Rep. Don Young isn’t backing down from his controversial remarks on suicide.
The Alaska Republican visited the Palmer Senior Citizens center in Palmer, Alaska on Wednesday, saying the government is a catalyst for suicide.
When asked to elaborate on his “lack of support” comment he made at Wasilla High School Tuesday, Young added that suicide in Alaska didn’t exist before “government largesse” gave residents an entitlement mentality, according to an audio recording provided to the Alaska Dispatch News.
Young, 81, is the longest serving Republican in the House of Representatives. He has a reputation for a temper and harsh attitude.
At Wasilla High, he used profanity throughout his speech, described same-sex marriage and “bullshazzle” and made what were described as “hurtful and insensitive” statements about suicide less than a week after a Wasilla student took his own life.
While speaking at the senior center, Young expressed frustration at the high school kids “sitting over in a corner” who interrupted him during his comments about how suicide occurs due to of a lack of support from others.
One of the students that spoke up and interrupted was a friend of the victim.
“And then he had the gall to say suicide is a disease,” Young said in the recording. “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?”
Alaska has the highest suicide rate in the United States.
Young was “serious and forthright when discussing the issue of suicide, in part because of the high number of tragedies that affect Alaska youth and his own personal experiences with dealing with a troubled family member,” his spokesman Matt Shuckerow in an email statement to the Dispatch News Wednesday evening.
No further comments were added by Young.
