VETS AND PETS

A veteran of never ending war against poverty sat with me at lunch today. We talked of HIStory, mourning and grief, and of feeling trapped in the poverty of powerlessness that comes from a lack of faith. People are dying all around us, we agreed, most of them by their own choices. So intolerable did IT seem that we didn't talk long. We did arrive at a common sense conclusion. We have lost many friends who have chosen to die by the substances they consume rather than feel powerless in a world that no longer seems to care.