Beautiful Jan

This quote is from Wikipedia:

Self-immolation is often used to refer to suicide by fire.

Jan Palach

"...was a Czech student who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest.

In August 1968, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the liberalising reforms of Alexander Dubček's government during what was known as the Prague Spring. A group of Czech students including Palach made a suicide pact intending to sacrifice themselves in protest of the invasion. Palach was the first to die after setting himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague on January 16th, 1969. Most of the others did not go through with their part, after the well-publicized pleas Palach made on his deathbed about the degree of pain they faced.

The funeral of Palach turned into a major protest against the occupation, and a month later (on February 25, 1969) another student, Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place, followed in April of the same year by Evžen Plocek in Jihlava."

Meet Jan:

http://forum.cuni.cz/fukV07/palach1.jpg

He has a beautiful face. He chose to be consumed by fire. He was 21 yrs. old.

Suicide happens everyday. There are roughly 300,00 completed suicides in America annually. Three Ohio State University students committed suicide in the month of February alone.

I have no doubt this young man pictured was depressed. I am working on suicide prevention for school right now, and I am learning that at it's peak depression feels like burning...inside. But too many times, we shrug off the warning signs, we accept the threats as YOUTH...they won't REALLY go through with it.

But they do. So many, young, beautiful people. They don't see how sacrificing themselves in protest, succumbing to depression, not seeking help, not seeing how beautiful they truly are, will kill them.

So please, help them. Help us. Love us, despite our flaws...because we're learning.

And even though we act like we know everything, we don't.

And some of us think we know that the only way out of our struggles is by

Killing ourselves

Burning our faces

Cutting our wrists

Saying "good-bye" without letting anyone know before the letter is read...

In 1969, one young man was left helpless.

Strong enough to lead others to self-destruction (which has many forms and many names and too much false reasoning), yet too weak to LIVE.

And this man:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/JanZaj%C3%ADc.jpg

"He was a student at the technical college, specializing in railroads, and was also interested in poetry and humanities."

This man burned himself too. Set fire to chemical-soaked clothes...and unable to make it out of the doorway into the square, he collapsed and burned to death in the hallway where he was standing.

If you know someone right now who might be suffering from depression, please help them. Reach out, because beautiful people like Jan, people with beautiful potential, are contemplating ending their lives right now...