Memorial Day tribute to Cindy Sheehan

Memorial Day is about remembering friends and loved ones we have lost to war ... but it should also be a day when we recommit to never sending young women and men into battle unless there is no other choice. That was not the case in Iraq, and far too many people have paid with their lives.

Cindy Sheehan saw a wrong and tried to right it, and for that she has been demonized by both the "right" and the "left." Anyone who has ever challenged "the system" can certainly identify. As Sheehan so eloquently points out:

Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.

She also perfectly describes what seems to plague far too many so-called "progressive" organizations when she writes:

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.

I have faced similar challenges within the women's movement for daring to speak up.

As Memorial Day 2007 comes to a close I urge you to take a moment and read Cindy Sheehan's statement. And then, make a commitment to challenge Republicans and Democrats alike when they are taking this country in the wrong direction. It's our duty.

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Cindy Sheehan Quits Peace Movement

Via AfterDowningStreet.org & Crooks and Liars:

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources. Read more…