Suicide of local activist was meant as political protest

East Brunswick, N.J. Approximately 50 people witnessed Change douse her body with gasoline and ignite herself outside Van Pelt Library the morning of October 22. Change's suicide shocked students, faculty and staff, and made headlines across the country. The 46-year-old woman, a University City resident, was the founder and leader of the Transformation Party, which advocated the complete overhaul of the current political system. Before killing herself, Change delivered packages of her writings, including a dialogue explaining why she chose to commit suicide, to six students and two local residents with whom she had previously discussed her beliefs, in addition to The Daily Pennsylvanian and other news organizations. Several students said Change left the packages for them at their residences at approximately 9 a.m. the day before the suicide. "The government must be replaced by a truly democratic self-government of, for and by the people," she wrote in a letter dated October 7. Change wrote that the entire country's population should convene to plan and form an ideal government. For this to occur, she said, workers in essential industries would form an "emergency economy," temporarily freeing everyone else to discuss the new political system. She labeled the switch to her ideal government as "the transformation." The package included a written dialogue entitled "To be or not to be," in which Change wrote that she hoped her suicide would help promote her ideas on government, the economy, law and morality. "I want to give my message as much impact as possible," she wrote. "I truly believe that my death will make people more sympathetic towards me and interested in my work and ideas." The dialogue also indicates that she had previously attempted suicide several times. The package also included a final statement and a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer asking the newspaper to print her written works. In her typed, three-page statement, Change railed against the U.S. government, the economy and the political inaction of the public. "I want to protest this entirely shameful state of affairs as emphatically as I can," she wrote. "I want to get publicity in order to draw attention to my proposal for immediate social transformation." She also recalled the press coverage of a woman who set herself on fire in Boston more than 10 years ago and said that she first planned to do the same last year. "My real intention is to spark a discussion of how we can peacefully transform our world," she wrote in the manifesto's final paragraph. "I offer myself as an alarm against Armageddon and a torch for liberty."

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