How many of us look from afar and see ‘the perfect’ family, job, house, from the outside looking in? They seem to have it all — until we peel back a few exterior layers and find that all is not as we imagined. That’s the perfect metaphor for Greenport.
Walk down Front Street and you’ll see the high end restaurants, the million dollar boats, the tourists, the laughter, it’s a ‘perfect’ destination; small town America, and all it’s idyllic glory. Once we peel back a few layers for those of us who live and own businesses there, the stark reality is that there is an undercurrent and subculture that is anything but idyllic.
Peel back the layers of Front Street and you will find ‘overdose alley’ and the parking lot behind on Adam Street and all is not idyllic, friendly or welcoming. It is instead a melting pot of homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. It is an injustice, not only to the people who live and work here and try and make the community a better place, but also to those that are afflicted — as they are just passed in and out of the system with no real progress on the core causes of their situation. This will go on until they commit some really heinous act, and then they wind up in prison for the rest of our lives where their issues will still go unaddressed. And then the course of many lives will be irrevocably altered.
Unfortunately, our small town community has become a microcosm of the big city and its issues. The well can only get so full before it overflows and floods it’s surrounding areas. We are that surrounding area. The first step of tackling this, and addressing it, is recognizing there is an issue. At first glance, we all recognized for a different reason many of us as business owners depend on optics for a living. Some of us find ourselves scared or put off, but after the initial reason for recognizing the situation, we all have to discover our humanity and help those that can’t help themselves. Not just force them through a system that doesn’t care, for our own sake, as well as that of the affected and the community.
Sharon Sailor, Greenport
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