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

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

based upon the update, it's still pretty bad. the bbc had an article on it here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7221775.stm). i guess the military's population is small enough that a small change in discrete numbers makes a large change in statistical percentages