A Determined Spirit: Myth America Tour Wrap-up by Cindy Sheehan

Once upon a time, a small bird named Tasoo lived in a vast jungle.
One hot summer day, a terrible wildfire erupted and the flames devoured many trees and animals living in the jungle. Other birds flew high into the sky and far away to safety, but Tasoo couldn't bear to leave her precious jungle home to burn.
Day and night, she flew with all her might back and forth to the river, filling her tiny beak with water to drop on the raging fires.
Tasoo's rare heart of courage and unshakable determination moved the heavenly gods to shed tears, and a great rain poured down upon the jungle, extinguishing the flames. And so it is that even the smallest actions of a determined spirit can change the world.

Back in February, I was feeling extremely low. I was trying to recover mentally, financially and physically from a very strenuous, humiliating and stressful campaign against House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. I ran a very good race that was ignored by virtually everyone and and I was trying to figure out where the anti-war movement was going to find relevance in a Post-Bush, current Obama worshiping nation.

I was lying in bed one morning about 3am struggling with the issue that the wars were still raging, but there was very little movement in the “movement." I came up with the theory that the only reason we allow ourselves to be co-opted or lulled to a false sense of security by the US Empire is because the country we actually live in has very little resemblance to the one that actually exists in the paradigm of the Myth of America. So I came up with the title of an article: “Myth America.”

"Great title", I thought, so I got up and started to write it, but soon realized it was far more detailed than a mere article.

Soon after that night, I published an eBooklet entitled: Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution and took my ideas of a class war waged from the Robber Class on the Robbed Class out on the road.

I began my tour in chilly New Mexico on April 18th and since then I have traveled to over three dozen cities and just finished my tour in Bellingham, Washington (record heat!) last night. I was honored to meet four more grieving Gold Star Parents in Bellingham. There’s so much pain caused by Mythic America and I have absorbed a fair amount of it myself.

Since I have no staff, “handlers” or entourage, I have been coordinating the tour from my laptop computer with the help of “determined spirits” in each community. Besides speaking to thousands of people along the way, I have wonderful memories (which include, but are not limited to) of floating in the 87-degree ocean in St. Petersburg watching Para-sailing; or watching dolphins in the sea on Virginia Beach with my dear friend and fellow grieving parent, Michael Berg.

I reconnected with people I haven’t seen for years and met so many new friends. I spent my 52nd birthday having a daylong celebration in Cleveland, Ohio The day AFTER my birthday, I celebrated with old Camp Casey friends in a dorm room in Pittsburgh where we had all gathered at the National Assembly Against the Wars. I was gone for 28 straight days in June and missed my grandson, Jonah, like crazy!

I have been compared to the “determined spirit” of Tasoo a few times since I have been out trying to stir up some righteous indignation and re-ignite some kind of burning desire for peace and justice and the message is being more well received every day as many people are already feeling betrayed by Obama, when no one should have ever allowed themselves to be fooled by the system, once again, in the first place!

Obama’s approval ratings are speedily and rightfully tanking and while he takes a 50,000.00/week vacation on Martha's Vineyard, I (like most Americans) will be on a “staycation” updating my book: adding chapters and expanding the ones I have already written.

My new book will be available the first week of September and will be called: Myth America II: The 20 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution. I will be starting right back on tour, beginning September 7th in Kentucky and am looking forward to adding more dates and more communities, with your help.

I have been so grateful to travel this beautiful nation these past months and learning what communities are already doing to remove themselves from Robber Class systems and I realized early on that I only scratched the surface of the Myths and the “Revolution” must not only include ways to divorce ourselves from the Robbers but by necessity, must also include strategies for mass and militant (yet, non-violent) resistance.

I am going home today to rest, exercise, write, read and play with Jonah for the entire month of August.

Thank you for your support, your love and your determined spirits that uplift mine everyday!

Note: If you ordered a copy of Myth America, and have not received it, please email me. A couple of order sheets were lost, some emails were illegible and some people just fell through the cracks.

Email me at: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

George W. Bush, Part III

“When a government lies to you, it no longer has any authority over you.” Cindy Sheehan. Dallas, Tx; 2005

Okay, so the United States of America has had a new puppet regime for six months now. I was never so much into giving Obama a “chance” and I think it’s way past time to call Obama and his supporters out, like we called Bush and his supporters out. Our Presidents are merely puppets for the Robber Class and Obama is no exception.

I am observing very little “change” in actual policy, or even rhetoric from an Obama regime. Granted, his style and delivery are more polished than the last puppet, but especially in foreign policy, little has changed. Evidently we elect Presidents based on empty rhetoric and if we can find someone who can say as little as possible with using as many words as he can, that’s better. I knew a year ago when Obama and his ilk were blathering on about “change” that they didn’t mean positive “change” for us, but it’s a shame Obama’s voters didn’t ask him to be a little more specific or demand some good “change.”

