Suicide – a decision you cannot change

Life & Living
“Only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.” – Richard M. Nixon Last week a 16-year-old girl committed suicide at the school where my wife teaches. It was a complete and horrifying shock to her friends, who had no idea she was contemplating it, nor did they know of any apparent reason . It was a complete shock to the faculty and staff, who just the day before were talking with her in the hallway – never once noticing anything peculiar or alarming. And truly, it was a complete shock to me. While I’ve experienced depression and days of darkness when I just wasn’t sure I had the strength to go on, I never felt…
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Suicide is NO joke

Life & Living, Youth
The following was one of those headlines which left me shaking my head in bewilderment. It read, “Hyundai pulls ad that plays suicide for laughs.” No, you’re not reading that wrong. It appears that the Korean automaker has apologized for an online advertisement that featured a man attempting to commit suicide by using the exhaust fumes from one of their SUVs. The rather distasteful punch line? The SUV was powered by hydrogen and therefore emits only water vapors incapable of killing anyone. As you can imagine, many at the popular car company are all pointing fingers or playing dumb as to who initially signed off on the inappropriate messaging of this ad. As my wife just said after telling her what I was writing about, “what a bunch of dopes”.…
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