You’re Not Alone can help with struggles

A recent article in The Winchester Sun highlighted the rise in overdose deaths within our community.

The 2018 Overdose Fatality Report listed Clark County among the top five counties in the state for most resident overdose deaths per capita. As reported, there are many agencies, programs, and groups working to help those suffering from addiction and to combat the rise in deaths.

I would like to call attention to another resource beginning in our community. Starting Thursday, Aug. 15, You’re Not Alone will be a weekly support group for the loved ones of addicts.

My father struggled with alcohol. His disease affected my entire family for as long as I can remember. As his primary caregiver last year I helped him in his battle with cancer and alcohol use disorder. He lost to both.

What I missed between doctors appointments and trying to understand prescriptions to help reduce alcohol withdrawal symptoms was someone else who knew what I was going through. Someone who understood what it is like to love and try to help an addict.

You’re Not Alone is a support group for friends and families who have loved ones battling addiction. It will meet from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s McCready Hall on Lexington Avenue. The group is not affiliated with any existing recovery group or faith based organization.

I urge anyone who loves an addict to attend. Our community is taking steps to help those suffering from addiction. Let us also help their friends and family. No one should be alone in this fight.

Rebecca Kearns Frodge

Winchester

Take responsibility for protecting yourself

We have heard multiple ideas on how to approach gun violence, specifically through the notion of gun control. However, let’s look at what is happening in America through a different lens.

People are crying out that something must be done to curb this violence; many say  legislation must be passed to prevent unstable or violent people from essentially acting unstable and violent. The notion is to curb human malevolence at the expense of the law-abiding citizen and of freedoms we have been guaranteed in this country.

I am not falling in line and agreeing with the gun control narrative. Who in their right mind supports these terrible mass shootings? Everyone is in agreement these senseless tragedies are abhorrent. The extreme actions of the shooters have devastated all of us and our reaction absolutely must be to take time to grieve and support both the fallen and the survivors, as well as their families.

But instead, many want to quickly pass laws while everyone reels emotionally. They hope to slip in a law that has some questionable legalities of its own, such as the so called “red flag laws.” Essentially, a “thought police” that predetermines someone’s crime before they even commit it? This is viciously un-American in its very nature. How are we to uphold the value “innocent until proven guilty” if this law turns that principle upside down? … The unfortunate reality is one cannot legislate away human evil or a problem of the heart and spirit.

These criminals lack the value of human life, empathy or any grounding spiritual life. The answer does not rest in desperately flinging our rights away in hope that a malevolent few will be prevented from committing heinous acts, of which they could always make bombs, use vehicles, or other means of mass violence.

Perhaps we shy willfully from the truth that living is dangerous to one’s health. There are evil people in the world. Thankfully, that percentage is very small, but one bad apple spoils the bunch.

My solution may upset many, because it acknowledges a basic truth — the government simply cannot protect you from everyone who intends evil and one that claims to be able to do this is most certainly a threat to you.

You are ultimately responsible for your own safety and if you fear something, then you prepare for it. You own a fire extinguisher not to wish for a fire, but to prepare for one.

You should train in self defense using firearms in case the unthinkable were to happen. This is an empowering message, yet one that gets demonized. Are we mere harmless beings only capable of ducking when evil presents its ugly head? We must face it head on with a steady eye and a steadier aim to fight this chaotic evil by being disciplined and vigilant of something so catastrophic as a mass shooter. You have the power to defend yourself.

Elijah Rector

Winchester