Besides foreign policy where he is a complete disaster, it appears Obama’s jobs program is little more than adding tens of thousands of troops to an already bloated military, instead of bringing troops home from anywhere. Billions will go to the money trap of the Pentagon to invest in recruiting our innocent, young, jobless and hopeless youth, when the budgets of peace groups who do counter recruitment are tanking. This is the 3rd week in July and already it’s the deadliest month for US and coalition troops deaths in Af/Pak. Who would ever have thought when violence is surged that deaths would surge, also? I think I’ve seen this movie before.

The blueprint for this disastrous administration came early when O appointed nothing but neocons to his foreign policy team. The Secretary of State and the National Security advisor have even both admitted that the Council on Foreign Relations/Henry Kissinger are calling the shots.
Sec. Clinton at a speech at the new HQ for the Council on Foreign Relations: I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council (Council of Foreign Relations), so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.

National Security Advisor, James Jones, who also VERY coincidentally, I’m sure, was on the boards of directors of Chevron and Boeing, had this to say earlier this year: As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger. Jones was also giving a speech to the Council on Foreign relations at the time. Kissinger is a fabulous role model for war, don't you think. How many deaths will Kissinger be forced to atone for when he goes to the same place as McNamara? If there is an afterlife for war-mongering, murderous bastards, I hope it's truly hellish!

As an early, ardent and unapologetic supporter of the Bush Pre-emptive Wars of Aggression Doctrine, Sec. Clinton showed her true colors early on in her tenure as an elected official and, of course, Jones is a war profiteer. Added to this mix is George Bush’s SecDef, Robert Gates, and these are just the main players. Contrary to his “promise” Obama has appointed former lobbyists to key positions in the Pentagon.

We all know all of these things, but the more things “change” the more they stay the same. Apparently the OBots are co-opting the excuses of the BushBots to justify their savior’s surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan and broken promise after broken promise in Iraq.

The other day Howard Dean, on Democracy Now!, told Amy Goodman that although Iraq was bad, we need to stay in Afghanistan because, (first and foremost), for the women: And if we leave, women will experience the most extraordinary depredations of any population on the face of the earth. I think we have some obligation to try and see if we can make this work, not just for America and our security interests, but for the sake of women in Afghanistan and all around the globe. Is this acceptable to treat women like this? I think not.

Laura Bush earlier this year: “There’s still a risk to women in Afghanistan. I hope the people of the United States will stay committed. We don’t want to see Afghanistan go back to what it was before.”

I have been on my Myth America Book Tour for three months now and almost everywhere I go, an older white male will stand up and say: “Cindy, we really need to stop allowing Iraq to distract us. Afghanistan always was the place we needed to focus our attentions!” And besides the other neocon reasons given for why US troops need to decimate that country further and kill more innocent women and children is: you guessed it: For the women!

So, we are literally sending in the cavalry to rescue the poor women of Afghanistan, and the patriarchal state apparatus and its zombie adherents don’t care how many women we have to kill to save them.

Disgusting.

I give Obama an “F” for his first six months. There has been nothing to like from his continuing the Bush failed economic policies to excluding single-payer advocates from the table. Not to mention reinforcing and protecting Bush Crimes.

The good news is: He’s got plenty of room for improvement!

More Robber Class Perfidy by Cindy Sheehan

Perfidy:
Deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery

According to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc., more than 1.5 million households received at least one foreclosure-related notice during the first half of the year. That's a jump of nearly 15 percent.

The nation's official unemployment rate in June rose from 9.4 to 9.5 percent, its highest in 26 years. But, it’s even far worse than that: the nation's actual unemployment rate in June rose from 16.4 to 16.5 percent, the highest figure by far since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping the data in 1994. During the Great Depression of the ‘30’s and ‘40’s unemployment reached 25%

With all of this awful news, the Robber Class Banksters must be “hurtin’ for certain,” right? Wrong! And as a matter of fact, the number one Evil Robber Class Banking Cartel, Goldman Sachs posted record profits for the second quarter of 2009! Goldman Sachs has been a company for 140 years and has never done better as it did last quarter. This mega-Robber Class company will payout an average of 77,000.00 in bonuses to its workers.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics: As a group, Goldman Sachs bankers have been the country's top political campaign contributors this year and have given $29.5 million in contributions since 1989.

Even more troubling than Goldman Sachs posting record profits in a recession/depression caused by that very same company, is the fact that even after tens of billions of dollars of government welfare, it was stated in a recent article that Goldman Sachs was able to do so well because of “Secretive trading operations.”

“Secretive trading operations” are so mysterious that when one googles the term, nothing comes up, except this article announcing GS’s boon. So what are these STO’s? Derivatives? Mortgage Back Securities? Drugs, like opium from Afghanistan? Arms? Slaves? One can speculate and think the worst and the scary thing is, the worst is probably nowhere nearly as bad as we can imagine.

There is little outrage over this Robber Class treachery, and as a matter of fact, in an article entitled: Little Outrage on the Hill over Goldman Sachs Record Profits, Senate Majority Wimp, Harry Reid (D-Nv) said: “ And I am not in this statement criticizing Goldman Sachs.Because I don’t know how they made their money, ok? But I’m glad, as I indicated, that someone made some money.” (Italics added for incredulous emphasis). Senator Reid puts the milk in toast and he knows who butters his proverbial bread…there will be no outrage or significant oversight coming out of the 111th US Congress, (Sponsored by Goldman Sachs with major underwriting by Health Insurance Companies, big-Pharma, and the Military Industrial Complex).

