Saturday, May 23, 2009

"Selfish..."


The man in the above picture is Chen Fuchao, who had been standing on a bridge in China for five hours threatening to commit suicide... then 66 year-old Lai Jiansheng came by, shook his hand and pushed Fuchao off the bridge. Jiansheng called Fuchao "selfish".

Jiansheng has a point. If Fuchao was going to do it, he would have done it. Not waited for an audience. He wanted people to see him and help him. Jiansheng saw that traffic was backed up for miles all for this guy making threats to jump, so he decided to speed things along. Fuchao landed on an airbag and survived--Jiansheng is out on bail.

I'm having a tough time deciding who has my sympathy. I can't imagine being that far into the abyss that you feel no way out and that taking your life is the only thing to do. I don't wish that pain on anyone. But, if you're going to do it, you do it: jump in front of a train, slash wrists, asphyxiation, etc. The people standing on a ledge aren't going to jump, this is their cry for help. However, there is a point where you think, "Jump, you fucker. I got shit to do."

1 comment:

Michele said...

I feel like such a shit for thinking this post is funny. Because, like you wrote, suicide is tragic. And yet... I hope Jiansheng doesn't go to prison for pushing the guy.