Letters to the Editor

Refining Mental Health Care After Newtown

Take Madonna's advice: Express youself. Quickest way to reach Parsippany? In a Letter to the Editor.

The Newtown, Conn., shootings have put a spotlight on mental illness and how it can have deadly consequences when combined with guns. Despite common perception, there is significant evidence that people in treatment for mental illnesses are no more violent than the general population. Living with mental illness is a struggle. People with mental illnesses are people first, with the same hopes and fears as all other people. The most humane avenue for a person with mental illness is to receive the best care along the continuum of treatment options that are available. However, there is a small number of people with serious mental illness who, when untreated for long periods, can be dangerous. This is often related to an untreated psychotic …

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Parsippany Gathers as 'People of Light' for Newtown

Candlelight vigil held Tuesday night at Veterans Park elicits tears, tributes and a call for an end to the violence.

More than 100 residents gathered at Veterans Park Tuesday night to offer respects to the 20 children and six adults gunned down Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Parsippany's Par-Troy Council of Parent-Teacher Associations candlelight vigil was the brainchild of Parsippany Hills High School PTSA President Sandy Nussbaum Giercyk. "I had to do something," she said, when asked why she suggested putting on an outdoor event to allow Parsippany residents to stand in solidarity with the Newtown fallen. "My emotions have run the gamut, from love to hate to guilt," Giercyk said, addressing the crowd at the park's bandshell. "This tragedy leaves us with a reminder that life is very fragile." Elizabeth Kadian, also of the Par-…

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