The Soapbox: Ahead of the Curve!

2009 started with so many people hope-notized with the promise of a kindler, gentler emperor of the U.S.A.


Even though I was running against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, I never bought the empty-rhetoric and lies of the Obama campaign and felt that it was the responsibility of my independent campaign for Congress to expose the hypocrisy and similarities of the "two" party system.


In the end, about 49,000 voters in California's 8th district believed in me and my message, but over 130,000 still believed that Pelosi and her ilk were the answer to the problems that she and her ilk created. So, jobless, I decided to begin a radio show... Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.


Three days after Obama was elected, he ordered the first of many of his notorious drone strikes in Northern Pakistan killing dozens of people and I sent the image above to my email contacts with an article denouncing those strikes: instead of support, I was thoroughly attacked and told such things as, "You should give Obama a chance." Really? Like the "chance" he gave those innocent people in Pakistan?


So, the people who were my comrades and partners in "crime" for the horrible years of the Bush presidency became my opposition in the beginning of the horrible years of the Obama presidency--although many of the people who have a working set of brains between their ears have come around full-circle to where I was in 2008 and before: There's very little difference between Frick and Frack at the top of the political dungheap in the U.S. and we have seen the rising of a movement against corporate greed that needs to grow to be logically against the twin parties of greed, war, and corruption. 


Please listen to one of our first shows with Matt Gonzalez (Ralph Nader's Candidate for VP in 2008 and Brother Larry Pinkney from the Black Commentator). 

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

And try not to get fooled again!

Make a Donation to Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Never-ending War: R.I.P. Brian Arredondo

"He Suffered So Much"  Brian Arredondo, R.I.P. May 10, 1987 to 12/19/2011 Cindy Sheehan Brian Arredondo was 17 when his 20 year-old brother, Alex, a U.S. Marine, was killed in Iraq on 25 August, 2004—he was 24 this past Monday, 19 December, when he took his own life. Recall that Carlos Arredondo, the father of Alex and Brian, his only children, was so distraught when the Marines came to tell him that his oldest son was killed, he caught their van and himself on fire, burning over 26% of his body. His recovery from his physical wounds was long and difficult, but his emotional wounds from having his son killed by the U.S. government in its illegal and immoral war in Iraq will never completely heal. However, I know since my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq only four months before Alex, that Carlos was beginning to be able to get through his days without overwhelming pain before his other son committed suicide. Carlos, and his wife, Melida (stepmother to the boys) are part of our Camp Casey family and the wider peace movement. Carlos credits Camp Casey with giving him his “voice” to be able to speak for Alex and against the war that took his life. When we held our Camp Casey gatherings, Carlos would always be there with his rolling monument to his son, Alex, and he would often be the first one to get up in the morning and the last one to go to bed—he was always working and there for me when I needed a bottle of water, a plate of food, or a hug. However, Carlos could always take a break to talk to a visitor to make him/her feel welcome, and share his son’s story. Carlos and Melida are wonderful people who have sacrificed much for peace—and even though I wouldn’t wish this kind of pain on anybody—they did not deserve to bury even one son, let alone two. Of course, my love also goes out to Brian's mom, whom I have never met, but I wish her healing, also. When I spoke to the Arredondos on the phone today, Carlos told me that Brian, “suffered so much,” from the death of his brother, and it’s so sad that siblings are often forgotten in the heartache of loss. Brian’s suffering has now ended, but his family’s and other loved ones has just begun. It’s often said that what doesn’t kill a person makes him/her “stronger,” and although that saying is annoying, it’s true. I know Carlos and Melida have incredible strength and I have found depths of strength that I never knew I had since I have a daily survival struggle from the tragic death of my son. Sadly, Brian could never fully recover and was recently told by mental health professionals that "nothing was wrong" with him—he tragically fell through the cracks as so many in our dispassionate society often do. Besides the fact that I adore the Arredondos and know about the struggle they have had with Brian over the years, this terrible news highlights the glaring truth that, even though wars may end (and I dispute that the war on Iraq has even ended), for some people, the tragedy and pain never will be over. I am profoundly sorry for the pain of our losses, but war does terrible things to people. It doesn’t matter if a person supports war, or doesn’t, it’s undeniable that war causes everlasting pain and irreparable damage. The President and Vice President of the U.S. may be celebrating the “end” of the Iraq War, but on Monday, December 19, 2011, that war of choice for profit claimed another innocent victim: handsome, sensitive, and compassionate, beautiful soul, Brian Arredondo. How many more will suffer? The country of Iraq is spoiled with depleted uranium and babies are being born with birth defects and children are dying from leukemia and other war-related illnesses every day, still. How many years will it take the Iraqi people to recover from the decades’ long devastation the U.S. has caused? How many of our veterans will commit suicide, or die from long, painful deaths from DU poisoning, emotional scars, or other wounds? Wars never truly end, so the best thing to do is never allow them to begin in the first place. If the reader is in a position to do so, please send a donation to Brian’s memorial fund to help cover the funeral expenses. Send donations to: Brian Arredondo Memorial Fund, at The Cooperative Bank 40 Belgrade Avenue Roslindale, MA 02131 Brian’s Wake: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 Time: 4:00pm until 9:00pm Mann and Rodgers Funeral Home 44 Perkins Street, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts Brian’s Funeral Mass Weds, December 28th Time: 12noon to 2pm St Thomas Aquinas Parish IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND A CARD DIRECTLY TO THE ARREDONDOS, THEIR ADDRESS IS:  11 Seymour Street Roslindale, MA 02131 Brian and dad, Carlos in July 2011

