SUICIDE AWARENESS STARTS WHEN THEY STOP THE STUNTS

 If you could hear me screaming right now, your windows would break, much like hope is being shattered all over the country!

Out of Nebraska, The Grand Island Independent gave the headline to another stunt. Oh, no, not pushups, not running in shorts or jumping into freezing water. It isn't yet another run to nowhere with everyone smiling, pretending to be doing something meaningful other than contributing to the problem...along with groups who never seem to have to explain the lack of results, anymore than they have to explain what the money is for. Oh, no, this time it is getting a tattoo!

The worst part of all is that the "effort" started with a Vietnam veteran's adult child. I thought great, finally someone was making into a news report and actually addressing the largest group of veterans committing suicide. After all, 65% of the suicides the VA knows about are over the age of 50, and among that demographic, the largest group of them are Vietnam veterans. All that should really be important when this is supposed to be about saving lives. Right? Evidently not.

The event is personal for both Will and Jeri as Jeri’s father is a Vietnam War veteran and Will’s parents both served in the U.S. Air Force.
"Just knowing kind of the struggles my dad went through with his mental health and also being a member of the VFW here in town, I’ve seen kind of a disconnect with our community and that population," Jeri said. "So (we’re) just trying to bring more awareness to the population of veterans and active service men and women. ... If we can provide a safe place for them to come when they’re not feeling so well, that’s what our doors are open for."

It also must have not been important to mention who, or what, would be there when the veterans in crisis would walk through those doors. 

As for the quoted "22" there was this.

"It’s a number that is out there that is needing to come down," said Will Wilson, owner of Babalu’s. 

The problem with that is, that number came from the VA report with just 21 states contributing limited data. Combat PTSD Wounded Times, however, managed to actually prove that number is not even close. Not only do they have a lot of work to do to get that number below "22" but to even play catchup to the number the rest of us know. Much closer to over 70 a day, but even as much as we know, we will never know the true number. Too many variables all of these quoters of numbers should have known, if it really meant that much to them.

I had a conversation with a 33 year old Marine veteran yesterday. He said it has more to do with laziness. They spend so much time promoting what they want to do, they never seem to bother discovering what it needed, necessary, or even done before.

If you have a real desire to change the outcome, DO YOUR RESEARCH and STOP THE STUNTS!

The only number families care about is the 1 in their family.

But hey, get a tattoo carved into your body while more of those family members are getting a name carved into a headstone. That's ok, you can always show them the tattoo you got because you cared so much!