Tuesday, November 04, 2003

I sent a letter to the Emorywheel protesting this offensive article. It appears below:

Reducing a serious mental disease to being �ungrateful� is a slap in the face for everyone at this institution who knows someone who was ever depressed or even anyone who actually thought about the subject. I say you take your volunteer work to the mental hospital to see some depressed people instead of just wagging the finger. I am aware that it is not popular to have empathy for others or actually try to understand their problems before mouthing off about what bad people they are. However, it is greatly more selfish to not care about your fellow man, than it is to have emotions that some people don�t agree with. People are not obligated to change how they feel to please you.

I am sick of the pathologizing of people having any emotions other than a near manic state of happiness. Bad things happen, even to good people, and we become sad as a result. Reality doesn�t care if you didn�t worry, and in fact, worry can empower you to do more than if you were in la la land. I know a mere letter can not make you think before you insult billions of people, but I�d like to remind thinking people- this isn�t Brave New World, and it shouldn�t be. Better a danm than a Gramme.

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