Portsmouth City Council -- Banning Healthcare Facilities And Zoning Recovery Houses

 

Portsmouth City Council is considering extending a measure directed primarily at the growing number of drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities in Portsmouth. The ban does not exclusively apply to drug and alcohol treatment facilities. New healthcare, medical counseling, and mental health facilities are also not permitted.

Last November 25, the council adopted a facility banning “new healthcare, medical, rehabilitation, counseling or mental health facilities within the City of Portsmouth, Ohio” for one year. The plan was for the city to update its zoning rules to make sure facilities were properly regulated and maintained.

The city could prohibit new facilities permanently.

“Whereas, City staff will require additional time to review and make recommendations on zoning, prohibition and/or limitations of new healthcare, medical, rehabilitation, counseling or mental health facilities so that any necessary regulations conform to goals of the City of Portsmouth and help ensure the public peace, health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.”

(Cyn Mackley. “Should Portsmouth Ban New Rehab Facilities?” Scioto County Daily News. November 2021.)

The Scioto County Daily News reports that according to a memo from City Manager Sam Sutherland, the zoning plan is not finished. Judging from the language of the ordinance extending the ban, Portsmouth may not allow new medical facilities even after the ban expires, “The purpose of this moratorium is so that City staff may determine whether to limit or entirely prohibit healthcare, medical, rehabilitation, counseling or mental health facilities in the City of Portsmouth and to prepare any necessary, related zoning or other regulations.”

Council has expressed concerns about the growing number of drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities in the community. Some say “the large number of treatment centers is not good for the city’s image.” Others claim that the area’s well-documented drug problems justify the number of facilities.

“Harm Reduction Ohio” ranks the death rates for all 88 Ohio counties. Scioto County ranked No. 1 (the deadliest) in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018. It was No. 9, the ninth worst in 2017 and No. 12 in 2016.

In 2020, “Harm Reduction Ohio” reported the next five counties with the highest levels of overdose death – Meigs, Vinton, Pike, Gallia and Ross – are also located in south and southeastern Ohio. The seventh ranked county — Trumbull County (Warren) — is in northeast Ohio.

(“Ohio Overdose Deaths, Ranked By County, 2020”

https://www.harmreductionohio.org/ohio-overdose-deaths-ranked-by-county-2020/. January 07, 2021.)

(“Overdose Death in Ohio: Where does your county rank?” https://www.harmreductionohio.org/overdose-death-in-ohio-where-does-your-county-rank/. Jan 24, 2022.)

Desperate Times And Desperate Measures

Council is currently reviewing a detailed “recovery housing” ordinance which is currently 19 pages long with 17 sections covering all aspects of residential treatment facilities including:

• Services offered and levels of support.

• Recovery residence standards.

• Termination of residency.

• Residents’ rights.

• Training and technical assistance.

• Access to medication.

• Access to finding and referrals.

• Zoning

• Data collection.

• Denial, suspension, or revocation of certification.

• Complaints.

• Appeals.

• Crimes and penalties.

• Confidentiality

• Severability.

WSAZ reported in July 2021 that Portsmouth City Councilman Edwin Martell says that no city has the desire to become the “capital” of recovery. However, when it comes to substance abuse, recovery cannot be ignored. Martell says he is seeing a recurring theme within the city, especially when it comes to recovery housing facilities.

“We’re seeing houses that are not capable of housing the amount of people that are in it. In some cases, there is no hot water, or no water at all and that’s pretty scary,” said Martell.

WSAZ reported although there are plenty of good recovery facilities in Portsmouth, Martell worries that the work they do is being overshadowed by the ones with less than ideal living conditions. He thinks the process to start running a facility is far too easy.

According to Martell, a person just needs to purchase a house, find a certified clinical director with access to Medicaid, and then begin billing for each resident living in the facility.

“The amount of money that is thrown at this with no regulation is very unnerving,” said Martell.

The State of Ohio has voluntary certification programs, but Martell would like to see the City of Portsmouth require recovery facilities to enroll in them. This would ensure that the conditions are up to code and the facility can operate.

“Make sure that it has adequate space. Make sure that it has running water and hot water. Make sure that it has washers and dryers. Some of the basic necessities that people need in order to live!” said Martell.

(Joseph Payton. “Councilman wants more regulations for recovery housing in Portsmouth.” WSAZ Channel 3 https://www.wsaz.com/2021/07/05/councilman-wants-more-regulations-recovery-housing-portsmouth/. July 05, 2021.)

Ohio And “Recovery Housing”

According to the Ohio Revised Code Section 340.01 (A)(3) "Recovery Housing" means housing for individuals recovering from drug addiction that provides an alcohol and drug-free living environment, peer support, assistance with obtaining drug addiction services and other drug addiction recovery assistance.

Ohio Recovery Housing (ORH) is an alliance for individuals and organizations operating quality recovery housing in Ohio. ORH is a state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR), which creates and maintains standards of excellence for recovery housing and the Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.

ORH creates and maintains standards of excellence for recovery housing in Ohio that meet expectations of NARR, and it provides opportunities for peer reviews that regularly document an ongoing commitment to ORH quality standards.

“Recovery Housing In Ohio: Analysis of Resident Survey Data (March 2016-November 2020) prepared by Mighty Crow Media, LLC. and Ohio Recovery Housing is available at the following site: https://www.ohiorecoveryhousing.org/_files/ugd/195f09_700c5f8846bf48f8a69d05b645648693.pdf.

All housing sites affiliated with ORH have been inspected and found to provide a standard of living that meets ORH & NARR requirements. The housing inspection includes health, life skills programming, safety and management reviews that ensure each site lives up to the standards set forth by ORH.

In addition the ORH Associate Peer Review is a set of standards that supersedes any and all previous standards required to be an ORH associate.

The quality review process begins when the application is received by ORH. No claims of operating in good standing with the quality standards can be made until the site visit is completed and approved by the ORH Advisory Board.

Upon approval, associates are encouraged to display documentation that they are in good standing with the ORH quality standards, “Associate of ORH,” or some similar statement in all literature for the property.

(Note that ORH provides peer quality reviews for Levels I, II, and III. Level IVs are licensed by the State of Ohio as residential treatment providers.)

The National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) “Standard 3.0” (November 2018) can be found at the following site: https://narronline.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/11/NARR_Standard_V.3.0_release_11-2018.pdf.

Image

In January 2020, The New York Times published an article about Portsmouth by Sabrina Tavernise – national correspondent covering demographics and lead writer for The Times on the Census – titled “This Town Is Known For Opioids: Can It Escape That Image?”

Tavernise described the wonderful efforts of a small group of younger residents – business owners, college professors, Iraq war veterans and museum curators – led by Jeremy Burnside, personal-injury lawyer turned civic leader, that have brought new energy to solving Portsmouth’s problems “with a goal of changing both the image and reality of life in town, figuring that you cannot really do one without the other.”

Jeremy Burnside has a dream that someday, someone will write a story about his town that has nothing to do with drugs. It is true his town has a problem, Mr. Burnside says. But it also has “an art museum, a circus school, a dog park, a new restaurant, a skating rink and a university – and somehow those things never get mentioned.”

