Aaron Bushnell deserves empathy, not backlash
[The article contains discussions of self-immolation and suicide. Reader discretion is
strongly advised.]
On Feb. 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty United States Armed Forces (USAF) serviceman, committed self-immolation in front of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Following the disturbing incident, talking heads have been out in full force dismissing Bushnell’s act as that of a troubled individual. Few such voices include Live Action’s founder Lila Grace Rose who tweeted “Suicide is when you kill yourself–often due to great mental illness and distress, sometimes due to extreme ideology.” Author Howard B. Altman, expressed in a tweet that, “he [Bushnell] was ill and needed help,” and researcher Dr. Eli David who described it as “the suicide of a mentally ill person who clearly needed help.” Not only does this equate suicide to mental illness ignore the issues that Bushnell was trying to draw attention to, but it also perpetuates the pernicious stigmatization of mental health problems. As a matter of fact, data from the National Violent Death Reporting System reveals that around 54% of people who die by suicide do not have a known mental health condition.
As he chanted “Free Palestine,” Bushnell lit himself on fire to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian people as he believed that it would urge people to no longer be complicit in genocide. In his final Facebook post, Bushnell wrote that, as a country, we often wonder how we would have acted during historical periods marked by oppression, such as slavery, the Jim Crow South, apartheid, or genocide, and then asserts that our current actions in the present moment are indicative of what we would have done in those situations. To honor his memory, we would be better off by focusing on speaking against injustice and by standing in solidarity with those who are oppressed, as that is exactly what Bushnell died for and what we should all be fighting for, every single day.
What’s specifically outrageous about this incident is that one of the officers among those who rushed to the scene pointed a loaded gun at Bushnell, instead of rescuing him. In the video, he is seen pointing a gun and shouting at Bushnell. The logic (or lack thereof) of threatening to shoot someone who is engulfed in flames simply defies all semblance of rationality and eludes my comprehension.
By feting Bushnell as courageous, I am by no means glorifying or romanticizing suicide. Instead, I am acknowledging the extreme lengths to which he felt compelled to go to draw attention to the genocide occurring in Palestine, and pondering why such a drastic act was the only remaining avenue to generate a response. There shouldn’t be any other dismissive conclusions drawn and there shouldn’t be other interpretations to take away from this.
Rest in peace, Mr. Bushnell.