Jordan McClements is a painter and writer from Dover, whose art depicts the overdose/unsheltered crisis. His works are on display at the Dover Art League and at Studio B Milford.
America, why are we putting homeless and addicted individuals in encampments?
The first answer is that we, as Americans, didn’t help our fellow Americans.
Then, we didn’t hold our state politicians and national politicians accountable to solve the overdose crisis and the unsheltered crisis.
I know from experience. I’ve been used as an example for American politicians to point to as a drug addict who made it. I overdosed. I lost my cousin to an overdose. Now, I’m taking care of my uncle, who overdosed despite never injecting.
Now, the appeal of this administration, America, are its swift calls to action and action regardless of real-life consequences. If the action fits the rhetorical ideal it is pursuing, our country allows it because something is done whether it is right or wrong. We’ve allowed this administration, America, to use the addiction, overdose and unsheltered crisis against us.
You do realize that we have agreed to allow this administration to use forced treatment/encampments against Americans?
You might believe this is ethical, until it’s your family member who’s being picked up off the street for being addicted or for being homeless. We know we don’t have coordinated resources.
If you’re going to stand for something, America, we need to stop locking up individuals who need help. That help must start in your home, during the discussion on the ride to school, at the dinner table and when you talk about the serious things in life with your loved ones. This is the serious conversation we’ve avoided, and these are the results that we must change because we created this. If we dealt with our addiction and homelessness issues, we wouldn’t be using forced treatment as a means of picking up anybody who does not serve the role the state sees fit for them.
This administration is currently using forced treatment/encampments to illustrate its apocalyptic political ideology and vision for America. This is not normal. We, as Americans, must restore love in this country. Every American is affected by these two issues — overdoses and being unsheltered — and these encampments show that these crises will be handled in a more extreme way than before because all groups of people can be picked up in America for encampment.
We lose over 80,000 Americans a year to overdoses. This will not help the issues of overdoses or homelessness. We’re taking what’s in the light and putting it in the dark. If this administration gets its way, people will overdose because the conversation about overdoses will disappear. Our purpose, America, is to keep overdoses neither in the dark nor in the light but as a national wound that has affected everyone in this country, a wound that we continually take care of. We are still working with this wound and trauma, America. We can’t solve it by shutting down the conversation because people are still going to overdose and be homeless, regardless of whether they’re picked up and put in an encampment.
Nothing is certain in America, meaning anyone can get addicted to drugs and lose his or her housing at any moment. We’re all one to three paychecks away from losing it all. This is the criminalization of being a drug user and being unsheltered and/or homeless in America. I was forced into treatment by my family, and my heroin use got worse after each stay in rehab. My case isn’t the case for all Americans, but we need to unite this country, and no country has ever been united when it puts its enemies or its own people in encampments. We’re better than this, America.
If we don’t change this through taking care of our loved ones, our neighbors, our community, our state, our America, we will lose more freedom pursuing these ideals without looking at the reality of what scooping someone off the street and into forced treatment/encampment means. Encampments aren’t meant to bring peace. These new encampments wouldn’t have changed my, my cousin’s or my uncle’s drug use or overdoses.
What resources will these Americans have after they get out?
This is America, but there are no coordinated resources. If there were, even on the state level, we wouldn’t be here.
How do we change the addiction and unsheltered crisis?
We make room for the rest of our fellow Americans, with a seat at the table, not in an encampment.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
