Something to think about

[unixronin]

Per USA Today:

The suicide rate in 2007 per 100,000 people for:

Total U.S. population: 11.1

People ages 25-50: 14.6

Law enforcement officers: 18

Source: Centers for Disease and Prevention, USA TODAY research

Suicide rate in 2007 per 100,000 people for serving US military personnel, including reserves: 350.  (Per a speaker on NPR about ten minutes ago.)

Think about it for a bit.  Then if you know a US serviceman or veteran ... do something nice for him or her today.  Show our troops you appreciate what they do.

UPDATE/CORRECTION:

cymrullewes was listening to the same segment, and confirms (see the comment to radarrider) that I did mishear the stat.  The correct stat was 2100 attempts, of which 300 were successful.

The bad news is, that's still 50 successful suicides per 100,000, still five times the rate for the US as a whole and three times the rate for law enforcement officers.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Granted, I don't know the source he was citing. But he said ... hm, wait. I've just realized I may have misquoted. His number was 2100 out of 600,000, but I've just realized I'm not certain whether he said suicides, or suicides and suicide attempts. (I was picking up my 7-year-old from her school bus at the time, and my attention wasn't wholly on the radio.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

cymrullewes has confirmed I didn't catch all the details. (See update to the post.)

It's not as bad as I heard it in my half-attention. But it's still plenty bad. We're not doing enough for our people.