Log in

View Full Version : Cindy Sheehan



choppedliver
08-23-2009, 06:22 PM
I gotta admire this woman, she's made leaps and bounds:

We Have the Moral High Ground
by Cindy Sheehan

"Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love...” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1958

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal…” Dr. King, 1967

I remember back in the good ol’ days of 2005 and 2006 when being against the wars was not only politically correct, but it was very popular. I remember receiving dozens of awards, uncountable accolades and even was nominated for the Nobel Peace20Prize.

Those were the halcyon days of the anti-war movement before the Democrats took over the government (off of the backs of the anti-war movement) and it became anathema to be against the wars and I became unpopular on all sides. I guess at that point, I could have gone with the flow and pretended to support the violence so I could remain popular, but I think I have to fiercely hold on to my core values whether I am “liked” or not.

Killing is wrong no matter if it is state-sanction murder or otherwise. Period. Not too much more to say on that subject, except what I quote above from Dr. King.

However, while the so-called left is obsessed over supporting a very crappy Democratic health care plan, people in far away countries are being deprived of their health and very lives by the Obama Regime’s continuation of Bush’s ruinous foreign policy.

I was never dismayed when the so-called right attacked me and calle d me names for protesting Bush. However, something inside me gets a little sick when I hear people who claim to be peace activists supporting the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, a policy that is not like Bush’s in the fact that it’s much worse.

I have been called a “racist” from the so-called left. In these people’s opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama. When I opposed Bush’s policies, I was called traitor, anti-American, anti-Semitic, and other names I cannot print. Name-calling is a great way to shut down critical thinking and discussion. And, not to mention, I think the murder of innocent life in the Iraq-Af-Pak regions is racist and morally corrupt.
There are many people in this country who oppose Obama because they’re racist, but I am not one of them. I oppose Obama’s policies because they are wrong…again, period!

One cannot obfuscate when innocent lives are being destroyed, here and abroad. We cannot allow “political real ity” to get in the way of morality. Human sacrifice is not worth the political reality. Violence, killing, war and more war are NEVER the solution to any problem. Period.

If Obama has violent shadow forces around him pulling him in the direction of violence, which begets more violence and more resistance; then we, especially people in the peace or anti-war movements need to gather and organize to pull him in the direction towards peaceful conflict resolution and solutions that aren’t based on exploiting people’s fears, anxieties or ignorance.

I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because we have the moral high ground. The war supporters aren’t going to protest Obama’s wars. They are strangely silent over his foreign policy, unless they are praising it.

I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because someone has to speak for the babies of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that do not deserve the horrible fate that has been handed to them by the US Military Industrial Complex. The voiceless need a voice, and even if I am called every name in the book by all sides, I will speak up for them.
I am going to Martha’s Vineyard because so many people have been blinded to the fact that the system has momentum that rolls on and over and around no matter who is the titular head of the system.

Let's just pretend that elections are fair in this country and my candidate, Cynthia McKinney, won for president. If she wasn’t able to rein in the systemic violence, then I would be going wherever she vacationed to protest her policies, too. I guess at that point, I would not only be called “racist,” but I would be called a “self-hating female.”

In a recent conversation someone was trying to convince me that I should not be so stridently opposed to Obama’s policies and I responded that today 75 people were killed and 300 people were wounded in a bomb blast in Iraq and 26 mostly women and children were killed in a wedding party in Afghanistan this week and she said: “Oh, that wouldn’t be acceptable if it happened here.”

And that ‘s the problem: it’s not acceptable if it happens anywhere, to anybody, no matter who is President of the USA.

Not only is the death toll mounting for innocent civilians but also is once again climbing for our troops.

While the “festivities” are occurring on Martha’s Vineyard next week, there are families all over the world who will never again be able to fully feel festive. Ahhhh…. everyone should just stand down, relax and sip an Obamarita on the beach…Hope reigns once again in The Empire.

And, yes, we are going to Martha’s Vineyard to get attention. We vehemently want to call attention to all of the points I have made above.

