By Robert Field
I have never been able to accomplish something for the public good where associates did not share a passion for the cause.
When in 1980 Senator Dick Schweigert of Pennsyvania surprising decided not to run for re-election and I met the next day with Arlen Specter, there was mutual passion.
When over twenty-five years ago Mel Allen and I got together on a Saturday morning to discuss ways to help disadvantaged midde school youngsters and laid the ground work for Project Forward Leap, there was mutual passion.
When almost as long ago Kevin Zeese and I met to launch Common Sense for Drug Policy which was destined to play a large role in educating academia, the media, and the public concerning the War on Drugs and harm reduction, we were impassioned.
When Jeff Kegley (RIP) and I had lunch together in Coatesville near the methadone clinic he then ran and we discussed a prototype methadone program with drugs administered at a local pharmacy instead of at the clinic, there was passion.
When Sam Rice, MD, Jeff and I met with a state cabinet official in the Rendell administration to discuss deregulation of syringes, she was passionate about the need. (We hardly got to say a word!)
A recent example was the launching of a syringe exchange in ultra-conservative York County. Members of the civil community would not even discuss such an undertaking. Letters to York Hospital went unanswered. Word was a former district attorney had said anyone handing out syringes would be arrested for distributing drug paraphernalia.
Then about 160 people died in one year from overdoses of heroin. Presumably many of these were youngsters and from all classes of society – city, suburbs and rural.
Suddenly there was passion among civil society to stop these pointless deaths. The emergency crews and police were encouraged to carry Noxone, a spray that reverses overdosing in less than a minute. The next year the overdose death rate plummeted by about two-thirds.
Now there existed an empowered, enthusiastic and informed heroin task force, largely led by medical professionals and public health leaders. When a syringe exchange was again proposed, it was embraced by almost all of the segments of government and society, including the current district attorney who passionately advanced the cause, and the exchange was quickly launched.
When a group of professionals with various skills gathered together to plan an expansion and renovation of the Lancaster Public Library in 2007 / 2008, there was passion, with many contributing their services. (Sadly, $3,000,000 in state funds promised to the library were diverted to the convention center and the project has not yet been realized, but not for want of wife Karen and me trying.)
Looking back over scores of years, everything in which I was involved was made possible by passionate advocates. I didn’t need to sell them; as soon as the subject came up they poured out enthusiasm about the subject.
It usually doesn’t take more than ten minutes to tell whether or not someone feels passionate about a cause, transcending self, family and ‘tribe’. If so, the cause becomes one of the most important things in his or her life, no matter how demanding are other responsibilities. They are usually ready on a moments notice to help out in anyway they can.
But where there is no passion on the part of those involved, people fail to rise above self-interest, envy and petty considerations and there is little chance for accomplishment.
People passionate for a cause do not always succeed. But those who aren’t passionate, seldom do.
