SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Todd Herman: More diverse set of opinions needed to deal with Seattle’s heroin problem
Mar 2, 2016, 3:47 PM | Updated: Mar 3, 2016, 9:10 am
Todd Herman believes a "lack of intellectual diversity" might make the recently developed heroin task force a waste of time. (AP)
(AP)
The unencumbered progressive leanings of Seattle and King County’s leaders have led to continually unsuccessful responses to issues plaguing the region, according to KTTH’s Todd Herman.
It’s that same “lack of intellectual diversity” that Herman believes will stall solutions to homelessness and make the recently developed heroin task force a waste of time.
“The fact of the matter is this is a naked result of a lack of intellectual diversity,” Herman said. “Because no intellectual diversity begets no rigor.”
Related: New addiction treatment center on Seattle’s Beacon Hill to help combat heroin epidemic
The City of Seattle and King County announced March 1 that they have joined forces through a heroin task force to take on a “plague” of heroin and prescription opiate addiction throughout the region.
Herman believes that when complementary ideological beliefs are the only ones being discussed, they keep people from asking questions that can build to better answers. He asks who on the task force is going to ask about potential spiritual solutions, or the possibility of coming down hard on heroin crimes, or confiscating needles, or threatening jail time to spur people into treatment.
“Is it Dow Constantine; is it Ed Murray? Which one of the progressives is going to bring that view to the table, which may be extreme? But the other option is to continue to ask how much more money can we spend, how much more services can we provide?” he said. “That’s what I mean by lack of intellectual diversity in Seattle.”
Herman, who used to work with the homeless, says people need to be made uncomfortable by their circumstances in order to change. Rather than put these struggling people out of sight, he stresses the need to look at them as if they were children — especially since the state currently pays for them as if they are taxpayer’s dependents.
“Aren’t we, in effect, being asked to parent these people?” he asked. “This is what we’re being asked as citizens to do. We’re being asked to take them on as expenses, as dependents, but we’re not being allowed to do the one thing that any responsible parent figure would do, which is to say, ‘let’s get to the goal together of not sticking the needle into your arm.'”
