https://occupytheairwaves.wordpress...-commits-suicide-at-capitol-protesting-the-1/ 22-Year Old Commits Suicide At Capitol Protesting the 1% At approximately 1:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, April 11, during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating springtime in the Nation’s Capitol, a 22-year old man took his own life with a gun on the Capitol grounds with a protest sign taped to his hand. According to the Washington Post, the sign read: “Tax the one percent.” Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department released the young man’s name. He was Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois. Based on what is currently known, the young man had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the express purpose of making a political statement with his sign and then ending his young life. The Chicago Tribune reported that “Thornton’s parents filed a missing persons report on the morning of April 11 after he never came home from work on April 10, Lincolnwood Deputy Police Chief John Walsh said.” Those are the tragic facts of the incident itself. But there is a broader tragedy: the vacuous handling of this story by corporate media. The Washington Post headlined the story with this: “Rhythms of Washington Return after Illinois Man’s Suicide Outside Capitol.” The message he delivered to his Congress – tax the one percent – has yet to be explored by any major news outlet in America in connection with this tragedy. Was the message of Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois a critical piece of information for this Congress to hear at this moment in American history. You’re damn right it was. Outside of Wall Street’s wealth transfer system, provisions in the U.S. tax code are the second biggest wealth transfer system to the one percent. Together, these two systems have created the greatest income and wealth inequality since the economic collapse in the Great Depression. They threaten a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse because the majority of Americans do not have the wages or savings to support the broader economy. President Obama clearly understands what is going on. Whether he can get Congress to act is quite another matter. In his January 20, 2015 State of the Union speech, Obama stated: “…let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top one percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for childcare and send their kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy, and we can achieve that together. We can achieve it together.”
I just thought jlprk might have the real scoop on the disease. There's a picture, so it must be true.
I'm torn about the media covering the message. The death, where it is at, that's news, but covering the message more blatently would highlight someone killing himself as a martyr and possibly inspire more people, whatever their personal message, to use death as their tool. It's also why I don't like highlighting the demands or thoughts of bombers, movie theater shooters or anyone using death as their voice. Suicide or murder, these should not be elevated as means of discourse in our society. It's news, should be covered, but at the end of articles and not focused on.
Thanks for the article, Magnifier. Denny's usual #2 post in every liberal-leaning thread failed. This was minor news a week ago, but articles in the controlled media only said it was a non-terrorist suicide. So the 1% reason is new to me. The other article is better than almost all articles I saw a week ago, since it, too, hides the suicider's reason, but gives a tiny hint, buried where the reader won't notice.
