Plain Talk: Is Truth Dead?

Plain Talk: Is Truth Dead?

Join the community for a Hope Walk for Addiction at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai on Saturday, April 22 at 10:30 a.m.

By Father Francis Pizzarelli

Father Frank Pizzarelli

That’s the headline on the cover of the April 3 edition of Time magazine. Definitely a provocative question with all that is happening in our nation and among our presidential administration. Fake facts, fake news, manipulative truth is contributing to a cesspool that is overflowing and infecting communities across our country.

Fact: Our president was elected by the Electoral College in November 2016 and was inaugurated as our president in January 2017.

Fact: The Republicans control Congress and the White House.

Fact: Presidential leadership is hard and complex!

The challenge for all of us is to seek the balance with insight, integrity and honesty with all that we do and say. An entire younger generation is hanging in the balance, waiting in the wings to see how we act and treat one another. It is critical that we lead by example and hold everyone accountable for what they say, for what they do and for what they have failed to do!

Change is disarming and difficult but necessary, if we are to grow and reach our full potential. It is frightening because we are being forced to move out of our comfort zone and genuinely look for truth and recognize that not all who lead us tell the truth. We must transcend all of our political differences and empower one another to work for the common good of all Americans, no matter what their social or political circumstance.

Our new presidential administration was elected on the principle of change, and it brings many creative new ideas that urge us to look at doing business differently. The opioid epidemic, according to our new president, is a priority social issue for his administration. Members of the administration want to confront, contain and ultimately end this lethal infection.

For more than 25 years, I have given voice to this serious epidemic issue. I have talked at more governmental task force meetings than I can count. Like many others in the trenches, I am disgusted with the rhetoric, which is on the slow track to nowhere. Every level of government promises action and has delivered little or nothing.

We need money, beds and long-term residential programs without red tape for people in need who can access it immediately before it’s too late. Every day I have to turn young people away from our long-term residential treatment program. The waiting list is growing exponentially. We try to network people to wherever a bed might be available. Today available beds are hard to come by.

Insurance companies make the issue of treatment even harder. They ask their clients who are heroin addicts to try outpatient treatment first and fail before they are willing to pay for a short-term 28-day residential program. They are failing in record numbers — they are dying! That is unconscionable!

On Saturday, April 22, the first annual Hope Walk for Addiction will take place at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai at 10:30 a.m. It’s not only a memorial walk to honor and remember a 25-year-old who overdosed on heroin by the name of Billy Reitzig, but also a community effort to raise awareness, provide education and raise funds for individuals and families afflicted by addiction. For information, visit www.hopewalkforaddiction.org.

This effort is being championed by Billy’s dad, Bill Sr., who lost his son to heroin on April 22, 2016. He could have buried his head in the sand with grief and pain, but he chose to honor his son’s life by courageously giving voice to one of the nation’s most serious health crises in this century. He and his family’s efforts are courageous and heroic and are making a profound difference. They are genuinely inspiring us to do more. Miracles do happen. I see them everyday! Hope does not abandon us; we abandon hope!

Fr. Pizzarelli, SMM, LCSW-R, ACSW, DCSW, is the director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson.