Cindy Sheehan

By Barb Ickes
Quad-City Times

A couple of books on tape, a cell phone and some junk food are the only things keeping Caryn Unsicker company on the long road.

The Silvis, Ill., woman set out Wednesday morning on a 1,000-mile pilgrimage from her home to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She probably won't get but a few miles from the entrance to the sprawling retreat.

But she has to go.

Unsicker won't know until she gets there today how many other mothers from across the country have made the same trek to Crawford. Chances are good there will be dozens — driven to cross the countryside like so many firefighters were driven to reach New York City after 9/11.

Dailykos
by j sundman [Subscribe]
Fri Aug 12th, 2005 at 05:43:05 PDT

Sorry for short diary, and apologies if this has already been diaried.

Cindy Sheehan has written a wonderful essay called "George Bush's Accountability Moment" that's been picked up by Yahoo News.

This is George Bush's accountability moment. That's why I'm here. The mainstream media aren't holding him accountable. Neither is Congress. So I'm not leaving Crawford until he's held accountable.

As of a few moments ago, only 134 people had voted. Might I suggest you mosey on over, read it, and vote it up.

Dailykos
by SusanHu [Subscribe]
Thu Aug 11th, 2005 at 19:05:19 PDT
Front-paged at BoomanTribune.com.

From today's Time magazine story (sub.) -- "A Bereaved Mother's Crawford Vigil" -- a featured interview with our BoomanTribune core member, Military Tracy, who drove from Alabama and joined up with Brinnaine, Janet, and Rick in Austin.

I just spoke with Tracy who told me that she met Time reporter Hilary Hylton today at the Peace House in Crawford. Ms. Hylton was lost, and asked Tracy's help in finding Cindy's gathering area. Tracy led her out to the "Love Camp." While Tracy didn't pour out her story to Ms. Hylton, someone else suggested that Tracy had a story to tell. And she did:

Dailykos
by outragemeter [Subscribe]
Thu Aug 11th, 2005 at 22:44:37 PDT

There was a meeting this evening at the Peace House to discuss the serious problem of too many cars. I cannot stress enough how much time dealing with this issue is taking from the volunteers time needed for other things. If you come, please, please car pool.

After checking in at Peace House and getting oriented, move your car to the football field parking lot a short distance away. It will be monitored by volunteers. Take one of the "shuttles" to the camp site, there is simply no place there left to park.

We will be adding to the Crawford Peace House site tomorrow to allow folks to request/offer rides from their locales to Crawford. We'll also have a map and directions.

Dailykos
by CindySheehan

Day 6 of the Peaceful Occupation of Iraq began early this morning when people in cars drove by our camp a few times and blasted on their horns. I just assume they were blaring their approval of us.

Before we get to the less than negative things that are happening out at Camp Casey and in the world at large today, over 700 people showed up at the Camp today. There were more people, flowers, cards, mail, interviews, laughter, heartache, comraderie, excitement, and just sheer work.

We had the first birthday party tonight at our little event. Alicia from Austin turned 17 today and they came to Crawford to celebrate with a cake. Alicia said that she wanted to be out here for her birthday. So many great people from so many parts of the country and our world are here.

Dailykos
By ilona

No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. -- John Donne

No woman is an island either. Even if she's a powerhouse of a woman named Cindy Sheehan. This diary is a collection of news clippings to celebrate some of those who've heard the bell toll, and are now answering its call by descending on Camp Casey.

First, a good introduction:

The Chattanoogan [TN] Bart Whiteman:
Bush Backs Down from Encounter with Mrs. Sheehan [whole article highly recommended]

by Bart Whiteman
The Chattanoogan

Cindy Sheehan is conducting a personal vigil at the end of the driveway to George W. Bush’s sprawling 1,600-acre Texas residence. She wants an audience, and she wants it now, with George W. to ask him a few questions and to engage in a polite discussion about the cause and effect of his Iraq War. To date, George W. has been a no-show.

I am always puzzled by big tough guys who claim to want to teach all the bad guys of the world a lesson, but at the same time they shrink from a meeting with an unarmed, middle-aged woman sitting in the shade on a hot August day in a folding chair and wearing culottes. If this menace scares them so much, what would happen if they really had to go toe-to-toe with a very, very bad guy not so delicately dressed? George has avoided using the driveway since the vigil began. Fortunately, he has a personal helicopter to make trips to the drug store and to sign mega-bucks bills related to oil and transportation that are not likely to help the average consumer at all in the near future, but will put gobs of bucks in the hands of his corporate cronies in a hurry. Let’s see, is there a tie between oil and transportation? Oh, I get it.

by Nathan Diebenow, Associate Editor
The Lone Star Iconoclast

CAMP CASEY — In addition to the emotional and physical support from people around the world, Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier slain in Iraq who wants to visit President Bush in person, and her backers at Camp Casey have received legal support here in Texas.

One lawyer in particular is Jim Harrington, the Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a statewide community-based, non-profit civil rights foundation he founded in 1990 that promotes social, racial, and economic justice and civil liberty, through the legal system and public education, for low income and poor persons.

The Lone Star Iconoclast
W. Leon Smith, publisher

Check the Lone Star Iconoclast site for continual updates (including photos) throughout the day.

[Editor's Note: Mr. Pitt is providing continual updates about Cindy Sheehan's stand in Crawford. Please check here to read the latest.]

t r u t h o u t
By William Rivers Pitt

A Nation Rocked to Sleep
By Carly Sheehan
Sister of Casey KIA 04/04/04
Sadr City, Baghdad

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done
They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

Think Progress Audio Exclusive

The right-wing may be on the attack, but Cindy Sheehan’s voice won’t be silenced. She appeared on the Bill Press Show (with Christy Harvey) this morning to continue speaking truth to power. Here’s Cindy Sheehan, in her own words —

One of the more underhanded smears launched by the right wing came when Michelle Malkin said she didn’t think Casey Sheehan, Cindy’s son killed in Iraq, would approve of what his mom was doing. This morning Sheehan responded:

TIME reporter visits an antiwar protest outside the President's ranch
By Hilary Hylton/Crawford, Texas

Wednesday's rains are gone, now, and Cindy Sheehan, who's been ensconced outside President Bush's ranch since last weekend protesting what she calls the needless death of her son in Iraq, shades her eyes as she sits on the roadside along Prairie Chapel Ranch Road. She's doing two interviews simultaneously, one on her cell phone and another with a reporter on the scene. Sheehan is surrounded by some 60 supporters and a small roadside field of white crosses. Signs saying "Jesus Wept," "Bush: Meet with Cindy" and "Iraq = Arabic for Vietnam" line the country road, along with bongo drums and small lean-tos for shade.

ACTION ALERT
Reported by The Lone Star Iconoclast

Emergency rally to support Cindy Sheehan - Troops Out of Iraq Now!

San Francisco, California
Friday, August 12 at 5 PM
Powell and Market Streets

Initiated and supported by Not in Our Name, CodePink, Global Exchange, Veterans for Peace (SF Bay Area Ch. 69), Courage to Resist, Bay Area United Against War, College Not Combat, Refuse & Resist!, ANSWER Coalition (SF Bay Area), World Can't Wait Campaign, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.

San Jose, California
Friday, August 12 at 5 PM

Cindy appeared with Keith tonight.

Visit the Crooks and Liars site to download the video.

by Bob Fertik
The Huffington Post

Some have compared Cindy Sheehan to Rosa Parks, and I certainly agree. But
Cindy also powerfully reminds me of the little child in Hans Christian Andersen's famous story, The Emperor's New Suit.

We all know the emperor in the story went on parade with no clothes, yet none of his subjects would point out the obvious until a small child finally blurted it out.

But we forget how the emperor got into his self-deluded predicament.

