When I wasn't a soldier too.
On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.
Before I became a pacifist, I was (like many lower income city/rural teens) recruited in the Army ROTC. The idea was, I'd become an Army nurse, and serve four years after getting a college education. That's another story. I ended up teaching for 30 years in Detroit and Hamtramck. At the time I was in ROTC, I was certain I was serving my country, my fellow man. I was a taught by Janet Ray on a delegation to El Salvador what our military did abroad.
Aaron Bushnell was the same exact age as my child. She and my other adult child decided as children that they were conscientious objectors, and it's my 24 year old who's now studying to be a nurse. I'm devastated for Aaron Bushnell's parents. I'm devastated at the narrow line between suicide and homicide, that our youth see that the only way to stop murdering children is to strategically kill themselves. My elder said of the presidential race: "Why do we have to choose between between two old bags of bones who are mentally incompetent and morally bankrupt?" and "The youth don't want war. We don't want to murder families. We want our student loans forgiven. Our 'leaders are not listening to us and they have nothing to do with what we think and feel.."
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If a person believes in a just war, then a soldier's ultimate sacrifice is their life. Their life, instead of a child's life. I don’t believe in just war, and I don’t think anyone’s child, or adult child, or parent/sibling/friend should die for war and genocide. Aaron Bushnell. I wish I had known you. I wish you had found another way. But now that you are gone, I hope that it was not in vain.
Some resources for youth I wish had existed when I was young and that I wish more people knew about: Please share them.
https://centeronconscience.org/alternatives-to-enlistment/
