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Norman Morrison (born December 29, 1933, Erie, Pennsylvania, died November 2, 1965) is best known as a protester of the Vietnam War who set himself on fire (self-immolation) in front of The Pentagon building on November 2, 1965, to protest the United States involvement in the war. At the time, he was a 32-year old devout Quaker, and father of three.
His widow, Anne Morrison Welsh, recalled in an interview the morning he committed protest said that he had taken their then one-year-old daughter Emily with him, either setting her down or handing her off to someone in the crowd, before dying:
- "Whether he thought of it that way or not, I think having Emily with him was a final and great comfort to Norman,"..."And she was a powerful symbol of the children we were killing with our bombs and napalm-who didn't have parents to hold them in their arms." [1] (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950752)
Morrison became a hero to the Vietnamese;[2] (http://www.mylaipeacepark.org/dedicate.html) North Vietnam issued in his honour a postage stamp, possession of which was prohibited in the US.[3] (http://www.davidsettinoscott.com/walk-05.htm)
Seven days later, Roger Allen LaPorte performed a similar act in New York City, in front of the United Nations building.
In a letter mailed to his wife, reassuring her of the faith in his act. "Know that I love thee," Morrison wrote "but I must go to help the children of the priest's village."
See Susan Sontag's essay in Styles of Radical Will, p. 236.
See also
External links
- Profile of Morrison (http://www.leinsdorf.com/political_suicide.htm)
- Sojourners (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950752), interview with Anne Morrison Welsh, Morrisson's widow
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