World Suicide Prevention Day

Wednesday, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day. Around the world, each minute 1-2 people die from suicide, and in developing countries, suicide is a leading cause of death among teenagers. World Suicide Prevention Day is designed to bring attention to the high costs of suicide as well as promote understanding of suicide behaviors and awareness of effective prevention.

At Ithaca College, the Counseling Center is sponsoring a number of activities surrounding World Suicide Prevention Day and National Suicide Prevention week, including a talk by Carlo Troise who lost his only son to suicide. A full listing of activities is available here.

DawnWatch on Palin

Karen Dawn, of DawnWatch, has an extensive alert and call to action regarding Palin's nomination and the opportunities it provides to bring animals into the conversation regarding the upcoming election. Dawn explains, "Sarah Palin has so far shown a level of hostility to animal interests that is well outside the norm. Her presence on the ticket therefore gives us the chance to let it be known that such a stance matters, and that to most people, both Democrat and Republican, it is a negative." Please read her entire discussion here.

DawnWatch is entirely nonpartisan and will not tell you for whom to vote, but I am not constrained by that position, and I will tell you to vote for Obama, for the animals, for social justice, and for the environment.

McCain's VP Choice Bad for Animals

Please, please, reconsider voting for John McCain if he is your top presidential pick. His Vice Presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, is a disaster on all the issues that matter to me, and I hope matter to you: social justice, the environment, and, most close to my heart, animals.

Michale Markarian, of the Huntington Post, discusses how both VP candidates fair on animal issues here. I strongly encourage you to read his article and consider if you want Palin to represent you in the White House.

Some of her positions:

• Polar Bears should not be on the endangered species list (She opposed the listing, and when the Bush Administration put the polar bear on the list, filed a lawsuit against it.)
  
• Hunters should receive bonuses for the aerial shooting of wolves (She spent $400,000 of state money on a PR campaign to support her position.)
• Trophy hunting is a valuable sport

She is not the kind of leader we want for the nation.