Protester burns, nobody notices. Chicago Reader finds the facts

[Johnny_L.A]

Man’s flaming body was meant to be a symbol of rage, but no-one listened

Aglow for the crush of morning commuters, his flaming body was supposed to be a call to the nation, a symbol of his rage and discontent with the U.S. war in Iraq.

<snip>

There was only one problem: No one was listening.

It took five days for the Cook County medical examiner to identify the charred-beyond-recognition corpse. Meanwhile, Ritscher’s suicide went largely unnoticed. It wasn’t until a reporter for an alternative weekly, the Chicago Reader, pieced the facts together that word began to spread.

[slaphead]

Whoa, that’s bizarre. Did he seriously immolate himself in front of the morning rush hour without even getting on the news? :eek:

On the other hand - “What if they held a war protest and nobody noticed?” suggests itself as a heading.

[Cluricaun]

@slaphead

Whoa, that’s bizarre. Did he seriously immolate himself in front of the morning rush hour without even getting on the news? :eek:

On the other hand - “What if they held a war protest and nobody noticed?” suggests itself as a heading.

Ha! You’ve never seen our morning rush hour. People wouldn’t even slow down for a burning performance artist, let alone stop. News would be “Man makes it from Lake/Cook Road to the Junction in under 45 minutes.”

[Missy2U]

@Cluricaun

News would be “Man makes it from Lake/Cook Road to the Junction in under 45 minutes.”

Would. Never. Happen.

[WhyNot]

My only guess is that people passing by thought it was an illusion. Fire gel or something. That’s what I would think.

[Duke_of_Rat]

Soon, tributes — and questions — poured in to the paper’s blogs.

Isn’t the SDMB the blog of The Chicago Reader? Have there been threads about him here, or have I just missed them (or maybe this isn’t the blog they meant)?

It’s a shame he couldn’t think up some other method of protesting the war.

[Sattua]

Self immolation is soooooo sixties.

[susan]

Isn’t the SDMB the blog of The Chicago Reader?

Nope. Go to http://www.chicagoreader.com/ and see blogs listed in the left column in a pull-down menu. SD has its own link and is not a blog.

[ralph124c]

This stirred a memory-a bhuddist monk in 1963 S. Vietnam burned himself to protest the war…and Madame Nhu made a comment about it-anyone know what she said?

[Loach]

@ralph124c

This stirred a memory-a bhuddist monk in 1963 S. Vietnam burned himself to protest the war…and Madame Nhu made a comment about it-anyone know what she said?

“I love the smell of burning monks in the morning…”

No wait, that was from later in the war.

[zelie_zelerton]

She would “clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show” according to wikipedia.

[CarnalK]

@ralph124c

This stirred a memory-a bhuddist monk in 1963 S. Vietnam burned himself to protest the war…and Madame Nhu made a comment about it-anyone know what she said?

Apparently, she mocked the gesture. Not much of a surprise as her husband was being propped up by the Americans and she was rabidly anti-Buddhist, as well.

I seem to remember reading that an American had set himself on fire to protest the Vietnam war a year or so before Thích Quảng Duc (that Buddhist monk) but it was almost completely missed by the media.

[hajario]

There was a guy that did that at my alma mater, UC San Diego in the 1960’s or maybe early 1970’s to protest the Viet Nam War. Google isn’t being helpful today but he did it midday in the main plaza. When I was there in the 80’s they held a candle light vigil on the spot on the anniversary.

[hajario]

Here he is: George Winne Jr. - Wikipedia.

[Marley23]

I did hear about this because I still have friends living in Chicago - it’s very sad, and incredibly confusing that this was ignored. Maybe the newspapers were too excited about Tom Cruise’s upcoming wedding.

[rowrrbazzle]

Here’s another self-immolation that’s only slightly less obscure.

Kansas City Breaking News & Sports | The Kansas City Star

Then on Oct. 31, he walked through the stone arches of the St. Augustine Monastery, a place where from 1505 to 1511 Luther lived, studied and took monastic vows. A morning service was under way for Reformation Day, the anniversary of Luther’s famous 95 Theses, which helped inspire the Protestant break from Rome.

Police say Weisselberg cut through a gap between a hedgerow and a metal fence circling a construction pit for a new library — on a site where more than 250 people died during Allied air strikes near the end of World War II.

Weisselberg pulled out a canister of gasoline hidden under his coat. An instant later, he was ablaze. Witnesses told authorities he cried two words: “Jesus” and “Oskar” — considered a reference to the Rev. Oskar Bruesewitz, who set himself on fire in 1976 as an apparent protest against the communist East German regime.

[lavenderviolet]

It doesn’t surprise me that the other news outlets didn’t want to touch the story. I think I’ve heard some newspapers have a policy against covering suicides to avoid encouraging “copycats”.

It is sad that the man reached a point where he felt like suicide was the answer. His self-written obit ( rest in pieces ), makes it clear he was a very unhappy and troubled person:

“The metaphor for his life was winning the lottery, but losing the ticket. In the end, the loneliness was overwhelming. He was deeply appreciative for everything that had been given to him, but acutely aware that the greater the present, the higher the price. He was a member of Mensa, and Alcoholics Anonymous since 1990.
…He had many acquaintances, but few friends; and wrote his own obituary, because no one else really knew him.”

It is tragic that he didn’t receive the kind of help and support that he needed to deal with his personal demons. Surely he could have done a lot more to make a statement if he had lived to fight for his causes into the future than he did with this attempt at a dramatic exit.