October 21, 2010
Hillary says: Don't kill yourself.
I can only imagine the impression this makes on a young, gay person who actually is suicidal. I'm old, heterosexual, and an immense fan of staying alive. But I can't see why would it would help to hear this dreary, robotic intonation of conventional advice from a representative of an administration that is fighting, in courts, against the rights of gay people to serve in the military and to marry.
ADDED: "Tomorrow will be better"... that's the message. I note the red dress. Why not:
AND: I think that song really makes you want to stay alive. Look:
There's so much room for personal taste. To each his own. For love partners and for things that stimulate the will to live.
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94 comments:
Is she speaking from experience?
I don't know . . . rumor was (is?) that she knows more about how gays feel than she lets on.
I don't care either way, but it might make her video a tad more compelling to young gays out there.
Hillary: Hey, I am gay. But after a loveless marriage with a serial philander. I did manage a pretty decent kid and a okay career. And the love of my life was with me for a while, till she entered her own lie of a marriage. And now I am working for an administration that is saying its for gay rights while working against them for short term political gain. So if you lie to your self long enough, yeah you will be happy.
"Tomorrow will be better...there will be less sniper fire to dodge."
What a joke of a person. It speaks volumes about our nation that she is the SoS.
A friend of mine who is gay posted this on facebook the other day (yesterday there was also a "wear purple" campaign to support LGBT teens or something). Maybe it will have an impact on somebody...but lots of teens need to hear the anti-suicide message because gay teenagers are not the only ones who kill themselves. It seems like we talked about this more when I was a teenager than they do now.
Why Clinton? Why the Secretary of State? Are there openly gay career foreign service employees who have been bullied and are now suicidal?
This just seems so...
odd
(PS The better choice would have been Janet Napolitano.....
I mean I'm not saying...
just sayin')
So bitter.
The Professor said: "...fighting, in courts, against the rights of gay people to serve in the military and to marry."
What rights? Serious question.
Funny: Hillary makes a lot of straight men suicidal and she never mentions that, nor does she appear to care if we live or die. She won't go away either.
Have I missed some news stories?
Has there currently been a rash of gay teen suicides? More than usual? I recall a couple of high profile teen suicides related to cyber-bullying, one of which not far from my house, but they weren't related to being gay, as I recall.
Crack doesn't like Hilldog? Useful
information. Hee hee.
I thought it was a nice effort. She came off as a responsible mom figure in the primaries, to me.
For all but a few people, suffering will be a part of life. For some, it is an every day visitor. A key question in adult life then is how one will manage that.
The dark days of adolescence and young adulthood are often made darker by an inability to take the long view.
Emily Dickinson said it best:
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."
She knew why even the caged bird sings.
If it isn't our incredible shrinking secretary of state.
"Hillary makes a lot of straight men suicidal..."
Ha. When I first played that, Meade said "That's *making* me suicidal."
I'm just not sure the whole It gets better message is the right one. What's wrong with Learn to deal with difficult people? It's a very difficult task to master -- especially so, I guess, for someone with little social network, but such a vital life skill. Ultimately, you are responsible for being happy in your life, if that's what you want to be. You will meet people all through life who delight in knocking you down, both literally and metaphorically. Anti-Bullying laws just reinforce the notion that someone will take care of you and that is in no way guaranteed.
It seems to me that some of those who kill themselves are waiting for someone to rescue them. And they give up waiting. I don't claim to understand the depressive mind state that unrelenting abuse might force a person into. But I wonder if tools other than waiting for a brighter tomorrow might be more productive for them.
I write this from the perspective of the former bullied, but someone with kids who are not -- to my knowledge -- either bullied or bullier.
A PSA by the gubmint seems like a little shove, don't it?
I have a very simple solution to fix bullying...make it easier to drop out of high school.
High school is a miserable place that teaches nothing that's not covered again in Community College. Quite putting barriers in the way of bright kids who want to forego the miserable drudgery that is high school and get on with making their futures.
Failing that; get over the school spirit thing. Present it like what it is...a temporary place to learn some skills that will be of value out in the world.
Its fine to point out the administration's failure to properly stand up for gay rights on DADT but why the needless mockery of Clinton who is contributing to a worthy cause? And yet the O'Connell storm in a tea cup produced several outraged posts from you.