Ed Hughes, recently retired as head of the Counseling Center, Portsmouth’s main rehabilitation facility, said this about Burnside's and other's efforts to change the image of Portsmouth …

“They are working harder at this than anybody I’ve ever seen. I think we may be adjusting to the fact that if things are going to get better, we have to do it. The cavalry is not coming …

“Opinions, for the most part, are still set against people in recovery.”

(Sabrina Tavernise. “This Town Is Known For Opioids: Can It Escape That Image?” The New York Times. January 11, 2020.)

Looking around a busy cafe, Lofts Coffee Company, Hughes said, “Half the people in this coffee shop would say, ‘Why are we spending so much time on these people?’”

At the same time, something is happening, he said, pointing out that places like the coffee shop did not exist 10 years ago

Any lasting change will require real efforts to stitch people in recovery back into the community, Hughes said. That means attitudes have to change.

(Sabrina Tavernise. “This Town Is Known For Opioids: Can It Escape That Image?” The New York Times. January 11, 2020.)

The Bottom Line

All efforts to end the opioid crisis in Scioto County must be applauded. It's hard, thankless work that largely devoted individuals take upon themselves because they love their home. No one wants this unspeakable devastation to continue. And, I think it is very important to celebrate and honor the achievements of so many during times that, quite frankly, depress the progressive spirit. God bless these local leaders, first responders, business people, and private citizens.

However …

At the same time, considering “image” is far less important than dealing with the “reality” of the situation. We here in Scioto regret with all our hearts and minds being known year after year as the “deadliest county in Ohio” – the center of the opioid epidemic. As we lift up all the hard-earned progress and and ponder better strategies to end drug abuse, we simply cannot afford to cut or limit vital services for rehabilitation, healthcare, medical counseling, and mental health.

The statistics paint a horrid materiality, and that very circumstance should be our primary concern. We continue to pursue a positive attitude while working more closely together to end opioid abuse. I believe to ignore or downplay or disparage our assault on the drug epidemic will only make conditions worse.

I agree with Ed Hughes. We must work those people in recovery back into the community. As we do so, we save lives and build stronger relationships between those who stigmatize dependency and those who support rehabilitation. I think we need to do an even better job of inclusion and put more resources into making better transitions. I wonder what changing opinions about recovery would do to lift us out of our many problems. I even wonder what embracing our heritage might do to further progressive change.

The truth is our strength to endure comes from our birthright of being “Children of Appalachia.” The connection we have is central to our bonds as human beings – a deep kinship to the place we call home. Still, part of that bond is that we are isolated both geographically and culturally. From that isolation comes a strong, independent attitude. We all know that some see us as backwards, and despite their view, we still take pride in individualism and perseverance.

From an early age in Appalachia, we learn that if we're not “raised right,” it’s a reflection on our parents – an embarrassment. And shaming our parents is something we would never do … or, at least, should never do.

But, somewhere along the line this pride and appreciation of the basics – the food on our table, the shelters in which we live, the clothes we wear – has been too strongly influenced by greed, materialism, and the pursuit of pleasure. So many people now attempt to escape pain and struggle – things we once valued overcoming on our own – through substances. Abuse of alcohol, opioids, even cigarettes wreck our health and alter our reality. Generations suffer from the addictions and feed a vicious cycle of depression and despair.

My point is – we must return to our resolve of the past, not give up, but instead develop greater understandings to effectively change and fight the substance war we find ourselves in. God knows the rehabs, mental health facilities, recovery houses, and so many others are fighting day and night to do just that. We have to invest even more in these facilities and also in research-based intervention.

We, like those before us, know we must not give up in the midst of great danger, and to fight our way out, we must build our resolve by supporting efforts to end poor health and substandard mental and physical conditions in which we live. Anyone worrying about a negative image must face the root of the problem, not whitewash the epidemic with a thin and temporary veneer or walk away in indifference.

Historical Note:

Since 1999, opioid overdose deaths have increased more than four-fold in the United States—and the Appalachian Region has been disproportionately impacted.9 In 2017, four states within the Appalachian Region (West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky) had the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the country.13 In addition, most Appalachian states experienced increases in drug overdose deaths between 2016 and 2017.

Several factors contributing to higher rates of opioid misuse and overdose deaths converge in Appalachia.Higher rates of injury-prone employment, aggressive marketing of prescription pain medications to physicians, and an insufficient supply of behavioral and public health services targeting opioid misuse contribute to higher rates of opioid misuse and mortality in the Region.

These factors, coupled with limited access to treatment and high rates of poverty, create a multifaceted public health threat. Equally multifaceted intervention strategies are needed to address opioid misuse and overdose deaths in Appalachia.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2019). Overdose death rates. Retrieved from: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

Scholl, L., Seth, P., Kariisa, M., Wilson, N., & Baldwin, G. (2019). Drug and opioid-involved overdose deaths – United States, 2013–2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(51-52), 1419-1427.

Moody, L. N., Satterwhite, E., & Bickel, W. K. (2017). Substance use in rural Central Appalachia: Current status and treatment considerations. Journal of Rural Mental Health, 41(2), 123 

 

Why Are Politicians Attacking Scioto County Rehab Facilities?

Scioto County rehabilitation is currently under fire from local politicians – some have taken particular issue with the number of facilities here, the influx of clients from “outside” of the county, and the dramatic rise in the cost for Children Services. Their perception seems not only to be that opioids have crippled our local government but also to be that recovery has given the county a “black eye” and has even been a factor in continuing the drug trade.

I believe a look back may help residents understand the dire straits of the not-too-distant past, the ongoing efforts to deal with the destruction that occurred here, and the further realistic expectations for the future. What I write is well-documented. The phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the epicenter of opioid crisis is a legacy of hope for so many other American communities dealing with the horrors of addiction.

Let me explain …

Southern Ohio was the National Epicenter of this terrible prescription drug abuse before much-needed reforms were enacted. OxyContin, widely known as “hillbilly heroin” because of its abuse in Appalachian communities like Scioto County, had emerged as a major drug of choice. The high content of oxycodone made OxyContin popular on the street, and swarms of people from Ohio and neighboring states came to the county to purchase the product from evil owners and doctors of Pill Mills, or bogus pain clinics.

In 2010 ten Pill Mills in Scioto county were employing doctors that doled out prescription medications like OxyContin with little discretion. Opioid pain pill addiction became so prevalent in Scioto County that the health commissioner in 2010 declared a public health emergency, something usually reserved for disease outbreaks. What else could he do when nearly one in 10 babies were born addicted to drugs, and rehab admissions for prescription painkiller addictions were five times the national average in 2009? These drugs had contributed to at least 117 overdose fatalities in the county between 2000 and 2008.

Thanks to groups like the Scioto County Drug Action Team, citizen support groups, and health officials, the last of the pill mills was shut down on December 20, 2011, when Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine teamed with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and Scioto County officials to raid the Greater Medical Advance office in the Wheelersburg clinic.

And, finally, in 2011, Ohio lawmakers unanimously passed Ohio House Bill 93 mandating the State Board of Pharmacy to license pain management clinics and, further, providing for clinics to be licensed as terminal distributors of dangerous drugs with a pain management clinic classification. Moreover, the law prohibited the operation of a pain clinic without such a license.