One day two swindlers came to this city; they made people believe that they were weavers, and declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined. Their colours and patterns, they said, were not only exceptionally beautiful, but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid.

by Andy Stern
The Huffington Post

Statistics: a suicide bomber today killed 10 and wounded 43. It is easy to be numbed by statistics, by counting, and the constant drumbeat of war. And then there is Cindy. People. Phone calls at night and knocks on doors -- relief or disaster, joy or life-changing tragedy, mothers and sons never to be together again. In a war, a war of choice.

I love this country, and honor those who like Casey serve it. They deserve much better from America. They deserve the truth. They deserved a plan to win the peace. They deserved the armor to protect themselves. They deserve to be joined by the sons and daughters of others who make the choices to send all of the Casey's into harm's way or maybe, instead, they all deserve to be kept safe at home.

by Rep. Jim McDermott
The Huffington Post

If we weren't watching this tragedy unfold in Texas with our own eyes, who would believe that a sitting President who had ordered soldiers off to war would not meet with the grieving mother of a fallen hero. Who could imagine that America could turn so cold and callous in a searing hot and dusty place?

Yet, in the heart of Texas sits a President and an Administration who show themselves to be compassionless conservatives. They remain heavily guarded behind a security fence, but so insecure in their position that they see a national security risk in the face of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Army Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, who was killed in action in Iraq.

by Tom Hayden
The Huffington Post

Casey Sheehan lives in his mother's being, and that's why Cindy Sheehan can't stop, won't stop. She shows us why and how to fight. She is wrecking the President's vacation and rupturing his control of the media. She is establishing the presence of an anti-war spirit among military families. What is interesting so far is that Bush, unlike Nixon, has not succeeded in generating a Gold Star Mothers for War. Is the sentiment that anti-Bush among all those families who are pondering how they lost their loved ones for a fabrication? Is that also why Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican whose district includes Camp Lejeune, has co-authored a House resolution for withdrawal? As in Vietnam, once again it appears for now that the soldiers withdraw first, with their hearts and minds, even as their bodies go through the motions. The spirits of the dead take point for the living.

by Gary Hart
The Huffington Post

If democracy only works when there is open discussion of opposing ideas and policies, and if the opposition party, in this case the Democrats, has hand-cuffed, blind-folded, gagged, and hog-tied itself to a failed invasion and occupation in the Middle East, where will the expanding majority of Americans look for a representative, a spokesperson, a voice for their anger, frustration, and distrust at being misled?

The circumstances suggest it should be a Senate or House Democratic leader, a recognized authority on foreign policy constantly seen on the Sunday talk shows, certainly one of the many "leaders"? lining up to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 2008.

Democratic Underground
Posted by BleedingHeartPatriot
Thu Aug 11th 2005, 04:54 PM ET

I'm so glad I'm here.

My daughter and I started the day at the Crawford Peace House. There's lots of activity there, which feels like controlled chaos; and the folks who run the place are doing a fantastic job keeping everyone supplied in food, water, t shirts, umbrellas and other essentials.

They are also providing rides back and forth from the site.

We decided to drive up ourselves to get the "lay of the land."

After a nine (?) mile drive we came upon the large encampment that has sprung up around Cindy and her group.

by Arianna Huffington
The Huffington Post

During my many years as a writer, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people. But talking with Cindy Sheehan this morning was unlike any conversation I’ve ever had. Even though we were talking via cell phone -- and had a crummy, staticky connection at that -- her authenticity and passion reached through the receiver and both touched my heart and punched me in the gut.

She spoke with a combination of utter determination, unassailable integrity, fearlessness, and the peace of someone who knows that their cause is just. Her commitment was palpable -- and infectious. It reminded me an old quote about the great Greek orators: “When Pericles spoke, the people said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march!'"?

by Ellen from the IL Tenth
Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog

Dear Mrs. Sheehan,

Thank you for your sacrifice. I know the U.S. government won't thank you, so I will. I know when made, when Casey signed up, it was earnest, honest and hopeful. I am sorry it ended so badly and I am also terribly sorry for your loss.