Even though there is a small anti-war, peace movement in this country, there still is one and this movement has the moral high ground and punditry, personal attacks, glitzy m arketing, or “political realities won’t drown us out.

Members of Dr. King's own caucus tried to convince him not to publicly speak out against the Vietnam war, and that's when he delivered his brilliant Beyond Vietnam speech at the Riverside Church in NYC exactly one year before he was assassinated. That speech was in response to the critics. Dr. King took the moral high ground when he said: "There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

That time has now come, once again. By our silence we are betraying humanity.
Love the President or hate him, or anywhere in between, but we must speak out loudly and without any timidity against the institutional violence of the US Empire.

chlamor
08-24-2009, 12:50 PM
Well I disagree with her and Dr. King's message about "violence begets violence."

Let's say a man is walking around your neighborhood and randomly picking people off. The guy's gone ballistic and is just shooting anyone he sees. You see him coming towards your abode and you look over at your children who have fear in their eyes. What are you going to do?

What is sensible at that point is for you to stop the guy. I'ts too late for 911 or anything other than your action. So let's say you shoot the guy down. Your act is a violent act is it not? And yet the violence has now been stopped.

There are numerous permutations from this crude example but overall I am very careful with the allegiance to pacifism that stops many from thinking and acting upon the massive violence which is perpetuated upon us every single day.

Kid of the Black Hole
08-24-2009, 01:00 PM
Along time ago, Newswolf commented on Cindy Sheehan. I remember that his fangs were dripping with far too much venom, but that I essentially agreed with him when he termed her a "mater dolorosa"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Dolorosa.jpg/180px-Dolorosa.jpg

Kid of the Black Hole
08-24-2009, 01:01 PM
Well I disagree with her and Dr. King's message about "violence begets violence."

Let's say a man is walking around your neighborhood and randomly picking people off. The guy's gone ballistic and is just shooting anyone he sees. You see him coming towards your abode and you look over at your children who have fear in their eyes. What are you going to do?

What is sensible at that point is for you to stop the guy. I'ts too late for 911 or anything other than your action. So let's say you shoot the guy down. Your act is a violent act is it not? And yet the violence has now been stopped.

There are numerous permutations from this crude example but overall I am very careful with the allegiance to pacifism that stops many from thinking and acting upon the massive violence which is perpetuated upon us every single day.


Even MLK eventually conceded that he couldn't dispute the logic that says if you're shot at, self defense is shooting back. Robert F Williams I think.

Two Americas
08-24-2009, 02:38 PM
Always felt that she was heading in the right direction and cut her a lot of slack.

curt_b
08-25-2009, 07:47 AM
I agree with all of you. Like Mike, I think there is much to be admired. Her actions in Texas were brilliant. I haven't really followed her, but must of read/heard other things from her. But, WTF, this stuff is nuts. She hasn't always come across as this sappy, has she?

Non-violence can be a useful tactic (but, of course not a principle). Do any of you remember a couple of years ago, when Israel was in one of it's attacks on the homes of Palestinian leaders. They had assassinated a number of Fatah and Hamas Ministers by blowing up whole apartment buildings. One of the sure to be targeted Palestinians, gathered his entire family and many friends at his home. He assumed that even Israel couldn't risk the publicity nightmare of murdering that many people. I'm not sure he was right, but no rockets came his way, and others began doing the same thing. It stopped that round of attacks.

TBF
08-25-2009, 08:44 AM
Not to get into psychobabble, but I would imagine Cindy is still reacting to the death of her son. I have been a pacifist for years after growing up with a dad who was injured in the Viet Nam War. I also liked what she did in Texas - she sort of became the face of the anti-war movement and I'm glad Obama's election hasn't silenced her. They certainly will try.

choppedliver
08-25-2009, 10:35 PM
Always felt that she was heading in the right direction and cut her a lot of slack.


Thanks Mike, me too. Having talked to her she is much less passive than some might think, but considering where she started and where she is now...anyone going against Pelosi...

