Rest in peace, Zal Chapgar, the 23-year-old who jumped to his death from a Philadelphia highrise hotel on Monday:
He had been suffering from depression and mental illness for the last year, his family said. Because he was an adult, their ability to help him find the treatment he needed was limited.
"It was so hard for us to get him help," his sister, Jasmine, said. "Everything was a struggle."
Police are calling his death a suicide.
Chapgar was a champion wrestler and played lacrosse and football, and displayed a competitive intellect to match. His friends recall being dazzled by the heady concepts he'd want to explore and the irrepressible drive with which he pursued them.
One important side to this story. Chapgar's suicide only received coverage in the newspaper because of longstanding -- and possibly outdated -- journalistic rules. The guidelines haven't changed much since I entered daily journalism 27 years ago: Suicides only make the paper if they involve famous people or a highly public death, which is what happened in the case of Chapgar, who lept from the top of Loews Philadelphia Hotel onto a busy street in Center City. (Increasingly, and sadly, we've seen some coverage of teen suicides as well.)
But the truth is that there are far too many Zal Chapgars in the world -- taleneted and promising everyday people, brought down needlessly by the scourges of mental illness and depression. Most victims who succumb die alone, and unpublicized, and the culmulative result is a lack of public awareness over how serious this problem -- which rips so many families apart -- remains in America.
Compare public concern about mental illness to our sky-high level of political awareness and debate about crime and murder, when so much of the local pages of the newspaper are filled with the bloody shootings of the day. When we have a mayoral race here in Philadelphia, the candidates are bombarded with questions about crime rates and gun control. Mental health programs? Not so much.
But depression actually kills more Americans before their time than a bullet does -- a lot more. In 2004, researchers say that 32,439 Americans died by suicide and that as many as 90 percent were the result of factors like mental illness and substance abuse. That same year, the murder tally in the United States was almost exactly half of that -- 16,137.
We can all agree that families are entitled to their privacy if they desire it -- which is the understandable primary reason the media tended to avoid such stories for so long. But times change -- we live in a more open world, and I've seen a lot of people over the last couple of years who've written articles or taken to the blogs to write about loved ones, people who desperately wanted to talk, who wanted to share their loss with others who've suffered the same ordeals.
The Philadelphia media did a good job telling the sad story of Zal Chapgar, but only because of the horrific facts of his death and the public reaction. How many more Zal Chapgars are out there silently waiting for help?
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
Get it now
- February
- January
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
Philly.com Promotions
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
- Jobs | Cars | Real Estate | Rentals | Marketplace | Celebrations
