First -- a song some of you might remember:
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine? ...
I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?
That song is the theme to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I used to watch that show, and I still sing that song from time to time. For some reason, it was in the back of my head as I watching a particular news story on Facebook today. It was of a family hoping to relieve others of the stigma of addiction by being truthful about the fact that their college-aged son died of a heroin overdose. Nice, White, Middle-class family whose child died of Substance Abuse Disorder. I was resonating with their objective, until the father of the deceased said the following:
"My son was not a junkie. He was not some dirty [he paused here, seeming to search for a word] back alley drug addict."
Of course not. Dirty, back alley drug addicts live in urbanized areas (where there are alleys). They are probably on the low end of the economic spectrum. They are probably people of color, or suffering from mental illness, or victimized and exploited teenaged runaways, etc. Dirty back alley drug addicts are not nice White kids from the suburbs. Nice White kids from the suburbs have substance abuse disorder.
So I am thinking that all of our new-fangled master plans and task forces that claim to want to rid our society of the scourge of drugs (heroin, in particular, these days) are really perpetrating a lie. The lie is that these efforts are being put in place to set the whole of society free from addiction. The truth is that these efforts only intend to liberate those considered valuable. And I am pretty sure that the thought process does not include anyone poor, or Black or Brown or mentally ill or victimized or oppressed.
Jesus, whose disciple I am, made it a point to be in the midst of those whom society deemed devoid of value. He ate with, fellowshipped with, taught, touched and healed society's worthless. In this way, he changed their lives and set them free. There was no one outside of his compassionate reach, because all were children of the God who had sent him. Jesus' definition and depiction of who in the world had inherent worth often took others by surprise. Like this:
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine? ...
I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please,
Please won't you be my neighbor?
That song is the theme to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I used to watch that show, and I still sing that song from time to time. For some reason, it was in the back of my head as I watching a particular news story on Facebook today. It was of a family hoping to relieve others of the stigma of addiction by being truthful about the fact that their college-aged son died of a heroin overdose. Nice, White, Middle-class family whose child died of Substance Abuse Disorder. I was resonating with their objective, until the father of the deceased said the following:
"My son was not a junkie. He was not some dirty [he paused here, seeming to search for a word] back alley drug addict."
Of course not. Dirty, back alley drug addicts live in urbanized areas (where there are alleys). They are probably on the low end of the economic spectrum. They are probably people of color, or suffering from mental illness, or victimized and exploited teenaged runaways, etc. Dirty back alley drug addicts are not nice White kids from the suburbs. Nice White kids from the suburbs have substance abuse disorder.
So I am thinking that all of our new-fangled master plans and task forces that claim to want to rid our society of the scourge of drugs (heroin, in particular, these days) are really perpetrating a lie. The lie is that these efforts are being put in place to set the whole of society free from addiction. The truth is that these efforts only intend to liberate those considered valuable. And I am pretty sure that the thought process does not include anyone poor, or Black or Brown or mentally ill or victimized or oppressed.
Jesus, whose disciple I am, made it a point to be in the midst of those whom society deemed devoid of value. He ate with, fellowshipped with, taught, touched and healed society's worthless. In this way, he changed their lives and set them free. There was no one outside of his compassionate reach, because all were children of the God who had sent him. Jesus' definition and depiction of who in the world had inherent worth often took others by surprise. Like this:
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
So let's make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we're together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
RSS Feed