Choice

We have all made bad choices. We are all fallible, even the dogmatically infallible Pope. The measure of an ethical person is what he/she does with the results of a bad choice.

 

I recently attended a civic association meeting where newly declared political candidates for the Boston city council were speaking in contention for the November election. One outstanding young man announced that he was formerly a drug addict. He has been sober/clean for ten years. He is currently working at a major hospital in a program to prevent HIV and Hepatitis C infections.

 

He took a question concerning a rash of methadone-addicted vagrants in our neighborhood. A private methadone clinic has been recruiting clients from far and wide for profit. Once dosed, the addicts, most of whom are unemployed and many of whom are mentally ill beyond addiction, simply hang around the area. They beg in the streets at traffic lights. They nod off in doorways.

 

The candidate had the courage to clearly state his opposition to methadone treatment. "Methadone killed my brother," he stated firmly. The general membership of the association, which tends to have an older demographic, looked embarrassed by his honesty. The candidate stated that he would oppose licensing more clinics sponsored by the drug companies which supply the methadone, paid for ultimately by taxpayers.

 

This man has been able to recognize his bad choices. He did something about them within his life. Now he is able to help others to avoid making the same choices as an example and a facilitator. This is a humanist story, whether the man who is its subject considers himself a humanist or not.