Are we living in a war zone?

Sometimes I look at places that live under oppression and see that through that they somehow use the difficulty to bring out the positive things and beauty grows in the brokenness. This can make me wonder whether we need a common threat before we start to pull together as a community. Yet, here in our very communities we live under the oppression that substance abuse brings and we do not seem to be good at fight back as a community. What does it mean to be a community that comes together to challenge the oppressors? Who are the oppressors in the first place?