Aaron Bushnell - What Would I Do?
What would I do if my country was committing genocide?
On Sunday, February 25th, US Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.
On his way to the embassy, he recorded a message where he said, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
Airman Bushnell had previously posed this question (to all of us) on his Facebook page:
Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”
The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.
As Aaron Bushnell became engulfed in flames, he stood steady and called out repeatedly in a loud voice, “Free Palestine.”
The horrors are happening now, with an anguish that can not be extinguished.
What would I do if…
Bushnell's sacrifice was as open and honest comment on that situation as anyone could make. I'm sorry in a lot of directions, here. But when we thank vets or current military "for their service," well, that's nothing, compared to this. Thank you, Aaron Bushnell, for your sacrifice. And, I'm sorry.
I don't even know what to say these days about America.