Last Night....

...we gathered to hear a mothers grief at the sensless murder of her son. We gathered with questions, wanting answers. We gathered in the heat and steam of an old, small New England church, built look before air conditioning, globalization or industrialization were even thought of. We gathered because we wanted to see a woman that had taken her sons murder and turned it into a peace action. We gathered to see a woman of strength, resolve, love and peace. We gathered to see Cindy Sheehan. Cindy says she didn't 'lose' her son, Casey. She knows exactly where he is. He's buried in the small California town he was raised in. She does not believe his death was meaningful or necessary...except as it impacts peace. She's right. He did not die so that you and I could be safer. He did not die for liberty. He did not die for freedom. He did not die because the US is at risk. He died, wearing a Viet Nam era flak jacket in Iraq, so that Bushco could prosper. Period.
As she spoke, I silently wept. How many of us really know what Cindy Sheehan does? She knows how to bury her son, killed in a senseless, meaningless war.
She said many things worth repeating... If a person doesn't die on the field, their death is not counted as dying in battle...so the numbers we are given are lies. Our sons & daughters, or their faimiles are paying for many of their own expenses, including laundry. When she met with (P)resident Bush, he never said her son's name or even casy's gender. 'your loved one' was how Casey was addressed. "Who's loved one are we here to honor?"
How long will we allow these killers, these thieves, these bullies, these liars to control our nation?
How long will we allow this illegal, immoral war to go on?
How long will we allow our young to be murdered on the battlefield so that Haliburton, i.e. Chaney, Bush et al can get richer?
How long will we allow the complete devastation of our environment, our infrastructure, our society at the hands of asmall group of power hungry, greedy lying killers?
How long will we allow our tax dollars to finance this war? (see www.afsc.org for more information on that.)
These are questions that we must address. We cannot sit back and let our children and grand children be slaughtered so that a few can profit. We cannot allow our fear of manufactured or imagined enemies to control our lives. We cannot sit idly by while our rightsare stripped from us...in the name of protection. We are creating the 'terrorists'! If the US were invaded, what would we do? Would we fight against the invaders? Why then should the Iraqis be any different?
We were never there as liberators, we are occupiers. We are the enemy. We are throwing our childrens futures, our childrens lives away.....
Join the Peace Movement.
The kid you save might be your own.