Suicide as performance art.

How cool is that?
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The audience didn't know it was real.  Although they cheered what they thought was a performance of suicide.
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The story.
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A troubled 19-year-old stabbed himself to death on stage at an open mic night after playing a song called Sorry For All the Mess.

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Kipp Rusty Walker repeatedly plunged the six-inch blade into his chest as the audience clapped and cheered in the mistaken belief it was piece of performance art.
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But when he collapsed in a pool of his own blood they started screaming in horror and rushed to help him, but his wounds were too severe and he died soon after.  Read more MailOnline
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"All life is precious."
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The audience was shocked and horrified after they realized the kid was really committing suicide before their eyes.  As one of his friends tried to explain it, ‘It was almost like he wanted to prove a point, like there's no point in being scared of death because it's going to happen to us anyway.’  Or as a doctor noted, the act can ‘demonstrate to others who are "normal" that there are others suffering to the point of suicide.'
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I don't know if the kid was bullied in school - I highly doubt it.  He was 19 years old and on his own.  I've said it before, I think there is a sort of suicide chic in our culture.  I think amongst 'youthful artists' and wanna-be-legends, there is a certain dark nobility in suicide.  A comment to the news article on Walker's death said that the kid 'did not have the right to do this in front of an audience.'  Really?  So did he have the right to do it privately?  The same writer also stated, '‘It is always a tragic act for someone to take their own life since all life is precious.'  Yet assisted suicide is legal in Oregon.  How precious is that?
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What's the point? That's it!  What's the point?
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A Columbia University psychologist and researcher recently published his study claiming, "Suicide attempts by gay teens - and even straight kids - are more common in politically conservative areas where schools don't have programs supporting gay rights, a study involving nearly 32,000 high school students found." - Source
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Perhaps, although Oregon is by no means conservative.  Nevertheless such studies are sure to be used to squash any religious teaching or traditional morality which condemns homosexual behavior.  Well intentioned studies with the intent to save young people from suicide, usually fail to acknowledge the consequences generated by a pro-choice society in a culture of moral nihilism.
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Again, experts will continue to debate these things while a certain percentage of kids choose to take destiny in their own hands and euthanize themselves.
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Pray for the suicides.
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"I am sorry, friends and brothers, that I cannot express this clearly. But woe to those who have slain themselves on earth, woe to the suicides! I believe that there can be none more miserable than they. They tell us that it is a sin to pray for them and outwardly the Church, as it were, renounces them, but in my secret heart I believe that we may pray even for them. Love can never be an offence to Christ. For such as those I have prayed inwardly all my life, I confess it, fathers and teachers, and even now I pray for them every day." - Fr. Zosima, Brother Karamazov, Part II, Book 6, Chapter 3

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Photo: Kipp Rusty Walker