I really am trying to do my part in keeping things a little light-hearted so that the darkening months of November and December will be a little easier to bear for all those stuck inside reading blog after blog in the hopes that by the time they are done reading the entire Internet, summer will be back. But I have been bombarded with stories that are so disturbing that I feel the need to share some of them, in the hopes that encouraging conversations about these things will maybe make the entire year less dark – if you know what I mean.

Florida teenager commits suicide in front of live online audience. Yes, you read that headline right. 19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv, proclaims another headline. Justin.tv, in case you are wondering, is a place for live videos; people can cam to the world directly on to justin.tv.

I don’t know what I find more disturbing: the fact that a 19 year old committed suicide, the fact that he told people about his intentions to do so and not enough people cared to convince him to stop, or the fact that after the suicide, people are posting comments on the various sites reporting this fact lack so much empathy that it actually helps you understand why a person might be driven to commit such an act.