Comments on: Sundaze

By: Peter W.

Peter W. — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:11:51 +0000

Jimmy J, I’m really sorry for your loss, and my condolences to each who’ve shared here.

It’s a tough call, sensing the responsibility to apply parental discipline and guidance, and yet scared to the bone that that harsh taste of discipline might be the last thing remembered.

Best wishes to all, and to your loved ones.
P-dub.

By: Kris, in New England

Kris, in New England — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:02:04 +0000

Genocide? That’s something that has to be stopped before it erases a generation. Sadly, I fear it will be a problem ignored.

Max – it’s not being ignored. However the only way to fix this nightmare is for those who perpetrate these crimes, those who live with them and those who claim they advocate for them – to take responsiblity for it and change it from within. All the “programs” in the world won’t help if the group in question doesn’t want the help or can’t see that they need it.

By: MaxDamage

MaxDamage — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:05:35 +0000

This isn’t a personal problem any longer, unfortunately. I had a grandfather check out while cleaning a shotgun, according to the police report. That’s a polite way of saying it was a suicide but the police figure the family should collect any life insurance.

No, suicide will be with us. It might be an impulse decision, can’t know beforhand. Women tend to take pills and run the car in the garage, men tend to choose bullets and no chance of being salvaged. Ghastly choice, both, survivors are left to pick up the pieces.

I heard this on the radio while driving home Sunday, I think it was Drudge on the air.

There were some stats in the USA Today this week that make this pale. 48% of black females have STD’s. Something like 8200 black men have been killed this year, that surpasses the number of white men killed and blacks make up only 12% of the population.

Others have been talking about this, obviously, but from my view we’ve a minority American community bent upon genocide, and I’ve no idea how to stop it.

Suicide I can deal with. Wrong decision but there it is, pack up and move on. Genocide? That’s something that has to be stopped before it erases a generation. Sadly, I fear it will be a problem ignored.

– Max

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:23:50 +0000

When I was in AI in P’cola, I had a friend who was a class or two ahead who just disappeared one day. He was found a couple days later floating in P’cola Bay on a Hobi Cat – he’d checked out with a large caliber handgun. We’d had dinner together the night before he did it – talking about flight school dreams – and I had picked up no signals that he was contemplating this. We never really came up with a reason for his action. I’ve often wondered what was going through his mind while we talked. I regret that I might have missed a queue that might have allowed me to somehow derail that train.

It’s a hard lesson that yours is learning and I’m sorry she’s getting it so early. Good that she’s you to back her up, Lex. Best to you both during those wee small hours of the morning.

Brian

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:36:42 +0000

In third grade in Pensacola in 1972, my best friend at school, who sat next to me, died when his mother gassed herself and him and his little sister in the garage. The father was at sea on the Lexington, they flew him back that afternoon. It was an awful shock.

Around that same time, my little brothers were playing at a friend’s house across the street and the kid hauled out his dad’s shotgun and was showing it off when it discharged. Fortunately, it only blasted a hole through a bed and the stuff underneath it. That was a close one.

By: MissBirdlegs in AL

MissBirdlegs in AL — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:36:55 +0000

Jimmy J, Subsunk, and Lex – Y’all make my heart hurt. Just wish I (or anyone) had some magic to make it all better. I’m sorry – I don’t. I will be adding some names to my ever-growing prayer list, though.