Readers write: Finding compassion in Oregon

‘The real moral crime’

The Sept. 11 & 18 cover story, “Oregon’s bold drug policy isn’t working, yet,” reminds me that I once was one of those who, while sympathetic, would look down on people who’d “allowed” themselves to become addicted to alcohol and/or “hard” drugs. Yet I, albeit not in the category of fentanyl use, have suffered enough anxiety related to post-traumatic stress disorder to have appreciated consuming alcohol and/or THC.

Neglecting, and therefore failing, people struggling with debilitating drug addiction should never have been an acceptable or preferable political or religious option. But the politics that are typically involved in lacking addiction funding/services, to me, reflect opposition to making proper treatment available to people with addictions who have little to no income.

It really is as though some people are actually considered disposable.

Even in an otherwise relatively civilized nation, people’s worth is measured basically by their sober “productivity” – or lack thereof. Those people may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live their daily lives and consume their substances more haphazardly.

Fortunately, the erroneous notion that people with drug addictions are simply weak-willed and/or have committed a moral crime is gradually diminishing. We now know that some pharmaceutical corporations intentionally pushed their very addictive and profitable opiates. I see this as the real moral crime – one for which they got off relatively lightly, considering the resulting immense suffering and death toll.

Often overlooked is the fact that intense addiction usually doesn’t originate from boredom, in which a person repeatedly consumed recreationally but became hooked on an unregulated, often deadly, chemical that eventually destroyed their life and even those of loved ones.

Frank Sterle Jr.
White Rock, British Columbia

Actions over words?

The cover story “Cruel summer,” in the Sept. 4 issue should be retitled “Cruel irony.” People like Kristen Watson at California State University, Bakersfield, along with the California governor, talk about climate change as an existential threat and espouse the need to reduce fossil fuel use, but Stanford University and the University of California just joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. This means their sports teams will fly to East Coast cities instead of West Coast cities, and some East Coast teams will fly to California. San Francisco to Seattle is about 810 miles. San Francisco to Miami is over 3,000 miles. 

I am sure that people in these California schools see the irony here, yet they allow it anyway. When big public institutions say that climate change is a big deal but then act like it’s not, it sends a message to the rest of us that maybe we too can act in a similar fashion. Do these collective actions, in turn, spell “game, set, and match” for the health of our environment? It’s not what you say that’s important; it’s what you do. 

Bill Dunnell
Seattle

‘Beauty and glory’

Decades ago, I took a forestry course that mentioned the Joshua trees from the article “Under threat by fire, Joshua trees battle for survival in the desert” in the Sept. 25 Weekly. After the class, a friend and I flew to California to see them and the bristlecone pines, which are also special because of their great longevity. Your story captures the “magic” we both felt. I think, perhaps, it’s the long-term perspective these trees illustrate that helps to give a new insight into life. It’s not all hustle and bustle. It’s beauty and glory.

Rosalie E. Dunbar
Dracut, Massachusetts