Archive link Originally published in 1996, I was recommend this article the other day and it had a surprising impact on me. Recently I've been thinking a lot about how every death (by human hands)...
A junior premed student took the life of her closest friend, then her own. She left behind a shocked campus, unanswered questions, and her diary.
Originally published in 1996, I was recommend this article the other day and it had a surprising impact on me. Recently I've been thinking a lot about how every death (by human hands) is not one tragedy but two: the death of a complex, nuanced, unique individual of course, but also the fact that another individual got to the point -- via dehumanization, or desperation, or some other means (often driven by society) -- where taking that life seemed like the sensible, or right, or safe thing to do.
In this article for the New Yorker, Melanie Thernstrom tells the tale of both tragedies. The stories of both Trang Ho and Sinedu Tadesse -- two Harvard students, who were both immigrants; who were roommates, but lived very different lives, experienced the world differently. Struggled in different ways. I found the article to be well-written and deeply affecting, centering not the sensational details of the two women's deaths, but their humanity; their struggles; their families.
Archive link
Originally published in 1996, I was recommend this article the other day and it had a surprising impact on me. Recently I've been thinking a lot about how every death (by human hands) is not one tragedy but two: the death of a complex, nuanced, unique individual of course, but also the fact that another individual got to the point -- via dehumanization, or desperation, or some other means (often driven by society) -- where taking that life seemed like the sensible, or right, or safe thing to do.
In this article for the New Yorker, Melanie Thernstrom tells the tale of both tragedies. The stories of both Trang Ho and Sinedu Tadesse -- two Harvard students, who were both immigrants; who were roommates, but lived very different lives, experienced the world differently. Struggled in different ways. I found the article to be well-written and deeply affecting, centering not the sensational details of the two women's deaths, but their humanity; their struggles; their families.