Faith leaders should not support spy plane

As a Faith leader here in Baltimore, and as a minister of the gospel, I’m sad to see so many clergy supporting mass surveillance of citizens here in Baltimore (“Over 70% of Baltimore residents would support controversial surveillance plane, poll shows,” Oct. 14). The story of people of faith — from subjugation in Egypt to the Roman Empire’s mass slaughter of Christian communities — is one of fighting against oppression. And one of the most effective tools of any oppressive empire is surveillance. It was used to target innocent Israelites in Babylon, Christians in Rome and it will hurt innocent Baltimoreans too.

The problem with surveillance is not just theological, though. It’s practical. The “promise” of surveillance is safety. But the only thing it ensures is we will all be less safe. There are no easy answers to the scourge of drugs and crime. It requires all of us to get involved in the communities we live and work in to make them safer and more habitable. Ceding authority to a faceless drone in the sky only serves to more quickly cut the bonds within and between communities.

Instead of washing our hands and saying the plane will fix it, we should spend money to build relationships in our poorest communities, job opportunities for our most vulnerable residents and to create opportunities for hope in our sanctuaries and in our streets.

Stop stigmatizing people with substance abuse disorders

Janice Lynch Schuster’s insightful and empathic commentary (“People are not defined by their diseases,” Oct. 14) is mustreading for anyone whose family has not experienced the stigma and pain of the opioid epidemic.

Ms. Schuster emphasizes how the lack of understanding of substance use disorder as a bona fide disease results in the unfortunate use of labels like “junkie” and “druggie.” Such inaccurate characterizations recall the aphorism, “labels fare for jelly jars, not people.” A more informed description is a person with a substance use disorder.

The accidental and tragic overdose of Ms. Schuster’s son is one of the 70,000 of America’s annual drug fatalities. Yet, it is important for all of us to know is that treatment often does work and people do recover and rebuild their lives and families.

Two of my immediate family members, after years of heroin and opioid use disorder, now are sober, in recovery and have full-time jobs and healthy, productive lives. Eliminating stigmatizing language and labels will help others find treatment and recovery.

Weakened water legislation won’t protect Baltimore residents

Obscene. That’s the word that came to mind as I read that only eight residents of Baltimore have been able to take advantage of the $775,000 hardship fund established by HomeServe in 2014 (“Baltimore sewage backups: Where is the help?” Oct. 11). This fund was mandated in exchange for HomeServe’s exclusive contract on water line insurance — using the city’s seal on the correspondence — as we upgrade our aging infrastructure.

There are too many stories of my neighbors in the city suffering through headaches caused by the aging infrastructure and the costs associated with correcting it for me to count. The number of them helped is disgustingly low.

This obscenity is merely the most recent data point in a long story of shameful practices around water access and affordability in Baltimore. That’s why consumer advocates have been pushing for the Water Accountability and Equity Act (WAEA), which would make water affordable and create a new Office of Customer Advocacy and Appeals — an office that would help residents access that hardship fund.

As reported on Oct. 11, city leaders, including my councilperson, Kris Burnett, and Council President Brandon Scott, are in favor of this legislation. Unfortunately, last month the Department of Public Works Director Rudy Chow, who announced his retirement Thursday, introduced amendments to the legislation which would remove the affordability program, water shutoff protections, shutoff notification requirements and the entire Office of Customer Advocacy and Appeals. In their place, Dr. Chow proposed codifying the department’s existing assistance program and procedures, which we now know has helped only eight people in five years with infrastructure improvements.

We can do better. We must do better. Water is a human right. Let’s act like it.