Oregon Senator (Smith) Grieves Over Son's Suicide

guardian.co.uk ^ | 03/02/04 | AP

[KQQL]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith's 21-year-old son, Garrett, killed himself last fall at his college apartment. ``For me time stopped,'' Smith said. ``My public career seemed vain, my hopes and dreams in ashes. I felt I had failed at my most important duty, as a father.''

Despite their pain, Smith and his wife, Sharon, spoke out Tuesday about their son's life and death, saying it was important to raise awareness of youth suicide and mental illness.

``It's been six months, and it's time to find more meaning and help others who suffered like he did,'' Gordon Smith said after speaking in favor of a bill on suicide prevention.

[KQQL]

very sad ...

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wish Sen and his family all the best.........

[KQQL]

.

[edwords]

So he uses his son's death as yet another opportunity to spend taxpayers' money. How cold.

[billhilly]

An unbelievable and almost umbearable pain. My sympathy to the family. I don't know how I missed this when it happened.

[hobson]

You're pathetic.

[KQQL]

So he uses his son's death as yet another opportunity to spend taxpayers' money. How cold

You are the one who is cold.........where is your compassion .....?

[KQQL]

YOU ARE A SICKO !

[keithtoo]

The reaction to every trajedy that life throw's at us should not be another Federal program. This is a trajedy, but it is a private trajedy, or at most, a situation where voluntary associations of people can join with one another.

It truly is sick when all of life's foible result in a loss of freedom thru government intrusion.

[SedVictaCatoni]

You are the one who is cold.........where is your compassion .....?

He's got a point. How did suicide prevention become a duty of the federal government?

[keithtoo]

trajedy should be tragedy, sorry. Maybe a Federal program is needed. Think of the children.

[Salvation]

Prayers for Gordon and his wife and other children.

[PeteFromMontana]

Best wishes to this family during this tragic time.

[Salvation]

Where is your sense of compassion?

Obviously, you have never lost one close to you through death or divorce????

Prayers offered for you.

[Salvation]

Smith, a Republican, said he and his wife had long known Garrett had manic depression, or bipolar disorder. But the possibility of suicide always seemed remote, even as Garrett became more withdrawn and descended into what his father called ``a dangerous mental darkness.''

Garrett struggled in school and in activities such as Boy Scouts, yet became an Eagle Scout and graduated from high school.

The outside world saw a smiling, happy child, but it was a child who knew private despair, his father said.

``That Garrett eluded me haunts me every day and probably will for the rest of my life,'' Smith said. ``He was a beautiful boy, and I loved him completely, without completely understanding him.''

When the elder Smiths learned of their son's death last September in Utah, they grappled with what to say publicly.

``We decided to tell the truth about our boy: that after years of depression, Garrett took his own life to end his pain,'' Gordon Smith said.

Later a dean at the University of Oregon told them that after Garrett's death was reported in the news media, the student health center was flooded with students looking for help, Smith said.

The students' reaction points to the need for greater awareness of the warning signs of suicide and depression among young people, lawmakers said as they advocated efforts to expand early intervention with the disease and encourage more federal research on youth suicide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,000 people between the ages of 10 and 24 take their lives each year, the third-leading cause of death in that age group. More children and young adults die from suicide each year than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke and chronic disease combined.

``I wish this hearing was not necessary. Yet we all know that it is,'' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. ``Youth suicide is both a public and mental health tragedy.''

Dodd and Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Health and Education subcommittee on substance abuse and mental health services, plan to introduce a bill this month. By speaking out, the lawmakers said, Smith and his wife are helping erase the shame of suicide and may encourage others to seek help.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

I'm completely overwhelmed by your compassion for this family. Not.

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping!

If you want to be added or removed from the Oregon Ping List, please FReepmail me.

[ValerieUSA]

Congress can't pass a bill to prevent suicide.
It can only pass a bill to spend money pretending it will stop suicide.
Suicide isn't caused nor prevented by Congress.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

Prayer heavenward for this family <><