War is Unsuitable for Children: Another YouTube outrage by Cindy Sheehan

Last week, after being bombarded with pseudo-patriotic images of graveyards, gravestones and flags, I decided to begin posting images of maimed and killed Iraqis, but especially children and transform the mega-pseudo-patriotic Memorial Day to Remembrance of Victims of US Empire Day.

I got a great response to this and my friend and videographer, Clifford Roddy put together a short film called: finaledit, with the images I posted and with images that he took at a national cemetery in Santa Fe, NM where we were together for my Myth America book tour. I have a Cindy Sheehan You Tube page so we posted it there.

The video was just yanked off of You Tube because it “violates the terms of service” but even before it was yanked, it had a warning: “This video is unsuitable for children.”

The pictures of the dead and maimed Iraqi children were gruesome. War is gruesome. War is never pretty but the Iraqi war has been “Sanitized for your protection.” It’s not enough that adult males have been tortured but thousands of women and children have also been imprisoned and cruelly treated.

I think it’s pretty gruesome that the US Military has held up to 6000 juveniles in its torture prisons in the Middle East and there has been rape and torture reported to individuals as young as 10 years old! How can any human being torture another human being, much less a child? These kinds of stories remind me of the most horrendous slasher movies that I can think of, but they are not the pretend product of twisted fantasy, but factual and mind-blowingly real.

Former US Soldier, Steven Green, was recently given life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2007 rape, mutilation and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmoudiya, Iraq. Not only was Green the ringleader in the rape and murder; the squad also killed her family.

Unfortunately, even though Green was a “bad apple,” the situation we find ourselves in is an entire salad of rotten fruit and incidences like this one are not uncommon, but rarely reported.

Once when I was in Amman, Jordan speaking with prominent Iraqis, a Sheikh told me that US soldiers burst into his home, severely beating him and raping his wife, all in the presence of his 14-year-old son. The Sheikh told me that it was his son’s fondest dream to kill US Soldiers. Can you imagine this happening to your family? What if something like this happened in your home? You’re sitting around watching American Idol, or some crap like that, and Iraqis break into your home and terrorize and brutalize your family? I am sure you would all just chalk it up to “freedom and democracy” and be happy to go about your miserable lives comforted by the fact that your country was being occupied and destroyed for your own good.

During the US-UN-Clinton led sanctions against Iraq, the UN estimates that over 500,000 children died from starvation, disease, or violence. 500,000 Iraqi children would be like 5,000,000 US children dying. Former UN Ambassador under Clinton called that sacrifice for US Empire by the children of Iraq “worth it.” Over one million people have died in Iraq since Bush's invasion in 2003 and most of that figure counts women and children.

I have spoken to men who were still in their teens who were sodomized with broom handles in Guantanamo. I have seen the horrific photos of the US’s inhumanity to man and cannot forgive my country for the terror it has unleashed on the world. I can’t stand the fact that our government operates with such craven cowardice and has harmed so many people while Americans revel in blissful ignorance.

Young people who never get a chance to live their lives have their lives snuffed out so corporations can profit and politicians can earn their John Wayne, muy macho credentials and I wish that we could get a movement going that would be as large and as angry about weddings parties being blown up in Iraq-Af-Pak as they are about inequality in marriage rights here in the US. Please don’t email me with hostility because I wrote about marriage equality: I am 100% for marriage equality, but I am also 100% for people living to be able to be married whether they are gay or straight. Lives are in the balance and our inaction is tipping the scale in the wrong direction.

I am sorry (sarcasm) that our video “violated” You Tube’s terms of service, but the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan not only violate my terms of service, but international law.