Opinion: The high cost of cheap talk

There’s nothing like hundreds of happy, excited kids to boost your spirits. Except maybe hundreds of happy, excited kids wearing “DRUG FREE BODY” T-shirts, marching through the streets with colorful, handmade signs urging “Say No to Drugs!”

I had the pleasure of walking with Eileen Mackey’s class in the annual “Say No to Drugs” march yesterday. She teaches 14 very special sixth graders at Pulaski Street Elementary School, one of whom, a boy named Derrick, was kind enough to hold my hand as we walked in the loop that took us past homes, schools and offices in downtown Riverhead.  (See photo slideshow below.)

It was just wonderful to be surrounded by that much happiness, energy and excitement, even if only for a brief time. It was a great reminder of the importance of living in the present moment, a feat I manage only rarely. I suspect I’m not alone. We adults are all too often consumed by thoughts of what has already been and worries about things yet to come. We can learn a thing or two from those 10- and 11-year-old kids.

Looking out over the sea of fresh-scrubbed, eager young faces at the post-march rally on the lawn of Pulaski Street school yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but ponder what the future might hold for them. Will they fulfill their potential in life? Or will they fall victim to the scourge that is drug or alcohol addiction — despite the efforts of parents, teachers, counselors and people like the folks at Riverhead CAP?

There are so many forces at work against maintaining those drug-free bodies in the years ahead: poverty, peer pressure, pop culture — or, as Supervisor Sean Walter told the kids yesterday: evil.

As a parent, you try to do the best you can — and then you pray. You pray that you’ve equipped them with the internal fortitude to say no when the time arrives. And then you pray some more, because you realize you just never really know.

Some of those children assembled on the school lawn yesterday will, in just a few short years, be binge-drinking, smoking pot or crack or popping pills. Some will become addicts. Some will turn to crime to fund their addictions. Some will end up in jail. Or on the streets. Or worse.

As a community, it’s incumbent upon us to do everything possible to prevent our kids from choosing the wrong path. But it takes more than prayer. It takes education. It takes resources. And, yes, it takes tax dollars.

Prevention is far less costly than treatment, especially when treatment includes incarceration. If there’s recognition of this principle among our political leaders, it’s hard to see.

To plug budget gaps, we divert funds targeted for prevention and education — the settlement money in the suit against Big Tobacco as a case in point.  In the name of fiscal conservatism, we eliminate educational programs and cut youth program staff. Then we hire more cops and build more jail cells.

We talk a good game, but we don’t put our money where our mouth is. Talk is cheap, but the price we pay for drug and alcohol abuse — in tax dollars, health care expenses, and a host of intangibles, like lost opportunity — is huge.

For more photos from the march, click here.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
Click thumbnails to enlarge images
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