Dear Mount Sterling,

A lot of great things have come from this town. For example, we had our "First Friday Markets" this summer, and they were a huge hit! We also have great singers and bands, such as our very own Bedford and Company.

What I love the most about Mount Sterling is that you don't get a lot of crazy. It's not that kind of town. We have parades and theater performances and everything in between. This town is good for homestyle cooking, sweet treats down Main Street, and the beautiful parks that we have around this amazing town.

However, something has happened recently that really needs to be addressed: This past week we have had 18 heroin overdoses and one man died because of a very bad batch. Drug use is heavy in this region, as it is in much of Eastern Kentucky. God bless all of their souls.

We are not alone in this string of "regionwide mass heroin overdoses," as coined by the Lexington Herald Leader. According to them, Cincinnati, Jackson and Jennings counties, as well as Huntington, WV were also hit with a string of mass overdoses, each resulting in the death of a citizen.

Mount Sterling, I must wonder: when are we going to realize that we must get help for those who are addicted? When are we going to stop glorifying drug use and start figuring out solutions to our painkiller addictions?

As citizens of this beautiful town, we must not let ourselves be innocent bystanders while we let our innocent be consumed by this raging illness of the soul. We must cut down on the number of people addicted to painkillers and addictive substances by identifying the problems in our community.

I want our town to be a beautiful place that makes the news because we have such high African American and Latino achievements. I want our town to be the town that everyone wants to come to whenever they have a weekend off. I don't want our town to be painted as a town that is impoverished, even though we have so many who are.

I want our town to be a town of charity, a town that will always lend a hand. I want our town to have churches that not only preach the gospel, but live it--feeding the poor, clothing the children, lifting spirits when morale is down. I want more ministries like Jericho Express. I want more children to be lifted high every single day.

I want our people educated by any means possible. I would love if every single person in this town could work and truly enjoy it.

I want our town to be a town that I would come back to live in, the town that I would want my children and their children and their children to want to live in.

Dear Mount Sterling, we can do better.

No, we MUST do better.

Sincerely,

A citizen who is tired of her pretty town being torn down.