Ohio has since revoked medical licenses for 38 doctors and 13 pharmacists, and convicted 15 medical professionals of improperly prescribing or dispersing prescription pills. Scioto County prospers from the ousting of the Pill Mills.

Scioto's Epic Reaction

People from everywhere wanted to know how Scioto County was able to effect such positive change. College professors who teach sociology classes were inquiring about strategies used by the Action Team. Television hosts were curious about how progress was being accomplished. Other community organizations from all over the United States were constantly communicating with the Scioto Action Team about how to start similar programs.

The Action Team worked through all of the following:

• Media – local, State, and National – shed light on the epidemic and reported on major group activities that encouraged involvement and action.

• SOLACE support group chapters were started all over Ohio to provide support to individuals and families affected by addiction.

• Facebook groups that networked with Fix the Scioto County Problem of Drug Abuse group were established.

• Close connections and work with lawmakers and officials such as county commissioners, city council members, local judges, prosecuting attorneys, State Representatives, State Senators, Ohio Senators, the Pharmacy Board, the Medical Board, the Attorney General, the Governor of Ohio, and the National Drug Czar were initiated.

• Interaction and leadership from local churches and Christian organizations such as the Salvation Army and the Apostolic Coalition were employed.

• Drug education and research by organizations such as The Counseling Center, the Portsmouth Health Department, the Needle Exchange Program, and SOLACE was offered to local schools and community groups.

• Higher education resources and representatives from the University of Cincinnati, the Ohio State University, and Shawnee State University were employed.

• Grants were obtained and help was provided by the Appalachian Regional Commission.

• Drug counselors, rehab professionals, and renowned journalists were summoned.

• Local high school Youth Ambassadors were chosen and trained as educational and motivational resources.

• Connections with police departments, sheriff departments, and the Ohio State Patrol were strengthened and encouraged.

• Cooperation and programming with neighboring states such as Kentucky and West Virginia was established.

• Connections with officials in nearby counties were strengthened as well as regional ties with economic development partnership agencies like the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

Back To the Present

All of this rescue effort was achieved within a relatively short period. As you can see, in the last decade great strides have been made in making Scioto County a stronger and better place of recovery … an area or renewed hope and promise.

After the demise of the Pill Mills, of course, those dependent of opioids switched to heroin, a type of opioid chemically similar to prescription pain relievers that produces similar effects. Heroin is also an opioid drug; it's the illegal cousin of pills like OxyContin. They are all made from the poppy plant, and they are all addictive. The similar high is the object of affection for drug abusers.

Heroin became cheaper and easier to get than prescription opioids. Because of this, people who are addicted to prescription opioids sometimes switched to using heroin instead.

Data from 2011 showed that an estimated 4 to 6 percent who misuse prescription opioids switch to heroin and about 80 percent of people who used heroin first misused prescription opioids. More recent data suggest that heroin is frequently the first opioid people use. In a study of those entering treatment for opioid use disorder, approximately one-third reported heroin as the first opioid they used regularly to get high.

Muhuri PK, Gfroerer JC, Davies MC. Associations of Nonmedical Pain Reliever Use and Initiation of Heroin Use in the United States. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; 2013.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Drugs of Abuse Home Use Test.

Rudd RA. Increases in drug and opioid-involved overdose deaths — United States, 2010–2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2016;65.

 Cicero TJ, Ellis MS, Surratt HL, Kurtz SP. The Changing Face of Heroin Use in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis of the Past 50 Years. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(7):821-826.

Carlson RG, Nahhas RW, Martins SS, Daniulaityte R. Predictors of transition to heroin use among initially non-opioid dependent illicit pharmaceutical opioid users: A natural history study. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016;160:127-134.

 Cicero TJ, Ellis MS, Kasper ZA. Increased use of heroin as an initiating opioid of abuse. Addict Behav. 2017 Nov;74:63-66. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.05.030. Epub 2017 May 23.

Experts say the problem can be traced back to the aggressive prescribing of opioid drugs for pain about 20 years ago. It is easy to trace the Scioto heroin problems to the pens of those evil doctors as they signed prescription pads for opioid drugs.

"When you talk to people who use heroin today, almost all of them will tell you that their opioid addiction began with exposure to painkillers, says Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer for the Phoenix House Foundation and president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

(Laura Sullivan. NPR. February 04, 2014)

Serious Problems Still Exist

Wouldn't it be wonderful if a political wizard could merely wave his magic wand and make the aftermath of opioid devastation go away? Or maybe we could all just pray for help from the Almighty and patiently wait for deliverance from evil, deadly drug abuse. We should keep looking for solutions and praying. However, the truth is we have to act … together … as a county and continue the fight until victory.

Criticizing the wonderful work of rehabs in the county is counterproductive to positive change. One candidate for county commissioner said he was concerned that rehab centers have become a mainstay of the local economy. Scioto County Commissioner candidate Keith Crabtree said …

“All of the other counties around us are sending their rehab patients here to Scioto County. They’re doing that because there’s so many of these that’s coming up now. It’s big money. The problem is that about 85% of these patients will relapse in the first 90 days. When they relapse, there’s nothing to extradite them back to the county that they came from. A lot of them end up staying here. They connect, they become boyfriend and girlfriend, and then they have children. Then you have a crisis with Children Services.”

(Cyn Mackley. “Keith Crabtree Blames Rehabs for CPS Crisis, SOMC Mental Health Cuts.” Scioto County Daily News. Feb. 23, 2022.)

I would like to see sources for the beliefs expressed by the candidate. Relapse is a huge problem, I admit. Yet, when used in conjunction with behavioral treatments, medication-assisted treatments like Suboxone (buprenorphine) have significantly lowered relapse rates. There have been promising results from long-acting buprenorphine subdermal implants that deliver steady-state levels of the opioid agonist, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the newest implant, Probuphine® in May 2016.

Extended-release naltrexone is now clinically available for those with moderate to severe OUD to help them achieve and maintain abstinence from the opiates and prevent relapse.

“Just 'cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”

— George Carlin

Climbing fully back from the opioid epidemic requires time and incredible effort. Herculean strength and resolve is required to address all the problems related to drug abuse. Without a united front from all – political, educational, medical, policing, social entities – struggles will continue to produce negativity and, eventually, poor results.

I would like to see local politicians renew coordinated efforts to end the pain and suffering. I don't deny Children Services struggles with its services as opioid addiction continues. Still, Scioto County is making progress as it confronts the many challenges of rebirth. Kicking dirt in the face of local rehabs is so unfair – so many are dedicated to saving lives and staying the fight. I fear the reaction of some citizens to facilities they consider “dark and undesirable” – places some want to zone out of existence – is making politicians consider votes over needs.

We must take care of people with substance use disorders. Part of that care is fighting the obvious stigma associated with their families, their housing, and their rehabilitation.

There is a stigma associated with rehab because a person who has a drug or alcohol addiction is often considered to be emotionally weak. People then believe such a person does not have enough inner strength to control his or her behavior.

