When an anonymous postcard was delivered to PostSecret from an illegal immigrant in San Francisco contemplating jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, the PostSecret community sprang to action: a Facebook group called "Please Don't Jump" was made by sympathetic fans in the virtual effort to save a life.
PostSecret, a blog that weekly displays anonymously mailed-in secrets on postcards from across the country, has long been known for revealing suicidal secrets, and has set up a phone hotline in response since the blog began in 2004. Yesterday, a postcard read, “I have lived in San Francisco since I was young … I am illegal … I am not wanted here. I don’t belong anywhere. This summer I plan to jump off the Golden Gate.”
Within 24 hours, nearly 20,000 people had signed up for a Facebook group titled “please don’t jump,” which was later linked beneath the secret on the Post Secret blog, linking in thousands of supportive comments. On the group’s page, sympathetic users posted comments ranging from simply “I want you here” to “If I knew when you’d be at the bridge, I’d drive all the way from Ohio to meet you there, and hold you until you changed your mind.”
Link | The Post Card on PostSecret | The Facebook Group "Please Don't Jump" - Thanks Frank!
I am by no means an expert, however I have spent a good portion of my life around those who wear the makes of multiple failed attempts. I sincerely hope that the person who posted this has rethought the idea, no matter how it was meant. Do what's right stranger, what ever that may be.
"I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time." -Hunter S. Thompson
My dad had suicidal thoughts for about a year he told my mother and went to a crises center where they set him up with a couple councilors he saw on a regular basis. He did end up taking his own life and it was mostly well thought out. He knew where he was going to leave his car because he didn't want family or children to find him. He had a couple post it style notes on his desk that implied he did not plan on being there later in the week. He was social and an active member of the community was not giving stuff away and dressing in black. The only sign that he was going to kill himself was that he had told people a few times over the past year that he wanted to end it.
The main thing right now would be to stop the person from doing something irreversible. There are ways to stay in the country or you could always go back to their homeland (depending on how bad the place is) make a life there and get in the proper way.
If this *is* legitimate, I hope the writer seeks assistance from some of the good people and organizations affiliated with PostSecret. The ability to create such an attention getting postcard shows real talent; this talent should not be wasted.
What a silly observation. Of course it's a cry for attention. That doesn't make it unimportant.
Homo sapiens are pack-animals; receiving attention is vital to our mental and emotional health. Your post was a plea for attention. This comment I'm typing is a plea for attention. We humans thrive on attention. There's no shame in it.
The touching and moving part about this story isn't whether or not the suicide note is legit or a call for attention but the fact that 20,000 people came together to show compassion and sympathy (regardless of where, how, or if it was effective).
What's your point?
Except to people who feel compassion.
I call shenanigans on this one.
In all honesty I lost interest with PS some time ago, but maybe I should take another look.
Young illegals very often are encouraged to think of the country they left behind as home, by their elders. I saw this all the time in France with the North African illegal and immigrant population.
They very openly speak of their hate of France and their love of a country they hardly know. And they don't feel welcome because they are always somewhere that belongs to other people and refuse to even try to fit in.
Being an illegal is always uncomfortable. It takes its toll.
Postsecret is like a joke stereotype of the real diversity that exists underneath the facade of humanity, a pop-culti version of secrets that mocks reality and truth. Truth and actual reality are important, and I hate the people who make these fake projects like Postsecret, they are the same ilk that publish 'memoirs' like "A Million Little Pieces" (or David Sedaris books, etc), filling up unwary people's brains with a manipulative cloud of lies.