Early this year I wrote "Who Killed the Knapp Family," about my childhood neighbors who died from "deaths of despair." The lone survivor was Keylan, because he was in prison. Now a wrenching postscript, and a reminder of another pandemic that we must face: nyti.ms/3dCk3j6
Keylan and his siblings were on my No. 6 school bus in Yamhill, Ore. One-fourth of the kids on the bus are now gone from drugs, alcohol, suicide. Nationally, we lose more Americans every 2 weeks from those causes than died in 18 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is a pandemic of despair and loneliness that preceded #COVID19 and risks being magnified by it. Washington this week showed great urgency in addressing Covid, but it still hasn't seriously tried to address the ongoing catastrophe afflicting so many working class Americans.
Keylan was bright and charming; he did better in grade school math than I did. We as a society spent hundreds of thousands of dollars incarcerating him (and then his only son). We should have spent smaller sums investing in his early education, job training, drug treatment.
People will say: Keylan made bad choices. He showed no personal responsibility. Fair enough; he would have acknowledged that. But we as a society showed no collective responsibility toward talented kids growing up in a traumatized home. We failed them before they failed us.
So now all five of the Knapp kids on the No. 6 bus with me are gone. Five optimistic who suffered needlessly, and their children struggling as well. Statistics say that they would have better odds in Canada or Denmark, because those countries do more to help those who struggle.
The Knapps figured prominently in our latest book, "Tightrope," and Keylan was looking forward to appearing in LA at an event to talk about the book and his life. He wanted to tell his own story, not have me tell it.
But then his girlfriend found him, dead from a heroin overdose. He was a man of intelligence and charm, gone--a reminder of so much talent in America that is unrealized. If we want to bolster US competitiveness, forget about trade negotiations -- invest in Americans left behind.
So this isn't about the Covid pandemic, but about the larger pandemic of despair that holds Americans back -- and so holds America back. It's too late for Keylan, but we an do better for other American kids on No. 6 buses across the country. National pre-k would be a start.
So Farlan, Zealan, Nathan, Rogena and Keylan Knapp, RIP. Other kids had a broad path through life; you were on a tightrope with no safety net. We can do better. Here's my column: nyti.ms/3dCk3j6
