before their eyes regarding the epidemic in the very communities they govern, and refuse to admit to the world they have the same problem experienced by cities across the world; Drug addiction, overdoses, and young people dying at a rate that would have been unheard of not too many years past.  

In my most recent article:  “Devastation Everywhere”, I spoke of how my grandson overdosed on a drug, and it took the police three times using Narcan to revive him.  He is now in a rehab center attempting to seek a healing.  He already was in rehab centers 3 times, and as with most addictive patients, one session rarely brings about a complete healing.  Reminds me of when I was doing spiritual ministry with those in alcohol and drug recovery, where most were in their fifth and beyond attempts to recover.

It isn’t the addiction that is sinful, although the aspects of this terrible disease appears to be such, it is the refusal of those in charge in upscale communities, like the one I reside in, to keep everything quiet where the real sin exists.  Shhhhhh, with a finger on the lips of a parent, telling the rest of the family not to say anything.  “The neighbors cannot know about our family problems and what would our status be like if others’ knew about our little problem?”  That is exactly what is going on right now in our community; “tell no one about the number of overdoses in our schools, neighborhood, or especially the well-to-do families living here.”   This is the directive given to our local police department, those who are God’s Angels, saving countless young children on a daily basis.

Why is it that it takes writers to call attention to the misguided, and at times insensitive, persons’ thinking and reasoning that their position should be to let the community know what is going on with the terrible onslaught of drugs becoming rampant in the community, not to make news, but to alert their constituents that a real problem exists.  It’s the right thing to do, because the residents shouldn’t be left in the dark thinking this community is drug-free, and their children are safe at school and in the playground.  One school counselor I spoke with mentioned the local elementary schools are loading up on Narcan.  Still not mentioning this to the community, but gearing up for possible disastrous events that most surely may become real. 

A rhetorical question that comes to mind: where is God with all this unrest and concern?  Well, He is here, through this writing, and others like myself, opening the eyes of as many as possible to the realism that exists in affluent communities such as Sewickley, Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon. and Upper St. Clair, in Western Pennsylvania, as well as all the other areas that are as vulnerable as the aforementioned.  

As the song continued with “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and whispered in the sounds of silence”.  Here, these are the words of the prophets, since those that pronounce God’s word are modern day prophets, and we shall not be silent.  If the problem is not met head-on and attacked with a vengeance, we won’t be burying one or two children, we will be losing a whole generation, and literally we shall be answerable to Almighty God for not doing what is our duty; Yes it is our duty to handle a most severe malady by yelling, from the housetops to governing officials and those in high places, that the future of the world and our Church could become a cess-pool of lost souls, if our voices remain silent.  Both the Church and our government must step up to the task of saving our youth that are disappearing before our very eyes.  This may be the evangelization of the future.