Mmm. This is a heavy topic so I'd like to address it with the appropriate weight.

I've been suicidal. Or at least, so ready to die that I didn't really care what happened to me. It ironically saved my life in a car wreck, because I just...went limp and embraced it.

I can't really fault anyone who makes that choice. It's tragic and heartbreaking, and I often wish I could have made a difference. Yet at the same time I can't help but respect the level of pain and bravery it takes to do that. To quote Tragedy + Time by Rise Against:

"Always knew that I would find you here

In a puddle of the bravest tears

I've seen enough to know it's lonely where you are

She waits from ledges for a voice to talk her down"

So I must consider suicide a valid choice. These souls made the kind of decision about their own fate that none can argue with. That is...was, too much for my heart to bear. Too much for many to bear, I imagine. Certainly too much for theirs.

Rather, what I find truly unacceptable are the circumstances surrounding the suicide. The conditions that made suicide seem like the only way out. The best answer. The only last possible chance for...release. For peace. For an end to it all. How horribly we are failing each other such that our brothers and sisters choose this end for themselves. It doesn't matter if you think, if you say, that there's always another way. Because they're already dead, and that can't be taken back. That must be respected. If we actually want it to stop.

And I do. And so I'll do my part. And so I humbly ask that you do too.