Action Item

[Trigger warning for self-harm.]

I had no idea that the White House has a "policy of not sending condolence letters to the families of service members who commit suicide," which not only dishonors the service of those troops but also stigmatizes mental illness.

It shouldn't need to be said that someone who takes hir own life in a war zone died from combat just as surely as someone who died from a bullet shot from an enemy gun. And given the number of suspicious suicides (see, for example, Pfc. LaVena Johnson) during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this policy is almost certainly denying condolence letters in cases where soldiers have been assaulted and killed in staged suicides to cover up the crime.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Mental Health America are gathering signatures for petitions to change the policy. You can sign them here and here.

[H/T to Greg Mitchell.]