Thank you Cindy Sheehan. Everyone experiences burnout and you have accomplished more than most of us in the progressive movement.

When Congress teamed up to capitulate to Bush, part of their hope and expectation was that it would serve to disillusion and neutralize many who actively oppose the war. It is inevitable that this has happened, but it’s not over yet. I remember when Nixon ordered the Xmas bombings of Hanoi in 1972 (I think it was 72). He seemed all powerful at the time and caused many to give up. But he wound up impeached for his political crimes, and so may Bush/Cheney yet.

It took the anger from just one woman, one broken-hearted American mother, to start the anti-fascist ball rolling.  Her passion and expression gave others hope who had lost faith that the fascist regime now constraining Americans and the world could ever be made accountable. Many things have changed since her decision to ask for the rationale behind the death of her son. And day by day more is revealed that many thought hidden forever (including those whose business it was to hide.) But , boy, is there ever a long way to go now. Much further than we did seven years ago. The Democrats must begin to make our nation accountable again as well. Incarceration of our miscreants would be a convincing start and a few acknowledgements that we have killed 600,000 people needlessly. Now we must build on whatever success the light reveals. Cindy Sheehan has her place in history as she does in many of our hearts..I shall miss the crystal clear expression of her and our greatest promise…a world of peace and justice. She is in the league of Rosa Parks in sitting down so the rest of us might have the courage to stand up. I wish her well and share her disdain of political practicality over our very survival. The democrats and republicans need to think less like Americans and more like human beings. The earth may depend upon it.

One person’s opinion can be very powerful if ennunciated with a good heart.

Viva Chavez. Another courageous soul.

People don’t cave in to George W. Bush. They cave in to the Political Power for which he is but a mere spokesman.

In the era of Fox News, Murdoch newspapers, and “Swiftboat” politics, we have to learn to make progress without “leaders”.

Anyone with an elected office to hold, or a public reputation to protect, is vulnerable to the “attention” of the right-wing noise machine.

Cindy Sheehan had no reputation. Whe was a nobody. Just a grieving mother seeking justice. That’s what made her so persuasive.

I think she became less effective after the movement made a “leader” of her, and gave her a “reputation”.

It got worse when she went “off-topic” and started speaking out against Guantanamo, Venezuela, Impeachment, etc.

Still - she has been a real Hero. Because of her example, I find the strength to keep going to the “first Friday” peace vigils, to keep writing letter to my hometown paper, and to keep an antiwar sign in the back windowof my car.

Thank you Cindy. You and Casey will not be forgotten.

Cindy says:

“Goodbye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.”

How true. And you know what? Some of us have been able to see that for a long time now. Please, activists: don’t be too hard on those of us who can’t find the heart to join you on your marches.

Perhaps we are only cursed with being better able to see - in advance - what Cindy has at length discovered, and what Scott Ritter calls “idiot America”.

And a lot of that idiocy has to do with an Israel-glorifying mythology that infects Democrats and the “left” as much as it does Republicans and the right.

This is what is dragging us into war with Iran, without a doubt - but Idiot America will keep on believing and doing whatever Israel tells them they must believe and do.

Yo! Chumps

Sen-yor-REE-ta Cindy SHEE-han has finally….seen the err-Ors of her ways.  I have…. autherenficatized the wire teps and…AY-gents to sur-VAi-lancize her home and friends. NSA,FB-eye and C-eye-A will be watchifiy her every move from now un.  We…suspectify her of Terrorist plots agains the Yew-nited State of Amerianize.  AIR Force Spy satellites will be locked over her home.  (She shud NE-ver have ruined my Bar-BEE-Q at Walker Rancho…where we had some ...CRA-bs.) 
Donald RUMs…feld has personally volunteerificated to watch….Yew.
We will have no known unknowns THIS time.

Sen-your-REE-ta SHEE-han could have….madeificated this easy on her-self AND an gut a few bucks on the way.  But Nooo.  She hed to go RE..membrin hur ded Son.  Git over it.  My “Little Fat Budddys” Dick CHE-ney and Karl Rove R not happy.

If You’ze waz good lookin and SHA-llow, like I like mah women, we could huv made yew rich.  I hate someone wuth Prin…ciples.  Wuts the World Comin 2.

Gu-od Bless American
George “The Cracker” Bush

(Ros-coe P. Co.)

If you are anti War, you are anti American
If you are anti Corporate America, you are a Commie loving anti American
If you are anti Likud Party-AIPAC-PNAC then you are Anti Semitic.
If you are anti Draft-Dodging Bush/Cheney, you are with the Terrorist.
If you are anti Halliburton-KBR/Bectel/Blackwater/Lockheed-Martin/Gruman, you are a traitor and should be forced to listen to Pat “Lear Jet” Robertson; or an Insurance Seminar, depending on which is more painful.
If you show true Christian Charity, you’re considered a pinko looser.

