Starting at a young age, I have learned that if you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. In the case of Tyler Remmel’s article addressing Mitch Ramsey’s accident on November 12, he shouldn’t have said anything at all.

For starters, his title was “In dealing with tragedy.” In my opinion, he certainly didn’t address the true idea of tragedy.

I am one of the people who had been on the geology club field trip that day at Hocking Hills, and it was a very traumatic experience.

Remmel speaks about the “communication gaffes” that went on throughout the situation but what he doesn’t focus on is the fact that it was a tragic event.

For those of us who were on the trip and experienced the situation first hand, it was too hard to simply talk about.

Remmel attempted to contact me via Facebook message the day after it had happened and I found no sympathy from him whatsoever.

I understood that people wanted to know what really happened, so I did give him a time to call me in order for him to figure out the details.

However, he never ended up calling me and the next thing I saw was that his article was out.

Being curious as to what he could have possibly wrote, I read the article and it was not what I expected. In journalism, I understand that articles are meant to be appealing to the readers but in this case, Remmel went too far.

Throughout his whole article it seemed like he was trying to debate an issue where there was no argument.

When broken down, the story is simple. Ramsey was trying to find his way down from a ledge and in his attempt, he fell. Now can you tell me where the argument is in that?

Remmel will tell you that it was in the communication problems. However, when looking over the e-mail, it was quite clear.

The message stated: “Mitchell (Mitch) Ramsey, a sophomore environmental science and geology major from Bucyrus, Ohio…was critically injured as the result of a fall during Saturday’s field trip to Hocking Hills State Park” (Public Relations).

I’m not sure where he found the confusion in that, but it was pretty accurate as to what happened.

This is an emotional topic and many people have concerns for Ramsey.

It is quite understandable that others want to know the details but don’t blame those of us who went through the situation.

In life, we sometimes experience things that are hard to understand and those incidents can be hard to talk about. The actual definition of tragedy is “an event in life that evokes feelings of sorrow or grief.”

Unfortunately, being a witness, I will carry the memory of this accident for the rest of my life. Why would I want to put this sadness upon someone else?

Overall, there was no need to attack those of us who didn’t want to reveal information.

Anything that was withheld had a purpose for being concealed. Either we couldn’t talk about it because of emotional reasons or we felt that others didn’t need to know the specific details.

I’m not sure if you have been through a traumatic situation like this but if you have, I would just like to ask you to think back on that time and ask yourself, “Would I have wanted to tell others about that incident?”

Most likely, if it was truly a “tragedy” you will not.

Here is where I stand: Tyler, I appreciate you trying to get the true story out there but in your article you failed to address the topic.

My advice is that if you want to continue your future in journalism, just remember that people are not all about solid information.

There are feelings to be considered and you truly hurt a lot of them.

Next time you want to talk to someone who has experienced a traumatic event, at least try to show that you care.

Sincerely,

Mercedes McGee