Only one of my long-term friends ever committed suicide. I found his death much harder to get over, to get reconciled to, than the “normal” deaths of other friends. And so I can’t help wondering about the emotional effect of 11 suicide attempts in a single night. And then a plot by13 more to kill themselves just a few nights later. My mind reels. That’s the situation in Attawapiscat, an aboriginal community about halfway up the western shore of James Bay. A few years ago, Attawapiscat made national headlines when former chief Theresa Spence held a hunger strike near the parliament building in Ottawa. Perhaps the social conditions are worse in Attawapiscat than in other reserves; perhaps they’re not. James Anaya, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, expressed concerns about the suicide rate in aboriginal communities. Pukatawagan, with a total population of 2,500, had 27 suicides in the last two years, a suicide every four weeks.
A handful of statistics Gerald McKinley, a postdoctoral fellow at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, claims that the rash of suicides is limited to seven communities -- in the rest, the suicide rate has declined. He compares suicide to a contagious disease. On the other hand, Aboriginal Healing Foundation asserts that the suicide rate, especially among youth, has continued to rise even while the suicide rate in Canada overall has declined. Consider the statistics. In the Canadian population as a whole, the highest rate of suicide occurs among people in their 40s or 50s; among aboriginal people, the rate peaks among 10- to 29-year-olds. Aboriginal youth on reserves are 5 to 6 times more likely to die of suicide than their peers in the general population. Over a third of all deaths among aboriginal youth are attributable to suicide. Among non-native Canadian women the suicide rate is around five per 100,000; among aboriginal women, it is 35 -- nine times higher than “normal,” if suicide can ever be considered normal. The suicide rates for men are even higher. The “normal” rate for men in Canada is 24 per 100,000. But among native men, it soars to 126 per 100,000.
Now, not then Blaming this on the Indian Residential Schools is a cop-out. Yes, the schools were a mistake. Yes, they attempted to force children to assimilate by ripping them away from their home environment, forcing them to accept a new name, a new language, and a discipline that was foreign to them. But it’s not the victims of residential schools who are committing mass suicide. It’s their grandchildren.
Focussing on residential schools lets us blame someone else. It was their fault. So if we apologize, grovel, and throw money at the problem, we’re off the hook. The epidemic of suicides tells me that we’re not off the hook. Whatever is causing these suicides is happening right now. Why, after all, does someone commit suicide? Or attempt to? Never having done it myself, I can’t speak from experience. But I suspect that the unifying factor is a loss of hope. Despair. Despair, said psychiatrist Victor Frankl, is suffering without meaning. In his epochal book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl described surviving not just one but four Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz. Those who found some sense of meaning -- even in their fear and misery -- were more likely to survive, Frankl observed. I suspect that the Attawapiscat and Pukatawagan suicides no longer found any meaning in their lives. They had no redeeming cause to live for. They felt useless. Ignored. Societal discards. I don’t know how meaning and hope weave together. But obviously an absence of meaning will lead to hopelessness; a loss of hope will invoke meaninglessness.
No simple fixes In response to the rash of suicides in Attawapiscat, the federal government dispatched a team of counsellors. As if they can find something wrong with the young men of the reserve, and fix it. But how does an outsider -- someone with a job, a salary, a rung on the ladder -- inspire hopeless people to find hope? Would a young man who sees who sees no future for himself, his friends, his culture, and his faith, even want hope? Counsellors can’t do it. Nor, for that matter, can evangelists preaching Jesus as a sacrificial victim, or any other religious panacea. All I’m sure of is that we first need to quit thinking this problem is a lingering carryover from past practices. The problems we need to face and to fix are right now. ******************************************************** Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved. To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca ********************************************************
YOUR TURN
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Canadian readers responded to last week’s column about the Donald Trump phenomenon as a problem to be analyzed; American readers responded from the pain in their hearts.
John Shaffer A wrote from Washington state, “Conspiracy theories abound. Perhaps Trump is running as a Republican to assure that his good friend Hillary Clinton is elected as the first woman President of the United States. What are friends for? “Whatever his motive or goal, the outpouring of hate and fear is not completely unique, but until the recent past, it has been a distinct minority.”
And the second John Shaffer, John Shaffer B, wrote, “We are in turmoil here in the U.S. as we fracture and factionalize while adapting to a changed world order. We now live in a time when the future is already in the past. But we have not truly realized, much less accepted, the importance of the global change we face, and the implications that has for us…and for the rest of the world. “I suspect we are not alone among peoples and nations in this regard. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Ted 
Cruz, and Hillary Clinton are each facing the projections, misplaced hopes, and, if I am right, illusions we all carry and cling to. “Hopefully, we will work out this problem, living up to our ideals.”