Are WE outraged, though?

Sadly, I am not so sure many of us are.

Cindy Sheehan Supports a New Investigation into the 9/11 attacks

Cindy Sheehan
7/16/2009

On April 4th, 2004, my son Casey was killed serving the United States Army in Iraq during the illegal occupation started by the Bush Administration.

That illegal occupation was made possible because of the attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001, resulting in the deaths of 2,973 people.

Since that horrid day, victims' family members have been doing everything within their power to seek justice and accountability for what happened, with little to no success. It is shameful that almost 8 years after the fact, they have been denied this. The official 9/11 commission report was a sham and a mockery of justice, not justice.

Currently, there is an effort underway in New York City to get a new investigation onto the ballot by this November. The New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (www.NYCCAN.org) is currently attempting to get enough signatures to make this happen, and they need your help. I wholeheartedly support and endorse this effort.

Please do what you can to support this effort, and thank you.

Seattle Area Dates for Myth America Tour

July 25, 2009 Saturday

Seattle
Trinity United Methodist Church
6512 23rd Ave NW (Ballard)
7 pm
(206-784-2227)


July 26, 2009 Sunday

Sequim
Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall
71 Howe Road
10:30am

Port Townsend
Quimper Universalist Unitarian Fellowship Hall
2333 San Juan Ave
4pm


July 27, 2009 Monday

Wenatchee
Cascade Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall
1550 Sunset Highway North, East Wenatchee
7:30 pm


July 28, 2009 Tuesday

Twisp
The Merc Playhouse
7 pm
(509-429-6864)


July 29, 2009 Wednesday

Bellingham
Christ the Servant Lutheran Church
2600 Lakeway Drive
7 pm

Happy Co-Dependence Day by Cindy Sheehan

The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.
Emma Goldman

One of the reasons, in my opinion, that so many people are ready, willing, able and yes, eager to succumb to “hope,” is because most of us believe that true change is not possible.

In our heart of hearts, do we really think that Obama is an agent of change for the people? Have we not been fooled, yet again? So, we lay all of our hopes and dreams for a better life on one person and allow the inevitable heartache of betrayal to wash over us and once again drown us in disappointment when that person turns out to be just another politician. Politicians just act like politicians because we always let them.

I just returned home from a 28 day, 18-city (multiple event) trip from California to New Hampshire and back where I talked about the need for us to recognize the fact that we cannot, must not, place false hopes in any politician. Yet, even people who know that the Dalai Bama is not what the gurus on Madison Avenue sold to us don’t think that they have any power.

“We need a leader, we need a leader,” a Russian woman cried to me during a talk I gave in Philly last week. We “consumers” (remember when we used to be “citizens?”) here in America have been sold another bill of goods: that one person cannot make a difference so why should we even try? We want “leaders” to do all the work and take all of the heat so we don’t have to. That is an absolute myth. If you can fog a mirror, you can make a relevant and profound difference. If you sit around waiting for a politician to lead you to a better life, you will sit around forever.

I just had a heartbreaking conversation with a veteran who struggles on a daily basis with suicide issues. He wants to hang on so he can tell his story of betrayal and to try to stop what happened to him from happening to others. He has been so thoroughly traumatized by this Empire that he must make a daily choice to either work to make things better or to physically or mentally check out. Unfortunately, this story is not rare, so I ask myself, why are people so mesmerized by a system that is so harmful to 98% of the people of this country, and by extension, the world?

We are Co-Dependent with a Robber Class that expects us to keep it in the style to which it has been accustomed and unfortunately we are accustomed to doing so. When AIG needs billions of dollars in bailouts, it gets all the money that is asks for with no strings attached. Does that money ever trickle down to us in the steroidal capitalism of Obamanomics? Heck no…my state needs a bailout of 24 billion to save tens of thousands of jobs and public services. When the Governator asks DC for the money, he is told: “No, if we bailed out your state, we would have to bail out all the states!” So what? Bailout all the states; save jobs and services and fix the economy from the ground up, instead of supporting a cancerous capitalism that sucks the life out of the Robbed Class.

233 years ago, some of the colonists here rose up to say that they would no longer be bound to a system that hurt them, not helped them. It must have taken a fair amount of courage to do so. I am sure there were some colonists who were too afraid to stand up to the Empire of the day and say: “enough is enough,” and were grateful that some did have the courage to resist.

Well, after these 233 years, the USA has become the dominant military empire of today and we need the courage to stand up to it and say: “enough is enough!”

Enough bankster bailouts.

Enough of the unitary executive when even a one party dictatorship still necessitates illegal presidential signing statements. (Which Obama promised he wouldn't do, but does).

Enough “pre-emptive” indefinite detention.

Enough torture.

Enough war.

Enough environmental plunder.

Enough economic pillage.

Enough of our Co-Dependence with the Robber Class.

Declare your Independence from the Robber Class today!

Buy your copy of Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.