Cindy Sheehan's farewell
The antiwar movement took Cindy Sheehan for granted. It was only when she resigned from a role that she never sought that anyone bothered to think of what an essential player she had become.
"Cindy Sheehan never set out to be the face of the antiwar movement. She was a mom thrust by an ugly circumstance and a lovely faith to the forefront of a movement that was struggling to find its voice. She gave it that voice as an honest player who spoke her mind -- sometimes intemperately, often imperfectly, always sincerely -- and backed up her words with actions. Her unscripted activism allowed her to succeed where others had failed in touching hearts and calling the disengaged, the disenchanted and the downright angry to believe once more in the prospect that citizens can make real the promise of the American experiment."So it was that when Sheehan announced that she was 'resigning' from a role she never sought, the loss was palpable. Yes, the antiwar movement took her for granted. She was expected to show up, draw a crowd, willingly accept the outrageous attacks of critics, risk arrest -- and get up the next morning and do it again. It was only when she explained in a poignant letter that she would no longer be the Sisyphus of a troubled movement that anyone bothered to think of what an essential player she had become.
"'Nobody has given more to the peace movement in recent years -- emotionally, physically, spiritually,' explained Tim Carpenter, national director of Progressive Democrats of America. With Code Pink and her own Gold Star Families for Peace, PDA was the group with which Sheehan most closely aligned herself during a period of nonstop antiwar activism that began after the death of her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, in a Baghdad ambush. She became a national phenomenon when, in August 2005, she set up camp outside George W. Bush's ranchette in Crawford, Texas, and demanded to talk with the President about her loss and about his responsibility to end the war before any more mothers suffered her fate.
"On a Memorial Day weekend that fell just hours after Congress met Bush's demand for more war funding, Sheehan reached what she described as 'heartbreaking' conclusions. 'The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?' she wrote. 'However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left," but "right and wrong."'
"Sheehan was not whining in her resignation letter. She was despairing for a Republic to which she had shown a patriot's allegiance ..."
AlterNet
"But while some believe that Sheehan may return to the peace movement after a spell out of the limelight, she seems unlikely to kiss and make up with the Democrats - or one of their most famous support groups, MoveOn.org - which has become the other high-profile face of the US anti-war movement.
"She called MoveOn's reputation as a big player in the anti-war left 'hilarious', accusing it of being so tied in to the Democrats and their electoral cause that they clammed up when the party failed to protest about the war."
Guardian
Cindy Sheehan steps away
DUVALL: Sheehan got a raw deal
Exit, Cindy Sheehan
US antiwar protest groups silent on Cindy Sheehan’s resignation ...
Categories: sheehan, war, peace, peace+movement, iraq, usa, action, activism
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