Listen to solution before judgment

When you hear the words “opioid crises,” what comes to mind? Homeless addicts, sitting on street corners, stealing and begging? How did they come to this?

A friend (Navy veteran, business owner, husband, father) required major surgery for a neck injury and was given Oxycontin to take afterwards. He politely declined, being well aware of it’s addictive effects. The doctor insisted that he take it for a few days to make sure that pain wouldn’t cause him to move his neck and damage his vertebrae, so he acquiesced. When he awoke the second day all he could think was that he wanted those pills that he had put in a high cupboard, away from his young children. This scared him so badly that he immediately flushed the remaining pills down the toilet.

That is what the opioid crises is. It can happen to anyone.

It is easy to blame drug addicts as having caused this themselves but once the drugs take hold it is exceedingly difficult to get off of them without help. Everyone condemns them, but who has a solution? The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is offering one.

The tribe has scheduled a public forum for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8, at the tribe’s Red Cedar Hall in Blyn. Perhaps we should all listen to their proposal before we pronounce judgment?

Sherry Smith

Sequim

‘Misery Index’

Some foreign friends, contemplating relocating to the US and having received bad publicity about America, frequently inquire as to what cities they should avoid and, accordingly, I developed a “Misery Index.”

For instance, unless you have stacks of money, you may wish to avoid New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, which are the five most expensive cities in entire country. And are governed by Democrats …

Those who don’t like paying high taxes should consider bypassing Bridgeport, Conn., Philadelphia, Pa., Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and Chicago, Ill., which are our five highest-taxed cities. And are governed by Democrats …

Unless you like to live dangerously, give a miss to St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee and Baltimore, which are the most crime-ridden in the country with 1,500 to 1,800 violent crimes per 100,000 citizens. And are governed by Democrats …

To avoid rubbing elbows with the unwashed, steer clear of the “homeless havens” of New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego and San Jose, replete with “tent cities” and whose residents are alarmingly casual in their toilet habits. And, aside from San Diego, are governed by Democrats …

Developing the Misery Index became significantly easier once I detected a trend and, in fact, was able to discard the entire project in favor of a general “rule of thumb”: If you don’t wish to live in an expensive, over-taxed, dangerous and dirty city, just check to see if it is run by Democrats and, if so … avoid it.

(Sources: kiplinger.com, marketwatch.com, wordatlas.com, forbes.com)

Dick Pilling

Port Angeles