For example, some may believe those suffering with substance use disorders are untrustworthy, unworthy of love and connection, or have problems controlling impulses. The belief that people with substance abuse problems are weak minded is a rampant perception many have. As a result, people are less inclined to be empathetic to those seeking help. These stigmas can also hinder people from getting the help they need because they feel shame. It’s important for people to understand there is not just one face of addiction.

“The disease of addiction affects people of all races, social classes, age groups and genders. In fact, many addicts are functional members of society – they are coworkers, parents, neighbors and friends.”

-- SAMHSA Addiction Center

Beyond just impeding the provision or seeking of care, stigma may actually enhance or reinstate drug use, playing a key part in the vicious cycle that drives addicted people to continue using drugs.

The history of the stigma is long and full of prejudice. Consider the following:

• Opiate addicts in the 1800s were almost exclusively characterized in the press as people of color, including African Americans and Chinese immigrants, even though a large segment of white middle- and upper-class women were addicted, as well.

• In the early 1900s, alcoholics were described as “moral inferiors.” Their children were even labeled as “born criminals” with no ability to determine right from wrong.

• In 1914, the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act was passed and aggressively enforced. This not only criminalized addicts, as well as treating physicians, but also many existing treatment methods.

• Due to “zero-tolerance” policies, such as the War on Drugs in the 1970s, society’s focus shifted from treatment to criminalization as a “solution” to chemical dependency. As a result, incarceration rates (as well as substance abuse rates) have skyrocketed in recent decades.

Research has shown that facilities designed to serve special populations such as people with mental health issues, insecure housing, or drug abuse problems often are stigmatized and disdained. Frequently the main concern is crime – for example, that a drug treatment center (DTC) will bring with it an increase in violent crimes such as homicides and violent assaults.

And, of course, residents are right to be concerned about safety, property values, noise and traffic, and unpleasant behavior on the street, all of which reduce the quality of their lives.

Debra Furr-Holden, A&S '96, SPH '99 (PhD), an associate professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Mental Health, led a recent study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, that analyzed Baltimore crime statistics in the vicinities of various establishments, including DTCs. The data reveal that community members should be more worried about liquor stores than drug treatment centers.

(Dale Keiger. “Do drug treatment centers bring more crime to a neighborhood?” Johns Hopkins Magazine. John Hopkins University. Spring 2016.)

Here are Furr-Holden's revealing findings:

“The standard public anxiety about a DTC attracting crime to the neighborhood is not borne out by the data. Crimes tend to cluster around any sort of public establishment because stores, clinics, etc., draw people to the streets and crime happens where there are concentrations of people. But according to these research results, you are significantly more likely to encounter violent crime near a liquor or corner store than a DTC, and neighborhoods often recruit the former (especially corner food stores) while trying to discourage the latter.

"'Drug treatment centers are a public health need; they are as necessary as urgent care centers and emergency departments," says Furr-Holden. 'Our research shows that DTCs do not impact communities any more than other commercial businesses. Moving forward, communities should work with researchers, policymakers, and DTCs to have an honest dialogue regarding placement of this needed resource.'

(C. Debra M. Furr-Holden , Ph.D., Adam J. Milam , Ph.D., M.H.S., Elizabeth D. Nesoff , M.P.H., Renee M. Johnson , Ph.D., David O. Fakunle , B.A. “Not in My Back Yard: A Comparative Analysis of Crime Around Publicly Funded Drug Treatment Centers, Liquor Stores, Convenience Stores, and Corner Stores in One Mid-Atlantic City.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 77, 17–24. 2016.)

I'll close with this: Relapse rates for patients treated for drug abuse are similar to those for people treated for chronic illnesses like asthma and high blood pressure. Relapse to drug use doesn’t mean that treatment has failed. The chronic nature of substance dependence means that relapse can be part of the healing process for some patients.

Estimates contend more than 50% of those who pass through drug or alcohol rehabs need multiple rounds of therapy to attain a form of recovery that lasts. But even so, not all of these individuals emerge successful in their fight against addiction. The facilities deal with human beings, not easily fixable automatons, and all their personal struggles to maintain sobriety.

Completing substance abuse treatment doesn’t guarantee sobriety. After leaving rehab centers, patients usually go back to environments where they abused drugs. Some places, people, or things can spark memories of drug use, and trigger urges that cause relapse.

Different aspects can increase the chances of relapse, including:

1. Poor rehab services

2. Internal and external aspects like not seeking further assistance, triggers to further using, fatigue, physical pain, depression, self-pity, dishonesty, and unemployment.

(Alexandra LaFollette. “Why is the Drug Rehab so Frequently Unsuccessful? Struggling With Addiction. September 3, 2020.)

Consider the area and our high rates of all of the above internal and external factors that contribute to relapse. We ring the bell on all of those aspects, don't we? The truth is we have become (1) first, a breeding ground for opioid abuse largely ignored for years, (2) a model for community action against this abuse, and (3) a rehabilitation center focusing on recovery, a county still struggling with the deep fallout of an epidemic that crippled nearly everything we once knew.

This fight must be prioritized as a main concern for Scioto County. I understand the negativity it generates to a point. However, the war is no place for backbiters, emotionally charged leaders, and stigma-driven exclusiveness. We must rescue those in peril. Of course, this includes people struggling with opioids and their children affected by the drugs themselves.

I remember the days when one life saved and one evil Pill Mill toppled meant so much. I pray that hasn't changed. So many have suffered. So many have died. To abandon the fight and eliminate or curtail rehabilitation facilities … leaving both adults and children at the mercy of deadly invaders … reminds me of Saigon in the spring of 1975.

“This is a time to really focus on the fact that recovery is possible, that 20 million Americans have gotten their lives back by accessing the many different bridges to recovery that are available across the nation.”

– Gary Tennis, Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs secretary 

 

Scioto Children Services, County Commissioners, And Rehabs

 

An important issue in Scioto County is once more making headlines. Those seeking office and those already holding office are struggling to come to grips with what has become known as a “crisis with Children's Services CPS.”

Cyn Mackley of The Scioto County Daily News (online) reports …

“Scioto County Commissioner candidate Keith Crabtree thinks the number of rehab facilities in the area is contributing to other major problems in the county, and he says it’s at the top of his list of things to tackle if he’s elected. He’s concerned that rehab centers have become a mainstay of the local economy.”

Crabtree says …

“All of the other counties around us are sending their rehab patients here to Scioto County. They’re doing that because there’s so many of these that’s coming up now. It’s big money. The problem is that about 85% of these patients will relapse in the first 90 days. When they relapse, there’s nothing to extradite them back to the county that they came from. A lot of them end up staying here. They connect, they become boyfriend and girlfriend, and then they have children. Then you have a crisis with Children Services.”

(Cyn Mackley. “Keith Crabtree Blames Rehabs for CPS Crisis, SOMC Mental Health Cuts.” Scioto County Daily News. February 24, 2022.)

Crabtree says the number of kids in CPS care in Scioto County is 4 times the average of other rural counties in Ohio.

Mackley reports Crabtree says …

“It’s because of what’s coming into our county, that’s what happens. It’s not that these are bad people. An addiction is not something that can be cured. These facilities are not curing that. They’re creating problems.

