Man burns himself to Death In Anti War
protest
By Associated Press
11/05/06 -- -CHICAGO (AP) --
Malachi Ritscher envisioned his death as
one full of purpose. He carefully planned the details,
mailed a copy of his apartment key to a friend, created
to-do lists for his family. On his Web site, the
52-year-old experimental musician who'd fought with
depression even penned his obituary.
At 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 -- four days before an election
caused a seismic shift in Washington politics --
Ritscher, a frequent anti-war protester, stood by an
off-ramp in downtown Chicago near a statue of a giant
flame, set up a video camera, doused himself with
gasoline and lit himself on fire. "Here is the statement
I want to make. ... "If one death can atone for
anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I
apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for
the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country."
"This man killed himself in such a painful way ... to
get our attention...," said Jennifer Diaz, a grad
student researching Ritscher's life. "I'm not going to
sit by, and I can't sit by, and let this go unheard."
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