Tragedy at Carousel Center

While spending the night with my family at Carousel Center, a mall complex in Syracuse,   the night took a tragic turn.  In the atrium of the mall a 21 year old man jumped from the 6th floor balcony in attempted suicide. Unresponsive at the scene,  he was taken to a local hospital and was later pronounced dead.  

There are several sad things that concern this story.  The first is simple. There were plenty of places where this man could have gotten help. There are people that give their entire lives to help those with illnesses like he had.  The fact that help would have resulted in totally different choices and one less death to depression and suicide is an absolute tragedy.  

Another horrible thing that involves this story is how little people actually know about his illness – Depression. When the story hit a local website, there were people commenting and calling this man selfish. This man was not selfish – not at all.  Only ignorance can lead to this kind of comment. The fact is, depression corrupts the way a person thinks.  This man did not have the ability to make the right decision. He was not in the state of mind to know the difference from right to wrong.  Chances are he did not realize the world around him – the fact that there were shoppers and children all around him.  He simply did not have the ability to think for others or even for himself and for all we know, he might have decided then and there that he wanted to end his life.  This man was not selfish.  He was under the control of Depression. 

The absolute worst things about this story are the choices those surrounding him made.  If you were to fall or jump from a 6th floor balcony while surrounded by hundreds of people,  would you want people taking pictures of you?  Would you want your face and battered body posted all over the internet?  If not, then why would you do the same to someone else?  Those that did so had about the same amount of judgement as the man himself.  Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they do things like this. 

To conclude this post,  my heart goes out to the family and friends of Michael.  Depression is a terrible illness.  I can say this from personal experience.  I have seen what it can do to a person and what it can do to their loved ones.  The unfortunate set of circumstances is that, in this case,  help was not being received. I hope that this event will, in its tragedy,  be an eye opener for those who have little knowledge about depression.

Destiny U.S.A.

I planned to broadcast from Carousel Center in downtown Syracuse today but due to multiple issues, including the crash of Justin.tv under  the strain of 50,000 viewers, I was unable to do so. At that point  I decided to blog about Destiny USA, the future of Carousel Center.  

Destiny, as we know it, is massive ‘green’ facility that will have a major impact on of Syracuse. Construction will expand Carousel to over 4.5 million feet and include the creation of a 1,300 room hotel, an aquarium and indoor water park, a re-creation of the Erie Canal, a stadium and performing arts center, three golf courses, a 100 acre glass enclosed indoor park, and a 20 acre artificial lake.  It will take till at least 2012 just to build the hotel and it could be decades until we see the finish line, if there is to be one at all. This project has been under way since April 2000 and we still have only seen the first stages of the ‘magnificent’ hotel. Citizens are torn between whether this is really a project worth waiting for but in my opinion it is worth blogging about. I will continue to blog as Destiny progresses and we see noticeable changes in Carousel.