Beer with Obama by Cindy Sheehan

“Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.”

Barack Obama

Last summer, we here in the news-o-tainment capital of the world, were distracted with the shiny spectacle of the “Beer Affair.”

You remember that one, right? In July, in Cambridge, Mass—police in something that was a racially charged misunderstanding—confronted a college professor named Henry Louis Gates in his own home.

Then, our president—a legend in his own mind—said that the PD and police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, “acted stupidly.” They did "act stupidly," but, of course, that's all beside the point.

There was a lot of unnecessary hoopla over the entire incident and after the dust settled, Obama had invited both men to the White House to settle all differences and hurt feelings in the time-honored, manly way—over beer. I like to call this little incident: “Duff-Man Diplomacy.”

We even found out which beer each man was drinking—I am not going to rehash this further, because it has already been done to death and it never should have reached such Paul Bunyanesque proportions, anyway.

Tomorrow, March 15th, a few dozen intrepid souls will be setting up a Peace Camp (Camp OUT NOW) across the street from the White House because there appears that there was another misunderstanding, even more profoundly tragic than the Beer-scapades.

I think the misunderstanding of such catastrophic proportions is that Barack Obama is a “peace president.” Many, many, many people voted for Obama thinking that he was going to take this nation in a direction diametrically opposed to the previous administration, but the reality has not matched the rhetoric in the least—unless you count the fact that he promised to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Well, we will have a big tent with red awnings that will have “WAR SUX” in big white lettering so the Obamas, tourists who are up in the Washington Monument, and travelers flying into National Airport, can’t miss us.

It is really sad that as we near the seventh anniversary of the “dumb war,” that the wars have all but fallen out of the consciousness of many Americans as we all struggle with keeping our noses above water. Our troops feel abandoned and the people of our occupied countries must be feeling that they have all but dropped off the proverbial radar screen.

During the month of March, Camp OUT NOW will be asking for a meeting with Obama to set up a fully-funded and grassroots Peace Council that will have a seat at the table when any matters of War are being discussed in the ubiquitous War Council.

Clearly, Obama WAS NOT the “change” that had been so eagerly anticipated. Obama and his team ARE the Washington insider elite—We the People are coming TO Washington to force the change we want to see.

And, we like beer, too—we will drink anything, Barack—and if you agree to meet with us, we’ll even bring our own bottle openers