Watching Obama salute a coffin at Dover Air Force Base with all the pomp and circumstance of US Military worship filled me with disgust and sorrow.
Disgust because the White House PR apparatus went into full swing to find a family that would allow their loved ones’ coffin to be photographed in a scene that reminded me of George Bush’s landing on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on May 2, 2003 wearing a pilot’s suit and a codpiece.
Why did Obama do this? To soften the blow, of sending more troops, for a gullible public that wants to believe someone like Obama could give a crap about the cannon fodder he condemns to pointless death?
Being the Commander in Chief of the United States Military has only meant one thing for the past sixty years or so: being the tool of the War Machine. And even though a tool has no say in whether it is used to build or destroy, did Obama have no shame when he went to salute the coffin of a young person that he (the buck stops here) killed? Does he not have the courage to sign the orders to start withdrawing our troops from these wars that were begun by the War Machine when his predecessor was in office, but roll bloodily on while he wears the imperial mantle of carnage?
Sorrow because my son came through Dover Air Force Base on his last trip home from military service.
Casey was in the Army for almost four years before his country murdered him in Iraq.
Before Casey was killed in an ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad on April 04, 2004 (Palm Sunday that year), his homecomings were always cause for great joy in the Sheehan household because we all missed him so much. I would prepare everything that he loved to eat; I wouldn’t crab at him if he stayed up all night playing games on the computer; in short, I would spoil him as much as I could.
The Friday after he was killed, (Good Friday that year) one of our friends came over to tell us that Casey’s coffin had just been removed from the belly of a C140 at Dover, he knew this because his son-in-law had just removed it. Then we got a call from our “Casualty Officer” who told us that Casey’s shell would be flying home to San Francisco and we made arrangements with the funeral home to go pick it up the next day (Holy Saturday).
We drove to SFO, following the hearse, in a limo provided by the funeral home. Obviously, there was no joy or laughter in the limo on that trip to pick up our dead son/brother/nephew/friend.
After we arrived at the loading dock of United Airlines, we literally had to sit on a curb while we waited for Casey’s body to be brought from the airplane. He was brought to the hearse in a cardboard box and offloaded onto a conveyor belt by a forklift. There was no color guard, there was no band playing, there was no saluting-idiot Commander in Chief---there were only his brokenhearted loved ones---in shock and in pain that has no measure or end.
Sorrow for the mothers and other loved ones of those killed. Have you ever had to pick out a gravesite for a child? It’s disordered to bury a child, but demented to have one killed in another US Corporate war for profit.
Sorrow because of the devastation these wars are causing all over the world: from a loading dock in San Francisco to the target of a drone in Pakistan or the scene of another bombing in a crowded Iraqi marketplace.
After touring for four months in about 40 cities with Myth America ONE, through my interactions with thousands of people, I realized that I had barely skimmed the surface of the Class War topic.
Now with job loss at record rates and USAians being evicted from their homes, or having their homes foreclosed on at a rate of one every 7 1/2 seconds; with the wars raging hotter and hotter, and with the establishment giving itself prizes for carnage, after a whole lot of work, Myth II is just about ready to be sent to your email box.
MYTH AMERICA I exposed and dispelled 10 MYTHS. MYTH II exposes and dispels 10 more to round out the subject. MYTH II is broken up into two parts: FOUNDATIONAL MYTHS and OPERATIONAL MYTHS and gives more solutions to the grassroots revolution of values that MYTH I proposed.
MYTH AMERICA II is priced at 17.00; 2.00 of which will go towards OMEID International that operates an orphanage in Afghanistan.
If you purchased, MYTH AMERICA I, MYTH II only costs 7.00....if you can tell me the third word on page 59 in the PDF file of MYTH I.
To order MYTH II, go to your paypal account and put: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com for the receiver's email address and put MYTH II in the remarks, and if you have MYTH I, then also put the third word on the top of page 59.
If you want to send a check, make the check payable to Cindy Sheehan and mail it to:
Cindy Sheehan
P.O. Box 6264
Vacaville, Ca 95696
don't forget to include your email address and the third word on the top of page 59 if you already have Myth I.
EXCERPT FROM MYTH II:
from the MYTH that ONE PERSON CAN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE
On August 3rd, 2005, I decided to go confront George Bush on his vacation in Crawford, TX…I decided to go and try and ask him a simple question: “What Noble Cause, did my son die for?”
