Sunday, February 17, 2008

Forwarded to me by a colleague (Mary)

This is from a friend of mine who teaches voice at the Northern
Illinois University, where the most recent school shootings occurred.
I was just there last spring to give a master class...


On Feb 17, 2008, at 6:17 AM, Myron Myers wrote:

> Dear Mary,
>
> The university will reopen on the 25th and the administration is
> tacking on a
> week of classes at the end of the semester. My students are completely
> freaked out, and don't want to come back to school at all. Fiona,
> my daughter,
> refused to go to school on Friday because she was afraid of copy-
> cat killings
> at the high school.
>
> Three current music students were enrolled in the Oceanography
> class, but two
> of them were absent on the day of the event. The other one will
> undoubtedly be in
> counseling for the foreseeable future. One of those absent is a
> voice major.
> Two of those dead were young women who at one time or another had
> participated
> in choral activities.
>
> I have been thinking a great deal about this school and the reason
> it happened here.
> I have to say that the students who come to Northern are usually
> from middle and
> lower middle income families. I was thinking in particular about
> the things they deal
> with in daily life. In recent memory, one of my students had to go
> to court to get a restraining
> order against a former boyfriend who was stalking her. One of my
> young tenors was discovered
> by his parents to be gay. His mother came at him in the shower (a
> la Psycho) with a kitchen
> knife, saying that no son of hers would ever be gay. She didn't
> hurt him, but the threat was
> enough. He went to the counselors at the school for a time. Luckily
> there is a very sympathetic
> woman who runs the gay coalition.
>
> These two examples (and there are many more) give me a clue about
> the level of angst and hatred that surround the daily lives
> of our students. A lot of them come from broken homes. There is not
> enough money. The
> level of heath and mental heath care is poor to nonexistant. These
> people blame the government
> (which is at fault, surely), but also various ethnic groups, for
> their misery. The trickle down theory
> of a robust economy is bunk, and everyone knows it. The rich have
> become megarich,
> the middle class is being squeezed out of existence, and the poor
> get even poorer.
>
> A lot of these people are caught between a rock and hard place, and
> depression develops.
> They lack the education or the wherewithal to tweak the system.
> They are medicated by doctors because these
> people lack the funds for proper psychiatric care. They are
> sometimes given three and four
> medications for depression, to go to sleep, to wake up, some of
> them not compatible. Then
> there is a cut in the pharmacy allowance in the paltry health care
> plan they may get from
> the government or the school, and they quit taking the meds (as is
> the case with the young
> man who killed seven people).
>
> It was telling that President Bush called university President
> Peters to tell him not to release
> the name of the medication the shooter failed to take. This just
> proves how deeply indentured
> the politicos are to the pharmacy companies. Bush's friend over at
> Schering-Plough is having
> a tough enough time, and this news would cause shares to plummet.
> The bad news is that
> Peters complied. (The information will come out eventually anyway.
> I think everyone should know
> that failing to take certain medications can have THIS result.)
>
> On some level, this is beginning to remind me of the circumstances
> of the French revolution.
> It can't go on very much longer without chaos. The budget for our
> unpopular war would alone
> suffice to help build a health care system for every American. The
> emotional environment
> is toxic. But strangely, a lot of people are united about the
> direction of the country, or LACK of
> it, and I think that if enough people act there will be changes.
> This terrible shooting is the tip of
> the iceberg. Below it is a whole system of terribleness.
>
> It's a good thing school is closed. No one wants to go near the
> place. On one level, it's good for
> me because I have to learn the Commendatore for performances next
> month, so this will give
> me a window. But at what a cost!
>
> Love
> M
>
>
>

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