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Rep. Don Young says government assistance created Alaska's suicide problem

29 states receive more government assistance than Alaska, while Rep. Don Young's state maintains the highest suicide in the U.S.

By Matt Bradwell
Rep. Don Young says suicide is caused by government assistance. Alaska currently leads the nation in suicide. (File/UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg)
Rep. Don Young says suicide is caused by government assistance. Alaska currently leads the nation in suicide. (File/UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo

WASILLA, Wash., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Alaska Rep. Don Young is doubling down on his controversial remarks about suicide, elaborating by saying government assistance "invented suicide" in Alaska.

On Tuesday, the 81-year-old, 21-term congressman told a group of high school students reeling from a friend's recent suicide that self-inflicted deaths are a manifestation of "a lack of support from friends and family."

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A day later, Young elaborated on his ideas about suicide, saying the phenomenon was brought to Alaska by "government largesse" which imparted an entitlement mentality the populace.

Despite Young's assertion, as of February 2014, residents of 29 states receive more government assistance than Alaska, yet Young's state maintains the highest suicide rate of any in the U.S.

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"When people had to work and had to provide and had to keep warm by putting participation in cutting wood and catching the fish and killing the animals, we didn't have the suicide problem," asserted Young in an audio recording of a speech delivered at a retirement community obtained by the Alaska Dispatch News.

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For at least the third time since the incident, Young publicly said the real wrongdoing came from the student who interrupted him, whom he says administrators were "coddling" by refusing to discipline for being disrespectful.

"And then he had the gall to say suicide is a disease," Young lamented to the retirement community.

"It is not a disease. It is an illness. Now a lot of times that illness should be recognized by a support group and it should be supported by the teachers that recognize this person has an illness. He needs help. Is it his parents or is it his friends who are not supporting him?"

"Disease" and "illness" are listed as synonyms in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus.

"In the last two days I have gone from shocked, to sadness, to anger," Young's congressional opponent Forrest Dunbar told the Dispatch News.

"If Don Young honestly believes that the suicide crisis in Alaska is because of public assistance programs, and he also believes that Wasilla High administrators were 'coddling' students dealing with the death of a classmate, then he is completely out of touch."

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