Tag: Suicides

Veterans: A Perfect Example Of The What Is Wrong

I have been a staunch critic of the VA system we have in this country for the care of our vets….the system sucks….and NO one in Washington seems to give a f*ck…..this country has a horrible track record on veterans needs…..we ask them for their help and then we give them the finger when they return home and need help……something that this country should be ashamed of in all its parts……

We have all heard the horror stories of long waiting lines for care and we are well aware of the high rate of suicides among our returning vets….and there are a wealth of people willing to do say whatever it takes to get support from these vets but after that they do NOT feel they owe them anything beyond that….

I saw a piece about the VA suicide hot-line….after I finished reading it I thought that it was the perfect example of the  non-caring attitude…..

The Oscar-winning film Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 documents the counselors who man the phones for the 24-hour service, but never mentions the suicidal veterans who are put on hold or sent to voicemail, with calls never returned—a fact made public last week in a report from the Veterans Affairs inspector general, USA Today reports. The investigation also found that contracted counselors at the backup centers that took overflow calls from the Veterans Crisis Line may not have been trained to handle mental health crises, the Military Times notes. “We substantiated allegations that some calls routed to backup crisis centers were answered by voicemail, and callers did not always receive immediate assistance,” the report stated, adding that about one in every six calls gets sent to one of half a dozen backup centers when the main hotline staff based in Canandaigua, NY, is swamped.

The VA investigation began in 2015 when it started receiving complaints from those who called for help and were put in telephone limbo. In one case, a suicidal Florida vet told a local news station he was put on hold over and over, up to 10 minutes at a time, per the Military Times. Altogether, the report found the backup center had transferred nearly two dozen current service members, veterans, or family members to voicemail. And the reason calls weren’t returned? Backup center staff said they didn’t know they had voicemail. The VA has already started to remedy the issues—including more staff at peak times and upgrading its phone system—and says it will implement other suggested changes by Sept. 30. (Those who wish to use the service can call 800-273-8255 (press 1), text 838255, or go to http://www.veteranscrisisline.net. (Female veterans have an “obscenely high” suicide rate.)

Our veterans deserve so much more than this country is willing to give……it is just sad and pathetic…..

Military Suicides Aren’t Linked To Deployment, Study Finds

I spend a lot of time studying and researching Veterans issues…..these brave souls deserve better than they have got from the country that ordered them to sacrifice everything….life, family, emotions…….

Suicides among vets has been a particularly bad issue for the country……much has been tried to reach out to these vets that are endangered….little has been done……

This piece is an attempt to find where the problem lies…….I do not think that it is complete…..How about you?

 

Military Suicides Aren’t Linked To Deployment, Study Finds.

Veterans Suicide

AS a vet I try to keep a focus on our vets and their problems after they are returned to the US………it saddens me to witness what this country is doing to these brave people……..and the government makes me real in disgust.

For several years the biggest issue is the amount of vets committing suicide and of course the government has taken this up as some sort of holy quest….then ask …..how is that working out?

Department of Defense Releases Fourth Quarter 2014 Suicide Information

Today, the Department of Defense released the Quarterly Suicide Report (QSR) for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2014.

The report summarizes confirmed suicide counts for all services and components during the months of October through December of 2014, and also includes total suicide counts for 2014, 2013 and 2012.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, there were 69 suicides among service members in the active component, 21 suicides among service members in the reserves, and 18 suicides among service members in the National Guard.

In calendar year 2014, there were 268 confirmed suicides in the active component, up slightly from 254 in 2013; 79 in the reserve, down from 86 in 2013; and 87 in the National Guard, down from 134.

The QSR is available here. Additional information is available on the Defense Suicide Prevention Office website at www.suicideoutreach.org.

Service members and their families who need support can reach out to the Military Crisis Line, which offers free and confidential support for those in crisis. The Military Crisis Line is staffed by caring, qualified responders from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, many who have served in the military themselves. Support is available through the crisis line phone number, online chat, and text-messaging services for all service members (active, National Guard and reserves) and veterans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by visiting the Military Crisis Line website at http://veteranscrisisline.net/ActiveDuty.aspx; Online Chat at: http://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ChatTermsOfService.aspx; sending a text to: 838255 or calling toll free at: 1-800-273-8255, Press 1.

There is your answer….personally, I do not trust any form of accounting used by the government……

I included the phone number…..just in case you know of a vet that is struggling please pass the number on or help them get the help they desperately need…….that is better than a simple “thank you”……

Some Do The Right Thing

I am sure that many Americans remember that horrific ferry disaster in South Korea that cost many many children their lives….of course the Korean government has arrested many that worked for the ill fated ferry and its parent company……

I wrote awhile back that the CEO of the ferry company took responsibility for the disaster and immediately went out and wrote and note and killed himself…….after reading that news I wrote that unlike the US people in other countries, especially Asian, that take their responsibility seriously to the point that they would kill themselves because of the embarrassment they have caused the country and their families.

