It is true that affliction and anguish do not know class lines. Members of society’s more privileged classes can suffer from the loss of a loved one just as much as someone in Haiti can suffer from the loss of a family member. The rich are also capable of experiencing loss, grief and disappointment. They can also feel lonely, sad, depressed and even suicidal.

As Julianna Meagher ’11 suggested in her February 12th Letter to the Editor, suffering is not “limited to a lack of...