IS ONE YOURS? 10 MOST MISERABLE CITIES IN AMERICA

I was reading an article on the "10 Most Miserable Cities in America" and read some pretty sad stats.  Leslie Storm [how appropriate is HER name] works for a suicide hotline in Oragon and she is desperately trying to find a 52 year old man a place to stay before Friday....yup THIS Friday....or he will hang himself. He states that he has been out of work for over 3 months and is behind on his rent and his room-mate is kicking him out come Friday if he doesn't have the rent money, and that he is sick and can not go live under a bridge so if they can't help him he will kill himself. 

Sadly he is not an isolated case. National stats have "not revealed an increase in suicide due to the recession" however they fail to tell you that the stats are FOUR YEARS BEHIND IN KEEPING NUMBERS so we won't know if this caused more deaths or not until either we as a country, get "better" or they catch the numbers up.  Sad to say but I think I'm [and many on here as well] as good a reporter as that! 

I myself, have seen suicide rates explode just in my county, [or attempted suicides] state-wide...almost 100%. Scary huh.  And they are usually men and in their mid-40's early 50's in age.....BABY BOOMERS.  I have even started to see an increase in "murder-suicides" being committed here too.  Just last week we had a man in his 70's kill his invalid wife and then himself on a farm out in the country. He left a note and stated they had too many health issues and not enough money. Sad and tragic.

Sad because I'm sure that if that age bracket [40-50-60] are feeling the hurt that bad, imagine what our SENIOR CITIZENS are feeling....with only a peon of a "token" support from Medicare and their Government, into which they have paid taxes into for all their lives, I might add.....to only then feel that dying is better then continuing the way they are......even sadder is the fact that these types of suicides clearly give the murdered spouse no say in the matter and so they die simply because their spouse thinks they'd be better off DEAD, then alive without them.  Which is NOT always true.

What worries me is that Jacksonville, Florida is listed as being one of those cities with the highest suicide rates, and that is where my daughter lives. My daughter who at 31, lost her job and can't find another decent one, lives with a room-mate who owns the house they live in, and is never home but still expects her to pay 50% of the utilities and watch her cat, she makes an average of $200.00 a week working TWO part-time jobs [no one is hiring full-timers], her car was given as a gift to her, by a good friend that passed away, then suddenly the family of the person who gave it to her decided that they wanted it because the daughter wrecked her BMW so until it's fixed she needed the car, and so they took it away from her...now she rides her bike on a pack of oatmeal a day, to two jobs daily.....all her income goes to pay her room-mate so he won't kick her out....I send her care-packages of food once a month, plus hiygene items and dog food as well......to a tune of $300.00...and I only make $535.00 on disability and medicare.

My son has suddenly popped up out of the woodwork after 6 years and needs financial help as well.....he has three children so I give him the remaining $200.00 a month to help him out.....and keep $35.00 for my cats feed.  Thank God my husband works.  Or we'd really be in a mess.  What worries me is what happens if this new Health-Care bill under Obama passes and Medicare is cut down, to make room for those on welfare and who have never held down a job....".baby-makers" as I call them.  Take for instance the OCTO-MOM, she's a prime example of what I'm talking about, never worked since her "accident" over 6 years ago because of pain yet she is able to give birth to 14 babies....talk about pain!  If she can tolerate birth she can work. And where is her money coming from for the plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie, plus the fertility treatments as well?!  Huh?   I'll tell you from where------OUR TAX DOLLARS, my daughters tax dollars, my son's tax dollars and my husband's tax dollars.....she gets all that and then some, while MY family struggles to hang on to their homes, and be able to pay bills let alone buy food......who helps them?!   ME!  That's who, because the government sure as hell isn't helping anyone but themselves and those who didn't deserve help to begain with! Banks, Billionaire crooks etc....

So I keep my daughter in prayer because she is very depressed and worried and lives in Jacksonville, Florida, riding a bike back and forth to two jobs at night in the dark alone.....and with Jacksonville having a serial killer loose and gangs shooting and killing, burning homeless people at whim, and taking pot-shots at pedestrians [let alone someone riding by on a bike] just for the hell of it......I am very concerned for my child's safety, and mental well-being.....but as Leslie Storm of the Oragon Suicide Hotline said, the least we can do is be kind if not in deeds, then in words.

Oh by the way----that man who is threatening to hang himself on Friday.....he called and stated that "his wealthy mother isn't returning his calls," she said.

"Life is hard," Storm said. "Why NOT be kind?"

Yeah really....WHY NOT?  

Why is it that when times turn hard it's "each man/family for himself", why can't we all ban together and help each other out....like my daughters room-mate, she OWNS the house and my daughter basically house-sits for her and her pet, and insures that it doesn't get broken into since she's [rm] never home, and my daughter is very cost-counsious [sic] so what would it hurt to let her slide by on the rent but still pay utilities so she could buy food?  Makes no sense to me because if my daughter is kicked out the girl won't have ANY money coming in period, so why not conceed and help someone out during this hard time......what is it gonna hurt.....we're all in the same boat so to speak.

I prefer to look at it like this; We're all on the Titanic.....it's slowly sinking and taking us all with it down to the depths of hell......will we survive better going it alone in that vast muck of ocean....or would we have a greater chance of survival if we all joined hands and hung on to one another, helping our fellow man stay a float until help arrives?

You decide....and the next time someone asks you for help.....will you walk away and say sorry I'm hurting too or will you throw them a "$10.00, $50.00" life jacket and say come on in and hang on a while longer....I'll help you and we can hang on together?

KLH2009

PS: Funny thing about this list-----not one single CALIFORNIA city is listed, yet the state is bankrupt and the unemployment rate is OFF THE CHARTS....why is that you reckon?

Top 10 unhappiest American cities

1. Portland, Ore.

2. St. Louis

3. New Orleans

4. Detroit

5. Cleveland

6. Jacksonville, Fla.

7. Las Vegas

8. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.

9. Cincinnati

10. Atlanta

HERE IS THE LINK IF INTERESTED IN READING THE ARTICLE:

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=18182523&ucpg=5&ucid=27393181