CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL
CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL
By Jamie Nash
October 29, 2009
HARRIS COUNTY - The 3rd Annual Houston / Harris County Candlelight Vigil was held on Tuesday evening near Houston’s City Hall reflection pool to remember those who have lost their lives due to drug or alcohol related show more...
incidents.
KHOU’s Sherry Williams, who emceed the event, said the vigil was to remember the lives lost on both sides of the issue. The large crowd that gathered included people of all ages, races and incomes.
Williams told them dealing with the loss gets easier, and the best thing they could do was to encourage young people “not to walk that path.” Williams lost a brother to a lifetime of drug abuse 12 years ago, she said.
“Talk to your kids about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, Williams said. “It’s not a way to have more fun, it’s not a way to be more cool, it’s a way to have a tragic life that often ends early.”
Zoran B. Yankovich, Special Agent in Charge, US Drug Enforcement Administration, Houston Field Division also spoke, saying the event was important to his agency because it focused on the “meaning behind their mission.”
“Drugs affect families, individuals, communities, and societies as a whole,” Yankovich said. “Nobody knows that more than the DEA.”
Yankovich noted the high number of casualties suffered by his agency in the 36 yeas of its existence, with the latest losses occurring just a day earlier. A helicopter crash in Western Afghanistan killed three DEA agents.
The DEA is fighting alongside US troops in the Middle East, with a different focus. Afghanistan, as Yankovich explained, is the world’s number one producer of opium, the key ingredient in heroin. Not only does heroin find its way to western society, the proceeds fund Al-Qaeda, he said, which fuels terrorism in the rest of the world, including the US.
Like much of the crowd, Yankovich wore a red ribbon representing “Red Ribbon Week,”
The Red Ribbon Campaign was begun after the 1985 death of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and is the nation’s largest drug prevention effort.
Camarena made the ultimate sacrifice after working undercover in Mexico for over four and-a-half years. Drug traffickers, abducted Camarena in broad daylight as he walked with his wife, then interrogated and tortured him to death. The brutality of the crime and the complicity of Mexican Police and government officials, and the difficulty in persuading Mexican officials to release Camarena’s body sparked outrage in the US and drew an unprecedented amount of attention to the seriousness of the battle to stem the flow of illegal drugs into this country.
Yankovich said the ribbons were not only in honor of Camarena, but to call attention to the problem of drug abuse in our society.
“Too many young people with promise have died because of drugs,” Yankovich said. “Their talent was extinguished and it will never be.”
“We are poorer because they are gone.”
Yankovich said such vigils put a human face on drug abuse. The problem, he said, is truly complex and must be met with “enforcement, treatment, and prevention.”
Listeners were encouraged to get between their children and drugs “no matter what.”
Yankovich said the week was not only to look at the tragedy of the situation but the hope that is offered by those who continue to take down cartels, intercept loads of illegal drugs, and divert the legal pharmaceuticals that have become the number one experimental drugs among teens and are widely abused by all ages.
Yankovich said last year the DEA seized over $2.5 billion from drug traffickers and continues to progress, but everyone’s support is needed.show less...
KHOU’s Sherry Williams, who emceed the event, said the vigil was to remember the lives lost on both sides of the issue. The large crowd that gathered included people of all ages, races and incomes.
Williams told them dealing with the loss gets easier, and the best thing they could do was to encourage young people “not to walk that path.” Williams lost a brother to a lifetime of drug abuse 12 years ago, she said.
“Talk to your kids about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, Williams said. “It’s not a way to have more fun, it’s not a way to be more cool, it’s a way to have a tragic life that often ends early.”
Zoran B. Yankovich, Special Agent in Charge, US Drug Enforcement Administration, Houston Field Division also spoke, saying the event was important to his agency because it focused on the “meaning behind their mission.”
“Drugs affect families, individuals, communities, and societies as a whole,” Yankovich said. “Nobody knows that more than the DEA.”
Yankovich noted the high number of casualties suffered by his agency in the 36 yeas of its existence, with the latest losses occurring just a day earlier. A helicopter crash in Western Afghanistan killed three DEA agents.
The DEA is fighting alongside US troops in the Middle East, with a different focus. Afghanistan, as Yankovich explained, is the world’s number one producer of opium, the key ingredient in heroin. Not only does heroin find its way to western society, the proceeds fund Al-Qaeda, he said, which fuels terrorism in the rest of the world, including the US.
Like much of the crowd, Yankovich wore a red ribbon representing “Red Ribbon Week,”
The Red Ribbon Campaign was begun after the 1985 death of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena and is the nation’s largest drug prevention effort.
Camarena made the ultimate sacrifice after working undercover in Mexico for over four and-a-half years. Drug traffickers, abducted Camarena in broad daylight as he walked with his wife, then interrogated and tortured him to death. The brutality of the crime and the complicity of Mexican Police and government officials, and the difficulty in persuading Mexican officials to release Camarena’s body sparked outrage in the US and drew an unprecedented amount of attention to the seriousness of the battle to stem the flow of illegal drugs into this country.
Yankovich said the ribbons were not only in honor of Camarena, but to call attention to the problem of drug abuse in our society.
“Too many young people with promise have died because of drugs,” Yankovich said. “Their talent was extinguished and it will never be.”
“We are poorer because they are gone.”
Yankovich said such vigils put a human face on drug abuse. The problem, he said, is truly complex and must be met with “enforcement, treatment, and prevention.”
Listeners were encouraged to get between their children and drugs “no matter what.”
Yankovich said the week was not only to look at the tragedy of the situation but the hope that is offered by those who continue to take down cartels, intercept loads of illegal drugs, and divert the legal pharmaceuticals that have become the number one experimental drugs among teens and are widely abused by all ages.
Yankovich said last year the DEA seized over $2.5 billion from drug traffickers and continues to progress, but everyone’s support is needed.show less...
