I'm trying hard not to think of this as a harbinger, but I'm plenty old enough to remember when a Buddhist monk in Saigon did this very thing in protest of an oppressive Daddy State (I think it may have been in my Weekly Reader in about 5th or 6th grade); and there was a regular guy named Norman Morrison who did it just outside the Pentagon to protest the war.
They succeeded in killing themselves but we went forward with the Vietnam project anyway and a coupla million people died; at least partly because we chose to ignore the warnings.
Paraphrasing MLK, violent protest is the language of people whose voices are unheard. Maybe we could listen to what's being said this time?
#BREAKING: Man lights fire near #TrumpInternationalHotel. Employees call police. Man told me he's from CA & protesting #TrumpInauguration pic.twitter.com/noUwttKRL5— Shomari Stone (@shomaristone) January 18, 2017
A man who attempted to set himself on fire Tuesday night in front Trump International as part of a protest against the incoming president was rushed to a hospital with burns, reports NBC4.
According to DC police, they were called to the newly opened hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue hotel after receiving a report of a person “in distress.”
Speaking with reporters, the unidentified man claimed he was attempting to set himself on fire to protest the election of businessman Donald Trump, whose inauguration is set for this Friday.
“I was trying to light myself on fire as an act of protest,” the man explained before he was taken to a nearby hospital. “To protest the fact that we’ve elected someone who is completely incapable of respecting the Constitution of the United States.”
There was no report on the extent of his injuries.
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