Shameful

Lawrence County, Indiana, used to have a needle exchange program. This program was, so far as I can tell, part of the greater effort in Southern Indiana to battle the fallout from the opioid epidemic. Recall a few years ago when Scott County, IN, had such a needle/opana problem that it had one of the highest AIDS/HIV rates in the nation.

Even Mike Pence eventually got on board with needle exchange programs, if belatedly, as a necessary means to save lives.

Well, Lawrence County (i.e. Bedford) just ended their program. That's bad enough, if you ask me. I would be willing to pay a bit more in taxes to keep such a program going; I would also be more than willing to stop just ONE corporate tax giveaway to keep it going. However, if the community generally can't afford the program, I get it. Lord knows there are a lot of things that I can't afford, so I go without.

However, from what I can tell, Lawrence County did not end this program because of finances. Here is what WishTV reported:

[C]ounty Prosecutor Michelle Woodward told the commissioners she couldn’t support a program that facilitates illegal drug use.

Madison County ended its two-year-old needle exchange program in August after officials in the central Indiana county voiced similar concerns.

Well, color me shocked. A prosecutor sanctimoniously approaches the drug epidemic from a law enforcement perspective and wants to arrest/prosecute our way out of the drug problem (because that has worked so well for the past 40 years!).

Here is what NBC reported:

Rodney Fish, one of the council members who voted against keeping the needle exchange program going, said he does not approve of needle exchange programs and cannot condone the county’s sponsorship of one.
“I did not approach this decision lightly. I gave it a great deal of thought and prayer. My conclusion was that I could not support this program and be true to my principles and my beliefs.” “It was a moral issue with me. I had severe reservations that were going to keep me from approving that motion,” Fish said.

So, to be clear, Mr. Fish views this as a moral issue and, as a result, votes to ensure that more people overdose and die. I will never understand this view of the world, even if I live to be 100 years old. Real world decisions have real world consequences. Burnishing one's ideological credentials at the expense of some of the most powerless members of our society is shameful. However, NBC soft peddled Mr. Fish's approach here. 

This is what Vox reported:

Before he cast his vote, Fish quoted the Bible — specifically, 2 Chronicles 7. It says, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Well, we all have to answer to St. Peter some day. So, Mr. Fish, I speak directly to you when I raise the possibility that St. Peter asks you about your vote to kill this program; about your justification for it and what you have to say for yourself. Please, consider the possibility that "They were drug addicts and sinners, and they didn't deserve help" may not be a sufficient answer.

Just consider it.

any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee