05.31.07

Memorial Day Thoughts and Losses

Posted in General at 12:55 pm by MamaSaid

Memorial Day is a solemn occasion around my house as my family considers the people who lost their lives serving in Vietnam with my husband. Our prayers are with those people and our hearts go out to their loved ones, as well as the other soldiers who have served their country and given their lives over the years.

Another great loss was announced the day after memorial day, on May 28, which is also the birthday of deceased American soldier Casey Sheehan. His mother, Cindy Sheehan, said she was done being the public face of the anti-war movement.

Sheehan became famous when she protested the war for 26 days in August, 2005, outside George Bush’s ranch. She is now returning to her native California to spend more time with her other three children and to “try to be normal”. She significantly states, “I have been wondering why I’m killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush. Good-bye America…you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now.”

It’s sad to think such a strong leader of a grass roots movement is so discouraged with the lack of political support for a cause that is clearly a priority for many of us “regular folk”. Cindy’s son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was only 24 years old when he was killing during a 2004 ambush in Baghdad.

We also know that anyone who doesn’t support the “good old boys” network of secret-society attending deviants is harassed and abused until they are weak from the fight. Sheehan further goes on to say, “I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face”of the American anti-war movement.”

Clearly she has to get out of town. Cindy purchased 4 acres nears downtown Crawford, Texas with insurance money received after the death of her son. She set up Camp Casey as an anti-war hub but now feels, “Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas?”

Cindy has not just had to give up her precious son Casey and Camp Casey over the past couple of years. She also sacrificed her marriage of 29 years and held up to threats about her trying to stop the war. Sheehan, formerly the apple of the liberal leftist’s eye, said, “…when I started to hold the Democratic party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the ‘left’ started labeling me with the same slurs the right used.” The war machine is obviously a very large one.

Sheehan even underwent surgery last summer. Since then, she has considered giving up the important movement for peace. Clearly tired and spent, Cindy has apparently lost any positive hope about the entire experience as well. Her conclusion about her tragic loss of a son was, “that Casey did indeed die for nothing…killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that controls what we think.”

Our thoughts are thankfully our own but how long will that last in a country that dictates to its own people and other nations through dictatorship and violence? An alleged democracy that clearly is not listening to the wants and needs of its people while exacerbating a stressful international arena? This democracy allows immigrants to illegally barge over our borders and now want to give away the money people have given into the system for years to these folks rather than punish them for their behavior. Why have immigration laws at all – as a farce to the public? Clearly wealthy people don’t want to give up inexpensive labor at the expense of everyone else who is paying their salary through taxes, including the truly hard-working immigrants who made the time and effort to honestly attain citizenship. This democracy allows children, veterans, single mothers and senior citizens to go to bed hungry, homeless and without proper medical care every night while we spend lives and money on a war machine that feeds the pockets of government officials.

Cindy Sheehan’s final conclusion was, “We’ve accomplished as much here as we’re going to. When we come back, it definitely won’t be with the peace movement with marches, with rallies and with protests. It will be more humanitarian efforts.”

Let there be peace on earth…and let it begin with me.