This governmental speak, this action-less language, does little to ameliorate the conditions that elevate suicide to a state of emergency. “Emergency” is a key word here, for it indexes a set of circumstances that call for an immediate end to the “rolling nightmare.” “Emergency” is a noun that yanks us from the normality of daily life, but its invocation also promises to grab us by the hand and lead us to safety. The addition of “state of” here is also important insofar as it butts up against “emergency”; it stretches the word out, which denotes its protracted nature, its velocity and scale.
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