Corrupt Systems

By Cindy Sheehan

"[Pelosi], too, is frustrated with the ongoing war in Iraq but believes that impeachment would be divisive and distract Congress from improving the lives of working families." -- Spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, Drew Hammill

The above quote from House Speaker, and my opponent, Nancy Pelosi's spokesperson would be hilarious if it were not so damn tragic. The quote was in an article about my recent visit and speech to students, faculty and the community members at CSU San Marcos. I wonder how long Drew stayed awake to think up this quote and II wonder if Drew and Speaker Pelosi think that we, the American people, are too stupid to realize that our lives have been "improved."

After five years of warfare on the people of Iraq; almost eight years of warfare on the American public and about 15 months of the reign of the Democrats in Congress, working class families of America have paid the heaviest price.

The human cannon fodder that BushCo believes is so expendable and that Pelosi funds, come mostly from the working class. Over 4000 American soldiers are dead and not one of them has been named Pelosi, Bush, Cheney, or Hoyer. Not one has been plucked out of the boardrooms of mortgage bankers or war profiteers. When I was on the campus in San Marcos, I met many Iraq vets (the campus is close to Camp Pendleton) and young women whose husbands are currently in Iraq. One young woman, Ashley, told me that her husband had a torn ACL and the military would not let him come home from Iraq. He is 22 and the continued stress will probably leave him permanently disabled and he is doing a job he was not trained for. I wonder how Ashley feels now that Pelosi is considering giving BushCo more money to continue the occupation than he has even asked for to "support the troops." When in reality, many members of Congress are invested in, or receive tens of thousands of dollars for their re-election campaigns from companies that do quite well during times of war.

Gas is over 4.00 a gallon and the price of food and other essentials are sky rocketing, accordingly. A frightening number of homes are heading into foreclosure and jobs (that don't involve asking "Would you like that super-sized?") are being lost or sent overseas. I am sure that many Americans can really use their $300-$600 or $1200 dollar "gifts" from Uncle Sam to fill up their tanks or buy groceries while George and Nancy's friends in the investment banking industry will be able to recoup their losses via our federal tax dollars. Do you feel like your life has improved, yet?

Drew Hammill saying that impeaching the war criminals would be a "distraction" is like George's spokesperson, Dana Perino saying that George was going to tell the Pope that we have "responsibilities to care for our brothers and sisters in need at home and across the world." I guess the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the "generosity and compassion" of the Bush regime.

At the end of my talk at the University, I was handed a 3 by 5 index card with this question: "We have a two-party system here in American…you may not like it, but that's the way it is. You should just get used to it." Firstly, with "opposition" parties like the Democrats led by Bush-buddy, Nancy Pelosi, is it a fact that we do have a "two" party system? Do we, as people of conscious and true compassion need to "get over" things that are inherently and profoundly harmful and wrong?

I would hate to see how badly off we would be if everyone thought as that questioner does? What dangerous and stinkin' thinkin'! We must allow our political system to degrade even further because it is the system we have?

We had the system of slavery.
We had the system of all white-male/property owning suffrage.
We had the system of child labor.
We had the system of "separate but equal."

Thank God for people like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr; who all courageously rejected the corrupt systems that they existed under and refused to get "used to" violence and oppression.

We need to boldly face up to Nancy Pelosi and her ilk who don't want to be "distracted" from impeachment because the legislators are too busy trying to figure out how they can rape their constituents more fully to fatten the already bloated, fat-cats.

I urge you to reject the Republican-Democratic stranglehold the distinct criminal class of Congress has on our democracy and our very lives!

Cindy Sheehan
Mother of Casey Sheehan, KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04
and Candidate for Congress