“I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself”
…And the Federal Government wants to help.
1-800-SUICIDE is a privately owned, non-profit phone network that provides anonymous suicide counseling. A few years ago, they made a terrible, terrible mistake: they accepted a grant from the Federal Government.
Now the feds want to take control of the phone number. Likely result: instead of anonymous counseling, you get the cops.
I do not even know how to express the rage I am feeling as I type this.
I’ve said this before. I’m going to say it again now. I’m going to say it over and over and over until it sinks in:
We do not trust the government to read our mail. We do not trust the government to stop us on the street and ask for our papers. We do not trust the government to listen in on our phone calls. We do not trust the government to come into our homes and businesses and search our records or our belongings.
And yet, many of you f… — excuse me while I suppress a stream of shrieking profanity — many of you think you can trust the government with your health care? With the intimate personal records that it requires? Are you mad, or just so [deleting foul word] stupid that you cannot manage your own lives and in fact deserve to have your most intimate secrets in the hands of the people that want to turn 1-800-SUICIDE records over to the police? While taking half or more of your salary, and condemning you to a lifetime of filling out mind-numbing forms for the privilege of doing so.
God. Damn. You.
Wake the fuck up!
These people do not want to help you. They want to own you, every hair on your head, every cell in your body, every base-pair in your DNA. Every thought in your brain, if you give it to them.
Stop already. Just stop.
Because if you give them yours, they’ll take mine too, and if that happens, I will kill myself.
But I will take as many of them with me as I can, rather than let them take me away, and turn me into one of you.
God Damn You.
You asked for this.
The next President of the United States will probably give it to you, good and hard.
“Them,” Dave? “They?” Who “Them”? That’s crazy talk, you know.
SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminsitration. Currently running 1-800-273-TALK, a competing suicide hot line. If you call this number, knowing that it is run by the feds, you deserve every single degrading humiliation they inflict on you, you idiot. Better you should just kill yourself now, OK?
Department of Health and Human Services
And the usual suspects, like the IRS, the DEA, the BATFX….
Tags: 1-800-SUICIDE, Elton John, health care, Hopeline, Kristen Brooks, SAMHSA, suicide
July 1st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Okay, it’s official. You are a Liberterian (that’s not necessarily a bad thing). Although it does seem that 1-800-suicide, and its clients, would be poorly served by federal interference I just can’t go along with your idea that program run by the government is a disaster. Did you know that the socialized insurance program in Switzerland has less than 5% of the fees going to claims processing and management? The U.S. capitalist system has over 22%. And remember, medical privacy acts, and Cobra came from the Hill.
I think we can thank the Patriot Act for the Feds desire to have control over a billion dollar (I’m guessing here) communication system. But before you take everyone out, may I suggest a move to Montana or Nevada? Even better, how about finding another country with a more hands off government? Not being facetious here, there are lots of nations out there. One of them has got to be a good fit for you.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 am
The claim made in the video is explicitly that callers will be turned over to the police. That’s a betrayal of trust, and that’s what I object to. Not to mention strong-arming the current holder of the number.
The PATRIOT act merely instantiated a desire held, sooner or later, by all governments. As always, the ground-breaker here was the War on (some) Drugs, not on terrorism.
And there’s no place on earth I’d rather be. There’s no place that protects my freedom, and the freedom of others, as fiercely as this nation does.
For all its flaws, it’s still as free as it gets.
Ack! And small-l “libertarian” please!
I have a series of posts up discussing political leanings in another forum; I’ll try to abstract and post later.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
[...] “I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself” …or more of your salary, and condemning you to a lifetime of filling out … them with me as I can, rather than let them take me away, and turn [...]