Letters to the Editor

Dear Weather Vane Editors,

I wish to correct statements made in the December 8 Weather Vane. In the article about WEMC a quote attributed to Dick Benner indicated "the phasing out of the Historical Library." The Historical Library has not been phased out. Although the open hours were reduced several years ago, the Historical Library remains an important part of this university.

While changes are being made to the museum/planetarium program, unlike what was stated in the Weather Vane, the program has remained open to school children during the current school year. Changes are being planned for this program in the future because of aging planetarium equipment (which is too expensive to be easily replaced) and the retirement of the only faculty prepared to teach astronomy. However, Dr. James Yoder of the Biology department has been dreaming about ways to expand the natural history part of the program. By the fall of 2007 visiting elementary school children will enjoy hands-on workshops in the renovated planetarium space, along with visits to the museum. I am grateful for faculty who think new thoughts when old thoughts no longer work.

Sincerely,

Beryl H. Brubaker

Provost

Dear Editor,

Over the past four summers I have had the privilege to work with campers at a summer camp and in doing so have learned many things about how to care for others and myself. Most importantly, I learned how to diagnose problems, both within myself and within others. In learning this I understand how to approach campers with either an "I" message when I have a problem with their behavior or to reflectively listen if the camper has a problem. In real life, away from camp, I think professional counselors forget this practice and instead of verbally leading persons with "depression" to self-care, they prescribe medication that may briefly fix their problem but does not teach them to cope with their life.

I may indeed sound unsympathetic to the people who "cannot rise out of bed," (Ameka, Weather Vane, Dec 8, 2006) but they do not need hospitalization. Hospitalization should occur when a person has lost self-actualization. When persons cannot imagine their self within or outside reality then I would recommend they admit themselves to a psychological institute, but otherwise the persons affected must treat themselves by forcing themselves to function. Life may not cater to our every need and we must strive to deal with life. Otherwise we self-proclaim our failure.

I say this because for the past thirteen years I have struggled with depression and have always had trouble getting out of bed in the morning. I constantly question my purpose and when I cannot determine a reason to live I see rising out of bed as unreasonable, but I get up anyway (most of the time). In getting out of bed I recognize that I am sad, even if I don't understand why, and attempt to overcome that emotion. I try to replace sadness with another emotion. After living with depression for thirteen years I am thankful that I must only deal with often not wanting to get up in the morning.

When compared with loss of existence, sadness doesn't amount to much of anything. I've experienced this loss a few times and, in retrospect, those times scare me. Not because I was frightened of myself during those times, but because I have no recollection of what I felt. I would not rise out of bed because I was no better off awake. I would not eat because everything was tasteless. Life or death didn't matter, mainly because I couldn't distinguish between the two. I lacked definition and everything that I was before and am after didn't exist, at least not within my self.

I am alarmed by the number of people with depression, but in speaking with a lot of these people I find they are stressed or sad, but not depressed. I urge counselors to encourage these people to cope with their problems instead of placing them on medication, because stress and sadness stem from external forces which are treatable with management and counseling (note: counseling involves communication, not medication). Real depression contains itself within people and when depression manifests itself, everything else ceases. For most people with this deep struggle, medication also fails.

Ben Butcher