US History 1973 - 2014 Commonplace Book: Lecture 12, AIDS in America (Con't)

I suspect -- I know -- my funeral will shock people when it happens. We Americans are terrified of death. Death takes place behind closed doors and is removed from reality, from the living. I want to show the reality of my death, to display my body in public; I want the public to bear witness. We are not just spiraling statistics; we are people who have lives, who have purpose, who have lovers, friends, and families. And we are dying of a disease maintained by a degree of criminal neglect so enormous that it amounts to genocide.

I want my death to be as strong a statement as my life continues to be.

I want my own funeral to be fierce and defiant, to make the public statement that my death from AIDS is a form of political assassination.

We are taking this action out of love and rage.

—Mark Fisher, "Burry Me Furiously", published anonymously a few weeks before his death

Introduction to (and explanation of) this quote series can be found here.  Read this tag to see all of them.