I was there on August 6, with six other people, a few lawn chairs, one flashlight and a 5-gallon paint bucket to pee in…and an ice chest filled with water so we wouldn’t dry up and blow away in the constant heat…(have I mentioned it was hot that summer?) Whoever came later, came later…there were no think tanks, advisers, or large support staff that planned, or carried out the initial action.
What if I had remained in my air-conditioned Vacaville home paralyzed with fear and anxiety over being just one person? Or, what if I had put my energy into the next election? First of all, my fear of anything ended the day the Robber Class killed my son in Iraq, and secondly, we have had two elections since then which elected more Democrats with ZERO positive change in any direction.
I never envisioned or even imagined that my single idea, made singly by one single person sitting by myself in my Vacaville living room would have such an impact. We never know when one single act or person will grow to large actions, sometimes we never do know because individuals remain paralyzed out of fear that they don’t have any power, or out of fear of their own power.
THE REVOLUTION
The revolution that I am calling for is a non-violent revolution of "values." The same kind that Martin Luther King, Jr was calling for the year before he was assassinated.
Join me in this Revolution...buy Myth America II!
MYTH AMERICA II is only available online in PDF format.
If you would like me to send you a signed cover sheet of the book, please make a donation of
25.00 and I will sign the cover sheet and mail it to you.
I am very, very sorry that when we tried to make contact with Professor Noam Chomsky, we had technical issues! I received tons of questions from you listeners and was ready to go.
The good news is, we are rescheduling for some time in November.
Today, please listen to one of our archived shows at:
I will be interviewing Alex Jones...probably some of you will be pleased and some of you will be perplexed and some of you will be pissed, but tune in to listen to this always compelling and never boring host of his own radio talk show.
Alex also has a new movie coming out which he will talk about!
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This upcoming Sunday (October 25, 2PM Pacific on the website or 3PM Central at 1360am Rational Radio, Dallas, Tx), Professor Noam Chomsky will be on the Soapbox.
This is your chance to ask the author of Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez' favorite book,
Hegemony or Survival (I like it too!)
the question you've always wanted to ask the good Professor.
Please submit your questions (with your name and city) to: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com
I will do my best to ask Professor Chomsky as many of your questions as I can!
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It’s nice to see everybody here today as we are about to embark on another symbolic march to nowhere.
How many self-congratulatory miles do you think we’ve marched for peace in the last 45 years? Millions?
How many petitions do you think we’ve signed and delivered? Millions?
How many phone calls have we made to our elected representative? Billions?
How many War Party Politicians like Nancy Pelosi do we continually elect to office? Thousands?
Why do we consistently and constantly perform these symbolic actions, when millions of people are not symbolically dying?
When millions of people are not symbolically losing their homes, their jobs and being poisoned by the War Machine, why are only symbolic actions undertaken?
Trust me, our symbolic actions have absolutely zero affect on real problems.
Have our actions over the years diminished the War Machine by one iota? Hell no, as a matter of fact, The Empire counts on us to keep our actions symbolic, because our symbolic actions actually strengthen The Empire.
Why?
Because we march one day and write out a check to The Empire the next day in the form of paying our Federal Income Taxes.
Because we sign a petition one day then fill up our gas tanks at Chevron the next day.
Because we call our Congress Reps one day and support sponsors of the Media Industrial Complex the next.
Because we vote for War Party Politicians who promise to escalate war and then do nothing but whine when he actually keeps his promise to surge the violence.
If we really do what real change, then we are going to have to really do something real.
Why do we continue to constantly do the same thing and expect different results?
Until we do what Mario Savio encouraged us to do 45 years ago---throw our bodies upon the gears of the machine---NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
At the risk of sounding like a politician, I want to call you “My Dear Friends,” because you are and there is nothing symbolic about that, this will be the last rally you will see me at here in San Francisco.
I am moving to DC to throw my body on the gears of the machine and I hope thousands will join me in this great sacrifice.
We actually have to Be and Create the change that our planet and humanity so desperately needs.
Next time I am here, we’ll be dancing on the grave of the US Military Empire!
I promise you that because this time failure is not an option and I am not standing down until peace finally prevails.
We are building a strong coalition of peace people and groups to help us clog up business in Washington, DC, so much so, that our demands of: Troops Home Now, no Drone Bombings; Close Permanent Bases and Torture Facilities; and No Mercenaries; reparations for the people of these war torn countries and to rebuild infrastructure, are met.
We are hoping we will have 5000 people sign up and ready to start Peace of the Action by the 7th awful anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraqon March 19th, 2010.
