Pitchfork has a fascinating and deeply depressing article up today about Malachi Ritscher, a Chicago free jazz musician who set himself on fire on November 3rd in protest of the Iraq war. Nitsuh Abebe's article is part obituary, part analysis of just what it all means. I'm familiar with some of the people on the jazz scene in Chicago, mostly in the way they relate to the universe of Tortoise; too, I do have a couple of friends from college that are/were also part of that scene, but I'm not familiar with Ritscher's music specifically. Nevertheless it is shocking to hear that someone would do this, and Abebe is right to try and look deeper than whether it will really have any political effect or whether it was simply a mentally ill person's suicide method of choice. An event like this should make you reach out to your community—whether musical or otherwise—and keep your peers grounded, informed, and appreciated. It also rightly stirs up feelings about this war all over again. My first thought upon hearing about this was how awkwardly timed it was: just a few days before the Democrats took over both houses of government and Donald Rumsfeld was dumped. But of course the situation in Iraq has not changed in a small number of days, and as many people have pointed out, the Democrats that rolled into Congress and the Senate are not necessarily lefties. Ritscher's protest should, at the very least, remind those of us that are against this war and against this administration to remain vigilant and tenacious.
Mentioned but not linked in the Pitchfork article are this blog entry at the Chicago Reader, which was the first place to break the news and which as of now contains nearly 200 comments, including posts by Ritcher's son (and links to the pertinent pages of Ritscher's own website); and Richard Roeper's column in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Comments