Another modest proposal

According to a story in The York Times, suicide rates among "middle-aged white Americans" is rising and rising higher than in any other demographic group.

National Public Radio also just reported it, but I can't find the link.

Frankly, this is intolerable. It is unacceptable. This cannot be allowed to continue. People must step up and do something. I write as a middle-aged American, but not a white one. I'm rather spotted with brown freckles on a lighter brown skin. Comes from being outside and riding a motorcycle.

Anyway, this state of affairs has to be remedied. To bring about rectification, I have this modest proposal.

All the groups who continually demand equality with these so-called "middle-aged white Americans" need to put their money where their mouths are. Or more accurately, a pistol where their mouth is.

Yes indeed. If this nation truly insists on complete equality among however many genders there are now, among however many ethnic groups there are now, among however many racial groups there are now, we must have more effort on behalf of the under-represented groups. Step out on a limb and do your best.

Get busy folks.

I bring you more information from the NYT story which says that some demographics are making progress to level out overall death rates. "Middle-aged blacks still have a higher mortality rate than whites — 581 per 100,000, compared with 415 for whites — but the gap is closing, and the rate for middle-aged Hispanics is far lower than for middle-aged whites at 262 per 100,000."

Part of this is excellent. It shows true progress toward equality. This should serve as a shining example, that if we all try, we can truly live the motto of Samuel Colt, who "made all men [and women] equal."

This report also shows room for improvement. Hispanics seriously need to step up to the bucket, especially if they want true equality with the European-recent-ancestry Americans.

Taking this to the global stage, an Alternet story states very clearly the inequality that exists across the globe. "Hungary for example, where attempted suicide carries a prison sentence of five years, or Japan where it is illegal to commit suicide." Talk about an injustice. A person whacks himself in the Land of the Rising Sun and he gets arrested. There's more in the story about how various countries treat this permanent solution to a temporary condition.

Alternet also says men are far more likely to exit stage dirt nap by their own hand than women. I demand feminists around the world rise up and literally take matters into their own hands. Now is the time to seize equality in a death grip. 

No doubt this modest proposal will receive tremendous resistance, most especially from those who continually and constantly demand equality, yet will not sacrifice themselves to level this evergreen field. I urge you who read this, do not hold this apparent hypocrisy against them. They just need to see the light of reason, logic and the very application of equality applied in a truly leveling manner. 

To demand in equality every other field of human endeavor and yet leave one so glaringly out of balance is a travesty.

Educate them, my friends. Take them gently by the hand and explain, true equality means being equal in everything.

Some people will accuse me of being "white." In this case I shall not argue, but shall instead apologize on behalf of middle-aged "white Americans" for throwing this much-demanded equality out of balance. I shall do my bit to bring things back into balance by remaining alive, much to the chagrin of many people who read this modest proposal.