This June 27-28 in Chicago, IL will be a walk like no other. From sun down to sun rise and people walking up to 18 miles this walk will help raise money for a cause that is very important to me. While I will most likely not be able to attend I will not let my support go without notice. I will yet again donate to someone else who is going to this event. And with my next few sentences and hopefully with to the point statements I am hoping that you too will at least donate to someone else who is attending this event as well. At the end of this I will post a link to a video that will just show you how important and how much suicide has affected so many peoples lives. That is right the cause that is dear to my heart is AFSP's (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) Overnight Walk. Most people do not know the scope of suicide to this country muchless the world (although I will not go into global aspects until later blogs). But for now I will not mention that someone in this world will commit a suicide every 40 seconds or that there is an suicide for every 20 attempts so that puts attempts at one every couple of seconds world wide. I will just for now focus on America only. In the States there is an attempt every minute and a suicide every 16 minutes. That means that during a 24-hour period about 90 people will have killed themselves due to illness, AIDS, alcohol, drugs, AND depression AND lost of hope in their lives just to name a few reasons. AFSP is fighting hard to help prevent suicide from happening in research and getting the information out there so family members can see the signs before they see the death of their love one. This walk brings together people who have either suffered from losing a parent, a child, a husband or wife, a love one, a close friend, or just someone that they knew. And it also brings in people who have attempted suicide and those who have struggled with the thoughts although may never have attempted suicide themselves.
I can not tell you how disappointed I am in how churches, communities, and people in general do not accept suicide as something worth talking about. Just because it did not happen to someone they love or know doesn't mean it will never be that same way in the future. I feel that christians mistake their faith as the power that would prevent a person from commiting suicide. I feel pastors are either afraid to talk about it or afraid that they might lose people due to talking about it. But here is a fact that all people should consider. Look at your church, community, local hang out that you go to a lot and just look at the people in it. Now think of this. High School students have reported that 16.9% of them have thought about suicide at least once during a school year and that 8% have actually attempted suicide during that same period. And look at the other spectrum, the older population. Men and women above 65 are commiting suicide at a rate of almost 13 per 100,000 people. And yet people still hide their eyes from this.
So I hope you will link over to this video and more importantly donate to someone who is going. For every walker is required to raise at least $1,000 in order to be able to walk. These people believe in this cause enough to take that challenge and I hope you would take my challenge and donate even $5 to someone. Your money is going to a better cause I promise.
Think of it this way. I think Starbucks will survive you not getting one $5 coffee for one night in order for you to give to AFSP and The Overnight Walk. And picture how many people you are helping with that money. Forget about the person who commits the suicide for one second. Think of all the family members, friends, and others that will suffer from that person leaving this way. Think about what the person who finds their love one dead will have to go through for the rest of their life. And now picture them not having to go through that because you decided to help save even just one life. Saving just one life also means saving tens of people who loved that person. And for that I say $5, $10, or even more is worth the price. Because that one person your money might being saving just might be someone you loved or know very well.
Again please go here and look at this video before you decide what you will want to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPrlURrhA2s
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Welcome
Welcome to my blog. I will be taking it easy to start with but hope to make this a regular event once I get going. I will be talking about everything that comes to my mind and will be speaking it through my eyes (or the truth according to me). I will not apologize for this being my point of view since this is my blog. I will try to look at everything from both sides of the story which most people will refuse to do. I feel that the only way to get a point across to people is to try to see every point of view while in the end giving only your take as the final point of view.
I will cover first an issue that is very important to me and one that most people, churches, and communities try to push under the rug and that is suicide. This issue is greatly misunderstood and to be honest not considered an issue important enough for people to talk about until it happens to someone they either love or know. And that to me is just the wrong way to look at things. Lets be honest here. There is more talk about who should be drafted first in a fantasy draft, which cartoon character is more powerful than the others, which actor you would rather date (as if you really had a chance with that conversation anyway), and other things that mean zero to your real life than what is being said about suicide prevention. Sad to say the least. And I will try to put a stop to that and start the talking about suicide instead.
I will then move on to other things like depression, church and depression, and of course other things like: Politics, Join Red, One.org, and many other causes that I strongly believe in and support.
I hope you like my future blogs and more importantly I hope you take part in them by speaking out your point of view. Unlike a liberal I do actually want counter-point of views. That is truly what a discussion is all about. Or at least in my point of view it is.
http://www.theovernight.org/
Please visit The Out of Darkness Overnight Walk website to get a view of what my first blog will be about.
I will cover first an issue that is very important to me and one that most people, churches, and communities try to push under the rug and that is suicide. This issue is greatly misunderstood and to be honest not considered an issue important enough for people to talk about until it happens to someone they either love or know. And that to me is just the wrong way to look at things. Lets be honest here. There is more talk about who should be drafted first in a fantasy draft, which cartoon character is more powerful than the others, which actor you would rather date (as if you really had a chance with that conversation anyway), and other things that mean zero to your real life than what is being said about suicide prevention. Sad to say the least. And I will try to put a stop to that and start the talking about suicide instead.
I will then move on to other things like depression, church and depression, and of course other things like: Politics, Join Red, One.org, and many other causes that I strongly believe in and support.
I hope you like my future blogs and more importantly I hope you take part in them by speaking out your point of view. Unlike a liberal I do actually want counter-point of views. That is truly what a discussion is all about. Or at least in my point of view it is.
http://www.theovernight.org/
Please visit The Out of Darkness Overnight Walk website to get a view of what my first blog will be about.
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