I do agree with Chlamor's post but have to say this line of hers is inarguable:

"but we must speak out loudly and without any timidity against the institutional violence of the US Empire." and she does practice what she preaches here.

chlamor
08-27-2009, 10:37 PM
The Silence of the Antiwar Movement is Deafening
Cindy Sheehan's Lonely Vigil in Obamaland
By JOHN V. WALSH

August 27, 2009

Cindy Sheehan will be at Martha’s Vineyard beginning August 25 a short way from Obama’s vacation paradise of the celebrity elite but very far from the Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq where the body bags and cemeteries fill up each day as Obama’s wars rage on. She will remain there from August 25 through August 29 and has issued a call for all peace activists to join her there. For those of us close by in the New England states and in New York City, there would seem to be a special obligation to get to Martha’s Vineyard as soon as we can.

A funny thing has happened on Cindy Sheehan’s long road from Crawford, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard. Many of those who claim to lead the peace movement and who so volubly praised her actions in Crawford, TX, are not to be seen. Nor heard. The silence in fact is deafening, or as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, "crashingly deafening." Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or "Progressive" Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink? Or United for Peace and Justice. (No wonder UFPJ is essentially closing shop, bereft of most of their contributions and shriveling up following the thinly veiled protest behind the "retirement" of Leslie Cagan.) And what about MoveOn although it was long ago thoroughly discredited as principled opponents of war or principled in any way shape or form except slavish loyalty to the "other" War Party. And of course sundry "socialist" organizations are also missing in action since their particular dogma will not be front and center. These worthies and many others have vanished into the fog of Obama’s wars.

Just to be sure, this writer contacted several of the "leaders" of the "official" peace movement in the Boston area – AFSC, Peace Action, Green Party of MA (aka Green Rainbow Party) and some others. Not so much as the courtesy of a reply resulted from this effort - although the GRP at least posted a notice of the action. (It is entirely possible that some of these organizations might mention Cindy’s action late enough and quickly enough so as to cover their derrieres while ensuring that Obama will not be embarrassed by protesting crowds.) We here in the vicinity of Beantown are but a hop, skip and cheap ferry ride from Martha’s Vineyard. Same for NYC. So we have a special obligation to respond to Cindy’s call.

However, not everyone has failed to publicize the event. The Libertarians at Antiwar.com are on the job, and its editor in chief Justin Raimondo wrote a superb column Monday on the hypocritical treatment of Sheehan by the "liberal" establishment. (1) As Raimondo pointed out, Rush Limbaugh captured the hypocrisy of the liberal left in his commentary, thus:

"Now that she’s headed to Martha’s Vineyard, the State-Controlled Media, Charlie Gibson, State-Controlled Anchor, ABC: 'Enough already.’ Cindy, leave it alone, get out, we’re not interested, we’re not going to cover you going to Martha’s Vineyard because our guy is president now and you’re just a hassle. You’re just a problem. To these people, they never had any true, genuine emotional interest in her. She was just a pawn. She was just a woman to be used and then thrown overboard once they’re through with her and they’re through with her. They don’t want any part of Cindy Sheehan protesting against any war when Obama happens to be president."

Limbaugh has their number, just as they have his. Sometimes it is quite amazing how well each of the war parties can spot the other’s hypocrisy. But Cindy Sheehan is no one’s dupe; she is a very smart and very determined woman who no doubt is giving a lot of White House operatives some very sleepless nights out there on the Vineyard. Good for her.

Obama is an enormous gift to the Empire. Just as he has silenced most of the single-payer movement, an effort characterized by its superb scholarship exceeded only by its timidity, Obama has shut down the antiwar movement, completely in thrall as it is to the Democrat Party and Identity Politics. Why exactly the peace movement has caved to Obama is not entirely clear. Like the single-payer movement, it is wracked by spinelessness, brimming with reverence for authority and a near insatiable appetite to be "part of the crowd." Those taken in by Obama’s arguments that the increasingly bloody and brutal AfPak war is actually a "war of necessity," should read Steven Walt’s easy demolition of that "argument." (2) Basically Obama’s logic is the same as Bush’s moronic rationale that "We are fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them over here." There is a potential for "safe havens for terrorists," as the Obamalogues and neocons like to call them, all over the world; and no one can possibly believe the US can invade them all. However, the ones which Israel detests or which allow control of oil pipelines or permit encirclement of China and Russia will see US troops sooner or later.

