Thursday, June 4, 2009

Violence, hardly noticed

All three of these incidents happened, but only one ended up on the front page of the NYTimes as a cautionary example of the current recession stressing people until they resort to extreme violence. Was it:

David B. Kellermann, the chief financial officer of beleaguered mortgage giant Freddie Mac, tied a noose and hanged himself in the basement of his Vienna, Virginia, home.

or

Betty Lipply, a 72-year-old resident of East Palestine, Ohio, "who feared she'd lose her home to foreclosure hanged herself to death" shortly after "receiving her second summons and foreclosure complaint from her mortgage lender,"

or

[T]wo California dairy farmers who "killed themselves... out of despair over finances, according to associates."

The answer (which you probably guessed) is here, along with the dismal account of how stories like these have been playing out under the media radar for months now.

It's not pretty.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This went in a TOTALLY different direction. I would have bet my house the punchline was David Carradine...

Nothstine said...

Hah! I take it this means you're feeling better? [Or perhaps that the meds have finally kicked in?]

I considered an obit on Kwai Chang Carradine, but after an hour I never got farther than the title: "Bill Killed."

bn