Who Was She? Why Did This Happen

Not this past weeked but the weekend before, I attended a Saturday event in Huntington Beach related . It was a very good meeting with opportunities to network and learn more about the affiliate marketing industry. It was put together nicely and featured knowledgeable speakers that allowed a packed room to pick the brains of industry leaders.

It was an enjoyable event but it would be the lady who decided to take her life in a jump from the top of a parking structure that made the biggest impact on me. I did not see it personally and must have missed the horrible event that unfolded by a couple of minutes. As I waited at the traffic light just outside the parking structure, sirens blared with police coming from all directions. It was only after I called back to fellow event attendees that I learned what happened.

Why am I so captivated by this awful tragedy? Maybe it happened too close to home. Maybe it was the fact that it received very little if any media coverage? Aren't we responsible for helping each other in times of need? I believe we are and was disheartened by the lack of attention given to an event that I pray does not repeat itself with others who are at the end of their rope.

Who was she? Why did this happen? Did she leave family behind? Unanswered questions abound. I emailed the local orange county newspaper about the lack of coverage and how the treatment of the woman's death made it feel like she did not matter. It does matter! She mattered! I pleaded to the paper to use tragic stories like this to offer non-profit counseling centers to those that feel like she does.

The ecomomy has tested us all. It's tested our families, our companies, our friends, our faith, our confidence and our view of the future. If things were too much for this woman, who else out there feels like she did? We should take a negative story, clearly a tragic end to life, and spin it with an offer of people willing to help others.

The tone of my email was strong and definitive in my view of the press's coverage of this story. Reporting does not have to be just reporting of the facts. The representative that I have corresponded believes to some extent that we need to do something. The question is, can decision makers for the newspaper take this opportunity to send life rafts to others in need after a terrible event begs us to think about the possibility that people all around us desperately need our help.

Coverage can be seen here:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38935763/ns/local_news-orange_county_ca/