Recent youth suicide should serve as wake-up call
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Editor,
The recent suicide by Tyler Clementi, who was a gay student at Rutgers University, by jumping off the George Washington bridge into the Hudson River brings up two most interesting questions in my mind: who is really to blame and where should the finger be pointed?
It is so easy and handy to point the finger immediately at Dhuran Ravi and his friend Molly Wei. After all, not only do they have names quite different from the average American, but they were the pair who used the latest internet programs to cause Tyler this extreme distress which drove him to suicide.
I submit that we are all guilty. As I read the most blatant and vitriolic attacks by adults on the subject of “gay rights,” of the extreme anger and high emotion generated by the whole subject of sexual orientation, and then think of young people like Dhuran and Molly who read and hear this stuff coming from the whole age range of adults, I ask, what is being taught to these young people who are in the very stages of life where they are forming their attitudes and beliefs?
In our present political campaigns some of the most reported and popular issues have to do with “gay rights,” “abortion,” and other most private and individual choices in life which have no place in politics and our legislative process.
So, what does this tragic suicide of a young Rutgers student ask of us? What is the real message he handed to us, when jumping off that bridge, about where we should put our energies and our focus on education of the young? What message are we, the adult population, sending to our young people when we spew forth anger, attack, outrageous remarks, and uncompromising attitudes in the name of what we think is right for everyone?
This suicide by Tyler Clementi is, to my way of thinking, a great wake-up call to all of us to sit back and evaluate, think about, and possibly soften our dearly held positions on matters of personal lifestyle choices.
And this bit of wisdom from the source of what has molded much of my belief system, “We teach (demonstrate) what we most need to learn.”
Bob McClellan
Polson
