Suicide Prevention Isn't Painless

Think you can really convince the federal government to stop wasting your money on useless and/or inappropriate crap, so that it might focus on stuff that matters? Here's a non-newsworthy item I heard on the radio this morning that suggests such efforts are Quixotic at best -- Congress has just given $400,000 to the state of Nevada for teen suicide prevention.

Not that $400,000 can buy you much more than a few gold-plated sandbags, but a mindset that doesn't blink at spending national money on local issues of zero national import is one that will, by definition, waste your money on useless and/or inappropriate crap.

Comments

[jf]

From here (pdf) you can see that Nevada, from 1996-1998, averaged 14 teen suicides a year. That $400,000 should completely eliminate teen suicide in Nevada, which will... um... benefit the...

I give up.

[Timothy]

Children! It'll benefit The Children!

[Big Fun]

Teenage suicide - don't do it!

[zach]

actually we're investigating technology that would use Nevadans as a cheap alternative to fossil fuels. so we can't have them go killing themselves. it's a matter of national security.

[More fun in Unrest's world]

Teenage Suicide - Yes, I can!

[George Bush]

To the children of this great nation.. I have a special message just for you:

Don't do it, don't you try it baby
Don't do that, don't, don't, don't
Don't do that, You got a good thing going now
Don't do it, don't do it... Don't

Don't try suicide, nobody's worth it
Don't try suicide, Nobody cares
Don't try suicide, you're just gonna hate it
Don't try suicide, nobody gives a damn

So you think it's the easy way out?
Think you're gonna slash your wrists... this time
Baby when you do it all you do is get on my tits
Don't do that, try, try, try, baby
Don't do that, you got a good thing going now
Don't do it don't do it... Don't

[SR]

"spending national money on local issues of zero national import"

While I agree with this characterization, the mental health community is breathless over the purported "suicide epidemic" in the US. (Of course, they ignore the fact that there are countries with substantially higher suicide rates than the US, e.g., Japan & Sweden, that manage to get along fine....)

[Queen = Life]

$400,000 = sixty thousand two hundred and forty-one copies of The Game.

In libertopia, that's sixty thousand two hundred and forty-one dead children.

[Number 6]

I guess I'm not seeing the problem, Queen.

[mk]

It's money for depression screenings. Whatever you think of depression as a public health issue (let's not bring up Tom Cruise again if we can help it), it is at least something that has to do with what the funding was intended for.

As an employee of a MH/SA place, I have seen much more egregious misuse of funds.

Of course, I realize that wasn't the real gist of the article. On that point,um, yep.

[trainwreck]

Most or all of the teens might have engaged in interstate commerce. Probably in selling or buying weed, which causes depression and schizophrenia, and would lead to their suicide. Of course it's a local of national importance.

[Charlie]

$400,000 and the message is. . . "Wait until you're 21 to off yourself!"

[alkali]

Most or all of the teens might have engaged in interstate commerce.

Pointless constitutional nitpick: Congress can spend money for the "general welfare" regardless of whether it affects interstate commerce.

[Kevin O'Reilly]

So Congress wants to encourage teen abstinence but discourage teen sex? Talk about mixed messages!

[Steve Darkly]

Remember that Bobby Gaylor spoken-word song from a couple years ago, about suicide?

I were running a teen suicide prevention program, I'd have a hotline, and kids could call in, and they would get a recording that said, "Please stand by ... " and then they'd hear a recording of that song. And then it would hang up. That's it. That's all.

It is the most eloquent argument against suicide that I can imagine. I am completely sincere about that. The rest of that CD ("Fuzzatronic Scream") was great too. Dark and scary and hilarious by turns. Maybe they should have given the money to Gaylor.

PS: I do have to take exception to one line in the song: "You'll never have to sit through another movie brought to you by the creators of South Park." I can only explain that as a desperate cheap shot at his competition. That line, I'd bleep out.

[Ruthless]

Okay Stev (e/o?),
What about geezers such as you and me?
Shouldn't we off ourselves to stop wasting our children's inheritance on silly prescription drugs?
At the very least, we should take up smurking and murdercycle-ridin', eh?

[Stevo Darkly]

Drat! I slipped up and revealed my real first name!

And no suicidin' for this boy, Ruthless. I'm just starting to realize my potential. I've experienced things I never would have anticipated 10 years ago. God knows what the next 10 will be like. And the next 10 after that. And the next ...

I thought about suicide, a little, in high school and college. I think every adolescent does. Especially when you start thinking along the lines of, "My life is so screwed up and there's no way I'll ever be able to fix it!"

You know what used to trigger my my-life-is-fucked-I'm-a-failure despair when I was in college? When I couldn't figure out how to arrange my frickin' course schedule for the next semester so I could take all the courses I wanted and needed in order to graduate in four years.

A little perspective is a wonderful thing. And I'm set on getting some more.

[Twba]

I couldn't figure out how to arrange my frickin' course schedule for the next semester so I could take all the courses I wanted and needed in order to graduate in four years.

Man, I'd hate to walk a mile in your shoes. Thanks for showing me how insignificant my problems are.

[Stevo Darkly]

Man, I'd hate to walk a mile in your shoes.

Speaking of restoring perspective, remember this little parable:

I used to feel sorry for myself because I had no shoes ... until I met a man who had no feet.

So I stole his shoes, because he sure as hell didn't need them.