Letter to Editor Tuesday October 30, 2012

The real tragedy

A young boy, I think he was seven, of my acquaintance took his own life recently. Suicide is always a tragedy, however old the person might be; at this age it is infinitely more so, but the real tragedy is the circumstances that this child was living in, circumstances that I can only assume drove him to do what he did.

I know some people are finding it tough to make ends meet, but poverty wasn't at the heart of this awful ending of such a young life. A lot of money goes into that house; the problem is not a lack of money but a total lack of caring.

Most days the majority of the people who lived at that child's address were drunk by noon, drunk and stoned by late afternoon. One of them used to work but gave that away when the booze got him. There were two kids in the house, neither of whom went to school very often.

At 10am two days after this boy died members of the household were on a public reserve scoffing RTDs.

There is a chronic pattern here. Everything about this story is negative, and no one can do anything about it until the people responsible decide that they can, and must, do much more for themselves and those who depend upon them.

This boy had so much potential. Despite the awful circumstances he was living in his death shocked me. I did not expect him to make that decision. He was a little character, who only needed some guidance from someone who loved him.

One of the people here taught him not to swear, and he became a lovely, well-mannered kid.

Everyone here feels sick and angry because they can't do anything. Nothing. They couldn't do anything for this boy and they won't be able to do anything for the next one.

We can't change people's behaviour, and I don't have any answers, but this is a sick, sick society when families will not so much let something like this happen but actually make it inevitable, sooner or later. You would expect them to be ashamed, but they're not. They blame everyone else and crack another bottle.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED