Visualize the movement against the Vietnam War. What do you see? Hippies with daisies in their long, unwashed hair yelling “Baby killers!” as they spit on clean-cut, bemedaled veterans just back from Vietnam? College students in tattered jeans (their pockets bulging with credit cards) staging a sit-in to avoid the draft? A mob of chanting demonstrators burning an American flag (maybe with a bra or two thrown in)? That’s what we’re supposed to see, and that’s what Americans today probably do see — if they visualize the antiwar movement at all.
“We call ourselves the greatest nation in history, yet we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children, helping the homeless, ensuring that all Americans have equal rights and protecting the environment combined,” Nelson said in the video.
According to Wikipedia, Matthew is the third person to self-immolate in protest of the slaughter of Palestinians. He was also a veteran and a friend of Aaron Bushnell’s. Samuel was the fourth and he survived.
In February, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force, self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. The act was live-streamed on Twitch. Attendees at Wednesdays vigil said [Matthew] Nelson, a U.S. veteran, was close friends with Bushnell, a Whitman native.
A journalist reportedly working with CBS News has lit himself on fire to protest the biased US media coverage of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza which has killed tens of thousands of people including women and children.
A group of veterans from the US armed forces burnt their uniforms in a show of solidarity with the airman Aaron Bushnell, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in a protest over the war in Gaza.
The Air Force identified the Airman who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy on Feb. 25 as Senior Airman Aaron James Bushnell, a cyber defense operations specialist assigned to the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing.
Originally from Whitman, Mass., the 25-year-old Bushnell first joined the Air Force on May 5, 2020. His duty station was the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. His duty title was innovation services technician, and his decorations included the Meritorious Unit Award, National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Air Force Training Ribbon.
One of the last things Aaron Bushnell wrote was: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during Slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or the apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?” The Answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” The world would be a better place if people like Aaron Bushnell lived on, fought day after day, onward into the future. The courage Aaron Bushnell possessed to do what he did, would better serve us all if he had used it day after day, for as long as possible. Waking up to the reality of US foreign policy leaves one isolated, angry, frustrated, and confused. We all have to work on creating a path from there to here today, where we all work together to make the world a better place tomorrow.
Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old soldier in the United States Air Force, died on Sunday after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC in protest of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
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