"If it isn't our incredible shrinking secretary of state."
It's always been her job to look after the kids.
That video would have been super-awesome if it had ended with:
"Message: I care."
How nice for you, Ann Althouse, that the effort to stem suicides among young bullied gays provides a nice snarking opportunity.
You don't give a shit about the suicides, you just want to bash liberals and Democrats.
It's a bit sick. Seek help.
Meanwhile, you enable the people who perpetrate hate and discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Agree with the sentiment expressed by Ms Clinton--but this is NOT the appropriate forum for the Secretary of State for God's sake. Sibelius or the Surgeon General were the apropriate people for such a spot. (Unless, of course, she has political ambitions beyond the term of her current portfolio--nahhh, couldnt be)
Its fine to point out the administration's failure to properly stand up for gay rights on DADT but why the needless mockery of Clinton who is contributing to a worthy cause?
Because she thinks Hillary is smarter and more successful than she is. Watching Michelle Obama voting was enough to set her off...
"You don't give a shit about the suicides"
Alpha is a deeply feeling person who feels things deeply.
"Meanwhile, you enable the people who perpetrate hate and discrimination against gays and lesbians."
Ann is enabling Barack Obama in his support of DADT? Who woulda thought . . .
Meanwhile, you enable the people who perpetrate hate and discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Again, your comments are parody.
"It takes a village." And, our Village Secretary of State, is a closeted lesbian["Not that there's anything wrong w/ that"]
Instead of this morose speech, I think Franken should break out his one bit I found funny..Stuart Smalley. "I'm nice enough, I'm good enough, and gosh darnnit, people like me."
How about, "If you kill yourself, you're a weak little sissy?"
More like Hillary, I think.
You don't give a shit about the suicides, you just want to bash liberals and Democrats.
Um, Alpha, I'm over here. The blonde with the gay son is Ann.
Don't kill yourself.
Has Hillary assumed oversight of the US Department of Health and Human Services?
2012 campaigning?
Are old people included? If so, would reflect a general O-Care contraindiction sentiment.
This would be far more effective if it was made into a film strip from the 60s, with a bloop sound after every pause to cue up the next image, which promptly begins to melt.
If the phone keeps ringing at 3am every morning in your village, would you eventually want to let the sniper hit you?
Many speculations now would come out after this statements.
MM, I'm not sure I agree. I see the Learn to deal strategy as a fine long-term goal, but in the short-term they need something NOW. You need to speak to them where they are, right now, not down the road. I think you have to remember that they’re doing the best they can with what they know. They are simply surviving and may be running out ways to do that. Get them through this and in time, this will give them that chance to learn. That’s actually how I hear the It gets better message.
As for them waiting for someone to rescue them, I’m doubtful. From the stories I’ve heard, for the most part, I think it’s something they gave up on a long time ago.
"Hillary says: Don't kill yourself."
"Until you're 65."
I'm just not sure the whole It gets better message is the right one. What's wrong with "Learn to deal with difficult people"?
Yes. Several friends posted the sappy Facebook message about wearing purple to support gays and I wanted to ask how that would help anyone. Wear purple? Why not beat the crap out of the bullies?
"Hillary says: Don't kill yourself."
damn nanny-state bureaucrats always telling people what to do
Uh, prairie wind, does not beating up people make one a bully?
Or is this like the liberal ideal of silencing those with whom you disagree all while proclaiming to believe in "free speech"?
If we put a stop to the bullying of gay kids, the bullies will just have more quality time to spend with the fat kids......Has anyone gone through childhood without being bullied? Has anyone gone through childhood without being a bully?...There was an interesting column by Maggie Gallagher yesterday. She pointed out that the gays kids have a lot more problems in their lives than school bullies.
Gays are not allowed in the military by USCMJ statute. DADT was a compromise that allowed them to serve, w/o it they can be questioned and thrown out.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/ucmj/blart-125.htm
Straight guys agree, she makes us suicidal.
I do like that color red. I have it on today.
Also .... RUTGERS !!!!!!!
(team color)
garage mahal self identifies: So bitter
re film strips, lol Pogo.
"If it isn't our incredible shrinking secretary of state."
It's always been her job to look after the kids.
Jeeze.
