word of Malachi Ritscher’s death 4 days before the election went pretty much unreported…I can say that I don’t think I feel as strongly as he did about any issue, but it seems wrong for his passing to occur silently, in vain. so take a moment to reflect on his statement and his life.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malachi Ritscher (born Mark David Ritscher on January 13, 1954 in Dickinson, North Dakota; died November 3, 2006) was a musician, recording engineer, and anti-war protester.
Ritscher earned notoriety after he committed suicide by self-immolation on the side of the Kennedy Expressway near downtown Chicago during the morning rush hour of Friday November 3, 2006, apparently as a protest against the Iraq war and more generally “for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country”. Ritscher’s suicide is one of only nine reported incidents of self-immolation performed as an act of protest in American history.
Biography
Born Mark David Ritscher, he married at age 17, but divorced after about ten years. He had one son. In 1981 Ritscher started using his son’s name, “Malachi”. In later years, Ritscher became a fixture on the Chicago jazz and experimental music scene, attending and recording many performances. Saxophonist Dave Rempis said that he would see Ritscher at concerts “five nights a week.”
A few days after Ritscher’s death, Bruno Johnson, the owner of Chicago’s OkkaDisk Records, received a package in the mail containing Ritscher’s will, the keys to his house, and instructions for dispersal of his belongings.