'Connecting' was a good first step

It’s a start.

Last week’s “Connecting the Links” event that brought together every aspect of the heroin crisis facing this community — addicts, families, law enforcement, health care, those tasked with prevention and those trying to provide a lifeline for the addicted — was remarkable.

But it’s only a start.

Pastor Randy Davis and the dozens of others involved in last week’s event have succeeded in turning the spotlight on the problem. 

They’ve made it next to impossible to ignore. The days of looking away of considering it someone else’s problem?

Those days are gone.

If you have a moment’s doubt about the enormity of the issue, we recommend you go to The Commercial Review’s website.

Reporter Caleb Bauer heard more that night than can fit into a typical newspaper article of several hundred words. You’ll find about 3,600 words of testimony from those who spoke Thursday. (The direct link to that story is http://bit.ly/2lKVAxH.)

So what happens now?

Hopefully, connections have been made. Conversations have begun. And minds have been opened.

This community isn’t alone when it comes to a scourge like drug addiction. Heroin and opioids have swept across rural America like a tidal wave.

And as last week’s event made clear, this is not just a law enforcement issue. It’s also a treatment issue and a prevention issue.

It could also be argued that it’s a communications issue and that until prevention, enforcement, and treatment are working as one we’re not going to get anywhere.

“Connecting the Links,” we sincerely hope, broke down the barriers to communication.

That is, admittedly, only a start.

And the challenge is daunting.

But a first step — no matter how difficult the journey ahead — is always better than no step at all.

Godspeed. — J.R.