Government to take over suicide hotline?

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 7:19 AM on July 28, 2006.

You're well aware by now that your privacy is terribly compromised by the empty suits in the Bush administration.

In the name of combatting terrorism the government is willing to go to any length, listen in on any conversation, for you, its charges.

So now that the government seems prepared to take over the 1-800-SUICIDE hotline by starving it of already allocated money, well, I'm not feeling confident.

As the Save 1-800-SUICIDE page notes, "teenage suicide [is] the 3rd leading cause of death between 18 to 24 year olds [and]almost 2 million callers have reached help and hope over the last 8 years."

If the nonprofit fails to receive the government funding it's been promised it'll either close down... or reopen as your federal government. I tend to agree with the suicide hotline people when they warn: "our government should not be in the business having access to this private and sensitive information!" (save1800suicide)

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.