[UPDATED FRI 1:PM EST in body of diary]
"Good Bye, Cruel World"; the kind of thing a person says right before they decide to end their life and commit suicide.
Must be fun to use that as a joke. Gotta be fun.
In the body of the diary, I'm going to post a link for you, I'll let your intellectal integrity demonstrate how much courage you have to face the truth that the "Greatest Country In The World" (TM) Has to own up to.
We say that it's a dangerous country because 40,000 people a year die in accidents.
We say that it's a violent country because 20,000 people a year are killed by homicide.
How many of you knew that 30,000 people a year kill themselves. Still want to throw that GBCW tag around like it's a joke?
Sure puts the 40,000 per year who die from lack of health care in perspective.
This is but one man's opinion. But I'm crazy, so it's all good.
UPDATE: There are a lot of pissed off and indignant people who are assailing me for being "PC" and for having the gall to tell you what you "can and can't say".
Tell you what: Get yourself an admin on line 1, then you read carefully through this diary (if you read it to begin with) and you find for me my words that say "Stop using GBCW" or "This should not be allowed".
I have utterly no pretense in thinking I can change a damn thing on this earth - that's one of the reasons a person might commit suicide -
all I asked you to do was think about it.
That's all. No demand, not even a request. I just asked if - especially all of you who claim I've somehow injured you again because someone you know took their own life - you felt it was so funny to use the suicide as a "this place sucks I'm leaving" code for a disgruntled blogger.
It can't be both ways - I can't be assailed for making light of GBCW by those who are indigant because they know someone who took their own life, at the same time I've got the other half of you saying I have no right to be talking about such things and need to be taken to a hospital to get me "help".
It's a blog people. And if my words are so hurtful and dangerous and loaded when you read them, then it can't be that you can say anything and everything under the sun to me and I'm never supposed to take it to heart.
It can't be both - either my diary can't hurt you because it's just a blog and therefore I can blow off your criticism of me too - OR - if what I said here seems cavalier or disparaging or insensitive to you who have real issues with death in your lives, you'd better own up to how much power you have with your own words.
Wow. Half of you wrote me off as a joke, the other half want me banned and in a padded cell. I guess I must be all right then.
Or at least about average.
Here's the link to the Centers for Disease Control, it's the statistic report generator for causes of death.
http://webappa.cdc.gov/...
You can plug in whatever numbers you like, but I put you on the page that starts with statistics from 1999 and later, which I thought was relevant because in 2001 people seemed to think that only a terrorist will kill you. When I've tried to post the tables here on Kos, I can't make the formatting work.
But try these parameters:
Census Region/State: United States
Date of Report: 2001 to 2006
Race: All Races
Hispanic Origin: All
Sex: Both Sexes
Number of Causes: 10
Age Group Formatting: 1-14 in 5-year groups; 15-65+ in 10-year groups
Then hit "Submit Request"
I've put up this diary before and it's just as relevant now. This country is still looking under ever rock for all the exotic ways that MIGHT kill us when the odds have five zeros between the decimal point and the first significant digit...meanwhile, when the odds are 1 in 100 that it will kill you, it's all good as long as it was your choice.
What I want you to realize is that, as a rule,
The most frequent cause of death from 15 to to 64 are accidents. Mostly cars. No war on cars.
Most of the death in groups below 65 are from preventable causes - we don't know how to cure cancer, but we know much of what causes it. We spend all kinds of money on treatment; try to tell someone to change their habits to prevent cancer and their likely to give you the finger.
But what leaves me speechless, what leaves me empty and cold is this:
In the "Greatest Country In The World" (TM), in every age group over the age of 10, suicide leads homicide as a cause of death.
So WTF am I doing posting this here on a political blog when there may be hundreds of thousands of dead and dying in Haiti?
Just trying to make you think.
I'm sure the comments will remind me why there are so many GBCW diaries lately, so I'm probably not going to read them.
Because I've encountered enough people on the internet who have so little personal responsibility for the power of what comes out of their mouth/keyboard that they scare me more than terrorists. The absolute lack of humanity that we display on a regular basis makes my blood run cold.
This country is eating itself from the inside out.
We should not be this hungry.
You should ask yourself if you're eating because you're really hungry, or just bored.
And if "Good Bye Cruel World" seems like a fun way to salute someone who said they couldn't stand the heat and left this blog, I think it's telling that it's the circumstances which gave that phrase it's initial context is now seen as a joke .
Your move.