Disturbing news in Portland
Warning: This topic is disturbing.
Yesterday morning, January 27, a man set himself on fire in downtown Portland. People screamed. People called 911. People helped put out the fire. They also took pictures. A witness told The Oregonian and KATU-TV that the man shouted about animals dying and tried to get into a fur store as the flames engulfed him. Animal rights activists have protested fur shops in Portland for years on end but there is only speculation on the man's motives. He died yesterday at a hospital. He was 26 years old.
Already on blogs some animal rights activists are praising him as a hero. And some people are dismissing him as a fanatic. Barbs and snarky comments are flying on both sides.
No matter why he did what he did, I can't see his action as a form of protest, terrorism or heroism. It's strikes me only as a tragic manifestation of mental illness.
Vivianmcinerny@gmail.com
Keywords:
Her daily blog for the newspaper is fun and quirky and to the point.”
—Top 101 Fashion Blogs; Smart School Finder.com
About Vivian
An accomplished feature writer, McInerny's articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide. She was a staff writer at The Oregonian, a daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon for 20 years. For two years she was managing editor of Oregon Home...
Connections
Vivian is a fan of
Sad
Regarding the views of the activists in response to that suicide, acts such as this are really difficult to rationalise by those close to the person involved.
I'll try to keep this brief so as not to detract from the specific news event that you're discussing Vivian, but back somewhere in the eighties I was working on a friend's farm, and a friend of a friend became part of our group... an anarchist, and I mean there was a bit of a punk thing happening whereby I guess anarchist symbols were not uncommon on t-shirts and so forth, but N took it rather seriously. I remember countless books on the Spanish civil war, the history of anrachism and so forth in his bedroom.
Anyway, without any warning he headed off to a particular little city and blew himself to tiny pieces in the foyer of the government computer centre, I guess some kind of protest against big brother or whatever. It was of course national news, and reporters and police descended on our hometown etc. etc. All we could figure was that his various questions regarding the use of dynamite that we'd been using on the farm now made sense.
But I've always wrestled with how I'd define his mental state in the context of that suicidal act. Obviously it was a pointless and extreme act, in fact in today's post-9/11 days would be regarded as an act of terrorism against the state. But if someone asked me, was he insane... I simply knew him as the person he was, which was a very intelligent, likeable and peaceful guy. Insanity has never seemed quite the right word, and I've always grappled for the right definition.
I wonder if it becomes difficult for say those other activists to express the obvious, that it was an insane and pointless act, because in some way it would seem to invalidate the person they knew and the passion he had (rightly or wrongly)? Which in itself is not a rational view perhaps, but is it too painful to admit sometimes that a whole lot of ideals may have been exposed in an instant as myth?
Just a reflection, not something I purport to understand. What a tragic waste of life at the end of the day. For what? Definitely not heroism.
Sad II
David,
Thanks for the heartfelt comment. Sorry for you and your friend.
I remember a few people in the '70s who, after weeks of smoking weed and dabbling in drugs, thought they were the Messiah. They didn't have any particular agenda, no political viewpoint or animals rights stance, so when they snapped -- at different times -- they didn't cause any real harm but I thought of them when this happened and how different it might have been.
Strange isn't it. We don't really know what's going on inside someone's head.
Sad III
I'm a late-comer to your blog entry, Vivian. Fanaticism, passion, heroism are words we apply to another's heightened awareness of injustice, objective takes on a state of mind so personal that it's impossible to define by others - other than to say it looks like mental illness. To many of us it seems a waste of life and misapplied belief. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am not a martyr to the causes that compel me to give money but not my life.