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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 25, 2006 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Help is out there for those who think of suicide This week our community lost another woman to suicide. May her memory be for a blessing and may we each continue to reach out to one another, especially when someone is suffering from depression or mental illness. Our friend sporadically attended the local chapter of Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, www.dbsalliance.org. She tried to manage and maintain some balance in her life but sometimes it just takes one more difficulty to make life seem unbearable. If you know someone or if you your self are suffering, find an advocate, contact the National Alliance of Mental Illness, www.nami.org, find a friend, attend a support group. We here in the Rogue Valley are remarkably blessed to have many helpful resources including counseling and case management at Jackson County Mental Health, a local Ashland chapter of Depression and Bipolar Support group which meets every first and third Wednesday of each month, a phenomenal library on mental illness located at Jackson County Mental Health in Medford, free NAMI 12-week classes for families and friends of folks with mental illness and the Hawthorne Center in Medford, a drop-in center with workshops and support groups. There are local chapters of NAMI for folks suffering from mental illness as well as support groups for family members, both in Medford and in Ashland. The phone number for our local NAMI organization and Library is 774-7872 and the contact for our local DBSA is Michael Dawkins 482-2703. Please feel free to call and if necessary call the 24 hour crisis HELPLINE 779-4357 or 779-HELP. If you sense that someone can use an ear to listen to, a heart that is open, trust your instinct, often times someone who is suffering from mental illness can not find the way to ask for help and it might just be your loving kindness that can be the open door to one more day of coping and managing. Jonnie Dale Lieberman Ashland Oil consumption must be reduced with all we know The more oil we pull out of the ground and burn, the more material we throw into the atmosphere. This is a fact that few dispute. That material then erodes the ozone layer, also a generally accepted truth. It is in this way that the protective layer between our planet and the sun is damaged, leading to the phenomenon called global warming, whose first indicators in overall temperature rise and climatic perturbations we have begun to live with on a daily basis. Knowing all these simple facts and persisting in allowing them to threaten our habitat makes the human race either collectively suicidal, or collectively irresponsible beyond all conception. A recent US Army report (www.postcarbon.org/node/2525) shows that scientists within the U.S. military give more credence to the short-term peak oil scenario than to the many-years-out scenario favored by financial, political, and media circles. The report insists on immediate measures to reduce fossil fuel use, and the introduction of renewable energy sources to the entire military machine, among other measures. Since we trust them with ensuring our security, it would behoove us to act on the recommendations of our armed forces, which are warning of dramatic consequences of petroleum depletion in the “imminent” future. There is no longer an argument for continuing on the path of burning our own nest, except for the perpetuation of our generation’s comfort at the expense of our children’s. I believe we can do better than this. Let’s start by leaving the ANWR alone, and following the U.S. Army’s recommendations to begin altering our energy systems toward sustainability. Tracy Lord Ashland The Tidings gives priority to letters on local and regional topics of current interest. It seeks to encourage thoughtful, well-reasoned letters and to discourage personal attacks, repetitive messages and personal disputes. Form letters are not published in the Tidings, nor are letters identified as having been published in other publications. Contributions to the Opinion page should be e-mailed in text-only format to [email protected]. Please include your address and a daytime phone number where you can be reached for confirmation. Letters are limited to 250 words. At Length submissions are limited to 400 words. Submissions may be edited for length, content and clarity. See www.dailytidings.com for our expanded letters and opinion section. 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