I was dating a girl in high school that committed suicide. 21 years, 2 months, and 7 days ago. Still on my mind, but hey, stuff happens, right? I, like Mudwoman, have spent countless hours with families and friends of suicide victims (they are the victims themselves most often), and have had to pack the offenders into body bags more times than I care to count. Go ahead and call it a selfish act, and speak badly about these people if it makes you feel better. Until you have been there, seen it, and lived through it, you have no room to speak. This post isn't aimed at anyone, it's not intended to flame anyone, nor make anyone mad. Suicidal people are ill. Not all of them, not the 19 y/o like Mudwoman wrote about. Those are just spur of the moment "so there" suicides. I mean the people who spend the better part of their day thinking about when and how they will do it. It's an illness, people, much the same as alcoholism and drug addiction and a myriad of other psychological disorders. They cannot help themselves. There are very, very, very few "failed suicide attempts". A suicidal person, a truly suicidal person, will succeed on the first try. They don't take pills and call their friends and tell them what they did. They buy a gun, a length of rope, a hose for the exhaust pipe to reach around to the driver's side window, and go to a secluded spot to finish their business, hoping no one finds them before it's done. Do you make fun of the mentally retarded people in the world? Do you make fun of an elderly man that has no control of his bladder because Alzheimer's has turned his brain to mush and he doesn't know he's pissing down his leg? Do you make fun of cancer patients? Then why would anyone feel so self-righteous as to spit on someone who was truly suicidal? Think about it. It's a disease, a sickness that can't be cured. Next time you think about cursing someone who committed suicide (no, not the person who did it out of revenge or anger), think about what it would be like to be cursed by your peers for having diabetes, or cancer, or epilepsy, or any other uncurable disease. Again, I'm not trying to upset anyone, nor am I aiming this at anyone here. I just wanted to make it clear how I feel. I think suicide is a terrible, terrible thing. I feel sorry for anyone who is afflicted with the sickness. I don't, however, feel much of anything but disdain for someone who uses it as a weapon to purposely harm another person. From reading his books, and from what I've learned of Hunter S. Thompson's life and personal feelings, I believe he had an illness, and that it was anything but a selfish act.
There, I've opened my mouth....any doubts?
I'll put away my soapbox now, raise my glass in a toast to the man that was, and quietly continue my readings in the forums. Goodnight.....I will be here tomorrow!!
