For a while during the 1980s the United States seemed to be in the grip of a pandemic of teenage suicides. Young people made pacts to kill themselves; from coast to coast, they were often successful in their attempts to do so.

It is no joy to learn that during 2005 the second leading cause of teenage deaths in Oregon was suicide -- my guess is that the first was car crashes. Although teens no longer seem to be gathering in groups to kill themselves, isolated suicides are no less tragic.

KLCC's Angela Kellner focuses on one such incident in Pleasant Hill, OR. Hard to know whether Jennifer Baker's death ten years ago represents a pattern, but the facts make for a deadly recipe. Jennifer got hold of one of her dad's guns. He'd been careful to lock them away when she was a kid. Now that she was 16, he felt there was no need to secure them. The sadness is that neither parent thought to question their only child about depression. Our culture is so hung up with a smile-and-the-world-will-smile-with-you, cry-and-you-cry-alone attitude that the Bakers asked Jennifer about drugs and sex but failed to ask her The Big Question, "Are you thinking of killing yourself, Jen?"

Kellner discusses how nearby Eugene, OR has developed a core of high-school staff members sensitive to suicidal danger signals. She then interviews Sophie Jackson, an 18-year-old lucky enough to have parents who responded to her depressed journal entries, which led to her seeing a clergyman, who recommended a therapist. Two therapists later, young Sophie is alive and well enough to be thankful she escaped her emotional black hole.

As sad as this piece is, it offers life-saving advice to young and older folks alike. Advice, plus the mantra, "Keep hope alive!"