To the Editor, Dear Tara Tanzos, I am an alumni since 2004, and have been receiving the email version of the Quad for several years. I would like to commend you on your investigation into Aramark. I was also a student between 1993 and 1997. There were always many questions about the food services even back then. Thank you again for writing your well researched investigative article. I see a bright future for you. Sincerely Erik B. Anderson Independence Township, New Jersey Established 1782 www.myspace.com/erikblaine 908-979-3493.
-Erik B. Anderson, West Chester Universtiy Alumni
To the Editor,
Love Is Life!! I am writing in response to the article “To write love on her arms encourages people to seek help for depression”. Love is a powerful weapon if you use it. It can injure depression, kill ideas of suicide and protect self-esteem if you believe in it. I believe that everyone reaches their peak when life’s harsh realities are too much to handle and sometimes a good friend’s shoulder is not strong enough for you to lean on but the self-infliction of pain should never be the answer. I have been through things you could never image. Pain so unbearable that I felt like I had nothing to live for and no matter how much I cried I knew that it wouldn’t change anything but I could never be selfish enough to take my own life away. No matter how hard things got and how much I wanted to quit, I always thought about my mom. My mom tells me everyday how much she loves me so I always thought of how much it would hurt her if she were to lose me. Everyone doesn’t have that support. Sometimes all it takes is simple “I love you” or something as easy as a phone call to remind someone that they matter. It could be the difference in a life and the glue that holds a broken heart together. -Ashley Greer, West Chester University Student
To the Editor,
I am a student in the Adapted Physical Education minor and have much experience working with kids with Asperger’s. I was appalled with not only the wording in The Quad’s article “‘Mozart’ raises autism awareness” but also with the content of the article. Describing people with Asperger’s as “Asperger’s patients” and Asperger’s as an “ailment” completely misrepresents what Asperger’s really is. The article presents Asperger’s as a disease, rather than a neurobiological disorder. The words “patient” and “ailment” have the negative, condescending connotations of someone who needs to be cured. This is not the case for people with Asperger’s. People with Asperger’s are not sick and do not need to be fixed. Several Asperger’s facts in the article were also lacking in substance and accuracy. If The Quad would like to present the most accurate information about Asperger’s and Autism, I would suggest contacting the Southeastern Pennsylvania Autism Resource Center, located at the WCU Graduate Business Center. I hope the next time The Quad runs an article about disability awareness that it checks its facts and political correctness first. -Maria Lepore-Stevens, West Chester University Student
To the Editor,
I think it’s a little sad how all the news about the Obama victory was because he is the first black president. I have nothing wrong with visual identification based on race, it is legitimate, but I don’t think it’s newsworthy. From the moment Obama’s name was entered into the primaries, it was always possible for the next President of the United States to be black. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m thrilled for him and his family, but it comes down to this: Obama is an American first, and American at birth. Then culture and education and race are all secondary factors of identification taught later, after he was already defined as American. So we should be celebrating a new American President. Rather than celebrating his race as the most interesting thing about him, look at his home state of Illinois. Good old honest Abe came from there, too. Wonderful. Also wonderful, but not unexpected: the White House is in control of the Democrats again. Great for them. The polarization of having a Democrat-controlled White House is not all good though. It reinforces a separatist system of only two parties. I don’t think it’s a good idea to commit to one political party over another. I do say another, not the other, because I think too many Americans are under the impression that we only live in a two-party system. I don’t like the idea of letting one single party, one group, or one affiliation define a much larger picture. Rather, I think individual opinions should make up the larger group, creating a diverse group that is the background that chooses the actions of the larger group as a whole. I may not be a Joe Lieberman fan, but I do respect him for switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Do you remember when he ran in 2000 as the Vice President candidate along Al Gore for President with the Democratic Party? I don’t know when he switched parties. I don’t really know why either, which makes my enthusiasm seem underserved. But by realizing that his productivity was no longer happening with the Democrats and taking the active effort to seek change? – Now that is fantastic.
-Casey B. Wernick, West Chester University student