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The Rice Thresher
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Always remember that you are not alone To the editor: I believe I speak for many when I commend Lizzie Taishoff for her opinion column ("When depression strikes, reach out for help," Oct. 6). She has done a wonderful job of explaining the CAPP organization in greater detail than was given during Orientation Week. There are so many resources to treat depression here on campus, and the more they are publicized, the more informed students will be. Like her, Malcolm Wardlaw's column "You're not alone, and it will get better" (Jan. 28, 2000) affected me in a very profound way. What he wrote made so much sense; his words were so powerful and he put in sentences the jumble of emotions I felt in my head. I thought I was the only one who felt as hopeless, frustrated and isolated as he described; I am thankful that I know now that I'm not alone.
Irina Wong Hanszen sophomore
Apathy cannot explain low turnout rates To the editor: I would like to comment on last week's "Support our athletes for the right reasons" by JosI Luis CubrOa and "Third parties provide abstention alternative" by Garret Merriam. In their columns, both Merriam and CubrOa complain about apathy. CubrOa is worried about students studying instead of watching Rice Owls' games. Merriam whines about the majority of Americans staying at home instead of going to the voting booth. Dear gentlemen, apathy has nothing to do with this, and you know it. People don't go to the voting booth because the chance of being killed by a drunk driver or catching the flu on the way is much higher than the probability that they will influence the outcome (i.e., their vote will be pivotal). Students don't go to Owls' games because there is no "right reason" - Rice does not compete on high levels, unless you think high level means your punter tries to kick the ball higher than further. It's no fun to watch your team lose a game, and the probability of that is quite high (as far as football goes, my estimate for this fall is 83.3 percent). For the majority of us, it's better to stay home, unless, as Merriam suggests, we "give away a free Backstreet Boys CD with every ballot" or ticket. Yes, CubrOa, that would be a much better reason to go to Rice games than "because they're fun." If they were fun, you wouldn't have to write your article. It's not apathy - it's a rational choice.
Wojtek Dorabialski Graduate student, Economics
Athletes deserve as much respect as others To the editor: After reading JosI Luis CubrOa's column last week ("Support our athletes for the right reasons," Oct. 6) I was initially tempted to write it off as another lament about the sad state of Rice athletics. The more I thought about it, however, the more angered I became. As a member of the Rice cross country team, which has less fans than one of my "classmates trying to balance problem sets with raising a child," I want to try to set a few things straight. I do wholeheartedly agree with CubrOa's observation that, when it comes down to it, students should go to athletic events because they're fun. It would be almost insulting to have people show up for no other reason than a sense of duty. If you go to a football game, a tennis tournament or a soccer match, go because you're going to enjoy yourself. However, this important point is all but lost among CubrOa's anti-athlete rhetoric. No, you don't "owe us anything," except maybe a little more respect off the field. Praising people who "spend all of their free time doing thankless research for a professor" is well justified, but then arguing that these people deserve more credit than they're getting implies one of two things: Either athletes are unjustly monopolizing the attention of the student body, or they're getting praise they don't deserve. Both sentiments, which I've heard in various forms over my short Rice career, are unbelievably frustrating. Most of us work tirelessly to simply earn the recognition we get, efforts that seem particularly wasted when the sports column of our school paper informs us that we should really be playing in Division III. The debate over the role of student athletes on campus has been growing over the years and will continue to develop without my two cents' worth. But the next time a busy student government official is feeling overworked or a stressed lab assistant needs some down time, they should come to a Rice sporting event - they just might have some fun.
Andrew Courtwright Wiess sophomore
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