Jordan McClements is a writer from Dover, who teaches English composition at his alma mater, Delaware State University.
We don’t count working Americans as addicts, drug users or people who need help.
But overdoses happen to working Americans every day.
We don’t have exact numbers regarding people who are working while under active addiction. It’s more than we can imagine. How do I know? I come from working people. In certain neighborhoods in America, crack, cocaine, pills, heroin and meth are normal. How do I know? I’ve lived in these neighborhoods all over the United States and did drugs in these neighborhoods. And these neighborhoods don’t have a class marker. All social classes in America use drugs. I’ve done them all with every walk of life. From South Michigan Avenue to the trailer parks outside of Dover, I’ve done drugs with people with families and careers, and who are achieving their dreams. I did it twice at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Let me reiterate: I wasn’t the only one using drugs in graduate school. Someone I love overdosed and survived, and I was lucky enough to get away, again.
Just like you’re not the only one using drugs at work. Take manual labor, for example. Any drug is used to keep the flow of labor going. If you disagree, you haven’t worked manual labor. We have to think beyond what’s visible and actually look at our lives. We know people who use drugs because we use drugs, America. We need to look out for Americans. We lose over 100,000 Americans to overdoses, and all you do is complain about politicians. We all know they are cowards. Step your game up, America. We all have to do better. This is the conversation we have to have with our kids, neighbors, co-workers, loved ones and strangers. We have to be there for one another. Politicians know the score. They don’t help the unsheltered because they portray the unsheltered as lazy, and you soak it up because you have a job, and this makes you feel validated. So, in our validation from the state, we see those without as enemies, but if this is the case, we all are the enemies because we all have holes in our hearts. That’s why we all do drugs, America. We keep trying to fill it with more and more things. Not love. We’re filling our hearts with over 100,000 bodies a year.
Obviously, politicians can’t get it done to solve the overdose crisis. We’re going to have to step up, America. We need to have a conversation. Why can’t we stop and tell each other we love each other? Stop the politics. Republicans, you have always tried to hold this nation back from progress. Democrats, you string the poor, addicted and unsheltered along. The Republicans are up-front that they don’t care. Consider what’s before you. You want to help America. You claim to be patriots. Do the right thing and show some love and respect for Americans and immigrants. We claim to be the land of the free and the brave, but we aren’t free or brave enough to have a conversation with ourselves and each other about drug addiction. Get real, America.
Trumpism is not going away after Trump II, and the Democrats are and have always proven to be cowards. We need to stop the political melodrama and be Americans. America is under attack from itself. We cause our overdose crisis. America is holding in the conversation that is eating us all alive. Let it out, America.
Let’s talk.
Why?
In Delaware, the Meyer administration is trying its best.
We, the people, are done putting up with your best.
When I was in a Teams conversation with the Meyer administration concerning the homelessness and overdose crisis July 10, I left early, after 18 minutes. The participants said they were doing their best and that I could do more. I’ve published 44 essays on the overdose crisis. What have you done? They claimed it was my fault that I didn’t convince other politicians and get my friends together to vote out whoever their opposition is. If you don’t believe me, ask for the evidence.
The overdose crisis and unsheltered crisis isn’t political theater, yet Matt Meyer and his administration treat it so. They have done nothing for Delaware. I gave them 15 ways to help these problems. And they lied. They said they were working on all 15 of them. How can that be true? They are doing nothing. Overdoses are increasing. Take a drive down U.S. 13. They wouldn’t know because this administration hasn’t taken the bridge to Kent or Sussex counties.
You know more about the overdose crisis, reader, than the Meyer administration does. We know it holds its meetings exclusively in New Castle. Whoever controls and claims to solve the unsheltered and overdose crisis handles all the money and power in Delaware. They think that is what’s at stake. But we and our families’ lives are. They’re not doing enough in New Castle. This administration has had enough time. We’re holding it accountable for leading us and our Delaware family on, reader.
The Meyer representatives said it wasn’t their fault but the fault of all the other politicians. Who they sent in gaslit me about my politics and clean time. I’m here to talk about Delaware, plus you and your boss neglecting our state. This isn’t about you trying to gaslight me about my clean time or politics. This is about your boss being afraid to be the governor of Delaware.
You’re scared to meet with politicians Downstate. How do I know? They tell me. Gaslighting me about my clean time and politics is apprehensible. I know who I am. My name is Jordan McClements. I’m from Briar Park in Dover. I care about Delaware. Don’t gaslight me or the people, again.
We’re here to solve the overdose crisis and the unsheltered crisis, and hold you accountable.
This summer, instead of blaming English teachers for our decline in reading and writing, there is hope for America. We have to step our game up, reader. Here’s how we get involved: We read and write together, America. Read local news. Contribute local news. Be local news. Local news matters. We have to take care of our America.
Your participation matters. You matter, America. How do I know? I’m an English professor at Delaware State University. I teach people rhetoric through English composition classes. I can teach you how to make arguments about anything and win, regardless of content. I can teach you how to use anything you’ve read as leverage in an argument. I’m the first to admit that the hardest thing in my life is reading and writing. Reading is hard for me, and I have three college degrees in understanding and creating arguments in written English. Let me reiterate: It is agonizing for me to read, but I strive to read every day. I know you struggle. I have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and bipolar 1. But we’ve got to be there for ourselves and the children of America. They are living in a more complicated world, with more distractions, than we did. We are lucky, and we still haven’t taken advantage of our ability to further ourselves and our children when it comes to reading and writing. I couldn’t admit to anyone that writing takes everything out of me. Mom was the first person to tell me.
Now, when I reflect, I realize that it is incredibly agonizing to write and communicate what you feel and say. Many people have told me that the words don’t translate from their heads to the page, without a split second in between. I’m not even hearing what I’m writing till the word is typed or written in front of my eyes. Again, I went to college for a decade, studying writing and writing. My friend since middle school, Tomko, reminded me that I’d been writing short stories every day in high school. I studied how to understand English literature with my bachelor’s at Delaware State University, attended the University of Maryland for a master’s in English literature and got my first master’s in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, under the literature track. But I couldn’t find my purpose writing about someone’s book that we wouldn’t read outside of teaching it to people who want to read it. I had to face myself and be my dream as a writer. I found that fiction at Columbia College Chicago couldn’t make a great impact soon enough, so I wrote advocacy essays. Then, I dropped out of the Medill School of Journalism twice because I don’t care whether you call me a “journalist.” I don’t care if I have a doctorate, and you shouldn’t either. I’m Jordan McClements, and I fight for the people of America.
Right now, I’m fighting you, reader, to challenge yourself to read the opinion sections of local news and mimic the contributors’ writing style, with your rhetoric, ideas and argument about the topic you are an expert on. We’re all experts on something. I dare you to read the Sunday opinion section of your local paper and write a short letter in response to what America needs help with. We need your help with reading and writing in America. Test scores don’t matter. Our kids’ futures matter. Civil engagement to ensure democracy and a more beautiful life for our children is at stake.
I’ll see you in the Sunday opinion section soon, reader.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
