Pubdate: Sat, 08 Feb 2014
Source: Sault Star, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 The Sault Star
Contact: http://www.saultstar.com/letters
Website: http://www.saultstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1071
Author: Michael Coren
Page: A8

WE SHOULD OPEN EYES AND EARS TO ALL ADDICTS

It promises paradise, but it delivers hell, and once you are inside
that dark, dark, deathly dark place leaving is more difficult than
most of us can ever imagine.

I speak of drugs, and of the death of the immensely gifted actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman. Let us say immediately that the passing of
this man is a tragedy, for his family, friends and for those of us who
appreciated the talents of someone who could actually act rather than
look at the camera with a pained grimace or cute grin.

Now it's important to get this right, not because I am afraid of being
criticized - that's the price one pays for speaking truth to leftist
power - but because a man is dead. But Philip, you had every
opportunity to get help, all of the money and resources to clean
yourself up. It's not easy, Good God it's not easy. But it's possible,
especially for someone who is a multi-millionaire.

And here is my problem. Every day the anonymous die from drug-related
incidents. They fade away like invisible beings in a ghost-like
world, remembered by few, ignored by almost all.

More than this, their slide into decay and their eventual demise is
dismissed by many as being their own fault, as though they volunteered
for premature mortality.

The diabolical appeal of something like cocaine, for example, is it
makes users feel so good, so quickly that all they want from that
point on is to feel that way all of the time. Of course it's an
artificial euphoria, a contrived happiness, but reason is replaced by
false joy.

It's bad enough when it's a movie star, but imagine if you exist in a
broken, poor, seemingly pointless environment where there is no
beauty, promise or hope. I can criticize a person's actions, but still
sympathize with their plight.

Nobody dreams of being an emaciated, smashed shell of a person lying
in excrement and blood doing anything, no matter how degrading, to
find the next fix. To ignore this fellow being, to dismiss them as
willing victims or undeserving criminals, is to deny the human spirit.
The liberal blames all of this on deprivation, the ultra-conservative
on personal irresponsibility, but there is a middle road, a brighter,
lighter path.

It is not the role of the state to hold every hand -- people are not
mere products of their environment, addiction can be overcome - but it
is wrong for us to reject those already rejected. Compassion and
empathy define us and glorify us.

Back to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Care for him and his death, but allow
that grief to become a conduit for a more genuine, more embracing
grief and care. Do not allow it to become a cloak to throw over and
disguise the biting and blinding pain of the powerless, the
talentless, the mass of humanity whom we cannot and care not to name.

It is jarring when the great suddenly die, but just as tragic when the
meagre leave the world. Far easier to remember the former however, and
so nauseatingly simple to pretend the latter never existed in the
first place. Please don't fall for that addiction.
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MAP posted-by: Matt