I’ve been lamenting the pandemic for a long time. And I’ve seen how fast it’s expanded. But I’ve been curious as to why more people don’t realize how closely they’re involved in it. I hope not you. Because the pandemic I’m talking about isn’t the pandemic you might think I’m talking about. Although they’re morbidly connected in the past couple of years. And, by morbid, I mean drug overdose and death.
Yeah, there’s a LOT of drug overdose right here in America.
I read an article that said “almost 30% more Americans died of drug overdoses during the first year of the pandemic than in any prior 12-month period.”
And that’s just the so-called “preliminary data” from the CDC.
The article added that “America’s overdose deaths shot almost 30% higher to 100,306.” And that’s after all the COVID-19 closures and social distancing. (translate that into separation)
Does that sound like an acceptable number of deaths in order to make people feel safer from COVID-19? And remember, COVID-19 is more than 97% survivable.
Of course, it’s not an acceptable number of deaths. And I’m sure a lot of those overdose deaths would have happened without a viral pandemic. But I’m certainly not convinced that over 100,000 people would have been hanging around inside their houses getting stupidly stoned on opioids.
Wait a minute. On second thought…
Maybe I just can’t see, clearly enough, how many people suffer with severe self-loathing due to their unhinged rejection of their Creator’s love. And maybe I can’t fully understand the weight of their depression due to that selfish decision.
Yeah, come to think of it, it makes perfect (yet pitiful) sense that suicides and drug overdoses would be at maybe an all-time high. Because people who don’t have the Holy Spirit filling their souls will have to be on constant lookout for an all-the-time high.
So, when I say I’ve been lamenting this a long time, I mean a lot longer than just the past couple of years. In fact, way back in 1986 I wrote a drug song. No, not because I was on drugs, so no comments from the peanut gallery (Greg). I mean a song with drug references weaved all through it.
See how many references you can find in…
Nothin’s Gonna Happen To You
Well you’re human and it’s hum-drum
So you find yourself in front of a screen
The remote control slowly takes its toll
Then you’re thumbing through a magazine
Years a go you had to know
You had to stand out brave and true
You said, “Don’t wait for nothin’, or
Nothin’s gonna happen to you.”
You were Ghengis Khan and Napoleon
You were king of cool to all your friends
But the juggernaut fell into the pot
And so this is how the story ends
But I have to know what could change you so
I have to see what cut you through
And don’t tell me “nothin’ “, or
Nothin’s gonna happen to you
Why the empty stare…nothin’ nothin’
Tension in the air…nothin’ nothin’
You just can’t admit…you’re too mortal to conquer it
And nothin’s gonna happen to you
Well, it’s so posh how you whitewash
And the truth starts falling through the crack
So your winter scheme is a broken dream
And the pieces stab you in the back
Time gone by can make you cry
And the tears can freeze inside your heart
But don’t obsess in that icy mess
Blow the danger and the pleasure apart
On the inner side it feels like a ride
And you rollercoast into the sky
But the outer side shows the demon lied
Give him anything to keep you high
Years from now they’ll wonder how
How it ever got to you
And I’ll just say “nothin’ “.
Nothin’ ever happened to you…
© 1986 Tony Funderburk
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