I grew up in Hudson, Ohio—a little farm town with a charming New England feel that grew itself during my childhood
into an uber-preppy bedroom community for executives in Akron and Cleveland. They used to say all the Democrats could fit into the phone booth at Saywell's Drug Store.
I follow a Facebook page, "I Grew Up in Hudson, Ohio." I saw this post last week:
I am a Hudson graduate of 2007. My mother was a graduate of 1977. (Barbara Collis) I am extremely proud of being a "hudson kid". I understand that this page is a fun place to post pictures and talk about the old days….BUT…some of you might know this…some of you might not. We need to stop keeping this a secret. Hudson has a heroin problem. This is an epidemic. Just 3 days ago a good good kid died. Its been going on for 3-5 years now. These our old quarterbacks and marching band kids, hockey boys, and cheerleaders. Kids that went to OU and Kent. GOOD KIDS. … We have a huge problem. Im sorry but I had to say something. We have to figure something out. I love Hudson. But something is wrong. And we all need to come together to figure it out.
As I have written, I moved to Chicago 25 years ago and dug deeply into life here and formed a political philosophy that Hudson never demanded of me.
So it's hard to have sympathy for an affluent, white Hudsonite sounding the alarm because suddenly "good kids" are dying in suburban Ohio, as opposed to so many thousands of other kids who have been dying in big cities all these years.
And at the same time, it's hard not to.
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