Cindy Sheehan - Why not in her own words?

About 75 demonstrate on the northeast corner of 15th and Allen, Allentown, on July 25, across from the Armory

      Media coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s visit to the Lehigh Valley was careful to give equal time to the meager group of counter-demonstrators, rather than providing the content of the visit to the readers. No outlet mentioned that well over 200 people were present at the Sterling Hotel to hear Cindy. At one point at 15th and Allen, I counted over 70 people at the northeast corner, and there were more on the other corners. Here is the full text of an Op-Ed piece that the Express-Times published in edited form on Sunday (thanks), along with some photos from the demonstation, march and Sterling Hotel gathering.

a counter protester

     Express-Times and Morning Call coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s visit to the Lehigh Valley on July 25 splits between those who support her and oppose the war, and those who oppose her and support the war. (Note:  The Morning Call produced some decent quotes from Cindy, and coverage of some aspects of the event including prominent placement on the front page, but the overall impression was of an attempt to balance the coverage between two "sides'.)  The headline of the article in the Express-Times, “Activist stirs up passions”, suggests an emotional appeal. There was but one short statement from Cindy reproduced in the article. I believe the content of the event deserved more coverage and more prominent placement in the paper. 

At 15th and Allen, Impeachment Sign

     Cindy Sheehan captured the imagination of the United States in 2005, when she sat in a ditch in the August heat of Crawford, Texas, waiting for an answer from George Bush. She asked, “What was the noble cause for which my son gave his life?” She has never gotten an answer from George Bush, as his justifications for the Iraq War have mutated from self-defense from the weapons of mass destruction of Saddam Hussein, to ridding the world of the vicious dictator Saddam Hussein, to building a democratic nation as an expemplar for a region of dictatorship, to fighting the war against terror in the form of Al Qaeda, which has used the instability created by the US occupation in Iraq to build a foothold in Iraq that the United States must remain in Iraq to fight. Cindy Sheehan’s visit was great for those of us opposed to the war, to meet her and, as she stated, “to encourage her and be encouraged by her”. 

Cindy and supporters on the march

     She has become a national figure, this mother who has lost a son to a war that was foisted on this nation under false pretenses. I was present for the entire event, from the demonstration at 15th and Allen, through the march to the Sterling Hotel at 3rd and Hamilton, during the two hour program before over 200 people. I was impressed by the depth of analysis, seriousness, and commitment to democracy that Cindy and the entire group who participated brought to the evening.

Elijah, of the Allentown Armory Activists, leads the march with a sign that puts the question

     Addison Bross introduced Cindy, and his words of presentation are worthy of note. Here is his conclusion; “Cindy sometimes has been rebuked for politicizing the death of her son. Let’s think about that for a minute. What does it mean to politicize something? When you politicize something, you think about the decisions by big officials who produce that thing. Everything needs to be politicized. When we politicize something, we discover what might have been done otherwise, and what we can now do. Cindy’s son Casey has every right for his death politicized in this way, so that such deaths can stop. Every death, every United States death, every Iraqi death, every Afghani death must be politicized until Cindy’s question is answered. This is the wonderful person who has become an amazing symbol of outrage and hope for us. This is Cindy Sheehan and we thank her for being with us.” Cindy then received a standing ovation. 

The Sterling gets political

     She went on to give a 45 minute speech, without notes, full of insight and observation from her last three years of activism. Here is an example: “We drove all through the South, farther and farther north, and stopped in Washington, DC on Monday. Before we left, I had said, if Nancy Pelosi doesn’t put impeachment back on the table, I’m going to run against her.” 

     “Impeachment was never hers to take off the table. You don’t come in and take part of the Constitution off the table. What do you take off next? George Bush has been systematically destroying the Constitution since he has come into power. The First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, all of the Amendments, the Supremacy Clause Article 6 - he has been violating our Constitution, trampling on it, and I believe that if they don’t impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, they might as well shred the Constitution, because it will be invalid.” 

     “Congress has been busy for the last six years handing over all their power to George Bush. They handed him their power to wage war. George Bush has said that no one in my administration has to testify to anything under oath: if you want us to testify, we will go behind closed doors, and you can’t have a record of it. Dick Cheney has said he is not part of the executive branch and he doesn’t have to give his papers to the national archives.” 

     “What else have these people done? They have authorized torture. That is un-American. That harms our soldiers in the field. And, no information you get from torture is valid. It’s inhumane. This policy of torture – torture harms the torturer as much as the tortured. And we are a nation of torturers. George Bush has made us a nation of torturers.” 

     She did not hold back in her criticism of our current government leaders, Republican or Democrat, Bush, Cheney, Pelosi or Conyers. She stated she would run as an Independent against Pelosi, because, “neither one of those parties represents me. So, I will be running as an Independent, because I think we need to start getting away from these labels that divide us - Black, White, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Jew, Muslim, all of these labels that divide us – we should all be humans.” 

     Cindy Sheehan has galvanized debate on the war because she speaks plainly of very complicated human issues. She has felt the pain of war, the sacrifice of war, and seeks reconciliation in democracy. Further, she is particpating in her struggle, not asking others to do the work of changing a system desperately in need of an overhaul. She is living her democracy and setting an example for many. Her words deserve to be heard, so people can make their own decisions about her ideas. -Joe DeRaymond, with photos by Tim Chadwick