After The Zero and Michelle's version of "Wayne's World", we now have the Hildabeast doing one of those deadpan PSAs from the 50s. I think she realizes nobody is going to flock to the Presidential standard of a 65 year old woman who was never anywhere as good as her PR touted her to be.
c3 said...
Why Clinton? Why the Secretary of State? Are there openly gay career foreign service employees who have been bullied and are now suicidal?
Until Eisenhower signed a law that State Department employees couldn't be fired, it was notorious for homosexual conduct and the attendant security risks.
AlphaLiberal said...
How nice for you, Ann Althouse, that the effort to stem suicides among young bullied gays provides a nice snarking opportunity.
You don't give a shit about the suicides, you just want to bash liberals and Democrats.
Notice Alpha turns this into a Party-political philosophy thing. Ann wears her heart on her sleeve on this issue, but all Alpha wants to whine about is how the Demos are taking it on the chin.
Guess who really cares and who doesn't.
Last month my reserve unit got together to discuss how we were going to train in the new fiscal year and manage our missions. We visited VMI and went thru the George Marshall center. Seeing her in this just highlights how superficial our "elite" have become. I thought Hillary was an adult but looks like all that time with the other children in this administration has rubbed off. There was a time when the US were the adults at the table. Now I'm convinced its the Chinese.
Have I missed some news stories?
There was a freshman college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a video online of him have sex with a guy. There hasn’t’ been a “rash” of suicides though, just a high profile one.
I'm just not sure the whole It gets better message is the right one. What's wrong with Learn to deal with difficult people?
I agree with you, but for teenagers in high school, it really does get better when you get out of that environment. Specifically for kids being bullied, I think that is a good message. Although I think if you’re a parent, maybe moving your kid could solve the problems more effectively.
She looks terrible!
What - did Hillary record this at 3 am?
A little facial touching up is not a bad thing - she can barely keep her eyes open for half of it. Can someone looking like she does here hope to inspire anyone about living?
Before you get all partisan here, I have commented several times previously on this blog that I found Hillary to be an attractive woman.
What happened?!
People love life with their expression of their emotion to love, to hate, to be angry, etc.. Unexpressed emotions are a form of mini self suicide. So telling gays that they must hide out is a cruel thing. Therefore any sympathy whether false or real is a great political move for Hillary's next campaign. If Momma Grizzlie Palin can use her female care for people as a political tool, then so can the Momma Clinton.
Politics of the lowest order.
Also, that clip from Serial Mom is seriously ugly.
My teen daughter: This is just going to make people want to kill themselves.
Me: She's reaching out because there's been teen suicides. She's trying to help.
Daughter: (matter-of-factly and firmly): She's just doing this as a politcal stunt, and everyone knows it.
(conversation paraphrased and shortened)
lol
Poor put-upon gays. Now you can't criticize gays on facebook. Another victory for the stormtroopers. Seig Heil, Gays!
Chase said...
She looks terrible!
What - did Hillary record this at 3 am?
A little facial touching up is not a bad thing - she can barely keep her eyes open for half of it. Can someone looking like she does here hope to inspire anyone about living?
Before you get all partisan here, I have commented several times previously on this blog that I found Hillary to be an attractive woman.
What happened?!
First, I agree she can look good at times, but I do believe she's had some work done (look at some old photos of her). She shows her age when she's tired or emotionally drawn and seems to use some of those non-surgical lifts, so there can be quite a range in appearance.
Not being nasty, but look at a range of photos from the '08 primaries to today.
WV "squothe" Little known ablative absolute form of quoth debunked by Ann Althouse.
Wear purple? Why not beat the crap out of the bullies?
Because they are not about protecting gays. They are merely parading their Indulgences to offset the "sins" they intend to commit in the future, as the "Righteous" AlphaLibtard so aptly demonstrates.
To be fair to Hillary, I think she just got back from overseas. Jetlag and all that.
@deborah Yes. Exactly. That's the teen sensibility, which Hillary seems completely disconnected from.
Chase, what is happening is the ravages of stress and time.
I think she had the perfect 'do for the election, and needs to get back to that. She's rich enough to afford extensions or hair plugs (for thickness). And if she wants to to '16, she'd better start her exercise of choice and eat very discrimatingly. She'll also need a little cosmetic surgery to tighten the facial skin, but not too much, of course.
That black button over her mouth seems perfect.
