Memories of Aaron Bushnell

"If I don’t stand with those more marginalized than me today then who will be left to stand with me tomorrow."

This (kinda?) echoes the Niemöller quote we all know and love.

An incredibly moving text, was basically on the verge of tears throughout reading, and eventually did tear up when I got to the ending with the excerpt from Aaron's will: "If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine.”

Judging by this text Aaron seems like a person I would have personally loved to meet, talk with and get to know. Not too dissimilar in age, belonging to a neurominority and of similar political, social and economical mindset; I think we might have gotten along well. And he even loved cats, just as me! Though it was nigh-impossible before his final act of protest and nonconsent (seeing as there were thousands of kilometers and a few seas and oceans between us geographically) it saddens me that it became completely impossible after the fact, and that we live in such a world where he felt that act was something he had to do.

This text made me sad, and yet somehow it made me hopeful. Even in an institution as rotten and poised for being only the weaponized arm of the oligarchy, bourgeoisie and capitalism - the "final hegemony of toxic masculinity" (as I've heard my country's armed forces so eloquently described) - as the one in the US there are people who have the seed of anarchism and nonconformity in them, ready to be cultivated into a full, beautiful blooming flower. And even if the seed is not yet there, even if it is "just" soil (to continue this metaphor) in which to cultivate said seed, this text gave me hope to not lose my own faith in my fellow humans, but to work towards planting those seeds in my own area as best I can and know how to.

I am incredibly thankful for allowing me to stumble on this text.

What a year it’s been.

thanks for posting this

He wouldn’t say the word fuck because he saw its roots in misogyny and hetero-patriarchy.

Is this true?