A report on NPR today said that the Obama Military Regime is getting ready to send a substantial troop surge to Afghanistan and will announce it next week at or before the NATO meeting in Bratislava. Gordon Brown, PM of Great Britain said that his country will send 500 more to a force of 9000…hasn’t Great Britain had its full of Afghanistan yet?
Recently, the puppet government of Iraq published a statistic, which said 87,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed since 2004 (which didn’t count “shock and awe” and the rest of 2003). We all know that many more than 87,000 have died and millions more have been displaced.
The practices of torture, rendition and preventive, indefinite detention are still occurring while we here in America lose our jobs (real unemployment rate is approaching 22%) our homes (one foreclosure every 7.5 seconds) and our security. Had enough yet?
Our inaction is not an option anymore either!
I think it’s time to ramp up the Peace Movement and move away from symbolic and limited actions to sustained civil resistance on a daily basis. Marching from Point A to Point B and having small CDs have not worked. Petitions have not worked. Lobbying Congress has not worked, but MOST OF ALL, elections have not worked. Time for We the Peaceful to get to work!
Peace of the Action is huge and we need a huge commitment from huge amounts of people.
We are “ALL IN UNTIL WE WIN,” but if you can only come form a day, week, month, or until we succeed, we need every one of you there in DC.
We need (among other things) organizers and coordinators, housing, camping equipment, legal aid, medical aid, video/computer equipment and videographers, WEBMASTER, and most of all:
On October 5th, Cindy read the International Declaration of Peace in front of the White House during the protest against the continuing war in Afghanistan. Soon after, Cindy chained herself to the White House fence and was arrested along with 61 other people. Soon after that (a few days), Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in direct contravention to "true peace." The Declaration is needed so badly!
The IPDoP has been translated into 15 other languages besides English and we are waiting for more. Here are the languages we have:Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The languages we need are: Bengali, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese and any other language besides these major ones.
An archival quality copy is also in the works, so Cindy can take it around the world to have prominent grassroots peace people sign the Declaration for recorded history.
We are very proud of this Declaration that was written with the help of people from all over the world and we firmly believe that true peace will only come through WE THE PEOPLE.
This Thursday, in a move that would make Baron von Louis Rothschild blush with shame (or burst with pride), Goldman Sachs will announce that it is more than doubling its bonus pool: from 11 billion in 2007 to 23 billion in 2008.
I always thought the concept of the “Welfare Queen” was eliminated during the Clinton Regime (where his SecTreas was a former chair of G S) however, Goldman Sachs has received billions of dollars in taxpayer welfare and supposedly paid that back, except for the 13 billion that was funneled through AIG to Goldman through loan guarantees.
Well, wouldn’t it be hunky dory if every loan we consumers took out from these banksters came with a guarantee that if we failed, our government would pay our loans off?
To diffuse any citizenry guillotine brigades, the Chairman of G S says that one billion dollars of that money will be given to charity, without specifying which charity it will be going to, probably Billionaire Overseas Villa Fund, or something like that. Well, empty rhetoric or the shiny keys of Madison Avenue hocus-pocus glitz are not fooling me any more.However, I don’t think much PR spin will be needed around this newest bonus outrage. There may be some international hell to pay, though, since 19 of the other G20 countries were rightly concerned about the image that out of control bonuses lends the already tarnished state of Robber Class deviltry, I am concerned that the threatening dumping of the dollar will begin to commence in earnest after this round.
Most Americans don’t even give a poop, which is incredible to me since almost 1 out of 4 of us who want work can’t find any and every 7 ½ seconds someone in this country will lose their homes in the continuing carnage of the bursting of the Federal Reserve-Goldman Sachs-AIG housing bubble.
Congress will make some squeaks in Goldman Sachs’ direction and The Laureate will say something like: “This is not acceptable,” then he will go forward in total acceptance and obsequiousness to his masters that put him in power.
What will the American Public do?
I am afraid that Goldman Sachs doesn’t even have to make the empty gesture of one billion dollars in charity because no guillotine brigades will march down Wall Street.
When Goldman Sachs wins the Nobel Prize in Economics next year, we will become mildly annoyed and then yawn in the best American tradition and go on allowing the Robber Class to steal us blind, hoping that there is another juicy divorce or celebrity death that can distract us from reality.
The Robber Class doesn’t frustrate me nearly as much as the Robbed Class. Robbers will be Robbers only as long as we in the Robbed Class let them.
