Honoring the Dead

As a writer for The University Echo, I get to hear all sorts of really stupid ideas that the Student Government comes up with. Sometimes, I get to hear some pretty good ideas as well, but most of those get marred by senates making dumb comments on them.
But today, I got to wondering about the nature of one of the bills that was posted. First though, I need to put a bit of background up. In September, I don’t remember the date, a student killed himself on campus and was discovered by his girlfriend. Due to the ethics of publications, no stories were run about his death following it, but every student received an e-mail about his death, just not what he died from, or that he did it himself. (It’s considered unethical to report suicides out of respect. When they are reported, the method is left out in order to prevent copy cats. Weird, but true.)
So, unsurprisingly, his death was a curiosity for most of the students here. That is, until The University Echo ran a story about the kid. His name was included because the parents gave the OK, but the girlfriend’s name was withheld and his methods remain a mystery. Well, not totally, but I’m trying to tell a story.
So now, the topic at hand. The Student Government is honoring the kid with a tree. Now, the fact that it is a tree is unsurprising. Anytime SGA wants to honor something, it’s in the form of a tree. But what I find strange about it is that the kid killed himself. If it was an accident, then it’s tragic and honoring the dead is fine. But doesn’t it send the wrong message to immortalize a boy who took his own life for taking his own life? I mean, now I know that if I want a permanent monument that people will see for years to come, I should just kill myself. Granted, I enjoy living, but if I were more depressed and sitting on the fence, knowing that I was going to honored in death would tip me over the edge. I don’t mean to trivialize Cameron’s death, because whatever caused him to do it wasn’t knowledge he would get a tree. It’s tragic that he felt their was no hope and he took his life, and it’s important to pay respects to him. But why should he be honored for giving up?

~ by James on October 30, 2007.