Accidents happen all the time. There are small ones like absentmindedly swinging an arm backwards and hitting somebody, leaving your homework at home, or spilling a glass of milk. There are also serious ones like car or plane crashes, falling off a great height, or running into a glass door and having it cut you. Those are the types of accidents I know off, accidents that people don't want nor try to get into. But apparently, there's also another type of accident in which you, fully conscious of what you're doing, go into your bathroom, put on a robe, spill gasoline on it, and set fire to yourself.
As far as I know, this is no accident. It's not like it just happened to you. You did it to yourself... on purpose. Yet, according to Bush -yeah, George W. Bush, former President of the United States- attempting suicide is an "accident". Brent Runyon receives a letter from him in which Bush says "that he'd heard about me [Brent] from some congressman and was sorry to hear about my accident...(P.65)" Funny, how purposefully setting fire to yourself, is suddenly seen as something that just happened. "Oh how unfortunate to have your hand set fire to your gasoline-covered robe. It must be awful being a victim to such an accident."Don't get me wrong, though. I'm very glad that Brent got support from the President, it just should be referred to as what actually happened, not have it sugarcoated.
Brent got a lot of solace from other people around him as well. The First Lady of Poland went to visit him, for example - probably for publicity considering the fact that she barely spoke to him, but still. It's amazing how many people care. He even received gifts and cards from people he didn't know. He also got a tape from "some girls from school"in which other people (females, all of them) told him how much they missed him. What struck me though, was that one of the people in the recording said "You're my hero, Brent (P. 45)." OK, so go and try to setting yourself on fire and those burns all over your body will completely be your fault. But don't worry, because you'll be somebody's idol. Why? By telling him he's his "hero" he's like saying he's proud of how he tried to commit suicide. Instead, he should be encouraging him to stay away from suicide next time.
But okay, anyways, Brent also got a a very sweet call from Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson did not try to sugarcoat what Brent did nor congratulate him for it either. He just told him he wanted him "to work real hard and get better (P. 48)"(both, showing he cared and actually encouraging Brent to live) and that he would be sending him a pair of shoes and a workout suit. Alida was another persons who helped Brent. She sent him a mix-tape and visited him in the hospital, showing she cared. All the support is useful, though. And it's this that helped Brent recover.
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