“I’ve been around a lot of those folks in the rental business. When things start getting bad for them, a lot of them relapse because it’s easier to go back into the facility because everything is taken care of for them.”

(Cyn Mackley. “Keith Crabtree Blames Rehabs for CPS Crisis, SOMC Mental Health Cuts.” Scioto County Daily News. February 24, 2022.)

Let me see if I can crunch this down …

So, Keith Crabtree claims there are too many rehabs in the area and this is contributing to a Child Protective Services crisis. He believes that too many clients come into Scioto County for treatment, but quickly relapse, and, after even further treatment, eventually “connect” and have children. Crabtree thinks this procreation causes major problems including a so-called “CPS crisis.”

In the meantime, the Scioto County Commissioners discussed their letter to restructure the Children’s Protective Services (CPS) Board at their meeting on February 24.

“Essentially what this letter would do is restructure the board, not eliminate or resolve, but restructure the board, shifting the financial and operational responsibility directly under the Commissioners and living under JFS,” said Commissioner, Scottie Powell.

Commissioner, Cathy Coleman said …

“They have no voice, they are put in situations they have no control over, and the bottom line is the welfare of our children. I come from a world of 42 years and a business atmosphere and one thing my husband once told me, who was a previous commissioner, was to run the county like a business and that’s what we must do.”

Coleman feels the opioid crisis has caused an increase in children being greatly affected by CPS.

“When I came in here it was under 200 and then it was over 400, it has went down a little bit but I fear it will go even higher than what we are seeing now,” said Coleman.

“There has to be a fix, I don’t know what it is, I’ve had many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to fix the opioid situation.”

Coleman said the cost for boarding the children is astronomical (“by February the agency needs $730,000”). She doesn't want the board “to take it personally.” But, Coleman says, “The bottom line is it's business.”

Commissioner Bryan Davis said due to the opioid epidemic there has been an increase in boarding, staff shortages, increased physical and mental trauma to children, families, CPS, law enforcement and court staff. He recommends the restructuring of the CPS board through the Commissioners.

Davis said …

“This has been a possibility for over a year, in September 2020 the Commissioners worked with Director of JFS, Director of CPS, and Board of CPS to sign a mutual cooperation agreement to facilitate better communication between the two, this was to identify synergies between the two organization.”

“The goal was to push through as many cases as possible, to get to permanency, to reduce cost and it should also be noted that during this time the commissioners invested in a new special victims unit through the prosecutor’s office,” said Davis.

(Darian Gillette. “Commissioners push for CPS board restructure.” Portsmouth Daily Times. February 24, 2022.)

Davis said the Commissioners were trying to plan ahead.

“We saw the potential that without additional funding that this day, where we are right now, may come and we needed to do all we could to prepare for it,” said Davis. “We didn’t want it to come to this, we were hoping additional funding would come from the state.”

Davis said he doesn’t want to see the board of CPS go through any more personal heartache. He believes they just “want to do the right thing.”

“It simply isn’t worth it and it simply isn’t fair to them,” said Davis. “My recommendation, just as it is with 77 of the 88 counties, is Scioto County CPS being put under the administration of JFS Director. This move will increase financial efficiencies, organizational efficiencies, communication, and identify additional synergies that will save the organization money.”

(Darian Gillette. “Commissioners push for CPS board restructure.” Portsmouth Daily Times. February 24, 2022.)

In yet another post by the Scioto County Daily News, Cyn Macley reported the the Scioto County Commissioners say they’re stripping the Scioto County Children Services Board of their administrative power for their own good. The troubled agency has a projected $2 million shortfall for 2022 and is dealing with the death of the third child in less than three years under the agency’s care.

Commissioner Cathy Coleman said, “I just pray they look at this as us helping them with their burden and not working against them.”

Coleman said, “If it wasn’t for Commissioner Powell, I don’t know when we would have been told they needed money to cover payroll. He asked them ‘How bad is it? What do you need? In my world, if you didn’t pay your people, you wouldn’t have any people for the next week. Bottom line, it’s a business situation.”

(Cyn Mackley. “Commissioners Say They Stripped CPS Board of Power for Good of Members.” Scioto County Daily News. February 25. 2022.)

Commission Chairman Scottie Powell formally introduced a letter at Thursday’s Commissioner’s meeting announcing a complete restructuring of the board. The move would strip the board of all administrative power and move it to what commissioners call “an advisory capacity.”

Powell said the financial and operational responsibilities of the agency would shift to the commissioners and Children Services would “live under” Jobs and Family Services.

Powell said that this was the model across much of Ohio. “When you look at this structure across the state, this work belongs under JFS.” Powell spoke at length about the reasons for the move at Wednesday’s emergency meeting of the Children Services Board.

(Cyn Mackley. “Commissioners Say They Stripped CPS Board of Power for Good of Members.” Scioto County Daily News. February 25. 2022.)

Problems, Problems

To me, the facts speak for themselves. It is evident the large number of children in CPS has put a tremendous financial burden on the county. Many of the children who need assistance are helpless victims, and through no fault of their own, became dependent as the offspring of people in recovery and others struggling with opioid addiction.

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) has reached epidemic proportions not only in Scioto, but also across the United States. Children of parents with OUD are an unrepresented population, who often suffer consequences from their parent's substance abuse disorder.

Such children may incur numerous psychosocial and physical losses. Without intervention, they are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness and/or substance use disorder (SUD).

Research confirms that children of parents with OUD have been impacted through poverty, violence, neglect, and emotional and physical abuse. Although treatment programs may address the family and parental role, few focus on the children. Without building resiliency in a child's mental and physical health, the far-reaching impact of the opioid epidemic will continue.

(Nancy R Ahern, Brandy Mechling, Ruthanne Palumbo, and Elizabeth Woodard. “Children of Parents With Opioid Use Disorder.” J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. March 2021.)

The children are a top priority for Scioto County. Some local politicians have pointed an accusatory finger at the number of drug counseling and rehab centers in the area, saying that they are to blame for the Children Services problem, that they bring in “people” from other areas, and aren't doing an adequate job of rehabilitation.

Davis has said he believe counties should “take care of their own people, have their own rehabs and mental health services.” He opposes more people coming into the county to seek treatment and believes Scioto does not need more rehabs to meet demand.

Let me remind you. I know you haven't forgotten, but this needs to be said because it relates directly to the problems facing Children Services. Scioto County has risen from the ashes of Pill Mill devastation. People here have supported efforts to stop the opioid epidemic and treat those suffering from addiction. In this sense, we are a model for the nation. If you haven't read Sam Quinones's Dreamland, you should. Quinones people in the area – the “community” – opening themselves up to their neighbors and addressing “problems and pains together.”

Not too long ago, the area couldn't get enough professional facilities to treat those who were being crippled and dying. A tremendous amount of effort was expended to bring all phases of the government – county. Portsmouth City, state – together to save lives and drive the evil Pill Mills and their greedy ownership out of the county. That effort was accomplished by clinical study, compromise, and solution.

I can see that a stigma continues to exist – the truth is that many people, including some of those in high places, don't want any association with, attachment to, or even mention of the devastation wrought by the drug trade because they fear the negative perception associated with addiction will hinder progress. They see too many rehabs or recovering addicts as “bad for the growth potential of the area” or indicative of past failure.

