Opinion & Entertainment

Tragedy is impossible to ignore when a suicide occurs. Family members, friends, coworkers, classmates, and whole communities are left stunned. Public attention often fades shortly after the funeral. However, the emotional impact of suicide rarely just stops. The effects of a suicide can last for years. The families and communities must experience shaping new relationships, regain emotional health, and find a new way for people to view themselves and each other.

I grew up in a house where silence was safer than speaking. My father was a truck driver, gone more often than he was home, either for work or at his girlfriend’s house. You’d think the distance would be better, but it wasn’t in the way a boy needed a father to show me how to become a man. When he returned, the air changed; it was heavy and suffocating as I waited for what would come, what always came at some point, the beatings and the words that cut me deeper than the leather belt, board, or fist. His presence meant tension, anger, and too often, violence. I learned early that home wasn’t a place to grow; it was a place to survive.

Small-town patriotic pride is more than a feeling; it is an experience woven into the rhythms of everyday life and passed down through a family’s generation or community. In many rural communities, patriotism is not expressed through grand gestures or national headlines but through the quiet, consistent acts that bind us together. This pride grows from a deep sense of belonging, a shared history, and the belief that one’s community reflects the best of the nation’s character. In small towns, patriotism is not just an idea. It is personal.