“People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it” – Simon Sinek. This was the main idea of the Ted talk by Simon Sinek (“How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” Simon Sinek:. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. ).  People follow you, or trust to buy your products, because of your belief, not because of the actual product itself.

When Simon said this, it fit a lot of pieces together for me; I started to see how a lot of successful companies have a motive, not just a product. If I can get people to  empathize or connect with a common belief that all children should be their parents’ number one priority and not compete with a drug, it could help more people fight for a way to stop it. It made a lot of sense when Simon Sinek gave the example of Martin Luther King and his speech: “He gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech not the ‘I have a plan’ speech” . This made me think about everything I was buying/doing and why I was doing it.  I was so inspired by the talk, and it altered how I talked and acted.

Another thing that Simon mentioned was, that the reason we buy things from a company with a common belief, is for ourselves. If we can get other people to believe what we believe and fight for it, for themselves, it will propel us until we reach our goal.

During my interviews last week, I discovered that Vermont has acknowledged the Opioid crisis and has started working on it. This week, I dug a little further into that research. I found that Governor Shumblin has worked on trying to cut the waiting lists for treatment centers. Vermont got a grant for 5 million dollars to try to get to patients sooner hopefully, these Treatment centers will be able to reach everybody’s needs. If we can  get to patients sooner we will be able to save more lives and stop people from getting deeper into the problem.

Another thing that Governor Shumlin has said (“Office of Governor Peter Shumlin.” Gov. Shumlin’s 2014 State of the State Address. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016) is that Vermont has “national model” treatment centers in most of the regions. I think that Vermont is leading the way to stop this crisis. I am glad that we are a leader to this problem because we are the worst ones, in the nation and if we can stop it we can help other states too.

So, we are trying to stop this problem it is not something we are totally forgetting about. Vermont’s DCF is also helping family’s who are affected by Opioid use. They are helping pregnant mother’s who are using the drug (“Department for Children and Families.” Vermont Collaboration Used as Model for Treating Pregnant Women with Opioid Use Disorders. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.). I think that this is a great way to help prevent parents from being distant from  their child. If we can stop them before they have a child the child will not be affected by it as drastically.

I believe that Children should be their parents main priority in life, and by eliminating the opioid addiction in Vermont by creating a safe and secure state not connected to drugs.

Featured Image: from http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-new-face-of-heroin-20140403  Photography by Fredrik Broden; Painting by David M. Brinley, Lettering by Jon Valk