Sunday night I watched the documentary "The Bridge" directed by Kevin Steele. For an entire year Steele and his crew which he gathered from postings on Craigslist filmed the Golden Gate Bridge. Their intent was to catch people jumping on film. They did just that.
In 2004, 24 people choose to end their lives by jumping off that bridge. There was at least one each month. It's the most popular place in the world for people to willingly end their lives. It was an amazing documentary. It wasn't gross or disturbing. It was just very, very moving.
This picture to the left was from the movie. It was taken by a photographer who was just getting some snaps of the bridge and Alcatraz. While doing this he noticed this woman climbing over the rail. He started taking pictures of her. Then he realized what she was about to do. He put aside his camera and leaned over the rail to grab hold of her jacket. He pulled her to safety. Which you can see from the footage the filmmakers got.
The sad part about this is that it's the exception to the rule. As you can see from the film most people just walk by and don't even notice there is anyone sitting on the rail. Or if they do, they just don't care. I believe if more of us would leave our bubble of self pity and hatred and fear, we could do some more jacket grabbing. Maybe we could even save someone. Maybe even ourselves.