Today I am going to make some of you angry at me because I am going to begin by expressing an opinion different from yours. This is what America has become. If someone disagrees with you then they are evil. They need to be shouted at and mocked. Among those harboring liberal tendencies there is no room for thought contrary to their own. Which is nonsense and which is not reflective of the country I grew up in. So, let’s do this; you react to my opinion in exactly the way you know I would react to your opinion if it differed from mine. You can shout at me exactly as much as you know I would shout at you and you can hold me in exactly as low esteem as you know I would hold you. Or, you could love me exactly as much as you know I love you.

Personally, I don’t really think that the COVID mask makes much difference. If you can smell cooking or fragrance through the mask, how can it really be helping against a virus? But that is just me. I wear a mask where it is required and at other times to put people at ease. I think being six feet apart helps more, but then I generally don’t like to get closer than that to people I don’t know, anyway. We have been bombarded for a year now with ways to survive this virus. Most people are good and tired of it all.

          It is almost as though the government and the news media have forgotten that there are other ways to die. Some are simply not preventable. Cancer, diabetes, kidney failure…that list is almost endless. Acts of God in nature. This last week there were people who died from a tornado in North Carolina. Who expects a tornado in February? There were some who died of hypothermia around Dallas from this week’s cold snap. Imagine, freezing to death in Dallas. President Trump pushed drug manufacturers to the limit to come up with a COVID vaccine, and that seems to have worked, but it causes us to wonder why diseases that have been around forever have not been treated the same way.

          Good efforts have been made to keep us safe. Four years ago, when I rolled my car over, air bags went off all over the car. Had I been conscious I am sure I would have been impressed. Seat belts save lives. Bicycle helmets save lives. Billions, probably trillions of dollars each year are poured into preventative ways to save lives.

          Yet, people die from things all the time and no one gets overly alarmed, unless it is one of their loved ones. I cannot help but wonder how much time and effort and money has gone into fighting COVID-19.

          Education helps. There are certain physical symptoms that alert us to various illnesses and diseases. Many know the symptoms of heart disease or cancer or diabetes or the various autoimmune diseases. We know a lot about these things and can react to them. Untold amounts of money have been poured into these efforts and we do have knowledge.

          But there is something worse out there. Something many think they understand. There isn’t much money spent. Of the front line workers in the field, many are volunteers and have been spottily trained. We mostly turn a blind eye because the news media ignores it until someone famous dies. We all know it is out there, but it is taboo.

          As clergy attached to a funeral home, I dealt with this killer more than you can imagine. Working with affected families, helping them through the nightmare is horrible. How did this happen? What caused this? Did someone do or say something?

          Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in this country. Did you know that? In 2019, 69% of all suicides were white males. The suicide rate is highest among middle aged white men. It used to be highest among teens, but not anymore. There are 3,780 suicide attempts a day in this country, right near 1,380,000 attempts a year. 47,511 of those attempts are successful, but even an unsuccessful attempt is devastating. Someone flinches just as they pull the trigger and the bullet doesn’t kill, but maybe maims them for life. Maybe the overdose doesn’t kill the body, but does kill the brain. The noose isn’t tight enough to take the person’s life but it is tight enough to cut the blood flow to the brain leaves the person in a vegetative state. I saw a man in a hospital once who took a power drill to his head. When the bit hit his brain, he spasmed and dropped the drill. He didn’t die, but he would follow you with his eyes. He wasn’t able to ever move again, but I wondered if his brain was still active in his still body.

          Now, you are thinking that you really do not want to deal with this kind of a thing. You are thinking that these people have let the stresses of the world get to them, that they are weak, that when things get hard, they should go to the Lord. But there are things at work here you don’t understand. I have known Christians who killed themselves. People who have it all together. People who are enjoying life. And I have known people who have been in the throes of depression who have either taken, or tried to take, their own lives. You know the symptoms of a heart attack. What are the symptoms leading up to a suicide attempt?

          One mother, trying to come to grips with her 40 year old daughter’s suicide told me in a choking voice that there was never any sign, she never talked about it, she seemed happy and fulfilled. I had to tell her that often those who talk about it are looking for attention. Many times, suicide happens with someone who has never expressed a desire to end their lives.

          And sometimes you do get lucky. Our nephew committed suicide in 1998. I talked about it in church and got a mite emotional. I asked the kids to not ever make me do their funerals. That next week several came to me, all at different times, and told me that they had been considering suicide, but they wouldn’t now because I had asked them not too. Once I talk a man into giving me the gun. And then sometimes you lose. I opened the body bag to reveal a freshman college student I had known since he was in the fourth grade.

          I guess where this is coming from is that I see people have complied and followed directives and we are being told that there is still more to come. Meanwhile, something as mind numbing as suicide is ignored. I don’t know how much has been spent on suicide prevention. I imagine the billboards you see from time to time giving a number to call if you feel suicidal costs something.  

          The Center for Disease Control tells us that as of February 18, there have been 488,648 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. That is a lot. But, as the vaccines take hold and herd immunity begins to take effect, that number will decrease. I dealt with my first suicide in 1987. If there have been 40,000 suicides a year since (and that is a low estimate), that means there have been 1,360,000 suicides in that time. And that is just America. Suicides happen all around the world. The Asian countries lead the way. Is that a pandemic? And what about the failed attempts that have ruined lives? What about the millions and millions of family members who are left with broken hearts and a thousand questions? Is that pandemic enough?

          One of my jobs at the funeral home was to get their at 7 AM and check the new arrivals in from over night. One morning I opened the body bag to find the aforementioned 40 year old woman. I read the paperwork. Single gunshot wound. Back of the mouth. No exit wound out the back of the head. No drugs, no alcohol, no previous indications of suicidal tendencies. No one else in the home at the time of death. She looked like she was asleep. For only the second time since I had been at the funeral home, I sat down and cried.

          COVID-19 has been politicized, weaponized and demonized. We hide away for fear of catching the virus. I don’t want anyone to get sick. I don’t want anyone to die. But I see people trading living for staying alive, and given the numbers, I don’t know if that is a fair trade. Well less than 10% of the population of the country have even been confirmed to have COVID-19, much less have died from it. There are things far scarier than COVID-19, and we turn a blind eye.

          The media and the politicians are pointing us in the direction they want us to go. Imagine if they put all that energy into bringing attention to and fixing some of our long term issues.