(No new Soapbox show this week...go to www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com to listen to an archived show)
Travels of a Dedicated Peace Monger
October 10, 2009
I am up late in Sweden after spending 5 days here speaking at seminars and doing interviews.
I am heading back to the U.S. tomorrow and after a stop in Albuquerque, I will head back to my home in California on Monday.
I have been gone from the beautiful, yet broke, state of my birth for over 3 weeks now. This trip hasn't been the longest one, or even most grueling one, but it has been eventful!
I left Sacramento Airport on Friday, September 18th early in the morning to fly to Dallas. There I once again, for the umpteenth time, protested George Bush at his Dallas home, with dozens of others, spoke at my radio station's (Rational Radio) progressive forum (with Thom Hartmann and David Swanson), and snuck into an event at Texas Stadium where George Bush was speaking to young, impressionable students and barely missed confronting him, but got my pic taken with war-supporter Roger Staubach. Yep, that's a pic of Roger and Me! I think he looks a little stunned, myself!
After Dallas, I headed to the G20 protest, where I was hit by an LRAD (LONG RANGE ACOUSTIC DEVICE), teargassed, and chased around Pittsburgh by US Stormtroopers there to protect the globalists meeting at the Convention Center from We the Peaceful. Pittsburgh showed me the actual and potential brutality of the Police State.
I was getting ready to go to Nevada to protest at the air force base from where many drone bombing missions are controlled, when I came down with some kind of yucky flu and had to go to the ER in Pittsburgh because I was having trouble breathing...yes, I have no health insurance...and I was trapped in a hotel room for 3 days before I felt strong enough to head down and over to our nation's capital to participate in an anti-economic sanctions conference. In my opinion, sanctions are a WMD, and our Secretary of State has been threatening "crippling" ones against Iran. Sort of like the sanctions against Iraq that kiled over one million children and were "worth it" to Madam Madeline Allbright.
St. Louis for a book event (Myth America), then back to the capital for an anti-war rally, where I joined hundreds of others and read the International People's Declaration of Peace in front of the White House. Oh by the way, I also got arrested (pictured above) after I chained myself to the fence with activist Janine Boneparth from the Bay Area. So, hundreds of us protested the future Nobel Peace Laureate and that makes me wonder what that makes us? Anti-peace?
Anyway, here I am in Sweden, late Saturday night missing my grandson and my children and my dog and my cat and my own bed and looking forward to the birth of my granddaughter at the end of this month (an event that I will be present for).
Thank you for your love and support. My supporters help me get through the tough times and rejoice with me in the victories and the good times.
Now, we are planning the most ambitious and bold peace action ever in Washington DC beginning as soon as we have 5000 people sign up:
Today, a President of the largest violently military empire in the world, won the Nobel Peace Prize while his nation is mired in wars in three countries where his actions have oftentimes made things worse.
Let’s also make this clear that the Nobel prizes are supposed to be awarded for work done the previous year (2008), so that means Obama was awarded the prize for campaigning for the presidency of the USA, where his “vision” (platform) was consistently pro-more war. The nominations are also due by February 1st. Ten days after the inauguration and about a week after a drone in Pakistan killed over 3 dozen innocent people.
He was awarded the prize for his “vision” for a “nuclear free world.”
Let’s examine this. Probably at least a few billion people on this planet have that same “vision” and I know thousands have been working on this “vision” for decades, beginning right around the time, the USA dropped two of the WMD on Japan.
I also have this “vision,” but my vision extends to include “conventional” WMD like bunker buster bombs, drone bombers, and white phosphorous: WMD that are being used in the Middle East right now.
I have the “vision” of a nuclear free world, but there are many of us savvy people who know that the USA has been waging a nuclear war in the Middle East for a couple of decades now at least with the low grade WMD of depleted uranium. The USA used DU in Kosovo and the Balkans, also.
We billions of us have the “vision” but only one person in this world has his finger on the triggers of almost 10,000 active nuclear weapons, and that is Barack Obama. You know, the one who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the one who has threatened Iran with military nuclear power if the leaders of that country even dare to get one atomic bomb.
Obama has the power, but his “vision” has not reduced the world’s nuclear arsenal by one bomb. However, his “vision” has so far been responsible for killing 300 US service member and thousands of the unfortunate inhabitants of the countries we are occupying and destroying.
