Two Sucides for every homicide in the U.S.
Each week on brewed fresh daily, George posts a link to the latest entries from Postsecret. You can reach the link through BFD. A few weeks ago, when I scrolled down past the postcard entries, the abpve message caught my attention. My first thought was Can this be true? My second thought was I should verify this statement before I post. I finally did today, it is. These are 2003 figures but I doubt that they are much different today– maybe plus or minus a percent or two. For the suicide rate, I went here. And for the murder rate, I used this FBI site. Please find other statistics that are different than these–2003 31,484 suicides and 16,303 murders.
Here we have been told that we are a violent society but we are a self-destructive society. Why is that? Is it because we think that the best years of our lives are behind us? Is it because we do not have hope for the future? Hopelessness leads to despair and despair leads to death.
Maybe we need to focus on the now. All we really have is this moment in time. The past is over, we cannot change it and none of us knows what the future holds. What we can control is the moment. We can choose to squander it, enhance it, or let it be. But we always should understand what we have decided to do with that moment in time.
“Be grateful for each new day-a new day that you have never lived before.
“Twenty-four new, fresh, unexplored hours to use, usefully and joyfully. You can squander, neglect, or use them. Life will be richer or poorer by the way you use today.”
I don’t remember where I found it or who should receive attribution, but I sure know that if we strived to live it each and every day we can change the world and we can give hope to future generations.
When I started this post, I felt despair and now I end it with hope. That’s life.
April 3rd, 2006 at 10:49 am
A very powerful post Gloria.
I’m not sure what those numbers say about us as a society, other than what you mentioned - that we are extremely self-destructive. Why are we so self-destructive? I have a million ideas floating around right now. That’s what a blog is supposed to do, right? Encourage thought and discussion.
I’m going to go and attempt to organize those thoughts.
I’ll be back.
April 3rd, 2006 at 11:06 am
Couple of thoughts, Gloria.
One, would be interesting to see the age, race and socio-economic breakdown of who is dying by their own hand versus by someone else’s.
Second, it would be interesting to see how many of the suicides were known to those who could or should have helped (meaning some kind of mental health agency or individual) and how many who died by homicide had any connection already to the criminal law system.
Maybe I am the bleeding heart liberal that others say I am after all, because when I read what you wrote, the only question in my mind is, how have we failed these people and what should have been done, could have been done or should now be done.
How did those lives get to the point where they had no hope and couldn’t care less about the next 24 hours?
April 3rd, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I believe that some of those breakdowns were available at the FBI site and the Suicide Rate site, but the figures weren’t totally comparable so I didn’t include. One thing I found interesting was that there were more suicides in those over 65 than there were in the 15-24 age grouping. We hear a lot about suicide in the young but we don’t have much of a discussion about the suicide rate in the elderly. Of course, Tim pointed out that I could not compare the two figures because there was not a top age for the elderly, but still food for thought.
No Jill, you are not a bleeding heart liberal you are a compassionate human being as we should all be, and we should all be asking the questions you pose.
Thanks for stopping by.
April 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Scott:
I sure hope that you will be back. I am interested to hear what your thought organization brings to the table.
Thanks for stopping by.