__________


back in the day, 2 little girls who lived about one mile away from me, the Lyons sisters, Katherine and Sheila, ages 10 and 12, disappeared; having been seen last at Wheaton Plaza, a suburban Maryland shopping center

like dozens of others, I searched the wooded area around the Plaza trying to find them

they were never found

more than 40 years later Lloyd Welch, a janitor at the Plaza, confessed to killing them

I still think about this fairly often and still gets to me - I'm going to have to be dead before this incident will leave me alone


.

The killing of children also haunts me, a little girl was found dead in a railway tunnel near to Stoke on Trent, obviously been raped first.

I do find this difficult to cope with.

okay...but why are you telling us and why did you start a thread about it?

The need to communicate their emotions is a basic function of human beings, that is why.

This was a famous case wasn't it? Weren't they taken to Virginia where the perp had extended family, and didn't his family know about it. I've read about this recently, but can't remember the book.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Stone

Mark Bowden book.

I was wondering the exact same thing. And it is not as if anything knew just came to light; this has been solved for quite a few years now.


Really? So if I wake up and am feeling sad about something or other that day, I should create a thread to communicate my emotions to random strangers on a message board?

Yes of course, particularly if you are feeling isolated. Any expression of emotion is preferable to doing the macho thing of pretending that you are ok when you are not. There are reasons that young men in particular have a propensity for suicide, and this view is one of them.

Is it a waste of electrons to start a new thread? Is there a problem that I fail to see?

There is a slight problem with stupid people who lack empathy, otherwise no.

Why not, that's what notrebelatall does!

Yup, no problem with doing that, and no problem with others doing the same.

I presume mental health awareness week is not a thing in the US.

I really find frat boy machismo tiresome.

I think that “feeling sad” is a derogatory way of talking about the struggles of others, I remember talking to a vet who had been under fire in Afghanistan and Iraq , he told be that what he had learned from his life was not to judge others, you don’t know what they are going through.

“The only thing that I have learned in life is that one should try to be a little kinder”
A Huxley

Further reading for the class.

“I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.”

Arthur Miller
Death of a salesman.

.


it's not at all the same thing as stopping a stranger on the street and boring him with your story

the postings here can be immediately in less than one second ignored if the reader has no interest

it could be argued that 95% of the postings here and at similar sites are trivial and not worth reading

but some do read them, and some do enjoy doing so

so no reason to get animated if you don't like a post - just move on down the road - I read about 2 posts per day here


.

^^
I strongly agree, not reading something is a task that takes virtually zero time.
I tend to read many posts because I find finding out how other people think interesting.

I believe that I have created three treads in the last 18 months, one of them at your prompting. I must be a happy chap then.

Must apologise to Dominic, of course reading a post takes you a while, I had forgotten about the moving a finger under each letter and mouthing the word to yourself that you have to do. Must take a while.

I actually think if you're a certain age, it's interesting to reflect back on the first big local child abduction case that kind of made you realize "oh, life isn't just rainbows and sunshine and there's bad people out there". Vividly remember it for myself:

https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Tania_Murrell

I was ten when this happened and I've always semi-followed it. She was never found and no one was ever convicted, and her family basically crumbled over it, including her younger brother eventually committing suicide.

It's also crazy if you read the Reddit investigators, it seems like it's strongly suspected that the culprit was a friend of a family, and that the family for some reason protected him. He eventually died as well so I doubt we'll ever know.

Utter nonsense.

Younger groups have had consistently lower suicide rates than middle-aged and older adults.

That said, given your stated feelings of isolation and being both haunted by and unable to cope with deaths of strangers that occurred decades ago, you still might want to seek professional counseling.

Never said that, look at the sentence again.

Never said that I was lonely and isolated, but I agree about seeking professional counselling if necessary.