Word games the media plays and another way they fail us.

I believe media fails us when they tap dance around reality. Illegal aliens are called undocumented immigrants. Those wounded, even in war, are typically called "injured."

Let's call a spade a spade, and not a shovel. By hiding the reality, and providing something less than brutal accuracy, the true impacts of suicide (And as a veteran involved in saving veterans, the stark reality of it DOES matter... roughly 22 American veterans kill themselves every day here... playing word games doesn't help.)

That failure is everywhere... for example, if someone gets shot over here, they're not "wounded," they're "injured." No... See, athletes suffer injuries while they're playing or training for their sport. Being wounded isn't the result of a game.

The US complains about guns. And then, simultaneously, when someone is wounded by gunfire, they're "injured."

Which to me has always shown the impacts of these things are downplayed and their impacts reduced by failing to use stark, unmistakable, absolutely accurate terminology.

Our veterans aren't being vaporized. For the most part, they make a decision based on a series of circumstances where many feel they have no control over their lives and so, the military solution to regain that control is to end it. (It doesn't have to make sense. But there it is.)

Victims in a robbery/mass shooting aren't being "injured." They're being shot. Someone is spilling their blood. But we play patty cake around the words to lessen their impact when we actually need to have them hit hard.

While we use words to communicate, we actually "see" those words as we process them in our minds. And for the most part, when the word "injured" is used to describe gunshot victims, my picture is of a sprained ankle.

We do that here in many areas. For example, the phrase "illegal alien," which is the legal terminology in law in the US, has been replaced with "undocumented immigrant."

Why?

Because the thought is that one is breaking the law and the other is just missing some paperwork?  When, in reality, they're exactly the same thing?

Words have meaning. And I believe we do a disservice when we use politically correct terminology to lessen the impact of those words. And the lower the impacts of suicide are felt, the less will be done about it.

FWIW.