Suicide talk not the same as sex talk
After reading the Associated Press article, “Youths Push for Louder Conversation about Suicide,” I would have to say that I disagree with a lot of the points that Martha Irvine brought up. Irvine begins the article by stating that “if you speak it, someone might do it”. Children always imitate their peers; but I have never heard of a child mentioning suicide one day and another child committing suicide the next because of that conversation. I think Irvine is stretching the truth a little too far. Yes, talking about suicide will make kids think about it, but not necessarily to the point where they’ll think about doing it.
Irvine quotes fourteen year-old Brittany Langstaff. Langstaff thinks “It’s kind of like the sex talk with your children. I think we should have that talk”. I don’t think that talking about suicide is even comparable to having the sex talk with your children. Puberty is something that every child will go through at some point in their life, but suicide is not something that everyone will have to experience. Not that it shouldn’t be talked about at all, but if it weren’t talked about in a household I don’t think those children would be deprived. The “suicide talk” does not need to be given to every adolescent in fear that they might be thinking of killing themselves.
Diane Shea
Class of 2013, English
Puzzled over protestors’ motives
The legalization of medical marijuana has been a long ongoing fight in nearly every state. So I am not surprised by the everyday protesting going on in Veteran’s Park in Manchester, NH. I am a New York resident, and I was very surprised to read, that the possession of a small amount of marijuana is considered a Class A misdemeanor and punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. New York laws are much less strict than New Hampshire’s laws on marijuana.
I was confused about the protestor’s main goal; is it to legalize marijuana completely, or just the legalization of medical marijuana? As I read the comments from interviewed protestors it seemed that the protests are merely done to bring about attention to marijuana as a whole. I am in full support of the legalization of medical marijuana; it has been proven to help many of those who have suffered terrible diseases.
According to Tony Jankowski, he is tired of his friends getting arrested and would rather have the New Hampshire, and fellow, police departments out looking for robbers, rapists, and murderers, instead of searching for marijuana smokers. Yet when the Chief of Police, David Mara, was interviewed he said that there have been no arrests of the current protestors. Even though these protestors are openly smoking marijuana in Veteran’s Park, there have been no arrests. Maybe, Mr. Jankowski, the police really are out looking for murderers and robbers? I think if these Veteran Park protestors really want to make a statement they should come up with a more solid argument.
Nika Simone MacFarlane
Class of 2013, History
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