I wrote that it was a shame that American business people cannot do something similar…..like take responsibility for their actions that cause a disaster, ie the 2008 crash……

I bring all this up again…because it has happened again…….

A South Korean man involved in planning an outdoor pop concert where 16 people were killed after falling through a ventilation grate was found dead today in an apparent suicide. The man, 37, an employee of the Gyeonggi Institute of Science and Technology Promotion, was found dead at around 7am in Seongnam, the city south of Seoul where yesterday’s accident occurred, said city spokesman Kim Nam-jun. The site of his death was not far from where 16 people watching a performance by 4Minute, a girls’ band that is popular across Asia, were killed when the ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed. Eleven other people were seriously injured.

It was believed that the man, who was questioned by police last night over the accident, leaped from the top of a 10-story building. In a televised briefing today, Kim said the death toll could rise. Of the 11 people treated at hospitals, eight had life-threatening injuries to the abdomens or lungs, he said. Most of those who were killed were men in their 30s and 40s, while five were women in their 20s and 30s, fire officials said. The collapse came as South Korea is still struggling with the aftermath of a ferry disaster in April that left more than 300 people dead or missing.

I say again…..American business people should be so serious about their actions……..but NOPE!  These parasites like Jaime Dimon will continue their fleecing of the American consumer and any harm they do they will get the Federal government to pass a law that will protect them and possibly allow them to do the same thing all over again without any consequences…..

Personally, I like the idea of these bastards taking dull responsibility for their actions and even suicide if that is what it takes to eliminate these butt monkeys….the American consumer means NOTHING to these capitalist slugs……NO one protects the people from the exploitation.

If them committing suicide drives the point home…..then I say…Let the Bastards Die!

Older Vets Committing Suicide at Alarming Rate | Military.com

I have been writing about the plight of American veterans for many years….I started because I was one of those returning vets that the country ignored because we were an inconvenient truth……

So far this country has done LITTLE for the people they asked to sacrifice for their country…..the US owes a debt that it needs to pay………. even if it must be done by FORCE!

For 40 years suicide has been a major problem for vets and now it is hitting in an older sector of the vets…..

 

Older Vets Committing Suicide at Alarming Rate | Military.com.

 

Americans need to pull their heads out of the celebs asses and do the RIGHT thing!  Vets should NOT have to depend on charity for their needs.  Americans response so far to the needs of the veterans is disgusting and pathetic.

Suicide By Stupid

I’m back!  Do not pay the ransom….I escaped!

Speaking of uber-nationalists…………I read an article yesterday that made me chuckle….

The death of a Ukrainian far-right activist in a shoot-out last week came at his own hands, the country’s interior ministry says: Sashko Bily, as he is known, accidentally shot himself twice while police tried to arrest him. The first shot just grazed him, but the second was fatal, officials say following an investigation. Police had been trying to push Bily, whose real name is Oleksandr Muzychko, to the ground as they attempted to handcuff him. They acted according to the law, the investigation found. Members of his group, the Right Sector, previously warned they’d get revenge for his death; they haven’t commented on the official findings, the BBC notes.

Okay let me see if I have it right….during a fire fight with cops this tool accidentally shot himself….not once but twice, right?

Kinda reminds me of a famous suicide or accidental death of a guy in New York who was standing on a street corner peeling an apple with a knife and he slipped and fell onto his knife…..32 times…..in the back.

A Grim Trend

As I sit here after reading a piece on suicide I find myself thinking of good old Willie Shakespeare…..”The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”……while I agree with that sentiment it may be a moot point….why?  It seems that there is an alarming trend of suicides among lawyers….so what Willie thought was a good idea, they are doing it to themselves……

Overworked and burdened by a mix of worries unique to their profession, lawyers have a growing tendency to kill themselves—and bar associations are just beginning to grapple with it, CNN reports. Eight of the nation’s 50 associations are trying to stop the pattern after South Carolina lost six lawyers in an 18-month period; Oklahoma had a spate of losing one a month; and Kentucky saw 15 commit suicide since 2010. “It’s been primarily men,” says the head of Kentucky’s bar association. “To a large degree, it’s been trial attorneys. The men are primarily middle-aged.” The issues can begin in law school, where, according to one study, 40% of students are depressed and take that into their professional careers. Many don’t seek proper treatment or take a career break, and hide their unhappiness from spouses—who are stunned when their husband commits suicide. “I never dreamed that I would be a widow at 58,” says a wife in Ohio. “We were starting the best chapter of our lives.” But all those innocent people imprisoned and all those lost hours and missed holidays with family, can take their toll, reports the Courier-Journal. “They become like a weak-kneed boxer in the 15th round,” said a Kentucky Supreme Court justice. “They keep flailing away. But they lose purpose. They lose hope.”

