GOP Cong.Young blames family/friends/fed. govt. for teen suicide
Due to its relatively small population, Alaska has only 1 representative in Congress. Since 1973, that has been the increasingly irascible Don Young, who is now 81 years old. It's fair to say we're talking about dementia here. Think of Young as Ronald Reagan with a nasty, vicious personality. Young was listed as the third-worst congressman by the popular magazine Rolling Stone, and dubbed "Mr. Pork" due to his involvement in the Gravina Island "Bridge to Nowhere" incident. In the article, Young is quoted as saying that "Environmentalists are a self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots" who "are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans." Dickinson, Tim (2006-10-17). "The 10 Worst Congressmen". Rolling Stone.
In the past week, while addressing first the students at Wasilla High School, and later residents at a senior citizen center, Young has been more unapologetically outrageous and insensitive than ever. At Wasilla HS, students are in counseling for the recent suicide of a classmate. There was a similar suicide of a Wasilla HS student the year before. Here's how Young's appearance played out:
Alaska’s lone congressman, Don Young, spoke to a group of students at Wasilla High School Tuesday. Earlier this month, Young barked at his Democratic opponent after a touch on the arm, “Don’t ever touch me! The last guy who touched me wound up on the ground, dead!” This time it’s insensitive remarks about suicide, berating friends of the victim, and comparing Alaska’s newly legal same-sex marriage to bull fornication. And getting drunk in Paris.
Teacher Carla Swick asked a question: “We had a suicide here last week. Alaska has the highest rate of suicide and domestic violence in the country. What can your office do to decrease this statistic?”
Young then used the full measure of sensitivity and diplomacy he’s absorbed during the last 40 years of public service, and blamed suicide on substance abuse, and a lack of support from friends and family. “When I heard ‘a lack of support from family’ and I heard ‘a lack of support from friends,’ I felt the oxygen go out of the room, but I gasped as well,” Wasilla High principal Amy Spargo said. “It just isn’t true in these situations. It’s just such a hurtful thing to say.”
“I wanted to say, ‘Don’t you realize we are a grieving school, and the kids you are talking to… many of them are his friends. This kid was very well-liked, and he had friends. He had support,” Swick said. “Neither of these boys had drug or alcohol problems,” said teacher Allison Little. “They were from intact strong families. And there was support. I don’t know why you would say that when these kids were his friends.”
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At that point, a friend of the victim became emotional and called out, “He had friends. Depression is a mental illness.” According to Swick, Young then said suicide wasn’t a sickness, and that if it were a sickness “then get a vaccine.”
“Later on he used the word depression, but it was only after that,” Swick said. “And he said, I think in response to that kid, ‘Oh, so we’ve got a genius in the audience,’ in a very sarcastic tone. It was his tone… He is harsh. He is so harsh, and rough around the edges, and he demands respect but he doesn’t give respect.”
At one point Young asked the students what they thought the hardest part about being a congressman was. And no, it wasn’t learning how to sustain a stratospheric level of idiocy over a span of decades. According to Young, it’s the travel.
According to Swick, Young then said, “’I can travel to Paris, get drunk, and come back in the time it takes me to get to DC.’ He was trying to make a point, but why did he have to put ‘get drunk’ in there? It was just inappropriate. And he also said Hell several times. Witnesses also say that Young referred to a student as a smartass, or an asshole. Shock tends to fuzz out the memory.
http://www.themudflats.net/archives/44801
There's lots more at the above Mudflats link re Young's views on gay marriage, marijuana.
Fast forward a couple of days and Young is addressing senior citizens when one of them dares to ask about his comments on suicide.
http://www.themudflats.net/archives/44816
A press release sent out Wednesday evening from the campaign of Young’s opponent, Forrest Dunbar, details the continued gaffing of the most senior member of the United States House of Representatives. Now he’s talking nonsense to senior citizens instead of high school kids.
Today at the Mat-Su Senior Center Don Young remained unapologetic when asked about the ignorant comments he made to Wasilla students yesterday, claiming that suicide is a result of a lack of support from friends and family. He defended his comments and did not offer an apology or rescind any of his remarks. He did, however, add that the federal government is to blame for suicide.
“This suicide problem did not exist until we got largesse from the federal government,” said Young. Young continued, “It comes from the largesse that says you are not worth anything but says you’re gonna get something for nothing.”
Young then went on to say he was disappointed with Wasilla High School for being interrupted, “and I am very upset with the school system that would take the side of individuals that are being disrespectful to their fellow students.”
Young commented that the Wasilla students should not be indulged, “Now you know me. You’re going to hear me. And I’m not going to coddle anybody. We have a society today that coddles people. It’s an ‘oh we’re sorry.’ We don’t want to hurt your feelings. You screwed up. Alright thank you. That’s what I’m saying.”
Young’s comments continue to astound his opponent. “This has gone past the point of bizarre. In the last two days I have gone from shocked, to saddened, to angered. If Don Young honestly believes that the suicide crisis in Alaska is because of public assistance programs, and he also believes that Wasilla High administrators were ‘coddling’ students dealing with the death of a classmate, then he is completely out of touch,” stated Dunbar, Young’s opponent for U.S. Congress. “Yesterday I said I hoped Don regretted his statements to WHS, and would learn from them. After his remarks today it is clear Don Young will not change. The Don Young that lashed out at those students, and who is so painfully ignorant on the issue of suicide, is the Don Young we have representing us in Congress. Unless Alaskans make a change.”
