Cindy Sheehan ‘Resigns’ As Protest Leader
May 30th, 2007America… just a nation of two hundred million (now 300 million) used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
-Hunter S. Thompson
Cindy Sheehan, the soldier’s mother who galvanized an anti-war movement with her monthlong protest outside President Bush’s ranch, said Tuesday she’s done being the public face of the movement.
AP: Sheehan ‘Resigns’ As Protest Leader
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| Cindy Sheehan and Buddy Spell |
Buddy Spell, a New Orleans lawyer, got to know Ms. Sheehan in 2004. We got to know him through the Internet at the same time. He has this story to tell about her departure from the protest stage.
At the time, in 2004, several Louisiana activists had established a resistance beach head in the Greater New Orleans Area to confront the war advocates regardless of whoever won the sham election in the coming November. Cindy contacted me seeking our endorsement of a new group she had organized called Gold Star Families for Peace.
I instantly sensed her strength, sincerity and passion. We became immediate friends.
About a year later, in June ‘05, Cindy came to Covington to visit following the Summer SOULstice action in New Orleans. At the time, we were organizing a Peace Train to DC for the mass protest set for September. Cindy was assisting us and would join the Louisiana Activist Network’s journey to the White House. Of course, two events, back to back, would change everything. At least for me….
Around August 3, 2005, she contacted me and told me that she would attempt to confront Bush at his pretend cowboy ranch in Crawford, Texas. She asked me to join her as legal counsel. The days and weeks which followed were some of the most rewarding of a fairly long and very exciting life. At Camp Casey, we stomped on the terra. It was brilliant. No regrets. Pure patriotic rebellion. The best.
Then came Katrina. She made landfall on the very day Camp Casey closed down. I came home immediately to begin to rebuild and the movement moved on…..
As things got stabilized at home and the war drug on, I signed on as legal counsel to Troops Out Now for the week of last spring’s March on the Pentagon. I came home bruised and disappointed…and tired of the uphill battle intrinsic to holding a mirror up to a society blind to its flaws. Without fanfare, I determined to take a sabbatical from the movement.
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| Glynn Wilson |
| Peace advocate Cindy Sheehan fires up a group of protesters at the intersection of U.S. Highways 11 and 90 as they are about to march toward New Orleans on March 18, 2006. |
Thank God for Cindy Sheehan and the summer of ‘05. From those heady days of rebellion comes the strength to dust off and move onward. Her tour of duty is done … well done. She has suffered for the movement and has earned the right to slip away.
I could have never put up with the abuse she sustained from the pompous, disengenuous apologists and lock-steppers on the Right for as long as she did. They picked at every flaw, real and contrived, and attacked her with an unchristian ferocity which has been staggering. And she continued onward through it all.
Now, as she elegantly exits stage left, the pigs take one last, unnecessary shot. Well, as their Dear Leader has said in the halls of the Senate, they can go fuck themselves. Cindy Sheehan has, with all of her flaws, more humanity in an eyelash than these punks could ever garnish.
More power to her.
More power to us.
Cindy and I disagreed on tactics and political stuff all of the time. Constantly. We only agreed on that which was of primary importance…a yearning for a peaceful and just homeland. She remains my friend and fellow warrior. And, dare I say, a hero.
My rest is about over and preparations for the next “Big One” now begin.
See you at the DNC in Denver next summer. The Democrats have bitten the hand which fed them. Let’s bite back.
Oh, and I’ll bet Cindy will be there too.
No doubt about it….
ONWARD!
Buddy Spell
Tags: Cindy Sheehan