If you thought Leo Strauss was a JERK, you’d be anti semintic
If you are anti Neocon, you are Anti Semitic.
If you are a Jew who critisizes Neocon policies then you are a self-hating-Jew-holocaust-denier-holocaust-reducer-nazi-sympathizer-terrorist-loving-never-work-in-this-town-not-on-my-watch-self-hating-jew….And an Evil Doer.

If you said Colin Powell/Tenet were Courtney Massengale career minded moral cowards, you’d be a conversational bore.
If you said Richard Perle is an Oily Voiced War-Mongering-Millionaire-we-only-need-forty-thousand-troops-Profiteer, you’d be labelled anti-semitc.
If you thought Donald “Sociopath” Rumsfeld messed up Iraq big time, you’d be forced to stay at Walter Reed Hilton.

If you thought all Politician were cold blooded SOCIOPATHS you’d be so depressed by the truth.

If you don’t have a million dollars then shut up and die quietly in a corner.

Thank you Cindy for taking a parting shot at King George and for giving Republican worms a kick in the shins on your way out.

From the beginning of the Iraqi liberation America has been building multiple, multi-billion dollar, permanent military bases on Iraqi soil. The building of these gigantic permanent bases has been kept amazingly quiet. Both parties have been silent about the building of these bases, probably because they prove our real goal was actually old-fashioned imperialist occupation from the get-go. It will be interesting to see the reaction, if any, from the American people when they start to get a whiff of what these stinking permanent bases represent.

Washington and the media have done an amazingly good job of getting the American people to keep buying a steady stream of ever more preposterous propaganda. But the whole thing is still childish. If America wants to use its might to steal another nation’s resources, can’t it at least go about the thievery in a professional manner? This heist has been so badly bungled that we may have to run away and not even get to take the loot we came for. The Bush legacy will be the world’s most badly bungled and botched thievery in history.

Cindy, you are wonderful and we will miss you more than we can imagine right now.  Thanks for all your good works and the wonderful example you set for us.

Yes, I am a member of the Green Party now and in fact just mailed in my ballot today for the GPUS National Committee.  I’ve had enough of fawning complicity with the Repugnants.

DEAR Cindy,
Thank you and MAHALO for all you’ve done and all you’ve endured.
I will never forget hearing you speak here on Maui—especially your story about thinking that one person couldn’t do much. You proved that one person can do much. Like our other heroes and heroines who stood up against all the injustices, we will support and remember you…and keep you and yours in our prayers.
May you be at peace,
Kalena

Cindy Sheen was a poor spokesperson for the anti-war left.  She ran entirely on emotion, attempting to work out the logical details only after the fact.  I heard her proclaim herself a pacifist once on a TV interview and I realized that her mission had nothing to do with the details of why we went into Iraq or why we remain there, but only to keep alive the memory of her beloved son.  It didn’t matter what war he’d lost his life in - she’s against them all. 

Sheean was not an informed leader for an anti-war movement that ought to be aware of the more nuanced and complex reasoning behind our involvement in Iraq.  A movement that ought to concern itself with sensible solutions rather than blind, emotion driven responses to the death of an individual.  This may be the best thing that’s happened to the movement because maybe she’ll be replaced with a rational thinker.

Cindy’s journey has taken her through a part of America that few have ever seen first-hand.  Our political system and our media system. She is obviously fed up with the political system and seen first hand the media manipulation that takes place in our “free press” country. We should listen to her concerns. She’s like a veteran of a war. She has been through a lot and I’m sure that she has gained quite a bit of wisdom that she would gladly share if America would debrief her. Shouldn’t we, as a society be asking ourselves what drives an unknown-mid-forties- mid-American mother to leave her cherished suburban home in a rage against her own government? Isn’t that a more interesting thing to talk about than who will be the next American Idol.? You want to talk reality television?  We may not all like what she has to say but you can’t deny her credibility. She personifies what is great about America. A strong belief in our government and the people who run it.  She came out of her kitchen to do battle with her government. She’s returning home not defeated, only wounded.

