Not In Our Name

This story of Cindy Sheehan holding a peaceful vigil in Crawford, Texas has captured my attention and deepest sympathies. I genuinely hope she is the Rosa Parks of these times. I expect to see several attempts to smear her reputation as her steady presence and profound message to honestly evaluate what this Iraq nightmare is costing in lives and mis-spent resources continues to embarrass the powerful chicken hawks at the helm. I suspect that some partisan lawyer will try to construe her mere presence as some kind of "national security threat" and have her arrested. This would only vault her into a proud tradition of heroic figures who find non-violent means to press for answers to callous injustice. None of which she asked for. She has already lost her son. There is nothing more anyone can take from her. Standing firm in the Texas heat (and the coming heat of the next "Swift Boat Veterans" style character assault) strikes me as a profound effort to realize the potential that was stolen when her son died. It would be an honor to be arrested with her in this compelling cause.

When the full force of Cindy Sheehan's simple message takes hold and troops are withdrawn from Iraq, the right will try to blame it on the "liberals" who "wished failure" or "withheld support" or some such nonsense. These efforts can only cloud the fact that success was never clearly defined or feasible in the first place. Somehow a fabricated "threat" morphed into some newly found passion for delivering "democracy" and "liberty" through military force. Neither of these "purposes" can be taken at face value. The neocon/chicken hawks cannot fabricate any answer that fits the questions posed by Cindy Sheehan or any other mother any more than they can argue that Rosa Parks should have moved to the back of the bus.

As the ongoing story of Cindy Sheehan unfolds I hope to find my own voice to support this incredible soul.