January 9, 1996
Still another letter saying “It’s ‘No’ for Rehab Center” (Dec. 28) and again, from a resident of Brighton Heights, where someone is trying to reactivate the long-gone St. John’s Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center.
What’s with these people? The NIMBY crowd. They don’t want anything or anybody in their neighborhood that doesn’t fit the God-only-knows-what criteria they have established. They always remind me of the dimwit elitist “My-mind’s-made-up, don’t-confuse-me-with-facts!” crowd. I served as public relations director of St. John’s ADR from 1980 to 1984, then returned a few years later when it was known as Mercy Center for Chemical Dependency (in pdf). They were all happy years full of excitement and satisfaction in a very soul-satisfying job of helping to salvage human lives.
For as long as I was there, there was seldom if ever anything but a symbiotic relationship between the facility and the community. In fact, it provided employment for quite a few people nearby.
Moreover, it provided life-saving treatment, meaningful lifestyle changes and near-miraculous success stories.
Forget about building a stadium for the sports nuts and bring the ADR back so the tailgate party alcoholics will have a place to go to turn their lives around.
JACK O’NEIL
Sewickley