But I’m glad to hear that Cindy has given up on politics. It was sad to watch her eaten alive.  But, I’m not surprised to hear her say she will continue to fight “trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire”.  She’s only quitting the political process by her quitting the Democratic Party. Which is something I congratulate her on. It’s the same thing that several American unions did a few years ago. They recognized that support for the Democratic party was actually hurting rank and file members. They withdrew from the national union and are seeking better ways to help their members than by spending it on elected politicians. The whole notion of two political parties in America a joke. If there were two different parties then we would get two different kinds of government. But all we get is a continuation of the status quo. We change leaders in America but we don’t change the system that they operate.
D.C.  is corrupt.  Some may say just some are corrupt. You know the system is corrupt when people like Cunningham and Abramhof, and countless others,  can be major players over a long period of time. In an open honest system those characters would have been stopped.  To strangle the real democratic procedure doesn’t take much once you throw out honesty. Without honesty the whole process begins to stink. This is what drove Cindy out of politics. It’s now wrong to assume that our elected officials will act honorably or in accordance with our Constitution. They want to get reelected, but they need to have money to do that. Here’s when personal integrity clashes with the values of today. In our “win at any cost” society it’s not surprising that our political system would not remain immune from the poison of such an attitude that has sadly been adopted by so many Americans.
Thanks Cindy for exposing and bringing to the surface more examples of our fraudulent political system and our compliant national corporate media. Your journey was better than any book or movie can be. And I look forward to hearing from you again. Recover and regroup. Moms need to sound off more. Too many years of TV moms need to be balanced with years and years of angry moms. I trust moms to take better care of the house than dads. It would be nice if both worked together. But just like our political system, if there isn’t an actual opposition than you have a dictatorship, not a democracy. When the chips are down in America like they are today, I would rather have Cindy as society’s mother than June or Jane.
Hoa binh

We’ll miss you Cindy.

But I don’t blame you. When Bush and his motorcade passed you by on their way to a bbq, and all you wanted was an answer to the question, “Why did my son die?”, I understood then what you’ve gone through. What we’re all going through.

It’s a dark country that we’re left with, unless you’re rich.

But I don’t blame you for leaving. As long as there is profit in the deaths of our sons and daughters, I don’t see things changing either.

It’s hard to say why there isn’t much of an outcry -are we distracted? disgusted? Too busy? Or just weary. I suspect the latter.

Peace be with you Cindy in your travels. Wherever you go. I will miss you.

Alan Murphy, San Jose, California.

Cindy Sheehan you have fought a good fight.  You have made your mark in the history books as a brave and determined person.  You have said with force and conviction, that it is never ever right for your child or any other child to be fed into the meat grinder of war based upon lies and manipulated information.  Many heard you and your voice has caused them to think and in many cases re-think how things really are in the United States.  I am proud to say that you and I walked upon this Earth at the same time.  Always keep your passion to stand up for what is right.  May the Angels of love and comfort wrap you in their arms and keep you safe.  Thank you again, for all your hard work in the pursuit of justice.

Yes, as it’s been from the get-go, ending this Iraq war is up to us.  And fortunately for us troops out now is all that it’ll take, whereupon, empowered by our victory over the powers that be, we go on to change the world and congratulations in advance.

Cindy, You’re right—most of the Dems have no guts. I, too, am leaving the Democratic Party.

Please keep blogging.  You did so much for the anti-war movement.

Mother Sheehan deserves the respect and reverence of the world’s people. She gave all she had. But in her retreat there is a profound lesson.

The sad truth is that the petty bourgeois cannot defeat the capitalist ruling class! They are a timid and passive group who, in this time for warriors, gather at the gates of the palace to nag and complain essentially to each other. There are scores of Internet websites, magazines, newspapers, radio programs and networks, and some small television networks where liberal, left, progressive, and other commentators show up to whine out loud. They rail against the outrages and inhumanity of the U.S. government and the Bush Administration. They point out the duplicity, the corruption, the hypocrisy, the inhumanity, and the utter criminality loosed in the world today but to no useful end since capitalism will not be reformed nor shamed to death. Pointing out the defects of capitalism has become as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. The ruling class brushes its liberal democratic critics off like gnats as long as they stay away from the third rail. But let one of these voices dare mention unity based on working class-consciousness and a mobilization to strike at profits and great danger would shortly thereafter visit.

No matter the danger, it must begin to be spoken by our warriors for peace still determined to carry the struggle forward: socialism is the only way humankind will live into the distant future on this planet. Only a working class with a consciousness of itself and united across all racial, national and cultural boundaries is capable of seizing power. Only a working class in power will see to the end of this madness and willingly share our available resources for the sake of human survival.

Dear Cindy:

I’m sorry to hear that you’re quitting because you remind all of us of the best that we can be.

However, I too am wondering why the Democrats caved in. It seems that everyone who crosses Bush’s path caves in. Why? Powerful people like Gore and Kerry, and the former governor of Texas!  What is it with this guy? It’s sickening!  Is he that charming, or ruthless?