As I was looking through Google and MSN searches to find articles on the most recent suicides reported, I was expecting to find reports from a week to maybe two weeks ago.
Instead, what I found were articles written as recently as nine hours ago, 23 hours ago and even the day before. I guess this should not be very shocking, considering the latest suicide rate has increased. Although there’s no exact number yet, calls to suicide prevention lines went up by 36% in 2008.
This is also difficult to understand because we only hear about the big cases that make headlines. For example, on April 22, financial officer of Freddie Mac, David Kellerman hung himself to death. A couple days before that, a man in New York killed his wife and two daughters before slashing himself to death.
On April 18, an Orange County man walked into the hospital where he used to work and killed two people and then killed himself. And of course, who can forget the Los Angeles man who, as result of both him and his wife losing their jobs, took it upon himself to shoot to death his wife and three children?
Some experts are attributing the recent spike in suicides to the economic crisis we are facing right now.
I say anyone who commits suicide or attempts to commit suicide is just plain stupid no matter what the situation is. I understand some people are struggling emotionally, physically or especially financially more than others, but it’s not the end of the world.
Things are bad, but everyone is experiencing it. Does that give us an excuse to take our own lives? No, because the fact of the matter is there is no excuse for suicide. The way I see it, it’s just a coward’s way out of life. It takes more courage to live.
And as far as all the murder-suicide acts go, one should take for example the man who killed people in an immigrant center and then killed himself, or the guy who shot up the elderly home or even the dude who killed the Virginia Tech students and then committed suicide: I think it’s time for people to get over themselves. I’m tired of turning on the news and seeing some breaking story about a guy who has gone on a shooting rampage and killing spree.
But more than that, I absolutely hate it when they cause all of this chaos with their killings and then end everything by killing themselves.
I think they have it so backward. They should do the murder-suicide act in reverse: They should shoot themselves first and then try shooting other people. I guarantee this approach won’t have the same tragic effects, which would be a great thing.
Personally, I’ve never understood how someone could be so unhappy with his or her life that he or she feels it necessary to take out anger on innocent people. Life is always going to be full of tough times and disappointments, but that goes for everyone. If someone is feeling depressed, upset or feeling like life is not worth it, that person should get help, or hope or both because there’s always another option.