27 Feb 2024
Say his name,
say his name -
Aaron,
Aaron Bushnell.
One of the American media outlets referred to him as a number,
perhaps from a police report -
says everything about the current state of American media.
Twenty-five years ago,
his name would have been reported,
his life story retold.
Now - let’s keep things simple for the masses,
let’s not acknowledge that he was human,
that he was one of us.
Americans are simple-minded folk,
weaving everything in narratives almost too simple for children.
“He was mentally ill!”
“He must have been religious!”
The list is too simplistic and exhausting to recount.
Compassion is foreign to most of them,
empathy unknown.
It is impossible to imagine that a person could feel so much anguish at the suffering of others,
that they could take their own life.
For a simple American population,
this is a bridge too far.
Their minds aren’t developed enough for such considerations.
A gun was aimed at him the entire time he burned -
cowards hiding behind their great fear.
He was told to go to the ground as he was consumed -
American history in one video clip.
Hundreds of years from now,
there will be stories of the fall of the American state,
the end of that grand (white) experiment.
Central to these stories will be the images of planes hitting towers,
of the White House being surrounded by steel in protection from protesters,
and the image of Aaron Bushnell.
Aaron is the image of our time,
he speaks to who we are,
to what we have become,
and the end that awaits -
if we do not turn.
If you do not understand Aaron’s act,
you do not understand America.
May you now know the peace that the world denied you and the people of Gaza,
Rest in power,
Aaron,
Aaron Bushnell.
Aroha nui,
Lee Sturgis
leesturgis.eth
Support my Writing
If you would like to support my writing you can do so at the following Web3 addresses:
leesturgis.eth
leesturgis.sol
