Golden Gate Guardian

I have heard over and over again that someone, somewhere in the world tries to commit suicide every 45 seconds. As we’re waiting for the final school bell of the day, someone could have taken their life. I don’t think that our society does enough to raise awareness about mental illness. I can’t imagine the amount of self-loathing someone has to have before they start to think about taking their own life. And I don’t want to imagine the state of mind that they are in when they do decide to take matters into their own hands and use a permanent solution to solve a temporary problem. The officer in this picture was probably just doing his job when he came across this obviously distraught man that was on the verge of ending his life. I think that he is more of a hero than the ones that we read about in comic books because no one ever talks about internal struggles in stories. No one writes comics about an average person fighting a battle that can’t be explained with words. I’ve also seen pictures of these two men reunited eight years later. Kevin Berthia (the man on the bridge) is now happily married and has a few children of his own. I’m glad that the officer was there that day to talk Kevin out of suicide because now he has the ability to look back on life and be proud of himself because he made it through the worst and things got better even though they didn’t seem like they ever would.