Suicide. There is no more somber of a topic.

Editor’s Note: Suicide is an emotional topic. People of good will, often disagree as to the best way to prevent this sad and unnecessary loss of life. The opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of American Free News Network.

Suicide. There is no more somber of a topic.

I talked to a guy today who told me that his daughter had attempted suicide. I cannot fathom how scary that would be. I do, however, have thoughts about it, strong thoughts. 

In 1994, my father ate an entire bottle of morphine. It was a lethal dose, and it was intentional. He sat at the kitchen table with a Colt Python .357 Magnum fully loaded, and he threatened to kill any paramedics who came through the door to save him. He even went so far as to say that he would kill anyone, even if it was his friend who was a paramedic. That happened. I was there. 

Not only was I there, I stayed up with him until 6 in the morning as the morphine was taking its effects. At 6 am, my mother told me that there was nothing more I could do, and I should just go to school. I obeyed. 

It was January. I went to home room and did not sit in my seat. I stared out the window, looking down at the snow and out at the trees on the Cross Country course that I had run hundreds of times. I stood, in front of my peers and classmates, crying. I was convinced that by the time I got home, my father would be dead. Of his own choice. 

I think I had a reputation at that point of being pretty tough. At 17, there is no amount of reputation for being tough that can counter the shame of staring out the window crying. At least, back then, that was the case. At about 11 am, I was called to the office to take a phone call. My dad was in the ICU. The doctors had pumped his stomach, but his act had given him pneumonia. He was still in critical condition.  

After many suicidal ideations and threats, my brother told him plain and clear… “The next time I see you with a gun in your mouth, I will pull the trigger for you.”  

He never did anything in front of my brother again after that.  

There came a time when I told my father that if he killed himself, I would not come to the funeral. He never attempted suicide to my knowledge after that. 

Both my brother and I found something that my father cared about more than his own selfishness. He cared more about his sons’ respect. We got him thinking outside of himself. 

Narcissism is on the rise in America. So is suicide. These, I believe, are interrelated. Our society and our culture encourages narcissism. Our society and our culture refuses to condemn suicide as the coward’s way out. And suicide is on the rise in the Army and in society. Narcissism and suicide are interrelated because it is the narcissistic notion that you are more important than the world around you that leads to ending your life when you lose value in yourself.

The world around you is always more important than you are. You’re not happy? So what? Can you make those around you happy? That is what matters. Or at least, can you prevent suffering for those around you? That is what is important. If everyone were willing to suffer for those they loved, it would ironically reduce the suffering of everyone. That, also, is the heart of Christianity. 

The social workers will adamantly disagree with me. But we as a society are following their recommendations and suicides are growing. That alone proves that they are full of shit. 

No, there is no shame in having suicidal ideations. Yes, there is the shame of cowardice in actually attempting it.  

My grandfather blew his own brains out. He was a coward. My great-uncle was terminally ill with cancer, and he saw it through. His last coherent words to me were simple but profound: “Don’t worry about the past. Just think about the future.” He died of natural causes shortly after that. It always struck me that a man on his miserable deathbed instructed me to always be looking towards the future. I think he believed that he still had a future after his body had decayed. Faith.

Faith. What a word. Faith. What a concept. The idea that there is something out there greater than you, and that think cares about what happens to you. Yes, faith comes with the idea that the greater thing judges you for your choices. But frankly, without moral accountability, then what is morality?

It has been said that an atheist can act morally and justly. I agree completely. But without a moral arbiter, then what does that even mean? If there are no cosmic rules with cosmic consequences, then what is “morality” but societal acceptance of a standard? In other words, there would be no morality at all. It would just be what we collectively approve of or disapprove of as fallible humans and based on culture. We would have no right to condemn the practices of other cultures who sold 12-year old girls into sex slavery because it would be merely a “Western” value that sex with minors was bad, and that human trafficking was bad.

It is a belief in something bigger than ourselves that causes us to know that there is a right and a wrong. A good and an evil. And frankly, suicide is an evil. It should not be celebrated. The life should not be celebrated. That only encourages more suicide.

And yet, it is faith that there is something bigger than us that gives us our greatest strength. It is more powerful than any social worker’s words. Shoot yourself in the head? The social worker will shed a tear and move on to the next patient. Shoot yourself in the head? The higher power will judge you and sentence you.

But larger than that, the higher power wills for you to live and help others. Get outside of yourself! Stop being so selfish! Stop being a narcissist! The world is not about you. The world is about everyone else except you. Faith and care for others give resilience. They are true, but they are also tools. Selfishness leads to suicide.  

But society now is rejecting any harbinger of real resilience. When Major General Dana Pittard said that it was selfish to commit suicide, after his own son had done so, the academics chastised him. They should have listened to him. The fact that our society has taken steps to normalize suicide and accept suicide and “celebrate” the lives of those who were cowards only contributes to the increase in suicides. Everything they tell you is to make you feel better, but it is lies that get more and more people killed. By suicide. 

Just this night, I told my kids that suicide is a coward’s path. They are 7 and 8. Yep. Starting early. I will not wait until they are in a moment of crisis. I will arm them now with the truth of it. I will do all I can to prevent the moment of crisis. 

And yet, a colleague told me today that his daughter attempted suicide. Inwardly, I blamed the society and the culture that venerates cowards after the fact instead of condemning them. But I couldn’t say that. It would be insensitive. And he is a Green Beret, by the way. He is not a pansy. Yet even for a Green Beret, some thoughts are too much, so I held my tongue. 

Yes, I condemn the academics and I condemn the culture, because empirically speaking, their fluffy opinions are getting thousands upon thousands of more people killed. Because they never learned courage and they never learned resilience. They just learned that they will be honored and celebrated if they take the cowards’ way out.

  

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