Jordan McClements of Dover is a painter and writer, whose art depicts the overdose/unsheltered crisis. His works are on display at the Dover Art League and at Studio B Milford.
To “John Elway,” the man who wears a Denver Broncos jersey and sometimes panhandles in Dover,
Imagine the darkest night, when the clouds look almost red, purple and blue because the shadows are almost solid, and the ice is out of a Batman comic in small-town, doom-town Dover. People are going to die tonight, and I went to the meeting about homelessness, and we agreed that we were going to do something about Delaware State University busting the encampment. And I am invoking the power and wisdom and time and name of Muh Mum McClements to say that all that boots-on-the-ground work wasn’t for you alone; it was for my own family: my cousin, Lee (or Robert Leroy McClements III). My nephews (Lee’s sons), Robert Leroy McClements IV and Tegan McClements. Uncle Sun Bear overdosed after Muh Mum died. The last thing she told me: “Keep writing, Jordy.”
There are no Hope Centers in Kent County or Sussex County, and the Hope Center in New Castle County isn’t fixing New Castle/Wilmington’s homelessness issue. And to kick out the homeless people in Christina Park without coordinated services nor enough beds is despicable.
We’ve focused only on harm reduction, without centralized resources, so we can curb our overdose rate. And our political spin around it is/has been our entire political existence, and each administration’s spin every year is about curbing the numbers, not saving lives or communities, like the Delaware we forget.
We run Delaware like a corporation haven, where drug users get stepped on, and you’d rather save face than have photo ops in the trenches and grit of the front lines of Kent and Sussex and New Castle counties’ overdose crisis and homelessness crisis because we still haven’t built three Hope Centers. And we’re doing nothing about homelessness throughout Delaware or in the kingdom of Wilmington, with its own nearby Hope Center that can’t handle Wilmington’s nor all of New Castle County’s homelessness/overdose crisis. Alone.
Homeless/addicted individuals are as humane and human as you are, whether you have a Ph.D. or not, because I haven’t seen any of you academics in Delaware or any of you politicians anywhere on the front lines of the overdose crisis. You and your solutions are theoretical. If you haven’t shot up, you aren’t in the conversation. You use the money for yourselves. Where is the opioid settlement money? In a fire. The overdose crisis is raging with the homelessness crisis, and your absence in your air-conditioned rooms is a cop-out. Your solidarity and awareness isn’t helping the community; it’s the excuse the state runs as a blazing circus.
So, you think we’re all going to sit here and pretend like we didn’t choose to do hard drugs, and everything was going to be OK. I chose to do hard drugs because it felt good, and it was cool. Until it wasn’t. Come on.
“John Elway”: You know you could have chosen not to take the most addictive substance on Earth, one that makes alcohol look like soda. Look in the mirror.
How much time do you have left?
Are you going to keep serving the demon or not?
How many times have you overdosed?
Microoverdose. Major overdose. Count ’em up, buddy.
I don’t care how bad it was and is because I forgive you, and you survived and are still standing. Let’s give it a shot. It might not be easy to fall off the wagon. That’s the journey. Let’s get on this journey. There’s a lot more to you and who you will become to the world. There’s so much more to you, “John Elway.”
I want you to know that I’m writing this to your relative who’s addicted.
It’s for you, too.
It’s for me.
I’m an addict in my addiction journey. I’m doing good right now, but I still mess up.
Every time you do that, you’re hurting yourself, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I want you to love yourself.
Forever “John Elway.”
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
