 Every reform, every step forward has come about not because of the actions of politicians or corporate capitalists but because of the actions like Aaron Bushnell and like each and every one of us. Aaron did not create his own life. He gave it to a cause. It is astounding the lengths it will go to defame our bravest people because what brings Americans closer to violence and danger is imperialism. This is Natalia with People's Dispatch. Right now I'm outside a vigil for Aaron Bushnell, 25-year-old active duty member of the Air Force, who this week lit himself on fire in protest of his complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Of course, the United States being a massive funder of Israel and the United States Army facilitating the genocide. Right now there are hundreds of people gathered here in Times Square in New York City in honor of Aaron Bushnell's sacrifice. There are veterans here of the US Army who have been speaking, Palestinian activists and youth and anti-imperialist organizers who are here to honor and remember Aaron Bushnell's sacrifice so that it may continue to be an inspiration to the growing and continuing mass movement in solidarity with Palestine. During the Vietnam War, US soldiers, US Marines, US sellers became the vanguard of the US anti-war movement. Not too many people actually know that, but tens of thousands of American GIs decided to stand up and fight back and say no to the war. They not only deserted, they took the struggle against the military brass right on the front lines in Vietnam. That's why the Vietnam War ended. It wasn't because Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger or any of the corrupt politicians in Congress did anything. People like Aaron Bushnell, 25 years old, who said, I would rather fight and give my life against the perpetrators of genocide in Vietnam than to live and be complicit in your genocide. That's the tradition of Aaron Bushnell. What brings Americans closer to violence is our government's funding of genocide in Palestine. What brings us closer to violence as tech workers is when Google and Amazon greedily chased a $1.2 billion contract with a settler colonial state that is actively committing genocide. What brings us all closer to violence is when companies and places of work insist on a relationship with the Zionist entity whose entire existence is constructed upon and held up through violence. So thank you, Aaron Bushnell, because in your sacrifice you have once again exposed the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful. Your memory serves as a reminder that the ruling class polices our protests not because of some fake love of morality and some fake love of non-violence, but because they just want to see us in silence. Unsurprisingly, the gift of this sacrifice is being described by Zionists as an act of a mentally ill person. They suggest this in order to diminish it and to diminish him. They do so to remove his agency, to denature the force of his choice by collapsing it into the logics of suicidality. We reject this. All forms of protest are symptoms of an uninhabitable world. There is no way to respond sanely to what is happening in Reza. Reza is a normalcy that is not normal and we are here to fight against that. Aaron's sacrifice, his brave and bold act of protest really marks a shift in the consciousness of the American people and the courage of the American people. The fact that an active member of the Air Force is willing to step forward to defy everything that he is told he should say, believe and do in the name of the U.S. war machine and make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of Palestinian liberation. I think will undoubtedly inspire more people to take action, not only in the U.S. military but those that saw and so many of us saw his sacrifice and his protest. I think there is no going back to what we have all been pushed to believe that we have to give unconditional support to Israel, people every day in every sector of our society are saying, well, we actually recognize that we have so much in common with the people of Palestine and we actually don't want our tax dollars going to funding occupation and funding genocide that we recognize Israel for what it is an apartheid regime and we don't want that done in our names and we don't want to be a part of a system that commits these atrocities not just in Palestine but around the world. So I think the fact that, you know, Aaron showed us the level of dedication we have to commit ourselves to. I mean, we are out here in New York City in Times Square and it's raining and hundreds of people came out in his honor and really not just to honor him in this moment and the sacrifice he made but to recommit ourselves to fighting for Palestine.