Would somebody please tell me just what is going on?

I ask this because, I admit it, I haven’t been keeping up with the news as well as I should be. So, I have been in the dark about several items, catching bits and pieces from quick glances at newspapers, the news, conversations and, God forbid, A Current Affair, but I’m still not as knowledgeable as I should be.

So, what the hell? Last week I heard that some woman in Detroit let her 13-year-old-girl be raped by a dealer so this bimbo could get her crack fix. An innocent child used as a pawn. Is this what is really happening in the world? My God. Everyday I find that I am even more naive than I ever thought I was. I guess it’s…no… I know that my naivity has its roots in my desire for the world to be a safe, happy place. Is that so wrong?

Well, apparently so. Sometimes I get the feeling that I am the only one who is not out to make a fast buck. Okay, cool down, because I know that this is anything but the truth. But before I keep going on this I’m-okay-you’re-not-okay bit, I will get to the point.

As everybody knows, or should know, drugs are a huge problem. Children today think it commonplace of drugs as a part of society. For instance, in a small town on the East Coast, police stopped a little boy and a little girl from running their so-called “lemonade stand.” But this was no ordinary lemonade stand, this was a drug stand. Two kids, selling bags of someone’s left over grass clippings as pot and mom’s table sugar as cocaine. Pretty funny, huh?

NO. We are in big trouble, folks. These kids have already learned, at such a young age, that drugs make a fast buck. Not that they might make a fast buck or could make a fast buck but that they will. No questions. No problems. Already they have learned that other kids will buy those little bags of poison. Already they have learned that those little bags of poison are pretty easy to come by.

But, hey, it’s just a game.

No, it is not a game. This is real. This is now. This is life. And if things don’t change soon, drugs will remain a part of life for our children and for our children’s children.

I think one of the worst parts of this entire atrocity is we don’t even know where to start to fight the war that we’ve already lost. Should we nail the suppliers? Should we deter the young non-users who have yet to be spoiled by this epidemic? Should we first try to clean the streets or should we first start by making sure they don’t become filthy? Is it too late?

For some reason, I feel like we’re trying to win a game in which the last field goal has already been kicked and we lost by only a point. Is it too late to catch up? Does it matter now, really, how we play this game? If we lose, then, boy, have we really lost. I sure as hell don’t want my kids to be the pawns in this devilish game. I don’t even want them to know the rules.

So often we hear of plans that will help the children of tomorrow. But what about those trapped in today? Babies are being gunned down in the filth of our streets and we can’t even help them. Babies are selling poison to other small ones, saying “Aw, c’mon. Once won’t hurt you,” and these gullible, innocent babes are buying it—both the drugs and the lines.

Someone has to stop these kids of today. Stopping it tomorrow won’t help now. Tomorrow is just too damn late.