I think the truth is that these officials and all the rest of us in the county own the problems we now face. For many years, we scoffed at, failed to react to, or simply ignored the effects of opioids in our midst. When we did react – with great efforts and results I might add – we had our backs against the wall and had to completely change our strategies for winning the fight to reclaim Scioto County.

Now, not long after monumental efforts by the Drug Action Team and others, there are many people who wish to distance themselves from an image they don't particularly like – Scioto County is still in recovery and the business of healing and reconstruction is everywhere. People may not like that; they may not think it is “pretty”; they would much rather build skate parks, pump tracks, and other beautiful, popular additions to the area rather than spend time focusing on addiction and treatment.

After all, anyone who knows about the difficult job of working in rehab knows it's a thankless job that requires getting your hands dirty. And, they know the pitfalls of recovery all too well.

Successful treatment for drug and alcohol addiction requires customization, continual evaluations, and modifications when necessary – all delivered by medical professionals using evidence-based therapies and medications. Relapse rates for drug and alcohol use resemble those of other chronic diseases, including hypertension and diabetes with an estimated 40-60% of individuals relapsing while in recovery.

(Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. National Institute on Drug Abuse. July 2020.)

Unfortunately, less than 42% of the individuals who enter treatment for drug and alcohol abuse complete it.

Individual success in treatment depends on several factors, including:

• The frequency, duration, and type of drug used.

• Criminal behaviors.

• Family and social environments.

• Educational background.

• Employment status.

• Additional physical and mental health conditions.

(Measuring the Effectiveness of Drug Addiction Treatment. National Institute on Drug Abuse. March 30, 2004.)

And, perhaps most important to understand: addiction is a chronic condition, so for some, relapse, or a return to drug and alcohol use, is part of the process. Newer treatments are meant to help reduce the risk of relapse, and an aftercare plan helps people stay the course even after they’ve completed a treatment program.

And, thank God – research indicates that most individuals who receive and REMAIN in treatment stop abusing drugs and alcohol, reduce their criminal activity, and improve their social and psychological functioning.

(Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition). National Institute on Drug Abuse. January 2018.)

Relapse is not an indicator of failed treatment. It means that the individual needs to contact their physician or other healthcare provider to resume treatment, modify modalities, or try a different rehab approach.

So, to close, I believe whatever the complicated, messy, and difficult battle we face while fighting an opioid epidemic must be tackled with patience, dedication, and research-based solutions. Frustrations with the rehab and reconstruction are part of the territory. The solutions are extremely complicated as you can see. They are all tied to education, employment, and potential criminal behavior. And, sadly, they are all tied to the home environment and … children.

Whatever “advisory capacity” the Scioto County commissioners take with Children Services, whatever “restructuring of the board” they do to help finance and administer the program, it must be science-based with research and not prone to emotional reaction and negativity. Why anyone would want to cast an exclusive and dark shadow over Scioto County rehabilitation is something I don't understand. These are much-needed services vital to Scioto County's future.

For example, the Counseling Center is the region’s leader in behavioral healthcare. It offers licensed behavioral and primary healthcare providers employing advanced treatments to help patients achieve long-term mental and physical health goals. The Counseling Center leading the way in shaping positive outcomes for mental health, substance use disorder, physical health, and recovery housing. The staff, board of directors, and development committee work hand-in-hand to assure the best treatment.

No one would say to someone seeking treatment for cancer or heart problems – “Don't come here to Scioto County and SOMC for help if you are from out of the area.” The local hospitals are healthcare businesses: they do not erect boundaries for saving lives. The rehabs in our area do the same. The impact these programs have on the county include so many positive outcomes – local employment, money spent in local businesses, and welcome, sober additions to the waning population. 

Finally, I will risk using an old idiomatic expression to summarize my view – “Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.” In other words, don't discard something valuable or important while disposing of something worthless. In this case, don't literally harm the children while fixing the old, apparent problems with Children Services.

Now, we all know that bathwater was a precious commodity of the past and families were forced to share it. Perhaps the cliche suggests that by the time young children reached the tub, the water would be tepid and rather dirty. Of course parents would be administering the cleaning, and the image of tossing the cloudy contents of the bath without pulling the baby out first would have been a compelling suggestion to those ancestors even if it never actually happened.

Here is the takeaway in the Scioto County dilemma with Children Services – hasty and improperly conceived decisions can sometimes result in disastrous consequences. Finding the real “good and the bad” in a difficult situation can be frustrating and extremely difficult. It's apparent we now have many babies in murky waters that should be clear and healthful. We must not let those dusky conditions further harm the children.

Rehab and Children Services are definitely intertwined; however, they are two distinct entities. I cannot imagine the pain associated with the separation of a parent and a child. Likewise, I cannot fathom being totally dependent on a cancerous opioid. Yet, these things happen constantly around me. No family I know here in Scioto County has been spared these unfortunate consequences. To merely put up my hands and declare “enough is enough” doesn't do a damned thing to solve the problems. Neither does aimlessly blaming someone else for what went wrong. 

I Am a Child

By Neil Young 

I am a child, I'll last a while
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile
You hold my hand, rough up my hair
It's lots of fun to have you there

I gave to you, now, you give to me
I'd like to know what you've learned
The sky is blue and so is the sea
What is the color, when black is burned?
What is the color?

You are a man, you understand
You pick me up then you lay me down again
You make the rules, you say what's fair
It's lots of fun to have you there

I gave to you, now, you give to me
I'd like to know what you've learned
The sky is blue and so is the sea
What is the color, when black is burned?
What is the color?

I am a child, I'll last a while
You can't conceive of the pleasure in my smile

 

Gone With the Wind -- Potentially Toxic "Grace And Gallantry"

I understand the significance of D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and I still believe the David O. Selznick's adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is one of the greatest films of all time. However, the works' portrayal of slavery – a glorification of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy myth – is indicative of gross historical negativism that not only distorts reality but also feeds racism and division.

Millions get their most powerful impressions of the Civil War from fictional films like Gone With the Wind. The popularity was immediate and continues to this day. Fifty years after the appearance of Mitchell's novel, the book had sold 28 million copies and trailed only the Bible on bestseller lists. Selznick's three hour and forty-five minute Technicolor epic dwarfed the book’s profits and won ten Oscars including the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of 1940.

Historical Note:

Mitchell modeled Tara on local plantations in the area of the country where she lived pre-Civil War, particularly the Clayton County plantation (Georgia) on which her maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens (1844–1934), the daughter of Irish immigrant Philip Fitzgerald and his American wife Eleanor Avaline "Ellen" McGhan, was born and raised.

At the very start of the film, we are informed that it is a tribute to the “grace and gallantry” of a vanished civilization in “the age of chivalry.” These impressions are presented as bland, unquestioned assumptions.

The flowery and poetic opening credit prologue begins …

“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South ... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow … Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and Slave … Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind …”

By the way, those words were not in the book. It appears Selznick and the screenwriters did the novel a great disservice in this account. Hollywood altered meanings and bended history. To them, the South was a “land of grace and plenty” (quotations are literal).

