“Words are powerful, language matters,” said Bill Doyle, Program Manager at the Valley Recovery Center. “We preach that all the time, because that’s what perpetuates stigma for mental health, for substance abuse disorder, for everything, for racism. So, those words that he tweeted affect so many people in different ways. In a lot of different ways. Whether it’s the color of their skin, whether it’s their background, whether it’s how they’re living right now. It affects everyone. And Mark is in Albany to represent our community. Not just the recovery community, but the north county. That’s not how I want the north country perceived by anyone, because that’s not how I see the north country.”
