Why We Must Feel Responsible for Each Other
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBP86UDIPioPmiYaTpgBMTLeZ7lgcziaPiRqvr8-tDLoKMiET2Op6Je0PojRSQN-tzoYBDEpM-RBi0VgjjbMoZcoMtphzlxaVP6iHtw4qZIZGFZMTp4NIdJ6kvtrUywDfTE7MwsElcn7vnh6RPl1nO44ikI9k1YYpeB0erlEFlCf2KEZDXFw54K8pQQBED/s320/pexels-photo-6565235.jpeg)
This quote from the late Amitai Etzioni has become my new mantra: "...we are not merely rights-bearing individuals, but also community members who are responsible for each other." While these words sound good on paper, are they realized in practice? The answer to that is quite simply: no. This, from Joseph Longley in Governing : In 2023, for the third consecutive year, drug overdose deaths robbed more than 100,000 Americans of their lives, according to recently released data . The scale of this loss — a fivefold increase from the early 2000s — is shocking: Overdose deaths today outnumber fatalities from gun violence and car accidents combined. Would a nation of people who truly felt "responsible for each other" stand idly by as over 100,000 of their brothers and sisters suffered such miserable and premature deaths? I would think not. Longley presents us with some disturbing data: Despite the crisis we are in, 85.1 percent of people with a substance use dis