A disturbing post on PostSecret yesterday revealed an illegal immigrant pledging to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge – but 20,000 online voices have responded with hope.
PostSecret, a blog that weekly displays anonymously mailed-in secrets on postcards from across the country, has long been known for revealing suicidal secrets, and has set up a phone hotline in response since the blog began in 2004. Yesterday, a postcard read, “I have lived in San Francisco since I was young … I am illegal … I am not wanted here. I don’t belong anywhere. This summer I plan to jump off the Golden Gate.”
Within 24 hours, nearly 20,000 people had signed up for a Facebook group titled “please don’t jump,” which was later linked beneath the secret on the Post Secret blog, linking in thousands of supportive comments. On the group’s page, sympathetic users posted comments ranging from simply “I want you here” to “If I knew when you’d be at the bridge, I’d drive all the way from Ohio to meet you there, and hold you until you changed your mind.”
While there’s unfortunately no way to know if the card’s writer has seen the overwhelming number of responses on Facebook, one can only hope the community of writers has helped changed at least one person’s mind — perhaps even beyond the person who wrote the card.
