Some of you all may know of the Portal of Evil News site, www.poe-news.com, where they post typically irreverant news articles, with links to the full story. I go there for a chuckle, or to catch up on some important news (which also occasionally is posted). Well, I'm at work today and I stroll on over there to see what's new. I scroll down about 5 articles (at the time), and there's one titled "Depressed Student Killed Herself With Help From Online Suicide Discussion Group." I glance at it, like I do every article, and immediately the person's name pops up: Suzy Gonzales. That name immediately rings a bell - I know a person by that name, with that exact spelling. So, I read on. Later, it mentions how she was a math and meteorology major at...Florida State. That clinches it. It is the person I know, and yet, I begin to wonder. This happened in late March, and only now is it coming out in early June, from a San Francisco newspaper (where it was yesterday's cover story) - why didn't we know about this before. It really was shocking, and seeing the story behind it all brings it close to home. I didn't know her well, but I knew who she was and never would've imagined that something like this would happen. I really feel for those close to her as well as those who have gone through similar situations. The full story is here: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/06/08/MN114902.DTL if anyone is interested. I'm mainly just interested in everyone's thoughts to the piece & the story. It's just amazing that on a website that you frequent everyday that you can find something that would shock and sadden you like this - especially because there is no one around here who knows.
I really don't know what to say, either, other than I really feel horrible for the family and friends of that girl. I know we all come here, and care to some degree or another what each other thinks, but to let a faceless army of people play a part in deciding whether or not her life is worth living? I just can't comprehend that at all. Sometimes a person wonders what he or she could've done differently to save a person, if that's possible. But what if that person chooses to never show any signs? It's sad, but it seems in this story that the girl was more willing to find comfort in people willing to give her a way out than people willing to help her find a way to cope with life. All in all, the article is pretty heartbreaking. Maybe technology and computers are being used as an "out" in this case, but on some level, it's mind-boggling the kinds of influences and pressures that people have today that were never issues in years past. A suicide chat group? I don't even want to know how someone comes across something like that online....
That's sad. I don't even know how to comment because I can't begin to comprehend the situation. You can look at this bbs and see how emotional people get as an example. I hope nobody goes to this extent, though.
