It may seem wiser to simply do the things I do to make me feel good, and to not think of it all as suicide prevention.
That puts a little bit of a depressing edge to it all, bringing up suicide, all the time.
But I saw two things recently, one on YouTube, and one in my local Wichita Eagle newspaper, both about suicide prevention.
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First, the article from the newspaper.
I will simply type the headline here, and a little bit of the article.
I pay for the newspaper, so it may have something in it to prevent copy and paste.
In interview with Howard Stern, Biden says he considered suicide after death of first wife and daughter
“In just a brief moment, I thought: ‘Let me just go to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and jump,’” Biden said.
“You don’t need to be crazy to commit suicide,” he added.
Biden also said he considered getting drunk to ease the pain of the tragedy, even though he doesn’t drink.
“I used to sit there and just think I’m going to take out a bottle of scotch,” Biden said. “I’m going to just drink it and get drunk.”
I suppose that is a campaign strategy, in which Biden wants to reach out to all of us who have lost someone close, and connect, so we see him as a friend.
Sounds like a plan!
About a week ago, before I saw that article, I found this video, at the White House YouTube channel.
The video is over one hour long, so do not feel obligated to watch the whole thing.
But the concept is so powerful.
It seems so wise.
Yes!
You see, even though the USA has 120 guns for each 100 Americans, way more than any other country, the homicide rate is way higher in many other countries, in which they do not have nearly as many guns.
en.wikipedia.org/…
If you go to that link, you see that the homicide rate in the USA is listed at 6.4
Even if you round that up to 7, that means that in my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, with 500,000 people, we have about 35 homicides per year.
Not wonderful.
But the following countries have homicide rates that are so much higher.
And remember, they only have 5 or ten guns for every 100 people:
- Mexico: 26
- Honduras: 35
- Jamaica: 53
- Colombia: 25
- Brazil: 21
- South Africa: 41
I bring this up because so many activists, including our VP, Kamala Harris, so often point out that we most likely can reduce our homicide rate, by way of more rules and regulations regarding guns.
And that seems true to me, and worth our attention, and our action, at all levels, federal, state, and local.
However.
In so many countries, including the USA, the suicide rate overshadows the homicide rate:
en.wikipedia.org/…
- USA: 14
- Mexico: 5.4
- South Korea: 21
- South Africa: 23
Okay, I am running out of time.
I need to hurry and post this.
Tell me in the comments if you see what I mean, that as we talk about new gun laws, as Obama often said, we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
So, let’s try to get just as serious about suicide prevention.
Hugs!