Posted on 01/11/2002 3:20:52 PM PST by GMMAC
A distraught father struggling with overdue child support obligations and adverse family court decisions committed suicide on the steps of the downtown San Diego courthouse Monday. Angrily waving court documents, 43 year-old Derrick Miller walked up to court personnel at the entrance, said "You did this to me," and shot himself in the head.
Miller is one of 300,000 Americans who have taken their own lives over the past decade -- as many Americans as were killed in combat in World War II. America is in the throes of a largely unrecognized suicide epidemic, as suicide has become the eighth leading cause of death in the United States today, and the third leading cause of death among adolescents. All Americans recognize that our country is rife with violent crime, but few know that 50 percent more Americans kill themselves than are murdered.
Who is committing suicide?
For the most part, men. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, males commit suicide four times as often as females do and have higher suicide rates in every age group. There are many risk factors for suicide, including substance abuse and mental illness, but the two situations in which men are most likely to kill themselves are after the loss of a job, and after a divorce. Because our society strongly defines manhood as the ability to work and provide for one's loved ones, unemployed men often see themselves as failures and as burdens to their families. Thus it is not surprising that while there is no difference in the suicide rate of employed and unemployed women, the suicide rate of unemployed men is twice that of employed men.
It is for this reason that economic crises generally lead to male suicide epidemics. During the Midwest farm crisis of the 1980s, for example, the suicide rate of male farmers tripled. A sharp increase in male suicide occurred after the destruction of Flint, Mich.'s 70 year-old auto industry, as documented in the disturbing 1989 film "Roger and Me." Some suicide experts fear a rise in suicide related to our current economic downturn.
The other most common suicide victims are divorced fathers like Derrick Miller. In fact, a divorced father is 10 times more likely to commit suicide than a divorced mother, and three times more likely to commit suicide than a married father. According to Los Angeles divorce consultant Jayne Major:
"Divorced men are often devastated by the loss of their children. It's a little known fact that in the United States men initiate only a small number of the divorces involving children. Most of the men I deal with never saw their divorces coming, and they are often treated very unfairly by the family courts."
According to sociology professor Augustine Kposow of the University of California Riverside, "The link between men and their children is often severed because the woman is usually awarded custody. A man may not get to see his children, even with visitation rights. As far as the man is concerned, he has lost his marriage and lost his children and that can lead to depression and suicide."
There have been a rash of father suicides directly related to divorce and mistreatment by the family courts over the past few years. For example, New York City Police Officer Martin Romanchick, a Medal of Honor recipient, hung himself after being denied access to his children and being arrested 15 times on charges brought by his ex-wife, charges the courts deemed frivolous.
Massachusetts father Steven Cook, prevented from seeing his daughter by a protection order based upon unfounded allegations, committed suicide after he was jailed for calling his four-year-old daughter on the wrong day of the week. Darrin White, a Canadian father who was stripped of the right to see his children and was about to be jailed after failing to pay a child support award tantamount to twice his take home pay, hung himself. His 14 year-old daughter Ashlee later wrote to her nation's prime minister, saying, "this country's justice system has robbed me of one of the most precious gifts in my life, my father."
We'll never know exactly why Derrick Miller took his life and if his suicide could have been prevented. What we do know is that male suicide is one of America's most serious public health issues, and it is time to address it.
Sacks is a writer who specializes in gender issues. He can be reached via e-mail at GlennJSacks@cs.com.
Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
That's good to hear! :)
If and when I ever get married it will be to a woman that knows that marriage means that you are family - and family is forever.
What it's going to come to. Go after the lawyers!
No, and don't misunderstand me, I am not making light of their plight. I am saying that killing yourself is not going to change a damn thing in how father's are treated in the courts.
except for the gay 'martyr types'!
Go after whomever or whatever you have to but don't just give up. We all say as conservatives and libertarians how important our children are. Well, if they are that important then they are worth fighting tooth and nail for, even if we lose.
Now there's an idea I can wrap my mind around.
Were it possible to add another name to your list, that of Martin J.
Romanchick, a New York City Police Officer and Medal of Honor Winner for
saving the live of another police officer by killing a perp who was about to
shoot the officer after he had fallen down a flight of stairs during a
persuit?
Martin, or Marty to all of us, was arrested 15 times by his ex-wife on
allegations of domestic abuse, all this after Marty discovered she had
been cheating on him with the soccer coach. When Marty went to the bar
where they were having a drink together, he stood there and took a
picture of them. He was arrested for Aggravated Harassment. She
obtained an order of protection against him, and had him arrested 14
more times, all on allegations ranging from driving past her on the
highway and waving, to standing next to their children and approaching
her to pick them up for his visitation. ALL of the cases but two were
dismissed as frivolous.
Marty couldn't stand the pressure any more, and on July 21, 1997, he
hanged himself.
His children weren't allowed to the funeral by the mother.
Yea, but once you loose and you're sitting defeated and alone in your barren one room apartment with no money and no family after a humiliating, spirit crushing battle things might not seem as clear.
How about, "Take a lawyer to dinner. Then take him out."
How about, "Take a lawyer to dinner. Then take him out."
Sheesh, okay. I can be flexible if I have to be.
There is one thing worse...Blowing your brains out after you kill the kids.
I think we can win. Not immediately, I am not niave, but we can do it. We will not even so much as persevere, though, if more men take his stance.
Well gee. I guess you're the end all to who's right and wrong, huh? ;o) If you think I'm not compassionate then you haven't read every one of my posts on this thread.
Furthermore, you don't know me. There is MUCH lost in posting on this board. Can't see the posters face much less the vocal inflection in answering questions. This makes it very difficult for ALL posters who disagree with one another, to grasp the intent of eachother.
I'll bet if we began the thread again and spoke calmly we'd have a much different result. Have a good day.
O.K, HOW???
Specific, progressive step by step plan please.
Huh? Where'd THAT come from?
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