Cindy Sheehan: Required Reading
We've heard this and seen the bumper sticker, but it seems the time is grossly overdue to reinforce this idea.
Avid readers of the news, blogs, et cetera, are most likely familiar by now with the story of Cindy Sheehan, a woman who is right now camped out just outside of the entrance to George W. Bush's Crawford, TX ranch where he is spending his annual month-long August vacation. Her son, Casey, was a soldier and only 24-years old when he was killed in Iraq. She is asking for a meeting with the President to discuss his reasons for the war.
There is a lot of support building at this moment for Cindy who is a co-founder of the Gold Star Families for Peace group and she has testified on the Downing Street Memo/Minutes in June.
From the GSFP website, the objectives and questions are relatively simple and straightforward:
Some of her more powerful words from today's update:George Bush said speaking about the dreadful loss of life in Iraq in August: (08/03/05): "We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." "The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause."
1) We want our loved ones sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq IMMEDIATELY, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are.2) We would like for him to explain this "noble cause" to us and ask him why Jenna and Barbara are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble.
3) If George is not ready to send the twins, then he should bring our troops home immediately. We will demand a speedy withdrawal.
"why do the right wing media so assiduously scrutinize the words of a grief filled mother and ignore the words of a lying president?"
Good question, indeed. If the President feels so completely justified in this war and occupation, why is he afraid to give a small portion of his time to this grieving mother to explain his position? Why can't he acknowledge her tremendous loss and the ultimate sacrifice that the Sheehan family and over 1800 other American families have made for this invasion? Is it too much to ask? I know he doesn't feel that it is too much to ask the young people of America to die for a war that should have and could have been prevented. And why is the mainstream media largely ignoring this story (ditto for the Downing Street Memo)?
If you need to catch up: Shakespeare's Sister, DailyKos, Meet with Cindy just for starters.
Another small post I read comes from Out of the Night. This is an excellent blog and is written by an amazing person (who I happen to know) who has counseled, written about and been an activist for Vietnam veterans since the war in Vietnam. The author, Bill Mahedy, says:
Very few Americans are bearing the cost of this war, many are profiting and profiteering from it, but it is the soldiers and their loved ones who bear this enormous burden. Let's wake up to what's really going on.
posted by Anita at
3:48 PM
3 comment(s):
Yay for Cindy and all who do what she's doing. Now, it would be a hell of a lot easier if Dubya wouldn't hide out at his ranch so damn much.
By
Anonymous, at
5:14 AM
I'm still amazed that there are people who can't see that supporting the troops is not the same as supporting the President.
By
Anonymous, at
8:31 AM
Good comment from Mikey. This is my sentiment exactly. One of my good friends is very right-wing, and he always comes at me with not supporting the troops simply because I loathe Bush. I've never understood how the two can be equated. How does my lack of support for Bush equal no support for the troops? In my opinion, my lack of support for Bush actually boosts my support for the troops. No?
By
Anonymous, at
10:02 AM
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