Lawyers are like doctors….they may have chose the career for the noblest of reasons….they soon see the cash that is thrown at them….and then it becomes wealth accumulation over principles….

Where is the outrage at another “grim Trend” military and vet suicides?  Yes, it is written about but unfortunately it is quickly forgotten with the next “scandal” to come along…..

I have mixed emotions on this.

Take The Honorable Way Out

An amazing story came to my attention recently and it deserves a look-see….

As many as 5,000 blackbirds and 100,000 fish have been found dead or dying within 125 miles of each other in Arkansas, but state officials say the two massive kill-offs are unrelated. State officials have also reportedly ruled out a toxic dump and low oxygen levels as causes of the fish kill.

The drum fish were found washed along the banks of the up ashore Arkansas River near Ozark on Friday. “The fish kill only affected one species of fish,” Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told the Associated Press. “If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish.”

The fish washed up about 125 west of Beebe, where 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year’s Eve. “Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail,” Karen Rowe, a state ornithologist, reported to local media.

A tough situation to explain…..but all scientific crap aside….I am have the answer…….

I live in the South and have visited Arkansas……maybe the animals realized where they were and took the honorable way out….HARI-KARI!

Who Is Responsible?

Daily Agitator

By now we all have heard the horror stories of teens that have committed suicide because of the bullying they were taking in school, on-line and on the phone….the most recent one was in Mass.

The death of Phoebe Prince, 15, a sophomore at South Hadley High School allegedly occurred because of extreme Internet bullying by female classmates who were upset Prince, who had recently moved from Ireland, was dating a senior football player.

The girl had been verbal abused by other students, she had been haunted on her cel and on-line and she took all she could stand and she snapped and hung herself in a closet in her home and was found by her younger sister…..this is not a new thing….it has happened all across the US and in Canada and I would imagine just about everywhere….it is not unique to the US.

Now some of the parents are saying that the school officials were aware of the problem but did little to stop it……parents are saying that their kids could not do such a horrible thing to a classmate…..and then there is the parents…..

Let me see it is not the kids fault or the parents but rather the school officials……it is nobody’s fault…..so nobody is responsible is that about it?  It just happened for no good reason, eh?  Typical American crap!  We scream that everybody has a personal responsibility…..everybody but me, that is……This situation illustrates just how f*cked up the whole view of personal responsibility is……my conservative friends are always harping on the personal responsibility thing, but I guess that only applies to others……

Who is responsible?  Everybody in the chain….the school officials, if they knew and did little…parents for letting their children act in such a way and the kids are directly responsible because they took it upon themselves to torment another person for no other good reason than she was cute and possibly because she was a transplant from Ireland……because of a petty jealousy.  We are raising children to be proud of……..

If you are so damn concerned with “personal responsibility” then it is YOUR fault….why?…..because you turn a blind eye to situations and look for someone to blame for your failings……so much for your personal responsibility stand…..

Sad Reality Of War

There are many stories, sad stories that come out as a consequence of war, but this one is one of the saddest…..

Exerpts from an article written by James Cogan for wsws.org:

American military personnel are continuing to take their own lives in unprecedented numbers, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wars drag on. By late November, at least 334 members of the armed forces had committed suicide in 2009, more than the 319 who were killed in Afghanistan or the 150 who died in Iraq. While a final figure is not available, the toll of military suicides last year was the worst since records began to be kept in 1980.

The Army, National Guard and Army Reserve lost at least 211 personnel to suicide. More than half of those who took their lives had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The Army suicide rate of 20.2 per 100,000 personnel is higher than that registered among males aged 19 to 29, the gender age bracket with the highest rate among the general population. Before 2001, the Army rarely suffered 10 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.

For every death, at least five members of the armed forces were hospitalised for attempting to take their life. According to the Navy Times, 2 percent of Army; 2.3 percent of Marines and 3 percent of Navy respondents to the military’s own survey of 28,536 members from all branches reported they had attempted suicide at some point. The “Defense Survey of Health-Related Behaviors” also found “dangerous levels” of alcohol abuse and the illicit use of drugs such as pain killers by 12 percent of personnel.

The trigger for a suicide attempt varied from case to case: relationship breakdowns, financial problems, substance abuse, tensions with other members of their unit, a traumatic event. What is clear, however, is that military service has seriously impacted on the physical and mental health of the victims.

The casualities of war mount up, and this is just not acceptable that some of those casualities die by their own hand…..