Ann wears her heart on her sleeve on this issue, but all Alpha wants to whine about is how the Demos are taking it on the chin.
That's what party thugs do, crush everyone who isn't 100% about THE PARTY. In fact Commies hate when people ruminate about things not political. For them the personal IS political 100%.
I know if I were a gay teen, Hillary would drive me to immediate suicide.
Please be advised that our AlphaLiberal unit has a stuck and malfunctioning feedback loop. We've called it back to the lab for repairs. Apologies.
There was a freshman college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a video online of him have sex with a guy. There hasn’t’ been a “rash” of suicides though, just a high profile one.
And my understanding is that he suffered from Clinical depression. What they did to him was wrong, and they should be shot for it. But if Hillary were serious, she would be raising awareness about depression.
Althouse, I think the commercial was inoccuous enough that there are plenty of teens who would listen to the message, appreciate the message, and appreciate the caring adult in the message.
Fen, good point about the depression aspect.
When will Hillary release a video telling adolescents that it's really, really wrong to secretly make a video of a friend or roommate having sex and then post it on the internet?
That was the causality, wasn't it?
Hillary says don't kill yourself.
Crack says she's dead to me.
But if Hillary were serious, she would be raising awareness about depression.
Which is certainly not limited to gay teens. I always think of the boy in my class whose girlfriend broke up with him and he went and killed himself in her yard. Terribly sad.
They should just let people fight back against bullies in school, instead of punishing everybody involved in a fight.
Suicides of young people is a problem. It has always been a problem. I do not think it is growing. And it is not confined to gay teens (although I would agree they face additional pressures and conflicts). But given the options for gays, life is by far better for them now than it was in the past, isn't it?
I down people who are depressed and need to give it a reason. So it is because they are fat, gay, too tall, too short, white, black, etc., etc. Sometimes you are just depressed.
Not down, know. My bad.
Shanna: I could not agree more on the conflict resolution matter. In the old days kids were permitted to fight on school yards. Not to the death, but close. Now it is not permitted to consider it. Thus all conflict resolution rests with the authorities. go to any kid's sports games now and they will be in uniforms and there will be umpires. again, in the olden times kids settled close calls themselves sometimes with their fists.
There was a freshman college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a video online of him have sex with a guy. There hasn’t’ been a “rash” of suicides though, just a high profile one.
And how ironic that the "bullies' in this case were his roommate and his girlfriend. As far as I can tell neither were "homophobes"; they just thought it would be "funny".
so how does this high-profile case add to the meme that there's an epidemic of gay teen suicide due to homophobic (read "budding Tea Baggers") bullies?
Ft. Worth City Councilman Joel Burns did it better.
Watching the video I had the hangman's knot tied in the rope, had it around my kneck and was standing in a chair with rollers. Luckily the video ended.
plenty of teens who would listen to the message, appreciate the message, and appreciate the caring adult in the message.
Don't kid yourself. I have a 17 year old son and a 14 year old daughter. They would ridicule the video as bad as any commentor here. They do better work in their high school multi media class.
I have a 17 year old son and a 14 year old daughter.
Same, except the sexes are flipped. My kids likely wouldn't sit through the whole thing.
And I don't think I would have watched a Henry Kissinger message back when I was their age.
I want to second how a truly effective speech by a city councilman in Ft. Worth. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4
I don't get it.
Who is this video targeting. Who is going to watch it. Is it an item for public schools. For what class. Mandatory watching?
How is this video, which is pretty boring, going to lessen bullying?
Wouldn't it be more effective to have a real live person doing small seminars instead of Hillary's talking head.
Why is the Secretary of State making this video.
Ft. Worth City Councilman Joel Burns did it better.
Much, much better. Hillary's speech doesn't touch you anywhere. Joel Burns will touch your soul, if you have one.
DADvocate wrote: Watching the video I had the hangman's knot tied in the rope, had it around my kneck and was standing in a chair with rollers. Luckily the video ended.
LOL. I learned to tie the hangman's knot as a kid. It came in handy when I staged elaborate hangings as part of my Johnny West fantasy world. GI Joe was always getting strung-up for something or other.
Did you know that the same knot is useful for storing rope? Check it out here.
Did you know that the same knot is useful for storing rope? Check it out here.
