Healthy, wealthy and wise
I applaud your publishing Pete Armetta’s article on the mental health services public funding crisis [“Opinionated,” May 30]. Under-funded mental health services mean under-treated people, and one of the tragic results of untreated mental illness
is suicide.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, each year in the United States approximately 2 million adolescents attempt suicide. That means that 2 million of our young people are in so much psychological pain that they feel that suicide is the only way to be free of that pain. In 2000, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youth ages 15 to 24 (the Center for Disease Control and Prevention). For college-age youth in particular, suicide was the second leading cause of death (The Jason Foundation, Inc).
These tragedies are most certainly preventable. With early intervention, youth with mental health challenges can receive the treatment they need to help them cope with their mental illnesses. Adequate funding for early intervention is absolutely necessary if these services are to be available for youth in crisis.
Jeanne-Marie Peterson
Charlottesville
We are not amused
Rarely have I read a more vicious article than the article on Kathy Griffin that appeared in the May 30 edition of the
C-VILLE Weekly [“Hurricane Kathy”]. As I read the article I became more and more appalled at the “slash and burn” attack on Ms. Griffin. I reread the article a third time thinking that I must have overlooked an actual review of her show. I had not overlooked a review—there was none. There was simply a venomous personal attack on Ms. Griffin.
And then it got worse. Under the subheading entitled “Five great local moments captured on Griffin’s ‘My Life on the D List,’” Mr. Rezsnyak expands his personal attacks to include WCVA general assignment reporter Phillip Stewart, a fan named Prakash, and Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo. Police Chief Longo was treated slightly more gently than the others—I wonder why. Mr. Rezsnyak then returned to his “slash and burn,” “take no prisoners” style. He then turns his vitriolic attacks on Dr. John Hong. He describes him as “the internist/medical columnist/ ice dancer.” Gee, I wonder in which weekly Charlottesville newspaper Dr. Hong’s column appears? And I would like to give Mr. Rezsnyak a few other adjectives to apply to Dr. Hong: brilliant, wonderful doctor, charming person, compassionate, caring, well dressed, top-notch singer, good friend, and possessed of a quick wit and zany sense of humor. Having never met or seen Mr. Rezsnyak, I can only hope that he is well dressed, because none of the other adjectives seem to apply to him. Certainly he is not possessed of a sense of humor of any kind.
As a child, long before I married, became a mother of two and a grandmother of two, my mother told me never to attempt to tear someone down because it proved that I was trying to get them down to my level.
Kaye A. Crabill
Lovingston
The editor replies: Sadly, Eric Rezsnyak is not well dressed.
CORRECTION
An article last week about UVA killer Andrew Alston’s pending release from jail [“Attorney for Corner killer questions terms of release,” Courts & Crime News] misidentified the victim. He was Walker Sisk, not Walter.