Selznic knew that he could “go too far” in his faithfulness to Mitchell's text. "I, for one, have no desire to produce any anti-Negro film," he wrote in an exhaustive, exhausting memorandum to the screenwriter.

(Leonard J. Leff. “‘Gone With the Wind’ and Hollywood's Racial Politics.” The Atlantic. December 1999.)

In its presentation of the times, the film portrays the Civil War as less a sermon on divine retribution, and much more a nostalgic vision of the old Southern way of life – an alternate world portraying benevolent white slaveholders, their complacent, jolly slaves, and the noble Cause of the confederacy they tirelessly fought for.

Consider that when the film was made, segregation was still the law in the South and the reality in the North. And, consider that the Ku Klux Klan was written out of one scene for fear of giving offense to elected officials who belonged to it.

(Roger Ebert. “Gone With the Wind.” https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-gone-with-the-wind-1939. June 21, 1998.)

Stereotyping and dangerous fictional representation? The film Gone with the Wind portrays the slaves as people with no drive or desires of their own who don’t mind being enslaved. In reality, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Although the major plantation owners in the book all own slaves, the issue of slavery is hardly even addressed.

The historical statements and implications of the picture are false from the beginning to the end. A few thousand slaveholders in the South exploited millions of slaves, while a few thousand others bred slaves for the slave market as today people breed horses and dogs.

If house servants were often treated kindly, the majority, the Negroes in the field, were worked to death and terrorized in order to be kept in submission.

And, by the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 Black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy … and nearly 40,000 Black service members had died.

Even in the making of this picture, the natural resentment of the Blacks showed itself. The Pittsburgh Courier claims that the script as originally written was even more offensive to the African-Americans, and it was only because of the Courier agitation that some of the offending parts were taken out. The Amsterdam News, 18 December 1939, states that during production many Blacks, irritated at the role that was attributed to their people, refused to go on with their parts; there were quarrels and even fist fights. 

Historical Note:

"By the spring of 1937, spurred by memories of racism in black organizations on both coasts had written to Selznick International about Gone With the Wind. "We consider this work to be a glorification of the old rotten system of slavery, propaganda for race-hatreds and bigotry, and incitement of lynching," members of a Pittsburgh group wrote in a letter that, like other such correspondence, has rarely been cited, much less discussed, in popular histories of the picture.

"Cautionary letters continued to arrive at the producer's Culver City offices well into 1938. An associate of the Conference of American Rabbis told Selznick that the novel, though it entertained readers, also excited a latent 'anti-Negro antipathy.' Selznick, the correspondent said, must not cater to the public's narrow-mindedness, in part because it was wrong and in part because he, David Selznick, like most of his Hollywood peers, was a Jew. Walter White, the secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also wrote to the producer. He offered to send along a packet of well-researched papers that demonstrated Mitchell's biased presentation of Reconstruction. Better still, he suggested, the studio should employ 'a person, preferably a Negro, who is qualified to check on possible errors of fact or interpretation' …

“As the principal photography began, in early 1939, scrutiny by the black press increased. Eight years before, The Pittsburgh Courier had acquired thousands of signatures on a petition to bar from the airwaves. The Courier hoped for even wider support on Gone With the Wind. Using the screenplay's racial epithets as a battle cry, the paper threatened a letter-writing offensive and, if necessary, a boycott of the finished picture.

“Selznick was nonplussed. The movie industry's censors had ruled only that “n-word" "should not be put in the mouth of white people. In this connection you might want to give some consideration to the use of the word 'darkies.' For once, Selznick agreed with the Hays Office; certainly, he thought, the black characters could use "n-word" among themselves. But the Courier was not alone in its outrage …

“Selznick had meanwhile chosen his technical advisers – both white. Aware of the potential for political backlash, he asked Kay Brown (powerful Hollywood agent and talent scout) to assure Walter White that 'the only liberties we have taken with the book have been liberties to improve the Negro position in the picture and that we have the greatest friendship toward them and their cause.'

“Moreover, he promised that his advisers would not allow the studio to 'turn out a Hollywood or NY conception of the Negro.' Whether Selznick, Brown, or the studio consultants understood the 'Negro position' was uncertain. Susan Myrick, a Macon Telegraph reporter and a dialect coach for GWTW, was convinced that the atmosphere of the picture belonged to the black characters; accordingly, she intended to teach the black actors to speak like "the middle Georgia Negro of befo-de-wah days." However accurate, that accent would connote the poverty and ignorance of black people – both the characters and, as White could easily have imagined, the actors who played them.

(Leonard J. Leff. “‘Gone With the Wind’ and Hollywood's Racial Politics.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/12/gone-with-the-wind-and-hollywoods-racial-politics/377919/. December 1999.)

Characters in the novel portrayed attitudes of slave owners as firm, but loving. Of the slaves themselves, old O’Hara tells Scarlett, “You must be firm, but you must be gentle, especially with darkies.” And Negroes, not only the house-servants but the field hands, are all faithful unto death.

This summary shows the depiction that continues throughout the film:

“Of the old Negro mammy, Rhett Butler says that there are few persons whose respect he so much values. When Scarlett O’Hara sees the faithful Negro man-servant in tears, she says, “I can stand anybody’s tears but yours.” When Ashley remonstrates with Scarlett, about exploiting white convicts, she retorts that he wasn’t so particular about owning slaves. Ashley (arguably one of the more noble characters of the novel) replies that slavery was different: we treated them well, and besides, he intended to free all his. When Scarlett is attacked by louts, a white and a Negro, it is a Negro, a former slave, who rescues her at great danger to himself.”

(Dalcassian. “When Gone With the Wind Glorified the Old Slave-holding South Alliance.” Workers' Liberty. January 02, 2014.)

Ashley is insinuating that his slaves don’t mind being owned because “they weren’t miserable.” It is enough to make someone cringe by merely suggesting that it’s all right to own slaves as long as they aren’t unhappy.

Historical Note:

"Fans might be surprised to learn that the movie’s leading man almost boycotted the film’s premiere. Due to Atlanta’s lingering Jim Crow segregation laws, Hattie McDaniel was not allowed to attend the 1939 event. McDaniel and Clark Gable had become fast friends during the many months of filming and the actor was reportedly rightly outraged at the African American actress’s treatment. Gable threatened to forego the premiere in protest, but McDaniel managed to convince him to attend"

(Hanna Dayani. “Discover unknown facts behind Gone with the Wind.” University Fox. August 16, 2018.)

 

Relevance

Since its inception, the film Gone With the Wind has been a lightning rod for contention and socio-political inspection. And, granted, it is a beautiful work of art, a monument of artistic freedom for both Margaret Mitchell and David O. Selznick. I am not for censoring the original work – even in all its controversy. But, the art does not represent accurately the history of the United States of America … especially in regard to slavery. Viewers should understand this.

You can consider the portrayal “culturally acceptable for its time,” but that is a weak excuse for dismissing the film's inherent racism, especially since the movie was extremely controversial even upon its release in 1939.

Here is the point: the views of slavery and the Lost Cause depicted in the film need to be properly contextualized. So many people believe the false narratives and actually form real-world opinions on their viewing experience.

