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EDITORIAL COMMENT |
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 Editor With Neil Malley of the Magazine team  Steve is one of our clients. He is pictured in our art therapy class as he builds his life after the devastation of addiction |
I continue to walk
with the junkie and the thief. I have come to discover that working with the
drug user and socially excluded young person can stigmatise the individual who
is the carer as well as the victim being helped.Some will say: "Don't bring your drug addicts here." Ignorance breeds fear and conceives intolerant and inflexible attitudes,preventing the opportunity for new growth and liberation. Some of the educated and so called professionals can be as guilty as the rest with their institutional prejudices,promoting segregation and a society that still wants to exclude human beings who have made mistakes. Thankfully, down the centuries and up to the present day, we see men and women who carry the flame of Christ's Risen Light and keep hope alive. However, if we really want to stand with the excluded, we ourselves will be stoned in the market place. If we're not, we are standing in the wrong place. I am fortunate to have the support of many people as I lead our organisation.Yet I still meet repeatedly an attitude of discrimination against our client group. It is mainly due to fear. The heroin addict can be looked upon as the scum of the earth.I can understand some of the reasons for alarm and apprehension.Certainly, when someone is using hard drugs they are not the ideal neighbours to have next door. Nevertheless, we can often give the recovering drug user the same label.Such opinions prevent the mending addict from recovering.At times society can act as if it wants to murder such people and wipe them off the face of the earth. I firmly believe that society also needs a form of rehabilitation which enables it overcome its fears and anxieties. From the day we leave our mother's womb we are in a transit state of being.On the journey we can be stuck in the mud of our narrow-mindedness and our headstrong emotions.In the silence of our hearts we can be rescued. Tranquillity provides us with a time to ponder. Just because we think we are normal,it doesn't mean we don't need to change . We are a people who can label and character assassinate our neighbour. Each Sunday we can take our seats in the pews and go to the altar for the Eucharist and then hurry home to read the Sunday tabloids,which reveal the downfall of the weak. As a society we can get a buzz from such activity. Again I say we are a society with institutional sin. We need this period of Lent for spiritual growth and rehabilitation. Walking with recovering drug addicts seeing them come back to life is a profound experience . They continue to touch my life in a deep way. In the true sense of the word they go out into the wilderness where they face the reality of their devastation. These are people who have been with the wild beasts of narcotics.These drugs have ripped them apart and have taken away their dignity. These are people who have been stripped of their self-respect and have been thrown into the dungeon of their isolation.They come to us as a cracked and broken people and invite us to walk with them into their wilderness. For many weeks they stay with us.It is here that they face themselves with honesty and a life change begins to take place. Yet their vulnerability still lasts. They are still labelled as junkies. For me this is a constant reminder of institutional sin. People who refuse to enter into the wilderness of their own lives instigate it.One of my trusted colleagues who continues to give me inspiration was once a heroin addict.I walked with him in the darkness of his lif e. I stared at his drained face when he came to me homeless and abandoned.I watched his eagerness for drugs and saw him dragged away to prison. Yet in the midst of all of this I watched a human life battle with his addiction.I saw a human life stand up and face the reality of his perforated being.This young man entered the desert of his life and in this place he lay the foundation for his restoration.Today he is an active member of our community. He has completely changed as he now reaches out to others in need.Yet I continue to meet people who will say: "you're doing great work but don't set up your tent near us".These are people trapped by ignorance and fear. Edges Magazine continues to break down the barriers,which try to segregate people. In this edition many different individuals share their stories. Please continue to support us in our work. |
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