Block Watch

Politicians, community, and religious leaders have failed to recognize that chemical dependency is a disease that is running rampant throughout the greater Hartford area. Community and religious leaders tend to blame it on bad parenting, or the lack of morals and ethics. Politicians tend to blame it on being dependent upon social services. 

Many people don’t understand addiction in relation to illness; they can get a basic understanding of chemical dependency through reading recovery literature or listening to those who are addicted or recovering from drugs.  It doesn’t make a difference whether you’re a pothead, crack head or a dust head, whether you downed shots or shot drugs. It isn’t the drug alone that entraps and hooks the addict; it’s the overwhelming stench of poverty and homicide that has crept into every district in Hartford, CT.

The City of Hartford has an addictive personality; some people will argue that drugs have the power to entrap and hook the addict. I beg to differ; chemical dependency doesn’t seem to be about a particular substance or a personality type but about the relationship that forms on a physical, mental and spiritual plane with those that become addicted.

Many will not agree with me, this is all right; they are entitled to their opinions. However the lives of people living above and below the poverty level are endangered by people who are addicted or preoccupied with their drug of choice; they tend to stand on every corner in a neighborhood near you or me. Never wanting to go anywhere they don’t have access to their drug of choice.

When I take a walk through my neighborhood, I see people that are hooked on drugs loitering in front of Bodegas and package stores. I can safely assume through a visual and verbal assessment that one of the biggest excuses I have heard used for drug addiction or relapse is some variation of this: “if you had to deal with being unemployed, homeless, and no social support system you’d get high too.”

Let’s face it- being on the verge of eviction, being unemployed and having knock-down-drag out fights with someone you loved, or just  wanting to get high to escape the pressure of poverty – are all serious and involve socioeconomic factors that have been created by preexisting ethnic and economic disparities.

We can agree that everybody has problems, but not everybody is unemployed and on the verge of eviction. We can also agree that everybody has problems, but not everybody is an alcoholic or drug addict.  It is also safe to say that people get high for reasons other than “life’s problems”; some get high because “they like to get high, have fun, to enjoy sex, or when they are bored, or just to fit in, or maybe it was their birthday, or because it was Friday and they just wanted to get high on any day at all.

It is a known fact that once a person is addicted to any drug in a particular class, he or she has built up a tolerance for any drug in that same class. So when I hear Politicians, community leaders or religious leaders give sound bites of encouragement and empowerment; it makes me question the message of the leader.  How do you empower a person living below the poverty level to not rely on the social system for the basic necessities of life, how do you encourage a drug addict or alcoholic  to stay sober  when there is a package store in a 2 block radius  in every neighborhood near you or me.

Poverty is becoming a progressive disease in greater Hartford; it has spread into neighborhoods, knocking on the doors of people that refuse to believe that Hope and faith are nonexistent in a City that is considered to be among one of the richest States in America.  People have a hard time accepting being impoverished in a City who slogan boasts “Hartford is where it’s at”.  I wish a politician, community leader or religious leader would tell me “where they did that @” How do you gather power when you are in a downward slide with no resources or economic development on the horizon.

Do you suggest they call the Mayor, The Governor or the local City and State Representative? Do they go speak before the State legislature only to be shut down with “who are they to complain?” They are the citizens of Hartford that voted the elected official in office. They are the congregants that come to church and tithe a widow’s offering; they are the volunteers that work in conjunction with community leaders that door knock registering and bartering for the vote of the impoverished resident of Hartford. They are the inhabitants living within the City of Hartford struggling to live above and below the poverty level in a district near you.

 The stench of poverty and homicide makes a toxic cocktail in any urban setting. Parents are no longer chasing away the boogey man; they are chasing dreams that have been deferred from the lack of economic development in a City who main source of funding is based on federal grants for the poverty-stricken citizen. ! A parent worst nightmare usually consisted of teenage pregnancy, dropping out of school or incarceration. Now they are threatened with the nightmare of Homicide, Sandy Hook was not the only neighborhood affected by gun violence in Connecticut.

No one goes to jail, drops out of school or gets pregnant to rely on the social system. However; corrupt officials are elected into office based on the misunderstanding that they would help the indigent residents living within the City of Hartford. Former Governor Roland was a robber baron that shut down public services, and put into operation a program designed to wean indigent people off of social service; the primary mission of AFDC is to help those people living below the poverty level however; Roland’s hand was deep in the cookie jar. Former Mayor Eddie Perez and Former Council woman Veronica   Airey-Wilson refused to hear the complaints of residents living in North Hartford tormented by slum lords who failed to comply with State and Federal fair housing laws; however they accepted bribes and renovations to their own homes. The list goes on and on of when it comes to tainted politicians working in the best Interest of Hartford residents.

Yes, there are many churches scattered throughout Hartford collecting tithes and telling their members not to worry have faith; rely on God and he will provide all your needs.  We can agree faith is believing without seeing. 

The pastor can preach that worry and fear is stopping your blessings and “God won’t give you what you want when you want it”. They will preach” either God is in charge or he isn’t”. Yet, they still accept love offerings for their contribution to the Church…Suggesting that the impoverished church member is welcome to the food pantry, or questioning the amount of tithes that was paid. 

However FEAR is real! Fear can be defined as “False Evidence appearing real”. Are you better off today than you were yesterday? Are you better this month compared to last month or last year? 

Are you Broke or Better?

Martha Hood PhD