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(North) America's suicide epidemic worsens
San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | January 11, 2002 | Glenn Sacks

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fatherhood
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To: MissAmericanPie
This article makes me want to go plant a hundred kisses on my hubbies face. Back in a few.

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.

101 posted on 01/14/2002 4:48:25 PM PST by NC_Libertarian
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To: New Girl
Thanks for the post. I can only admire your friend and hate the system. By the same token, every legal means at our disposal should be used to extract support money from the truly deadbeat parents' which isn't the same thing as declaring open season on all fathers.
102 posted on 01/14/2002 4:48:49 PM PST by gcruse
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To: riley1992
You do realize you sound just like the liberals version of a victim now, don't you? I am not for one minute saying that men aren't getting a completely raw deal in the court systems. What I am saying is that you either fight it with all you have and do the best you can until you can reach your children or you don't.

What it's going to come to. Go after the lawyers!

103 posted on 01/14/2002 4:51:19 PM PST by jslade
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To: NC_Libertarian
You ever tried fighting with the government?

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.

104 posted on 01/14/2002 4:52:15 PM PST by riley1992
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To: riley1992
not everyone who contracts AIDS is!

except for the gay 'martyr types'!

105 posted on 01/14/2002 4:52:39 PM PST by rockfish59
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To: jslade
We should start a public outreach program that encourages people who are contemplating suicide to take a lawyer with them on their way out.
106 posted on 01/14/2002 4:53:19 PM PST by NC_Libertarian
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To: jslade
What it's going to come to. Go after the lawyers!

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.

107 posted on 01/14/2002 4:54:34 PM PST by riley1992
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To: NC_Libertarian
We should start a public outreach program that encourages people who are contemplating suicide to take a lawyer with them on their way out.

Now there's an idea I can wrap my mind around.

108 posted on 01/14/2002 4:57:42 PM PST by riley1992
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To: jslade
Can you stand some details regarding another guy mentioned in the article?

                   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.

109 posted on 01/14/2002 4:58:44 PM PST by gcruse
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To: riley1992
Well, if they are that important then they are worth fighting tooth and nail for, even if we lose.

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.

110 posted on 01/14/2002 5:00:34 PM PST by NC_Libertarian
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To: riley1992
I'd be a little more compassionate.

How about, "Take a lawyer to dinner. Then take him out."

111 posted on 01/14/2002 5:00:47 PM PST by gcruse
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To: riley1992
:)
112 posted on 01/14/2002 5:01:15 PM PST by NC_Libertarian
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To: gcruse
I'd be a little more compassionate.

How about, "Take a lawyer to dinner. Then take him out."

Sheesh, okay. I can be flexible if I have to be.

113 posted on 01/14/2002 5:02:27 PM PST by riley1992
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To: riley1992
He was a tormented soul.I don't agree with his actions,but I understand them.Pep talks only take you so far.I don't think we can win but I think we can persevere.
114 posted on 01/14/2002 5:05:24 PM PST by Codie
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To: riley1992
So blowing your brains out is how you show love for your children?

There is one thing worse...Blowing your brains out after you kill the kids.

115 posted on 01/14/2002 5:07:33 PM PST by tubebender
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To: Codie
I don't think we can win but I think we can persevere.

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.

116 posted on 01/14/2002 5:08:05 PM PST by riley1992
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To: NC_Libertarian
***In this case, he's right and you're wrong (not to mention uncompassionate). ***

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.

117 posted on 01/14/2002 5:14:04 PM PST by homeschool mama
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To: riley1992
bump!
118 posted on 01/14/2002 5:17:18 PM PST by homeschool mama
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To: riley1992
"I think we can win!!!"

O.K, HOW???

Specific, progressive step by step plan please.

119 posted on 01/14/2002 5:17:56 PM PST by Dr. Good Will Hunting
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To: Osinski
Your compassion is underwhelming

Huh? Where'd THAT come from?

120 posted on 01/14/2002 5:22:10 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma
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