Ron Owens wrote from Elmira, NY: “Jim, I wish Trump was merely a prankster. I think it's all about ego. Apparently being a billionaire does not necessarily make one happy. And if you easily pay many people to run your enterprises, you are then as lonely and bored as the man who has no money and feels little meaning in his life and accomplishment. Trump's former wife Marla recently said he spoke about a Presidential run 25 years ago! “The saddest thing about Trump is that he has revealed how many millions are unafraid of declaring their racism and misogyny. They say Trump ‘tells it like it is.’ He doesn't. He, and all those people, tell it as their biased minds are spouting. I look at the seated followers behind Trump and realize those seemingly innocent faces are all real Archie Bunkers. But there is no humor. They simply think Trump has given a license to hate.”
In Charles Hill’s opinion, “Many, if not most, people are scared --ISIS, jobs flowing to Mexico, China. Fear sometimes dissolves reason. Donald Trump is a businessman and knows there is a market for quick, easy solutions. I doubt that we are seeing the person who would take office, if elected. The middle class is tired of the 1% who own everything.(Donald Trump, of course, is part of that 1%.) Most of us are just fearful for the future of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.”
A couple of American readers said they were seriously thinking of moving to Canada.
Now to Canadian letters. Tom Watson indulged in his own flight of fancy about how Trump got started in his campaign. Unfortunately, it’s too long to include here.
Isabel Gibson wrote, “I've heard others suggest that Trump set out to destroy the Republican Party for some slight (real or imagined), by doing just as you describe -- being completely obnoxious, winning the nomination, and then turning on them to announce it was all a joke. “I've also heard reasonable-sounding Americans say, ‘We're not stupid. We don't need the establishment [in this case, Mitt Romney] to tell us who Donald Trump is. We know exactly who he is, and we're using him to overturn the established order in American politics.’ “Whatever the truth -- and I'm guessing it's more complicated than anything I've heard so far -- it's been an interesting political season!”
John McTavish saw Trump as an outcome of history: “Ever since Nixon began pursuing the so-called Southern Strategy in the 60s, regaining the South by aggressively embracing southern values of religion, gun control, and a general distrust of the counterculture, the Republican party has been in serious decline. This has allowed Donald Trump to wildly lower the bar in American politics. The New Yorker recently concluded an editorial on the subject, saying, ‘Insults. Bigotry. Nationally televised assurances of adequate genital dimensions. This is the political moment in which we live. The Republican Party, having spent years courting the basest impulses in American political culture, now sees the writing on the wall. It reads, “Donald Trump,” in very big letters.’ “Thanks for your illumination of this sad and scary phenomenon.”
Ellen Lohman suggested, “You have brilliantly described this circus with Donald Trump as the barker. If it were not happening in America, I would be laughing, but actually I despair over the possible outcome. H.L. Mencken nailed it.”
Peter Scott wondered why I had difficulty accepting “the positive response Donald Trump is receiving in the U.S. [considering that] the citizens of ‘Toronto the Good' just recently elevated Rob Ford to sainthood.”
Norm Haug and Steve Roney both questioned my reasoning.
Norm Haug: “Does anyone really know what motivates Donald Trump, know why he is running or if he believes what he says? Perhaps he doesn’t know either. However, his success so far does not indicate that “what the people want is irrelevant”. He is telling people what he thinks they want to hear and it appears that his assumption is correct since the majority of Republicans are supporting him. I am not shocked at this support. His support simply exposes the core values of the Republican Party. This is one of the reasons why the GOP brass are so frightened by him. He tars the whole party with the stigma of bigotry, racism and misogyny. Secondly, how will the lobbyists of the wealthy gain access to a man who does not need their money?”
Steve Roney: Seems to me you contradict yourself. You say ‘His popularity demonstrates the flaws built into the American electoral system.’ And then the flaws you point to are— a lack of democracy. This is surely backwards. If the system were less democratic, Trump would not have gotten this far; popularity with ordinary Americans would not matter as much. This is what democracy looks like. “I agree with you, on the other hand, in your suspicion that Trump does not really want to be president, and did not expect to do this well. Trump essentially makes his money by selling his name. He does not own all those ‘Trump Towers.’ The better known he is, the more money he makes. Now, wheat could raise his profile more than running for president? Having this ulterior motive, he may not really want the job all that much. This gives him the freedom to say what he wants; after all, if he gets more press by saying something outrageous, that's good for his brand, and if he says something politically unfortunate that kills his candidacy, who cares? “This, perhaps surprising even him, has hit a nerve with the public. The more outrageous he is, the more they like it. They are obviously very angry with the political and social elite.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
This column comes to you using the electronic facilities of Woodlakebooks.com.        If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.        To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedgesunsubscribe@quixotic.ca.        You can access several years of archived columns at http://edges.Canadahomepage.net.        I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly, at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedgessubscribe@quixotic.ca
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PROMOTION STUFF…
 Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah – the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.com Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up,  http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>  Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com  Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town – not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
 Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net
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