Wow. That was very interesting. I've been looking online for some knots and instruction. I need to tie several small stuffed triangles together in sets of four and want to have the knots create a small gap between some of the points of the triangles.
Cool!.
"to hear this dreary, robotic intonation of conventional advice"
-------------
to each unto her own.. why do you even pretend you're interested to comment on her? It is so predictable.
WV: ovarivas (like ovary divas)
This is really a pathetic thread. There is a fraud you voted for who is wrecking the country and you go after this woman and this video.
Each suicide is a PERSONAL tragedy. Why on earth do we insist on aggregating the dead into specific "oppressed people" groups to further our own strongly held feelings about a certain subject?
Perhaps because tragedies are a terrible thing to waste in this era of all things political, or is it because serious mental health issues are more "in the closet" than gays are these days.
... and to all you young MSMs out there, there is no need to be precipitous. According to the CDC there is a a high probability that you will develop life-threatening HIV/AIDS. So you are not alone. You may even have an opportunity to take someone with you. We here in the State Department want you to know that we support you.
I only made it about halfway through before I got bored. I didn't hear anything objectionable in the message. But the concept does strike me as borderline wrong.
I assume this is supposed to be part of Dan Savage's project. To me, that seemed like not too bad an idea ... people like him providing personal experiences and living proof that if gay kids are having trouble, they still have things to look forward to.
But a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon that I don't believe were meant to do so. You'll see a lot of these messages on youtube from people who have not gone through what Savage has, or what the intended audience may have. They're just preening straight people desperate to prove their compassion by appropriating the oppression of others as their own cause. I don't think it's their place to do so. It's a big thing with certain kinds of hipster chicks -- the kind that used to be called a f-- h--. I know people who have done this, people who have suffered nothing, and I find it unseemly.
No one will be helped by this video, and to the extent that it adds to the clutter and makes it harder to find a better one, it's a hindrance.
This is an extremely sad and pathetic comment thread.
They need to get a more credible lesbian than Hillary to do that message.
"...people who have suffered nothing, and I find it unseemly."
Call me old-fashioned, but I have lived long enough to know, with CERTAINTY, that "suffering" is always relative, and always part and parcel of what makes us all human. I sometimes suffer, and I see you do too.
Force ranking another person's "shit" in comparison to my own? I do that "regularly" in hopes of avoiding either constipation or diarrhea.
There is more than enough "shit" to go around, and because of that, it makes me feel SO much better to see myself as a student of "waste management".
Personally? I would add "waste management" on a top ten list of "Jobs for an Improved Future".
Dadv, MadMan, DBQ, yes, I get that it wasn't a good commercial. Maybe it helped someone.
It needed to be shorter, at a quicker pace, and have one or two of those sunny Hillary smiles she perfected during the campaign. Oh, well.
What a pathetic cynical group of people on this thread.. yeah, she needed one or two of her campaign perfected smile says one moron who voted for the 'toothpaste commercial' man who turns on his creepy smile at the drop of a hat.
This is what she has done over the years which is more than the idiot in the WH.
Clinton has long been a supporter of LGBT rights (10 years ago she was the first First Lady to march in a pride parade), and she declared in June that "Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights." During her tenure as secretary of state, several LGBT-friendly policies has been enacted at the State Department, including equal benefits for same-sex partners of State Department employees, new regulations that make it easier for transgender Americans to amend their passports, and grants to help human rights advocates in other countries who are in danger due to their LGBT status or their work on LGBT issues.
I don't have the time to listen to what I assume is a staged piece, carefully scripted.
As two others upthread (Mary Beth and DADvocate) mentioned, Joel Burns turned in a very powerful "It Gets Better" video.
The tapes made by young adults probably make the most difference to vulnerable kids. Clinton's strikes me as "Me too" bullshit.
Shortly after the project started, Dan Savage posted a follow-up, from a radio host who had interviewed him.
It's worth the couple minutes to listen to the linked clip.
rights of gay people to serve in the military and to marry.
There are no rights to serve in the military and you can be rejected into service for any multitudes of reasons not least of which is being a homosexual. Can you stop screeding this pap, Ann?
deborah said...
She came off as a responsible mom figure
Yeah, for baby elephants perhaps.
really a nice simple theme it is
chasony
For those who were bullied not because they were gay or because some discrimination was involved, this message is not for you. You can go on killing yourselves.
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