Former Premier of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and former President, Jimmy Carter were awarded the tainted Prize after Gorbachev bombed the Holy Crap out of Afghanistan and Carter’s regime’s covert support of the freedom fighters in Afghanistan gave rise to: Taliban, al Qaeda, War Lords and the Northern Alliance. So the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is sending the message to Afghanistan, that if anyone is responsible for killing mass amounts of them, then he will be awarded a Prize.
It’s true, Obama did not begin the wars, but he is sending more troops to all theaters. That doesn’t sound too peaceful to me. Torture, indefinite detention, “crippling sanctions,” threats towards Venezuela and Iran; silent support of a military coup that overthrew a democratically elected President in Honduras and so on, ad nauseum, are all the “accomplishments” of this Nobel Laureate.
I was tear-gassed and chased down by US stormtroopers in Pittsburgh for wanting to express my opinion when the leaders of the G20 were assembled a couple of weeks ago. I saw those same imperial stormtroopers shoot children with rubber bullets or bean-bags filled with steel b.bs in the Empire’s new game of, not protest suppression, but protester attack. Are these the actions of a country that is “led” by a Nobel Laureate?
It also comes to me that I chained myself to the White House fence last Monday and was arrested, along with 61 others, protesting the Laureate’s war polices, as he met with his “War Council.” Five hundred more of us were there. We were and still all are adamantly opposed to the war policies of The Laureate.
What does that make us candidates for?
The Bizzarro World Peace Prize?
The only “vision” that has come true today, is George Orwell’s 1984: War is Peace; Ignorance is Strength and Freedom is Slavery.
We can’t allow the fact that Obama has been awarded a prize that oftentimes goes to mass murderers anyway, be the final nail in the coffin of the US anti-war movement.
As far as I am concerned, this Prize that was a slap in the face to true peace workers around the world, changes nothing.
Peace of the Action will still go down in DC this spring unless The Laureate signs orders to bring our troops home from the Middle East.
Peace of the Action Cindy Sheehan “You gotta make me do it.” Barack Obama
I had just walked back into my hotel room yesterday after chaining myself to the White House fence and being arrested, when I saw White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, say that removing troops from Afghanistan was “not an option.”
Hundreds of us were out in front of the White House as this nation is heading into the 9th year of what is the longest overt military misadventure, next to Vietnam.
Sixty-one other people were arrested with me. Organizations calling for the end to torture and for single-payer Medicare for all were in attendance, along with Vet groups and other pro-peace organizations and leaders.
When I saw such a quick response to our protest, I was angry, of course, but I was also excited. First of all, when Obama said that we had to “make him do it,” I knew Obama was just blowing smoke out of his hind end, like he blows cigarette smoke out of his mouth. Secondly, I know we are being heard and I have complete realistic hope that this is the time for US in the USA to make a difference.
The anti-war, peace movement must step our efforts up and take it to the next level of severe militant resistance.
Not only is this country borrowing or printing billions of dollars each month for the military; almost one out of four of us do not have a job, or are grossly underemployed; millions of us have or will lose our homes due to foreclosure or eviction; and 1/6 of us don’t have health insurance.
The police state is getting out of control and if we don’t intensely exercise our rights immediately, we will lose them.
To that end, we are organizing the most ambitious anti-war, peace event ever. We are planning what we are calling, Peace of the Action which will be the largest, most aggressive and sustained action ever done in DC.
We are calling for 5000 people to commit to come to this Nation’s Capitol to participate in daily civil resistance to stop “business as usual,” because “business as usual” in this town is so corrupt and disordered.
We are not calling for this commitment for a day, a week, or a month. We are not even interested in making symbolic gestures. We are calling for this commitment until our demands of: All troops and para-military mercenaries, are ordered out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the drone bombings in the tribal regions of Af-Pak are discontinued and we get about the business of healing, reconciliation and REPARATIONS.
I am going to move to DC to help coordinate these actions and I will be 100% committed with you to be: “all in it to win it.” This time true change will happen, it must.
We must sacrifice a few of our creature comforts to rein in the Empire we live in before it’s too late. We will not start Peace of the Action until we have 5000 people who are willing to join us. This plan is ambitious, audacious and bold. However, I truly think we have a chance to be successful. We are looking for many coordinators, helpers and hell raisers and are hoping to house, (or tent) and feed everyone until Peace happens. This will take massive infrastructure and financial support.
Hopefully we can begin Peace of the Action by the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 19th.
Please email with any questions, or if you are ready to make a commitment to change the future for the better.
Cindy's Soapbox
(No new Soapbox show this week...go to www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com to listen to an archived show)
I think he looks a little stunned, myself!