The power of the fiction is accurately (and ironically) described by in an article by Rafia Zakaria, author of the “Read Other Women” series at the Boston Review and writer for The Guardian …

"In an essay on Gone With the Wind, New Yorker cultural critic Hilton Als describes the effect of Mitchell’s brand of white supremacy on himself, a young black boy watching the movie version for the first time: “I loved [Scarlett] so much and I didn’t want her to suffer,” he confesses, even though “Scarlett in real life might have lynched a 'n-word' in order to make that person pay for all the inexplicable pain that she had gone through.”

“Als’s words describe the premise that Gone With the Wind enacts: that it is the white and beautiful who must be rooted for, their individual complications considered, their possession of privilege assumed rightful, and their complicity in injustice ignored. How must a woman who longs for a world of slavery be evaluated? It is not a question that bothers most readers. But it is in the details of cultural relics like Gone With the Wind, preserved here in the name of nostalgia, that the nubs and seeds of a resilient bigotry pass from one era into another.”

(Rafia Zakaria. “Is Gone With the Wind's nostalgia for slavery acceptable?” The Guardian. June 16, 2016.)

It is precisely the “nubs and seeds of resilient bigotry” that alarms me. The rise of White nationalism and right-wing militias in the United States in recent years attests to the fact that many continue to hold beliefs that slavery and unspeakable prejudice should continue. White fragility grows, and one cannot help but believe false narratives fertilize bigotry in the soil of present discontent.

After uniformed and uneducated people watch such a film and assume it is based on facts, they think they know everything about slavery in the United States, but they don't. In fact, they likely become emotionally invested through a false, romantic interpretation.

The "Lost Cause" theme of the movie claims the Civil War was not really about slavery, which it most certainly was. Historical revisionists have tried to offer a variety of reasons for the war. For example, in the South, it is not unusual for history to teach that States’ Rights was the actual issue.

Preservation of slavery was the primary cause of Southern states’ secession and their creation of the Confederacy. Period.

Evidence of this connection is found in the slavery-related demographics of the South, the dedication of slave-owners to the war, the official secession resolutions and declarations of the seceding states, prewar settlement efforts, lobbying and diplomatic activities by early-seceding states, contemporaneous pronouncements of the Confederacy’s military and political leaders, the Confederate Constitution, Confederate diplomacy, Confederate refusal to arm and liberate slaves, and Confederate prisoner-of-war exchange policies.

("Reasons for Secession and the Civil War" History on the Net. Salem Media. https://www.historyonthenet.com/reasons-for-secession. 2000-2022.)

Many people also see the problems of slavery and race as resolved when the Civil War ended over 150 years ago with the defeat of the Confederacy. In reality, though, slavery has morphed into segregation, economic disadvantage, rights denied, and racist terrorism for African Americans.

And now, even after the advances of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, systemic issues remain: mass incarceration, unequal educational opportunities, economic disparities, political disenfranchisement, police violence.

Elizabeth Austin, writer and strategic communications consultant, says she has even thrown away her copy of Gone With the Wind …

“I didn’t want to be responsible for one more young girl reading Gone with the Wind. It is a pernicious book. It is an evil book. It weaves a spell that has perverted our national vision of slavery and warped our understanding of the Civil War and its long, vicious aftermath.

“Its sugarcoated white supremacy has inflicted grievous, lasting harm on our country for generations. Gone with the Wind is poison. And it is more toxic because the poison is concealed within a powerful – even feminist – story told in deathlessly lyrical prose.”

(Elizabeth Austin. “Why I Threw Away My Copy of Gone with the Wind.” Washington Monthly. June 11, 2020.)

Austin says again and again, the book glides over the fundamental importance of slavery in the economic lives of its central characters. She offers one particularly lovely passage, in which Scarlett and Ashley reminisce about life on the plantation before the war:

“As he spoke, his light grip tightened on her hand and in his voice was the sad magic of old half-forgotten songs. She could hear the gay jingle of bridle bits as they rode under the dogwood trees to the Tarletons’ picnic, hear her own careless laughter, see the sun glinting on his silver-gilt hair and note the proud easy grace with which he sat his horse. There was music in his voice, the music of fiddles and banjos to which they had danced in the white house that was no more … Over it all rested a sense of security, a knowledge that tomorrow could only bring the same happiness today had brought.”

(Margaret Mitchell. Gone With the Wind. 1936.)

Austin concludes that the full passage beautifully evokes the “slow-paced glamour” of an idealized antebellum South – and “it draws an opaque, green velvet curtain across the bitter forced labor required to bestow endless leisure on a small class of favored white people.”

(Elizabeth Austin. “Why I Threw Away My Copy of Gone with the Wind.” Washington Monthly. June 11, 2020.)

My conclusion? Watch and read Gone With the Wind as fiction. That's all.

* Do not let the twisted portrayal lessen your understandings of the real horrors of slavery.

* Do not allow the movie to cause you to believe that the Lost Cause was just and heroic.

* Do not let a love story of the Deep South during the Civil War twist your emotions into accepting that slavery was just a minor, unfortunate part of Southern culture and tradition.

* Do not let the lies and propaganda re-established through Jim Crow affect your vision.

Instead, teach your children the truth about prejudice and hate and domination and how these things through slavery account for America's original sin … a moral offense with which we still struggle.

I believe we should put more effort into upholding the Union and the struggle for truth and right. I'm not advocating dismissing American history or erasing its impact. I am though strongly recommending learning the truth and framing history in its proper context without glamorizing the glory of something truly ungodly like the rebel cause.

Our Ohio cemeteries are full of Union veterans who fought and died for the United States of America. Ohio sent over 309,000 men to the Union Army during the Civil War, and most fought in the Western Theater. About 4,400 were at Gettysburg.There are 18 Ohio monuments at Gettysburg honoring 13 infantry regiments, a regiment and two companies of cavalry, and four artillery batteries.

Please, click here and take some time to view “Ohio Monuments At Gettysburg.” Thank you. https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/union-monuments/ohio/

“Some will call this censorship. Some will chortle at the notion that a novel or a movie abounding in flounces and hoop skirts could actually influence the body politic. Proud southerners will take high-handed offense at the notion that their beloved Gone with the Wind is actually a powerful racist tract. And conservatives will continue to carp at the politically correct snowflakes who refuse to view a prettified story of chattel slavery, lynching, and undiluted white supremacy as an 'American classic.'”

“Far from being simple, wholesome family entertainment, the film is an admiring portrait of a conniving, lying, mercenary seductress. It’s a valentine to the slave-owning South, and a poison-pen letter to the anti-slavery North. It’s a tonal rollercoaster that plunges from frothy comedy to gruelling tragedy and back again. It’s a romance that puts the hero and heroine at each other’s throats. And it’s an episodic coming-of-age story that keeps going for nearly four hours before reaching its abrupt, unresolved ending. In short, Gone with the Wind is a preposterous, almost unclassifiable mix of highly questionable elements. The wonder is not just that it’s America’s most beloved film, but that it isn’t America’s most hated.”

(Nicholas Barber. “Gone with the Wind: Is it America’s strangest film?” BBC. June 10, 2020.)