The bottom line is that everyone in New England and NYC who is a genuine antiwarrior should join the imaginative effort of Cindy Sheehan in Obamaland this week and weekend. We owe it to the many who will otherwise perish at the hands of the war parties of Bush and Obama.

1.See: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/08/23/war-coverage-and-the-obama-cult/

Or go to Antiwar.com and make a contribution while you are there. It’s almost as good as CounterPunch.com.

2.See:http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/08/18/the_safe_haven_myth

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar@gmail.com He welcomes comments, and he looks forward to seeing crowds of CounterPunchers at Martha’s Vineyard this week and weekend.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m57396&hd=&size=1&l=e

choppedliver
09-02-2009, 06:36 PM
Keep the Change: Report after Martha's Vineyard Protest from Cindy
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 8:04 PM
From:
"Cindy for Peace" <CindysSoapbox@gmail.com>
Add sender to Contacts
To:



Keep the Change
"If George Bush was/is a war criminal; then Obama is a war criminal. If Obama is not, then Bush is not. We the people cannot have it both ways." Cindy Sheehan, Martha's Vineyard
Cindy Sheehan

Through many difficulties we faced on Martha's Vineyard, (the sad passing of Senator Kennedy, Tropical Storm Danny---and even getting my wallet stolen) last week, a hearty band of about a two dozen of us, from off the island and on, tried our damndest to revive some kind of anti-war sentiment in this nation.

The media wanted to make it a story about the media: about how Crawford was such a big story and how Martha's Vineyard is not. I don't think that was the story, though.

Even though, we received endorsements from three of the most effective national anti-war groups; Veterans for Peace, Iraq Vets Against the War and World Can't Wait and about a dozen others from smaller groups, but the large groups that supported the anti-Bush, anti-war message of the Camp Casey in Crawford were MIA physically and spiritually from the actions in Martha's Vineyard.

The New York Times ran an article on Sunday claiming that after a long period of dormancy, the "anti-war" movement was getting "restive" and planned to do some actions in October around the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Well, some of us have been restive and working for years and the groups that are now becoming "restive' are the very ones that let the War Genie out of the bottle, and will have a lot of problems putting it back in, if that is really the intention of these groups. Another thing is Obama is only what he promised in Af/Pak.

The "restive anti-war movement" is planning "teach-ins" and "memorials" but not planning on surrounding the White House and demanding that their leader bring the troops home from all theaters of war and then threatening to withhold support if he doesn't. The "restive anti-war movement" will not do anything it thinks will compromise Democratic chances in the 2010 midterms.

I have two questions to ask of the "restive anti-war movement."

1) How did the people of Iraq/Afghanistan lose value as human beings when the Democrats took over power in 2007?

2) How did the people of Pakistan lose their value as humans when Obama became president at the beginning of the year?

The born-again "restive anti-war movement" allowed the Democratic Party to suck the wind out of our sails in 2007 and it is almost like we will have to start from scratch.

"Give Him a chance," they say.

"He's better than McCain," they say.

"If you question Him then you're a racist," they say.

I say "go to Iraq-Af-Pak and tell these things to the people who are being drone bombed for simply having the nerve to want to get married."

Give Him a chance for what? No thanks, keep the change!

Recognizing the fact that the establishment anti-war movement will never organize to be an effective movement against Democrats, no matter how many people are dying, we on the Vineyard last week decided to write an International People's Declaration of Peace which we will promulgate all over the world: raising grass roots support for a true People's driven peace movement, not one driven by foundation funding or partisan politics.

A working draft of the IPDoP should be ready within a week and then we are hoping that the final draft will be ready to be read in front of the White House on October 5th when we gather to protest Obama's wars.