You say you are in Crawford to ask Bush a question: for what noble cause did Casey die? Bush said the dead soldiers died for a noble cause, but I agree with you that he wasn't too clear on what exactly that was. You deserve an answer.

"All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

News from Gold Star Families for Peace:

Crawford, Texas – "The President says he feels compassion for me, but the best way to show that compassion is by meeting with me and the other mothers and families who are here. Our sons made the ultimate sacrifice and we want answers. All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq. He says he is spreading peace. How can you spread peace by killing people?"

Photos from Camp Casey:
http://server2.whiterosesociety.org/crawford/index.html

RadioLeft is recording your messages to Cindy Sheehan and will play them on the radio.

Please call (214) 764.6668 and leave your message for Cindy. RadioLeft will deliver them to Cindy in Crawford and give them to her on CD later.

We will broadcast your message on RadioLeft.com, so don't say anything that you don't want to hear on the radio!

By David Swanson
Huffington Post

The slogan "Vote or Die" was intended to motivate people to go out and knock on doors and make phone calls to help elect one pro-war presidential candidate over another. It wasn't much fun and it didn't affect the election or the war.

A lot more fun than knocking on doors to promote muddled positions that try to please both progressives and homophobic militaristic duck-hunting corporatists is ... partying.

And Crawford, Texas, is where the party is. By calling it a party I don't mean to make light of the seriousness of the mission or the horrible grief of Cindy Sheehan and other military families there to protest this war. Rather, I mean to say that through the sadness and the hardships and the thunderstorms, it comes through on every voice my telephone line has carried from Camp Casey that no one will leave there without having been enriched with a sense of solidarity.

By Thomas de Zengotita
Huffington Post

I haven't seen Bill O'Reilly so flummoxed since Al Franken took him down at that LA book fair last year, though this was much subtler. He had to grin and swallow it all because he was interviewing the mother of a dead soldier. I can only assume he was misled by his booker, or maybe his booker was misled by Dolores Kesterson herself -- who knows? But Bill obviously thought he was going to get this woman to acknowledge that her son died "in a noble cause" in Iraq on tonight’s O'Reilly Factor,around 8:30, NYC time it was.

Dolores was slated to be the anti-Cindy Sheehan.

By Dal LaMagna
Huffington Post

When was the last time you’ve been to services for someone you know who has passed away?

Think about how you felt. Think about all the people around this person and their grief -– the numerous people who showed up at the funeral and at the gravesite, every one of them profoundly grieved.

Sometimes the grief is abated when it’s an elderly person who has had a long life or if it was someone who has been terminally, painfully ill for some time.

But when it is someone’s child - someone in the prime of life - the grief is geometrically larger. When it is an accident it is worse. Imagine that it is your child and he or she died in Iraq. The pain and grief must be unbearable.

By Jodie Evans
Huffington Post

I came to Crawford with Cindy Sheehan because we have a terrible common bond: I, too, have lost a child. I feel Cindy's pain as my personal pain, and George Bush has absolutely no understanding of what that pain is like. If he did, he would never send other people¹s children off to die in an unnecessary war. If he did, he would understand that Cindy has sparked this nation's conscience and must be listened to. It is time for us, the mothers of this great nation, to show our fierce love for our children by joining Cindy's call to stop the killing and bring our troops home.

By Cindy Sheehan
Huffington Post

This is George Bush’s accountability moment. That’s why I’m here. The mainstream media aren’t holding him accountable. Neither is Congress. So I’m not leaving Crawford until he’s held accountable. It’s ironic, given the attacks leveled at me recently, how some in the media are so quick to scrutinize -- and distort -- the words and actions of a grieving mother but not the words and actions of the president of the United States.

But now it’s time for him to level with me and with the American people. I think that’s why there’s been such an outpouring of support. This is giving the 61 percent of Americans who feel that the war is wrong something to do -- something that allows their voices to be heard. It’s a way for them to stand up and show that they DO want our troops home, and that they know this war IS a mistake… a mistake they want to see corrected. It’s too late to bring back the people who are already dead, but there are tens of thousands of people still in harm’s way.