Dec 282009
Former Minnesota senator Mark Dayton revealed that he has coped with depression for many years. This probably wasn’t an easy decision for Dayton, but he’s planning a run for governor next year and he may have wanted to address the issue before one of his opponents did. As common as depression is among Americans, it still carries strong associations with being “crazy”; perhaps Dayton’s revelation will be another incremental step towards eliminating the stigma surrounding the illness. I’m not sure Dayton is the ideal candidate for governor, but his medical history is irrelevant. His disclosure will hopefully lead his fellow candidates to the same conclusion.
I hate that Dayton had to do this. We have a certain republican politician who drinks like a fish and is a total womanizer and it never gets mentioned. But if a democrat battles mild to moderate depression, like the majority of my friends do, he has to worry about it being exploited, as well as his treated alcohol addiction. That’s crap. Why don’t the dems go for the jugular like the repubs do?