Cindy Sheehan: Sit-Down for Change and Stand-Up for Peace

[babylonsister]

Posted in its entirety with permission.

Sit-Down for Change and Stand-Up for Peace
Cindy Sheehan

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt.
Gandhi

The thesaurus feature on my computer has had a workout since I started writing articles and books about this government, George, Casey, etc. There are only so many words to use. I have searched for synonyms to: sorrow, disaster, death, murder, crimes, maniac, profit, illegal, immoral, evil, innocent, corrupt…so often that it seems that these same words get used over and over again. I am running out of words to describe the miscreants in DC and the hideous occupation of Iraq.

It seems to me that BushCo is getting a little testy and a lot defensive about their profitable antics in the Middle East. In recent days, George, Darth Cheney and Rumbo have all displayed their hubris and disdain for America in their unjustifiable support of their crimes for the benefit of a very chosen few. Indeed, Darth practically salivated all over himself thinking about water boarding human beings. I almost wrote “fellow” human beings, but applying that definition to Darth Cheney would be stretching the meaning of the word and being too kind to someone who has been the insidious Edgar Bergen to George’s Mortimer Snerd.

The illegitimate pretenders to the White House have defiled it almost beyond repair and have sullied America’s already tainted image around the globe to unprecedented heights. The people whom we never elected in the first place think that we are as delusional and disconnected as they are. When George says that we are “winning” the war in Iraq, what does he mean? That we have killed over 2000 times more people than they have and have decimated a country that was already reduced to sub-humanity by the devastating US-UN sanctions of the ‘90’s. When George says that his administration has never been about “staying the course,” are we supposed to just jettison our memory banks to outer space, blankly smile, go shopping and pretend that everything is okay?

Nothing is okay. In fact, everything is dangerously not okay.

If there ever was a moment in time for non-violent civil disobedience, it is now! The present is frightening enough, but when I think of the world that the neocon fascists are willfully and gleefully creating for our children and grandchildren, I am sick to my stomach.

Our nation has gone through upheavals and troubles before. Grassroots movements that put their collective bodies on the line for justice can claim responsibility for such positive social changes that gave me and my brothers and sisters of color the right to vote. Our fore fathers and mothers stopped slavery, child labor and oppressive working conditions. Due to corrupt elections and BushCo’s contempt for unions and lascivious support for corporate fascism, we are losing the rights for which our ancestors fought so valiantly.

There was an anti-war revolution during the conflict in Vietnam where protestors were even murdered in cold blood by the Nixon regime. The horrible sacrifices that some of our forebears in the peace movement made become diminished and invalidated by most of our nation’s complacent and comfortable citizenry’s quiet consent in this corrupt occupation of Iraq.

For our children, our grandchildren and the world, it is imperative to put our bodies on the line for peace and accountability.

The time for fear is over; the time for courage has begun.

Show BushCo that we are not afraid of them anymore and that we want our country back and our troops home from Iraq. Our state has not only become “lawless” it thinks it is above the law.

Show the irresponsible Congress that, no matter if they call themselves Republican or Democrat; we are holding them responsible for this nation’s troubles, too.

Come to DC and “Sit-Down for Change, and Stand-Up for Peace.”

We will be waiting for you and your grandchildren will thank you.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of three books, the most recent is Peace Mom, A Mother’s Journey through Heartache to Activism.