Not Just Names, They Are People –
March 29, 2018 – by Maia Szalavitz.
With his unerring eye for approaches that are not only cruel but also offensive and tasteless, President Trump has announced that the White House will host a temporary memorial to people who’ve died from prescription opioid overdoses that consists of a wall depicting 22,000 faces engraved on pills. The exhibit, which will sit in the Ellipse in President’s Park from April 12th through the 18th, is titled Prescribed to Death … Why 22,000 and why depict these people as the agents of their own death? The concept originated in an apparently well-intentioned campaign by the National Safety Council (NSC), aimed at highlighting the dangers associated with prescription opioids. But it unwittingly depicts a huge problem with America’s response to the overdose crisis—and has offended many people who have lost loved ones. “Dehumanizing the victims of overdose by reducing them to faces on a pill is absurd,” says Carol Katz Beyer, co-founder of Families for Sensible Drug Policy. Her family has lost loved ones to overdose. “Our children are first and foremost family members who are human beings that reflect many interests and a diverse range of talents. We would never shun or dishonor the death of anyone with another health condition by placing that singularly stigma-ridden attachment to their face.”
