Whimsical candy in the midst of tragedy and outrageous governmental policy...
As I was distributing the water and kisses and doing everything possible to make sure I didn't say to the ladies "May I give you a kiss?" I was well aware of two of those ladies who should not be there tonight.
Both had been arrested and detoxed in jail.
One of them was released from jail in the middle of the night. With no place else to go since she could not reach a family member to give her a ride to a safer place, she ended up right back under the bridge where her addiction got a kickstart. And so there she was, sitting on her mat, drinking my delivered water, unwrapping the kisses and preparing her next injection.
The second, upon discharge, part of her legal obligation was to get into rehab within one week. Two weeks later, she's still trying to navigate an outrageously broken system and getting high again.
______________________________
Dear Philadelphia,
What do you think you could have done differently for each of these women so that they would not have been on the street tonight?
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A third lady and her brother were preparing to meet with an undertaker to discuss her adult son's funeral.
An older man was celebrating his birthday and asked me to have Urban Hope's Family Night gathering pray for him by name for his recently developing health issues which are not related to his addiction.
If you were looking for some deep meaning in tonight's blog, I can't say that I have one in mind.
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