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Faces & Voices in the News
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Editorial/Opinion
NewsofDelaware.com
February 16, 2005
Quick. Who won the 1990 Super Bowl?
Answer comes in a flash.
Name the actresses on "Friends".
We're rolling now.
Quick. Who's your legislator, state or federal?
Long pause.
OK. We're going to sell some T-shirts.
Maybe if we make them green, people will buy them. They are going to read, "End the drug war now!" on the back and sport the name of "Faces & Voices of Recovery", a national organization working to "mobilize, organize and rally the millions of Americans in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs."
The group is trying to end discrimination and "achieve a just response to addiction as a public health crisis." It also encourages public action to help individuals with drug addiction recovery.
The organization never scored a touchdown in a Super Bowl, but we are thinking maybe we should wear a shirt bearing their name anyhow.
One thing's for sure, it's a lot harder to get statistics on drug addiction in this country than it is to get sports statistics.
The point is, we're expending way too much energy on some things and not enough on others.
A population that's capable of rattling off a long list of sports statistics, and debating for hours the minor details of a a game played in 1973, is capable of tackling many of our society's biggest woes, or at least keeping up with current events.
Why do we talk on and on about recent episodes of American Idol, or the latest celebrity murder trial, but remain mum when protestors and police clash violently at the presidential inauguration?
We seem to have fallen in love with minutiae and the superficial, while detouring around the major issues that affect millions of lives, like the rampant availability and use of drugs.
So what do we do about it? You can't force people to get involved or keep up with the confusing and often overwhelming array of problems out there. It's hard enough just to eek out a living and keep up with your own life.
Then again, we seem to find time for football, so ...