I sometimes think Cindy Sheehan is a one-woman peace movement in America. Where is the mass movement? Where are the mass demonstrations against the continuing madness. I marched in London in the Summer and although there were only 5,000 of us we made a noise and and impact on the people who saw the demonstration. Someone needs to mobilise the movement in the US. It doesn't look as if Cindy has succeeded so far. Step forward......??
The Indefatigable Cindy Sheehan
By MISSY BEATTIE
A little more than a year after her son Casey was murdered in Iraq by the US Military Industrial Complex, Cindy Sheehan took a stand in Crawford to challenge the cowering George Bush who hid behind security at his ranch. The Peace Mom sat in a ditch under the searing Texas sun and asked the question heard round the world, “For what noble cause?” I remember this well. My nephew Chase was also murdered by war that same weekend.
George Bush never answered Sheehan. If he’d had the balls, he’d have faced Sheehan and said, “For power, empower, Empire.”
Over a year ago, Bush passed the war baton to Barack Obama. The 44th commander-in-chief sprinted with it, not to the finish line but, instead, to expand its trajectory.
During the presidential campaign, many peace organizations endorsed Barack Obama despite his statement that Afghanistan is the “right war.”
Insertion: Am I dense for thinking that peace activists should reject any candidate who calls war “right?”
When Cindy Sheehan criticized Obama, some of her supporters didn’t just inch away from her. They fled. Because they believed Obama’s balm—that his healing hands of hype would make everything better—would “make the wounded whole.” Remember that Cairo speech in June of 2009? Google the transcript. It’s enough to send you to your toilet, hugging it, hurling, and heaving because of the Hopester’s hypocrisy. Never mind, don’t Google it. Here are some excerpts:
All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort—a sustained effort—to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.
It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion—that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples—a belief that isn’t new; that isn’t black or white or brown; that isn’t Christian, or Muslim or Jew.
The Talmud tells us: ‘The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.’ The Holy Bible tells us, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. The people of the world can live together in peace.
But peace isn’t this president’s work. That’s obvious to many, now. It is, however, Cindy Sheehan’s. And she’s dedicated her life to it. She saw the truth soon after she spent the month of August 2005 near Bush’s fortress of lies. She knows that anyone who receives his or her Democratic or Republican Party’s nomination is already owned by Corporate America and, therefore, will represent the interests of Banksters, Big Business, and War Profiteers.
Shame on progressive websites that stopped publishing Sheehan’s articles after she called out Dems for the same reasons she and they called out Repubs.
But she’s been vindicated. President Pretty Talk is just as much a whore for war as Bush and Cheney.
So, what’s Sheehan doing? Plenty. She’s moving to Washington, D. C. in March to erect Camp OUT NOW, the prelude to Peace of the Action. I don’t want to call this an event. Because it’s so much more than that. This is a Cindy-inspired MOVEMENT. And it’s an investment in humanity. Visit the website and see for yourselves: www.peaceoftheaction.org. If you can’t join us in D. C., please make a donation.
Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She's written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she's a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,'05, she has been writing political articles. She can be reached at: Missybeat@aol.com
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