I don’t know about you but this year I have heard more than the normal amount of Bah-humbuggery. We all hear it to some degree every year, but it just seems to be more prevalent. Maybe it’s the economy. Maybe it’s from having our hope of a better future dawning with the new administration being slowly strangled by Washington that has dimmed the normally bright light of the season.

The war on drugs is still an abysmal failure. We as a people should just shut down all the law enforcement efforts to fight drugs in this country and just save the money. An outrageous statement? Since President Regan started the “War on Drugs,” substance abuse in this country has not decreased one damned bit. The economy is bolstered by all the money spent on police, lawyers, courts, prisons, rehab, and so on. So no. The war on drugs will never be won because there is too much money to be made on both sides. And the price continues to be paid mostly by our young people as they become slaves to addiction.

Recently I became familiar with another such individual. They say first impressions are the most important. This young man came across as nothing more than a two-bit street hustler willing to sell his butt for whatever drug or booze he could get. I tried to talk with him for the purpose of getting to know him and maybe show him a way out. Nope. He wanted to go right back to the trash who look at him as nothing more than a piece of meat they can take home once in a while. I asked him many different questions across a wide range of subjects. I also know from his answers that he is not a bad kid nor is he addicted to as many things as he says. Maybe those false beliefs are a way to justify what he is doing with his life. I don’t know.

I do know that because of the drug problem in this country it is much easier for him and those like him to take the easy way out and sell not just his body to these enablers, who are the worst kind of scum the world has ever produced, but their souls for a quick fix or wad of ones. And my mood goes down. Not with pity, but with disgust. Not at the guys trying to survive, but at the lack of humanity in our world.

But then hope pops up every once in a while. A couple of years ago one on my writers did an op-ed about some bad drama going on in New London. He tore up the perpetrators behind bad rumors that were spread about a really decent guy. Well, the guy is now in his late twenties and he showed up again. But this time he went to the target and apologized. He came clean about realizing he allowed himself to be manipulated into thinking that what he did was cool. He did not ask for forgiveness, just offered a heartfelt apology to someone he had hurt.

Way to go, Kenny. It is not only a breath of fresh air to see someone evaluate their actions, learn something hard to learn about themselves and then do the right thing. But it shows there is hope for the future of our troubled youth. It shows me there is hope for all the hustlers to find their way out of the trap they don’t even know they are in. At least it makes me look forward knowing there is a better world ahead, and gives me inspiration to keep trying to help. And hope is what this time of year is really all about.  

I wish you all a very happy holiday season and all the best of everything in the new year.