Sources: Miss. tea party leader Mayfield commits suicide

[frazzled]

62. Are politics and ideology really worth all this?

This is truly sad to me, no matter how much I may have disagreed with this man's distasteful Tea Party stands. Ideology and political obsessions drive people down uncharted paths. Maybe there were other, underlying issues at stake in this man's suicide (mental health or family issues), but all I have to go on at this point is that in a zealous, misguided moment in pursuit of political success, he made a horrible misjudgment, was arrested, would probably have lost his law license if convicted ... and took his own life.

Sit back for one moment and reflect on what is important in your life. I know I have cut back greatly on my political junkie-ism over the past few years, watching less political television, reading fewer blogs, trying to be less hyperbolic and hysterical in my reactions to all the momentary crap that passes by each day here on DU and elsewhere. It doesn't mean I don't keep myself informed, or write my legislators, or even donate or work on campaigns at the appropriate moment. But a 24-7 diet of political intrigue is bad for one's health, physical and mental.

I wish this person had found a different way ... before he was led to take such an irreversible step.