Cars, not busses

A Philadelphia and American story

Actions most definitely create consequences.

Our daughter has lived in central Philadelphia since early 2018 when she departed East Lansing for Temple University. She is an urban being, thriving on the energy of cities. I was dubious when she discussed transferring to Temple, knowing nothing about city Philly, but succumbed when I realized she was determined to finish her undergraduate education in a more lively place. She is not a sports fan so Michigan State was just not her thing. It helped that her cousin and best friend had similarly transferred to TU several years earlier.

After graduating, she has continued thriving in the city. She is now part of a community garden, is getting to know neighbors and their behaviors (‘you didn’t move his cone, did you, as he is really annoyed when he can’t have his parking spot!’) and she feels like a Pennsylvanian.

She also regularly takes public transport as she has never had a car, barely shown any interest in associated obligations. Plus, she is of the green generation.

All true until night before last when she expressed interest in a car. We talked a bit about it, sent her to look at the options I would consider, she heard my husband’s thoughts and said goodnight.

She asked last night how I felt about it. I said I couldn’t understand why she would give up a good thing as cars require parking, insurance, maintenance, and the like. The bus is working, so why burden yourself, I texted.

Then she expressed what is really occurring. ‘I am so tired of riding the bus with the heroin addicts,’

Whoa. I mean ugLY wowsa.

She had told me within the past month about a bus ride to the local Aldi market where a woman with her young son were on the bus. The lad did not understand what was wrong with one passenger, sitting on the bus with a syringe in her hand. The mother unsurprisingly wanted to get her son away from the scene so they hopped off the bus earlier than their desired stop.

When I expressed horror, my daughter noted she sees it all the time. She used to walk to Market Street where she works but is healing from a foot injury so her rehab guy recommending she take the bus until things improve. My daughter said heroin users are frequently on the bus; I am betting it is something they can afford instead of proper domiciles and without nosy staff or rules at aNy shelter.

I understand why, because she can afford it, she would prefer not to confront that a minimum of ten times weekly. Our American addiction issues, so vividly being discussed in the Hunter Biden trial, are pervasive rather than a problem of a political target because someone is the president’s son. The ‘war on drugs’ which I first heard about under Richard Nixon in the late 1960s is a demand problem both parties at all levels of government are failing to solve.

We could address it as the Thais, Chinese, or Islamic governments do: being caught with drugs certainly results in incarceration while distribution leads to even more draconian steps. Occasionally, simple use leads to the death penalty and those nations have fewer drug addiction problems.

We tried ‘three strikes, you’re out’ for a generation only to find it packed prisons with ‘minor’ users and we aren’t keen to build more prisons. Additionally, whole swaths of the public see—and voted on—a substantial difference between marijuana, still a drug under federal law if you’re trying to get a security clearance, and ‘harder’ drugs like heroin, Ecstasy, and LSD. Federalism tends to allow nationwide laws to fill jails without solving the demand across the nation. Philadelphia is certainly hit hard but recent stories in several newspapers actually call Baltimore the worst overdose community in America. San Diego, Springfield (in any of the couple of dozen states with a town by that name), Boise, Bentonville or Minnetonka are likely places with major drug problems because the demands increasingly seem ubiquitous even if the preferred illegal substance varies from location to location. Baltimore is certainly not unique in this painful condition but overdoses undermine cities and the disputes of populations unable to escape.

We will go car admiring, if not actually purchasing, this weekend with her as she hasn’t been a driver for a while. She is lucky she doesn’t have massive debt to preclude her from addressing this lifestyle change. The car will create opportunities and some challenges but hopefully nothing like hopping on a bus to have your seat mate pull a needle.

The causes of drug problems and urban decay are multiple, deep and depressingly pervasive. It is seductive to look for unicausal explanations but we have tried those for yesterday without success. Unfortunately, a consequence of this will be one further driver adding to global warming but so it goes.

Actions create consequences, despite attempts, intentions, and years of actions to the contrary.

If you have remedies, please send them forward as we are retreading failure of many generations’ duration. Drugs are diabolical for both our country and the afflicted individuals.

Thank you for reading this and any other ACC column. If you find it valuable, please feel free to circulate. Thank those who subscribe as you motivate me every single day. Have you thought about moving the subscribers with financial support for this work,

Get outside this weekend. Be well and be safe. FIN

Alissa Zhu, Rebecca Suner, and Claire Hogan, ‘Baltimore’s Fatal Overdose Crisis’, NewYorkTimes.com, 3 June 2024 retrieved at https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000009474612/behind-the-reporting.html?searchResultPosition=2