Be Kind

Kate Spade had a lot of money and a nice Manhattan apartment.  Anthony Bourdain had a passport full of visas and a lifetime's worth of experiences that would make many world non-travelers jealous.  Kate Spade saw her name on pocketbooks and Anthony Bourdain saw his name on TV.  In a word, they had it all.

But anyone who's ever read Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory," about a wealthy man who commits suicide, knows that even the most successful among us harbor secret fears and doubts, and secret pains, that they can't overcome no matter how hard they try.  Don't think that anyone who's successful is always happy.  There are people who have far less wealth but who are satisfied because they have their families, they have their communities, and they have far fewer material possessions but what they have is enough for them. Sadly, nothing could satisfy Kate Spade or Anthony Bourdain, and that's why they killed themselves.  There are many more people who suffer from similar doubts, or maybe economic woes, who need help, and they need help now.  Help them.  And be kind.  You don't know what they're dealing with.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Call 1-800-273-8255 (24 hours a day)

Gay In America

Gay America has apparently reached a crossroads due to a pair of unrelated events. The suicide of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student shown kissing with a fellow male student on a video secretly made and then distributed by Clementi's roommate Dharun Ravi, has forced many people to stop turning their backs on the persecution many gays, as well as anyone subject to bullying, and understand the severity of the bigtory and homophobia that gays in this country have had to endure. New Jersey governor Chris Christie has made it clear that this kind of bullying, which led Clementi kill himself, is intolerable and should not be allowed. The two students Ravi and fellow Rutgers student Molly Wei, who conspired with Ravi, face two counts of invasion of privacy, although they should certainly be subjected to greater charges than that. But the people of New Jersey and the United States have clearly been shown that the bullying of homosexuals can't go on.

Meanwhile, the "don't ask, don't tell" policy forcing gays to serve in the military closeted, has been thrown out by Judge Virginia Phillips, technically allowing gays to serve openly now and putting momentum on their side. Although Congress still hasn't been able to reverse the ban, thanks to so many Republicans being against it, it doesn't seem likely that the ban will hold much longer, even if the Republicans do gain control of one or both houses of Congress in three weeks.

As for New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's homophobic comments fed to him by an Hasidic rabbi. . . . Move along, nothing to see here! He's going to lose in November.