A veteran at Cal killed himself last week. I am a vet, and there are many of us here.

So far it is indeterminate how many vets have killed themselves since 2000. Estimates vary, but the count is up inside and outside of the military. It has resulted in some interesting numbers.

About 4,700 U.S. OEF/OIF casualties or roughly 15 percent of all Iraq and Afghanistan losses have been by suicide.

2008’s data is said, by both the Army and the Marines to probably present suicide figures that are double those of 2007, which itself saw a doubling in suicides from 2006.

We are twice as likely to commit suicide as the rest of the population. There has been a 500 percent increase in how often we try to kill ourselves in the last five years.

No one knows how many Korean war vets committed suicide, because no one counted.

There has been some data from studies done in the 1980s (that’s nearly 30 years ago, by the way) that alleges more Vietnam veterans wound up committing suicide than actually died in the war-58,000 people died there.

At many military posts around the country, and in particular Ft. Bragg, where I served during the last five years, there has been a drastic spike upwards in family murder-suicides.

Soldiers came home, after a 15-24 month deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan, are home for a short period of time, and then kill their children, their spouses then themselves. Just think about that…

This year, the head of the Veterans Administration Mental Health section, was caught telling his staff to suppress the suicide numbers so the press and public wouldn’t know- because it would look bad.

How many of you know the name of a veteran who has committed suicide? How many of you have ever thought about this topic?

I do. I know people who did it, and I understand why they would feel what pushed them into it. I am listening to the dead- I carry them around inside of me.

Why are the rest of you not listening? Why are the people that are supposed to care for us not listening?

Why is there no problem?

This is wrong. It is sick, and I am sick of it.